Last of the Gadarene is an unabridged reading of a novel by Mark Gatiss featuring the third Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT. Gatiss’ narrative captures perfectly the feel of Season 10. The story’s main setting is a quiet country village which backs onto a disused aerodrome. Immediately this calls to mind the quaint country setting of Devil’s End in The Dæmons although in this story the fictional village is the more subtly named Culverton. Last of the Gadarene feels very typical of the sort of invasion story for which the Pertwee era of Doctor Who is generally remembered. UNIT are called in to investigate sinister goings on at the aerodrome which has been taken over by a mysterious black uniformed organisation named Legion International. From the opening quotation of The Gospel of Mark, Gatiss’ narrative is very atmospheric as it slowly builds towards a splendid reveal at the conclusion of Chapter 20 which, whilst not entirely surprising, is still a pleasing moment for fans of this era.

Richard Franklin was perhaps not the most obvious choice to narrate this audio version as unlike some of the UNIT regulars, Captain Yates only appears very fleetingly in a couple of the chapters. In the absence of the much-missed Nicholas Courtney, it might have been more appropriate to have asked Katy Manning as Jo Grant is present throughout most of the story although even she might have struggled with some of the impersonations required. Overall, Franklin does a creditable job. He captures Pertwee very well, admittedly assisted by the fact that Gatiss has clearly written the Doctor he remembered from childhood. Some amusement may be found from his country bumpkin accent for Sergeant Benton which is reminiscent of an extra from The Archers, rather than evoking John Levene.

The reading is largely left unaccompanied except for a limited selection of music cues for some of the action scenes and otherwise subtle use of background sound effects. An exception to this is at the climax of the story where the sound designers have chosen to bring in a voice changing effect for an alien character which having done without for the preceeding 7 discs seems an unnecessary last minute addition. Fortunately the narrative is allowed to evoke an atmosphere of sinister threat and excitement without being overwhelmed which is does very effectively, except for a couple of moments when Franklin over-emphasises a word or sentence in a way that sounds different to the imagined voice of the author.

In conclusion, Last of the Gadarene makes for an enjoyable listen with Franklin an able narrator. As the story unfolds and reaches a worthwhile conclusion it is clear that this is Gatiss’ love letter to the Doctor Who of his childhood and as such is a well-deserved audio release.

Few keen Doctor Who fans will deny that 'The Talons Of Weng Chiang' saw the show at one of its absolute peaks. It featured arguably the best Doctor of them all in Tom Baker, one of the most original companions in Leela (acted to perfection by Louise Jameson), and Robert Holmes' terrific script brought to life expertly by David Maloney and his crew. The story also signalled the end of the frequently dubbed 'Golden Era', overseen by producer Philip Hinchcliffe.

Much like the previously reviewed 'Countermeasures', this ongoing series of original adventures sees excellent supported characters from a landmark story being given their own starring honours. Henry Gordan Jago and Professor George Litefoot were instantly likeable characters with very human strengths and weaknesses. Both acted as great foils for the Doctor and Leela, yet it was the chemistry they shared with one another in the climactic episodes of 'Talons' that signified something truly special: a pairing of two unique individuals whereby one complemented the other perfectly. They were the epitome of the 'Holmes Double Act' - a motif often imitated but never bettered. And I say that despite my high regard for 'Revelation Of The Daleks'.

This fifth series is the consequence of a solitary play in Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles hitting all the right notes, i.e. 'The Mahogany Murderers'. Andy Lane’s then-new story for the lovable duo was of sufficient success that Big Finish pushed on to make this very popular ongoing series of new adventures.

One distinct plus for me is that both Benjamin and Baxter are men who had mature voices when we first saw them on-screen, and thus the continuity of their further adventures feels absolutelty authentic to the ear..

The great hook for this sequence of escapades is that the two friends are left stranded in 1960s England thanks to the slight carelessness of the Sixth Doctor; this following the previous Big Finish adventures 'Voyage to Venus' and 'Voyage to the New World'. On my part I confess that I come into this long running series without having heard the earlier seasons, but this did not impact on my enjoyment or my ability to grasp what is essentially going on.

 

'The Age of Revolution' is a very solid beginning, which balances exposition, character development and dynamic suspense most deftly indeed. The villain is suitably hiss-able, with a clear objective that is credible, and we care enough as listeners for the various 'sacrificial lambs' that feature. The framing device of having Detective Sacker - a descendent of another supporting character from the Victorian time zone of earlier seasons -  investigate and narrate some of the play works well.

Also welcome is bringing back a fan favourite in Ellie (played by Lisa Bowerman - most well-known as Seventh Doctor companion Bernice Summerfield) who happens to now have a much longer shelf life in the aftermath of facing vampires.

The actual 'McGuffin' is the well-known trope of a crystal that can sway hordes of people, except when another crystal comes into play, that is. How this danger is averted before events spiral out of control is well-done and also services the key requirement of producing good character development for the main leads.

Many avid Doctor Who fans know that Jonathan Morris can write well and then some, and is always mindful of evoking the era of Doctor Who that a particular story owes its flavour to.  As in all good Who the blend of humour, drama and sheer entertainment is right on point.

 

'The Case of The Gluttonous Guru' is also fun in its own way if a small step down in its success. It also perhaps falls short of what Marc Platt truly can muster when he is really on song. The food humour from several scenes in 'Ghost Light ' seems to be the main foundation for the play. It is certainly an enjoyable story, with good pace and committed guest performances that are infused with relish. In terms of what can be denoted as flawed, the villain does rather feel like a mere henchman in thrall to his cause, which would be fine except that there is no major opposition to fill the void.

This matters little though when character building and proper exploration of the move to the 20th century are clearly well thought out by the production team. The ending has a certain simplistic elegance which can be hard to pull off, but in this case is decidedly innocent of the deuc ex machina cliche.

 

The third play of the four - 'The Bloodchild Codex' - although frequently seeming competent enough in a given scene, ultimately comes off as the 'weak link' of the season. I did not really get the right sense for what jeopardy was involved. The seemingly primary villains do not really stand out that much, with rather sketchy motivations, which is odd given the clear detailing of the actual power of a rare book that offers more than just the written word. Also I feel Litefoot is a bit out of character when it comes to the resolution, showing some of the cold bloodedness and/or flippancy that most Doctors - apart from perhaps the Sixth and Ninth - would definitely frown upon. However the cliff hanger ending leading into season closer 'The Final Act' is expertly done and almost washes away the disappointment of the prior closing tracks.

 

And what a thrilling, enjoyable and revelatory finale we are given on this CD. This play owes a lot to the core source material of 'Talons of Weng Chiang', and yet never feels tired or derivative - thanks to the clear differences involved in being over seven decades ahead of the original encounter with Greel and Mr Sin. There is not much time taken to catch a breath, as Godiva - the overall villain of Series 5 - is operating in fifth gear in order to achieve her goals. Raquel Cassidy presents the right amount of sassiness, cold-bloodedness and over the top devotion to her cause, and never fails to grip the listener's attention. Not only Jago and Litefoot are needed to thwart her, as both Ellie and Sacker have their important parts to play.The ruthlessness of one villain not needing another adds a bit of zest to the final climax as well, and a sacrifice or two on the heroes' side is required, but somehow feels like a big positive when it might not have been in a subtly different scenario .

 

Reflection on the box set as a whole: this represents enjoyable 'spin off' Doctor Who material featuring a good helping of talent -  be they those in the production team,  the leading and supporting actors, or the experienced writers who know how to do a fun bit of escapism. Most of all Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter are utterly captivating leading men, and I look forward to hearing more of their teamwork in both future and past stories.     

The third in the current run of Fourth Doctor Adventures continues a purple patch of strong stories. Requiem for the Rocket Men is an absolute gem. Some stories are layer cakes. This one’s more like pass the parcel, as layers of story become more apparent as it progresses.

 

This is a caper movie in Audiobook form, more Ocean’s Eleven thanThe Sun Makers. Ostensibly this is the story of the Doctor’s capture by the fading Rocket Men, who have a price on his head in true Jabba the Hutt style. The Doctor is delivered to their blustering King Shandar at their orbital base at the same time the Master arrives to talk business, with predictably chaotic results involving explosions and Tissue Compression.

 

However, all is not as it seems – and writer John Dorney cleverly heaps double-cross on double-cross, with Tom Baker having a very good day as a Doctor revelling in just how clever he’s being.  You almost feel sorry for Shandar (Mark Frost), a dim thug at the head of a fading criminal empire - outclassed and humiliated at every turn by a pair of warring Time Lords. The Doctor’s out to destroy Shandar's operation. The Master is just unimpressed. Even when Shandar tries to boast about his ‘most wanted’ status, K9 corrects him and points out that the Rani and the Terrible Zodin are higher up in the league table.

 

This story is particularly strong for both the Master and Leela. Geoffrey Beevers is as silkily charming and malevolent as usual, and, for a change, the Master gets some good character moments. At one point, believing he’s actually killed the Doctor, the scales fall – and, briefly bereft, he asks “What will I do tomorrow?” His introduction to K9 (unbelievably, they’ve never crossed paths up to now) is also priceless.

 

However, this story really belongs to Leela. Told partly in flashback, it opens and closes on the same moment -  her musing whether she has learned all she can from the Doctor in her travels, and whether she should move on, as the pupil becomes the master (no, not that one). The main reason for her decision to leave is her serious chemistry with the man sent to hunt her, Rocket Man Marshall (Damian Lynch). Marshall’s not a good man yet, but he’s trying to be – and Leela thinks she could teach him more. One final dramatic rug-pull later though, and we’re left with a cliffhanger carrying through to Death Match, as the Master swoops in and kidnaps her.

 

This character development really works for Leela. She and Marshall are well-matched, and the relationship is played well by Louise Jameson and Lynch. The only problem is that their chemistry is too natural. We already know how she leaves the Doctor. In her not-too-distant future, she’s going to inexplicably settle for Andred, a union which, 37 years on, still has fandom scratching his head and saying “Is she really going out with him?”. Requiem for the Rocket Men manages to fit a far more convincing relationship curve into around an hour than The Invasion of Time manages in six whole episodes. It’s not Big Finish’s fault. Dorney’s script is excellent. It’s what happens in the TV series that feels wrong in this light.

 

Nevertheless, it’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out, and if it makes some sense of a famously rushed exit. Next stop: Death Match.

 

The second in Big Finish’s new series of Fourth Doctor Adventures sees the Doctor and Leela arriving in Edwardian times on a gloomy coastline, shin-deep in rising tide. They soon stop at an old house straight out of a Hammer film, where a crowd has gathered, as an eminent Magic Lanternist is preparing to put on a show in tribute to the late Mainwaring Caversham, greatest Lanternist of them all.

 

It goes without saying that the guest list starts to shrink the moment the TARDIS crew get into the dry. Something has got in. Something in the shadows.

 

The Fourth Doctor and Leela have had a fair few adventures on audio now, and have visited Victorian and Edwardian Earth a lot more than they ever did on TV. This period suits them well, and writer Justin Richards does well to do something different than the usual Fogbound Ripper-at-Large Victoriana that the modern series keeps coming back to.

 

The Darkness of Glass drips with atmosphere through well-thought-out sound design - little echoes and movements have significance here, the 'demon' that moves through the absence of light is a need idea, and is all the creepier as it's not really explained.

 

The excellent supporting cast of Julian Wadham, Mark Lewis Jones, and siblings Sinead and Rory Keenan all impress, with Sinead Keenan giving a particularly strong performance. This is shaping up into a strong run for Leela, who gets to show off her hunting skills and intuition as everyone else wonders where the creature will strike next. The Doctor, meanwhile, is in his element, relishing his eerie surroundings and almost wistfully recalling visiting Fang Rock.

 

The only criticism of this story I can think of is that it's maybe a little short, but it's memorably creepy, and might make you think twice about the strange shadows that lamps can cast.

Last year’s celebratory release The Worlds of Doctor Who weaved a linking story through various spin-offs from the Big Finish Doctor Who range. The Worlds of Big Finish follows a similar premise, this time telling a story linked by six half-hour episodes of Big Finish’s original ranges. It is not the first time some of these characters have interacted given that despite their status as original series, several of these characters made their debuts within the Doctor Who universe. Dorian Gray first appeared in the Bernice Summerfield play Shades of Gray and went on to interact with Sherlock Holmes in the 2012 release Ghosts of Christmas Past. Each episode is presented as a standalone with its own unique title theme and all a very much in keeping with the series they are part of.

All six episodes have been written by David Llewellyn who manages the overall continuity extremely effectively. He also captures the widely varying styles of the six ranges very well.

The set begins with Graceless: The Archive, there are some very obvious continuity pointers which place this story during the third (and until recently seemingly final) series featuring Abby and Zara. Any listeners who have not heard Graceless before may find themselves feeling initially confused however once the story proper gets going it proves to be an enjoyable murder mystery set in a vast library of the distant future. Janson and Doddington reprising their lead roles have a great rapport so despite the series having appeared to reach a definitive ending in 2013, this listener is pleased to learn that Graceless IV has been commissioned to be released next year. The story ends with an important book being transported back to Earth in the mid-nineteenth century, thus setting the scene neatly for the next episode.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Bloomsbury Bomber is a neat little adventure in which the world famous consulting detective comes out of retirement in 1911 to assist his brother Mycroft by investigating a series of bookshop bombings in Bloomsbury. A neat continuity touch is the casting as Mycroft of David Warner, who had previously played the character in the 2008 Bernice Summerfield play The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel. The initial scene between Nicholas Briggs and Warner as the two sparring brothers is possibly one of the highlights of this boxset. The outcome of the adventure is not entirely satisfactory for Holmes but it dovetails very neatly into the next episode.

Dorian Gray: The Feast of Magog picks up the ongoing story in 1927 and relocates the action to Tredegar House near Newport, which will be familiar to filming location savvy Doctor Who fans. A character from the previous episode returns, still intent on recovering a certain book which has terrible consequences. However, like Sherlock Holmes before him, Dorian remains in the dark as to the truth behind the ongoing mystery.

If anyone from the worlds of Big Finish were to save the Earth from a mysterious threat from another universe, the last person you would expect to fulfil that task would be the trans-temporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme. However, despite a lighter, more comedic tone than the three darker episodes that have preceeded it, Kronos Vad’s History of Earth (Vol. 36,379) proved to be possibly the most enjoyable of all the six episodes. Katy Manning’s Iris gets some genuinely funny lines and whilst the plot may seem a little linear it does serve to tie up a notable loose end from an earlier episode and set events in motion that will be picked up in the remaining two parts.

And so we reach the penultimate episode, Vienna: The Lady from Callisto Rhys. This listener has not encountered Vienna before so this means nothing to me. However, Chase Masterson’s bounty hunter character was likeable enough that I may consider reviewing her previous adventures in the near future. A few hundred years into the future on an inhabited Mars, Vienna is hired to track down a woman who has fled taking with her a certain rather important book. Typically there is an element of double-cross and a neat surprise appearance by a familiar voice to set the scene for the final part of the story.

The story finds its conclusion in Bernice Summerfield: The Phantom Wreck. I’ve listened to all of Bernice’s many audio adventures that have been released since 1998 and so Lisa Bowerman’s presence is naturally reassuring. This final episode very much belongs to her and to Terry Molloy’s Captain Quinn. As an individual episode this makes for an enjoyable listen but without wanting to spoil the ending for the whole boxset this listener found the denouement to be slightly disappointing. A small consolation is to be found by the story concluding with an extended version of a new arrangement of the Bernice Summerfield theme tune which is a definite improvement on the most recent of its many iterations.

Overall, The Worlds of Big Finish fulfils its brief cleverly and avoids causing any headaches by keeping all the main characters within their respective continuities, rather than having period based characters such as Sherlock Holmes travel to other worlds. Each of the standalone episodes works well as an advert for the six ranges they represent and the linking story provides a satisfying listen for Big Finish fans.
 

Big Finish love stories. They also love to join the dots and play 'What If'. The urge to revisit a half-developed idea which might briefly have played upon the mind of a harassed TV writer before finding its way into one of your favourite stories can be irresistible.  

 

And who can blame them? They have the entire canon of Classic Doctor Who as their sandbox. You'd probably do the same, the only restrictions are availability of cast, mostly through mortality - and for some characters death is not proving an end, as heard in the Lost Stories, Early Adventures, and the forthcoming Third Doctor Box Set.

 

In this, the opener of the latest series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, self-proclaimed biggest fan of Death to the Daleks Nick Briggs decides to put some flesh on the bones of the Exxilons, a race that we know slipped into savagery after building their great city. We know that the friendly ones live underground and glow a bit in the right light. We know that the unfriendly ones are grunting, spear-wielding primitives. And, we know that their great city, in the grand tradition of deserted great cities of Doctor Who, is a bit of a swine.

 

Arriving on a developing planet, the Doctor, Leela, and K9 find themselves in the middle of a conflict between outwardly civilised humanoids, and some grunting, spear-wielding primitives who have been put to work building a mysterious structure. The Doctor and his companions are separated - he ends up with the primitives, meanwhile, Leela and K9 fall foul of the alien visitors and the malign power of their structure.

 

However, just as you think you know where this is going, Writer/Director Briggs pulls the rug. The race with the spears aren't who you think they are, they're called the Tarl. The advanced civilisation who had the 'deal' with them (effectively ended by the death of the Tarl leader's son) are the race that will one day end up smashing up a Dalek with rudimentary weapons in a quarry.

 

The Exxilons are using the Tarl to build a beacon to transmit across the stars and power their great city, a sentient city that they serve. It fills their heads, and gives them orders. It also attacks the minds of all that aren't Exxilons, and drains them, even the brains of Time Lords aren't safe. Aside from this though, they're a long way off the race depicted in Death to the Daleks, they sound nothing like the Exxilons from that story, and clearly look nothing like them either, as it takes a while for the Doctor to put two and two together, and tribe leader Ergu (Tim Treloar) has to do the name-dropping. How the Exxilons we meet in this story become that race is hinted at, but largely left to the imagination when one of their number, Trexa (Daisy Dunlop) rebels against the city, having bonded with the late son of the tribe leader.

 

Dunlop is the strongest of the guest cast, giving a spirited performance as the spirited junior overseer who develops a conscience. Treloar is also good as Ergu, given the tough gig of having to portray a monosyllabic tribe leader he manages to strike up a good rapport with the Doctor, who he dubs "Everywhere Man". Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are both very good here, their performances are pitched just right. Several series and a few box sets in, one of the best Doctor and Companion pairings ever are quite possibly better than they ever were together on TV.

 

The rest of the small cast are more of a mixed bag. Jacqueline King as Calura is perfectly good, but is unrecognisable behind a puzzling American accent, and Hugh Ross as villain Gethal is a bit all over the place - one minute coolly officious, the next he's chewing the scenery like a Drashig. Maybe Briggs will bring back the Exxilons to bridge the gap. Their loss of identity should feel tragic, but instead it feels like they deserve to fall as a civilisation and that's that - a little unfair for a species ruled by their evil city, who will one day end up as frog-eyed, bark-skinned savages when the city rejects them. The Exxilons aren't the nicest people, but there's surely a pay-off in the waiting. Still, minor quibbles aside, this is a strong season opener, both well-executed and pacey.