This review is based on the MP3 download from Big Finish, and contains spoilers.

Following on directly from The Sands of Life and its cliffhanger, this two part story continues the Conglomerate’s scheming, as led by their CEO Cuthbert (David Warner). Warner revels in his megalomaniacal role, with Cuthbert buying whatever scientific expertise he needs while going head-to-head against the Doctor and testing the mettle of Earth’s newly elected President, Sheridan Moorkurk (Hayley Atwell).

The Sands of Life configured an intriguing dilemma: respecting the Laan’s life cycle could mean all of humanity facing extinction. War Against the Laan picks up this puzzle, but the titular struggle is not one readily engaged in by the Doctor and Romana. Unlike the ruthless Cuthbert, our heroes are instead seeking a peaceful way to resolve the situation; it’s jaw-jaw not war-war for this TARDIS team, especially given that the scenario they’re up against is not at all an archetypal ‘invasion’.

Nick Briggs’ script gives both Warner and Atwell more to do this time round, and Tom Baker lavishes actorly attention on a number of his anti-Cuthbert expostulations, as well as sneaking a mention of badgers into his performance (I refuse to believe that moment was penned by Briggs, unless and until I see evidence to the contrary!). K-9 basically vanishes from proceedings  – having not been well utilized in this adventure – and Cuthbert also disappears at the very end, leaving the President to tie up a few (but not all) loose ends and bid the Doctor and Romana adieu. A closing scene between the Doctor and Cuthbert would have been more dramatically satisfying and less conventional, but this possibility is instead displaced by a slightly run-of-the-mill goodbye scene.

Combined with The Sands of Life, War Against the Laan ends up feeling like a strangely cosy four-parter despite some of its hard-hitting subject matter. It resists emulating the new series or “doing a Moffat” and shifting its second half to a wholly different time zone, setting or subgenre, and even finds time to revisit Genesis of the Daleks again, after its dialogue had already been referenced in the preceding release. I felt slightly let down by the resolution of the Laan conundrum, though. Having defined a brilliant, epic problem for the fourth Doctor and Romana to tackle, one with a real emotional and moral kick to it, things are clarified here until the main issue is pretty much sandpapered way. Tough questions are posed; easier answers are supplied. Likewise, a scientist whose services are bought and paid for by Cuthbert is called upon to wield his “auto dissect tools” on a child-bearing Laan, and although the emotional darkness of this is gestured at, any moral grey areas are fairly rapidly done away with. War Against the Laan tends to retreat into pulp fiction certainties or dodges, despite depicting a complex world of real politik and rampant commercialism.

There’s a mystery left dangling: Cuthbert’s thwarted experiment in the Proxima Four System evidently concerns some sort of time-space manipulation, but beyond that we learn little of the specifics. Presumably this will be returned to later in the current run of fourth Doctor tales, though the villain who wants time travel is itself a fairly well-worn Who theme. Perhaps Cuthbert wants total brand domination across all temporalities as well as all territories… less the Master, and more the evil Merchandiser. If so, Cuthbert’s moment as a zeitgeist baddie may well have arrived; initially an Audio Visuals’ creation of the Thatcher years, it is striking that he's been reimagined both as Doctor Who itself enters a peak of (anniversary) commercial activity, and as the UK simultaneously faces a resurgence in free market rhetoric and privatization. It seems fitting that the fourth Doctor's contemporary Moriarty figure should be a corporate celebrity, operating outside the law and above the government.  

The Laan are also an interesting creation, pregnant with possibilities, and represented almost as a kind of time-vortex salmon (though they’re actually described and visualized as giant seacows) instinctively returning to a particular space-time to spawn. I realize their massification is part of the story’s bid for scope and scale, but I still would have liked a greater sense of Laan culture or individuation. There are implications and hints – they refer to “sisters”, and there are “elders” who lead the birthing – but when Romana communicates empathetically with them we don’t get much in the way of Laan personality, quirks or differences. Instead, they seem to be a resolute collective; a big society of seven billion or so.

War Against the Laan does an excellent job of building Cuthbert's villainy and character, as well as seeding plot points which are sure to return. As a complete story alongside its predecessor, however, it promises more than it quite delivers. But there's real storytelling ambition on show here, and I'm already looking forward to Cuthbert's reappearance, not to mention the next full-on performance skirmish between David Warner and Tom Baker.            

This review is based on the MP3 download from Big Finish, and contains minor spoilers.

“You must change the channel – even if it’s Space: 1999! Just this once, it’s worth it! The Scorchies are evil!”
Jo Grant

I first met Katy Manning at a convention over a decade ago in my (and back then her) native Australia. The first thing that struck me about her is how extroverted and mischievous she is in comparison to her softly spoken alter ego Josephine Grant. The second thing that struck me was what a talented voice artist she is. She kept her audience thoroughly entertained for an hour by breaking into an assortment of voices belonging to characters she had portrayed in animation and children’s programmes at the time.

The Scorchies, her latest contribution to Big Finish’s Doctor Who Companion Chronicles, is right up Katy’s alley. It gives her the chance to not just reprise her role as Jo but to also voice some of the wacky characters that infest this oddball tale.

In the context of the story, the Scorchies are a bunch of madcap, homicidal extraterrestrials masquerading as children’s TV show puppets! Author James Goss, director Ken Bentley and sound designers Richard Fox and Lauren Yason bring to life a narrative in the guise of a fictional 1970s TV programme that can only be best described as The Muppets, The Teletubbies, Play School, Romper Room and Basil Brush on acid, complete with crazy, juvenile songs – and Jo Grant as a hostage on live TV! Jo is at one point trying to make a psychic anti-Scorchies gun out of cardboard tubes, sticky backed plastic, a pipe cleaner and a mind control crystal. Then there’s the Scorchie (TV) scanner, the sort of thing you might have seen on Play School or Romper Room in your tweens! The story also has a very pantomime feel which is, of course, very deliberate, especially when Jo herself ends up breaking into rhyme with some of the characters!

Like most Companion Chronicles, The Scorchies is a two-person affair. However, unlike previous titles, in which the story is told from the perspective of a narrator, assisted by some additional dialogue from a guest performer, the story is very much carried by the interplay between Manning and guest star Melvyn Hayes who clearly relishes the opportunity to play the villainous Scorchies, led by their leader Grizz Fizzle. Hayes, of course, is the ex-husband of former Who companion Wendy Padbury and father to their daughter Charlie Hayes (who has also appeared in other Who audios). Like Manning, Hayes has also done his fair share of voice work in children’s programmes, including Pongwiffy (in which he also voiced a character called Grizz), a TV adaptation of Jack & The Beanstalk and Super Ted (which, of course, starred the late, great Jon Pertwee). Clearly, Hayes is also in his element, playing other off the wall characters like Cool Cat and Professor Baffle.

I haven’t listened to too many Companion Chronicles so this is the first time I’ve heard Katy Manning as Jo on audio. Although you can sometimes detect the more seasoned tone to her voice, for the most part Katy captures Jo’s naïveté and youth perfectly – impressive when you consider that (her recent appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures aside) she hasn’t played the part for the best part of 40 years. Even the token Jo piece of dialogue – “But the Doctor can’t be dead! He just can’t be! You’re lying!” – is delivered with the same teary inflection and emotion that Katy was so famous for delivering on-screen all those decades ago.

Indeed, this style of storytelling literally pivots on the back of emotion. In an interview with Big Finish’s Vortex newsletter (which is available as a downloadable PDF file on this release), Katy discusses her approach to mixing her own portrayal of Jo with her other character voices (including the Magic Mice – “Would it help if we ate her a little bit?” - and Amble the ugly doll) on The Scorchies. She says the key to getting all the characters right is by “being in the moment ... with all the emotions that are happening at that time”. With the exception of the songs, which were recorded separately, Katy and Melvyn Hayes effectively performed the story “live”, effortlessly jumping between voices rather than recording the dialogue of each of the different characters separately. As a result, you as the listener get carried along rather convincingly, just as Jo, the hostage to this bizarre collection of aliens, is also powerless to influence the events of the story-cum-children’s programme.

The extras at the end of this release feature an interview with sound designers Richard Fox and Lauren Yason. They discuss the songs they had to compose for the story – Jo is Making a Thing and We killed the Doctor Dead – along with untreated performances of the songs before they were delivered to Katy Manning and Melvyn Hayes and treated electronically. This is actually quite refreshing, as we don’t often hear enough about the actual sound design work on a Big Finish audio, as opposed to the usual interviews with some members of the cast and production crew. What it does underline, though, is how important an aural experience The Scorchies is and how much it exploits the medium.

The Scorchies is an entertaining hour of childish mayhem, almost as if you really were watching a puppets’ TV show – and not listening to a Doctor Who audio. From that perspective, the story succeeds in parodying 1970s children’s programmes. If you’re not a regular listener of The Companion Chronicles, I urge you to try a few of the more conventional plays first. You won’t pick up on the nuances and emotion that Katy Manning refers to if you come to this cold.

Polly finds herself in a literal race against time after the TARDIS brings her, Jamie, the Doctor and Ben to a futuristic casino with a strict ‘no time travellers’ policy.

In the CD extras which accompany House of Cards, writer Steve Lyons and producer David Richardson discuss how they were “channelling” Season Four of Doctor Who in this release. While this may have been their intention, the finished product is reminiscent of a more recent sub-genre of Doctor Who. With its simple storyline, cartoonish villains and broadly drawn supporting characters the adventure feels closest in style to the BBC books/audios produced for younger audiences since 2005 (notably The Stone Rose with which it shares a similar structure). It’s an odd approach for a Companion Chronicle, given that they are geared to a more sophisticated, adult fan audience.

Once you accept that House of Cards is a more straightforward adventure than a typical Companion Chronicle there is much to enjoy here. Anneke Wills gives a typically spirited performance as Polly, with able support from Frazer Hines as the story’s secondary voice. A highlight comes in the first episode when Polly is confronted by Fortune, the mastermind behind the casino. Here Lyons capitalises on Polly’s strong sense of morality, calling to mind similar scenes with the Cybermen in The Tenth Planet.

While the first half of the play is a fairly standard set up, manoeuvring the regulars into varying degrees of peril, things get more complicated as we move into episode two. Here, Polly travels in time back to an earlier point in the narrative, and Lyons has a few clever tricks up his sleeve to stop things getting predictable. The identity of the lady in the china mask, who appears at key points in episode one, is central to this. Lyons deliberately wrong-foots the listener a number of times, making what first appears an obvious ruse a lot more fun than you’d expect. It’s in episode two that Jamie’s role as secondary narrator clicks into place. His present is Polly’s past, allowing us to see the impact her journey in time has had.

You would think that a casino would be a perfect setting for the mischievous Second Doctor but he takes a surprisingly small role in House of Cards. When he resurfaces towards the end of the story he is given a wonderfully ‘Doctorish’ moment (which I won’t spoil here, but concerns the game he picks to play to decide his fate) and it’s a shame there couldn’t have been more of these throughout the play. With Polly’s story neatly wrapped up, it falls to the Doctor to defeat Fortune. However, after being built up as a sinister, formidable foe her swift dispatch is something of a disappointment.

Overall House of Cards is one of the weaker instalments of the Companion Chronicles, but if you’re a fan of Polly and Jamie there are plenty of moments to enjoy. The disc’s extras confirm that Lyon’s will be penning a further adventure for this TARDIS team in the near future. This is welcome news as he captures them all very well, but it would be nice to see him return to the more nuanced, complex storytelling he is widely praised for (stories like Resistance, Colditz and The Crooked World).It would also be good to see more experimentation with the ‘second voice’ in Polly’s Companion Chronicles, as this is the third release in a row that has seen her paired with Frazer Hines as Jamie. One of the most successful aspects of the range as been the pairing of companion actors with co-performers/characters who bring out new and interesting sides of them, and it would be good to see Wills benefit from this, especially as it worked very well in her first Companion Chronicle (the previously mentioned Resistance).

“When do you know it’s time to move on?”, that’s the question Steven Taylor asks himself when the TARDIS arrives in a time he’s all too familiar with. On a remote frontier planet colonists are being attacked by a sadistic band of outlaws known as the Rocket Men, and Steven might be their only hope for survival...

Steven’s abrupt departure from Doctor Who in The Savages is the starting point for Return of the Rocket Men. It takes this disappointing exit and attempts to give it context and emotional resonance, two things that companion exits were often lacking during this period of the show, when characters were frequently and unceremoniously dumped.

One of the most successful previous attempts at fleshing out the emotional side of 60s companions was John Dorney’s The Rocket Men, which this story is a sequel to. That story is one of the most structurally complex and emotionally rewarding plays in The Companion Chronicles range. In invoking that previous work, writer Matt Fitton has given himself a lot to live up to.

In The Rocket Men Dorney focused on Ian’s love for Barbara, something that was never really addressed in the series, but has been a long-favourite fan theory about the characters. In writing a sequel Matt Fitton not only takes on that play’s titular villains (more on them later), but also it’s commitment to strong, character-based drama, using Steven’s departure in the same way as Ian’s feelings for Barbara. The problem is that the emotional hook of Steven’s decision to leave is far less engaging than Ian’s love for Barbara. As the first companions Ian and Barbara have an iconic status that Steven does not. While it’s nice to have Steven’s departure given more context, it’s just not as interesting.

Despite having a weaker starting point than The Rocket Men, the play does manage to give a satisfying level of depth to Steven’s exit. No mean feat given that his departure was so vapid and perfunctory. In doing so Fitton returns to Steven’s origins as a pilot and the character development we have already seen in The Companion Chronicles (notably in the Oliver Trilogy). While this was probably intended to feel like a culmination of threads from previous plays it does feels a little repetitive. The Cold Equations also had Steven’s piloting experience as the crux of the story, and it (along with the stories either side of it) also had him reflecting on the deaths of Katarina, Sara and Oliver. This isn’t to say that it isn’t engaging and well written, it’s just that it doesn’t give the character or The Companion Chronicles anything new.

One of the things that made The Rocket Men work so well was the clever way it used narrative perspective, telling the story non-chronologically, with flashes in the past and future slowly revealing more about how the situation in the present would be resolved. While Return of the Rocket Men does have a certain ‘timey-wimeyness’ (as the new series would put it), the play’s structure is disappointingly straightforward. This isn’t to say that every play in the range needs to be wildly experimental, but it does beg the question of why you would chose to invoke one of the most complex and well received plays in something which shows such little ambition.

There is also the question of why Fitton decided to use the titular villains in this story at all. In their first story they were clearly intended as a pastiche, both of 1940s sci-fi serials and the kind of pulp-inspired villains which often appeared in the early years of Doctor Who. Here however, they are presented as violent, thuggish mercenaries, their roots all but forgotten. The main genre being played with here is the Western, with the ‘pioneer’ colonist staving off an attack by bandits, and the Rocket Men don’t really fit with this setting terribly well. One of them is even given a bizarre fondness for archaic hand-guns in a clumsy attempt to tie the Rocket Men better to the setting. An original creation might have worked better.

All this may make it sound like I didn’t like this play, but that isn’t true. It’s a very solid piece from a strong writer. It’s just that it pales in comparison to it’s predecessor, The Rocket Men, and would undoubtedly work better as a play in it’s own right, rather than being a sequel. The comparison just draws attention to its shortcomings and lack of originality. With the recent announcement that The Companion Chronicles will be coming to an end after Series 8, it would be nice if they could find ways to use the characters in new ways and push the actors in new directions, rather than going over old ground in solid, but underwhelming releases like this.

Across England important people are dying in seemingly unconnected accidents. Yet prior to their demise each of them received a mysterious letter, predicting the exact time of their deaths. With the Doctor and UNIT occupied by marauding shop window dummies and reptile men, Liz Shaw turns to the one person who might be able to help. Her mother.

Listening to The Last Post is a somewhat bittersweet experience. The play was recorded shortly before Caroline John’s death last year, and is her final performance as Liz Shaw. Consequently there is a weight of expectation upon it which there which couldn’t have been anticipated at the time of production. Perhaps unfairly listeners will desire not only a strong story, but an appropriate tribute to John and the character she played on-and-off for the last 40 years. Thankfully, The Last Post succeeds on both counts and is one of the strongest Companion Chronicles that Big Finish has produced.

The success of the play is mainly down to the relationship between Liz and her mother, Emily Shaw, who is a brilliant counterpart to Liz. In stark contrast to her daughter, Emily is a scholar of mediaeval literature and is outspoken in her disappointment at Liz’s decision to study science, rather than pursuing something more ‘worthwhile’ in the arts. Their spiky, yet affectionate relationship is a joy to listen to and wonderfully played by John and Rowena Cooper, and by structuring the majority of the play as a series of letters between them, writer James Goss gives both characters a chance to shine. The addition of Emily gives us an insight into Liz’s past which is both refreshingly new and completely in line with what we already know about her.

The story hinges on Liz’s expertise and ingenuity, and her relationship with her mother, with the Doctor very much a secondary character, appearing at appropriate moments, but never usurping Liz’s place as protagonist. Stylistically it draws inspiration from the 60s adventure shows which were a huge influence on Season 7, and the slightly bonkers plot wouldn’t seem out of place in an episode of The Avengers. It is also a continuity heavy-story, with numerous references to Season 7 and beyond. However this never seems self indulgent or unnecessary, this is continuity done with a wry smile and a wink to the audience. As James Goss explains in the extras, the inspiration for this story came when he noticed how many bizarre deaths there are in Season 7 (death by dummy, reptile plague, isotope on a platter and exploding suitcase being prime examples), and thought ‘wouldn’t it be fun if they were all connected’? He cleverly joins the pieces and brings things to an enjoyable conclusion. The identity of the story’s villain will be satisfying to many listeners, especially if they manage to guess who it is from the hints that are dropped before the reveal.

With the previous Liz Companion Chronicles being something of a mixed bag, it’s a relief that in this release the character has been matched up with a writer who can do her justice. While stories featuring companions such as Sara, Zoe and Leela have found the right style, tone and co-performer to suit the actors and the characters, up until now John and Liz have been less well served. It’s gratifying, and poignant that in this final release things have fallen into place.

This review is based on the MP3 download from Big Finish, and contains minor spoilers.

All is not well at Tantane Spaceport. The massive structure – a network of departure gates, hydroponic gardens, passenger lounges and maintenance tunnels – has been sealed off centuries. Outside, an endless storm rages. Inside, the spaceport’s surviving inhabitants have split into two warring tribes, Business and Economy, whose members mouth litanies and obey traditions handed down over 19 generations. Into this hermetically sealed environment come the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Mel (Bonnie Langford), and trouble isn’t far behind them.

The Plot:

Having turned 20 years of age, novitiate Naysmith (Isabel Fay) comes to the place of tradition – Customs – to attest that she, like those who came before her, has learned the rites and rituals of Economy. "I travel light. I have learned to live on little liquids," she proclaims. Soon, however, Naysmith’s initiation – and the lives of her boyfriend, Pretty Swanson (Gwilym Lee) and his mother Beauty (Big Finish regular Beth Chalmers) are disrupted by an unexpected arrival.

Landing in Tantane Spaceport, the TARDIS activates the base’s sleeping computers, triggering mechanisms across the complex, including the lights – a process that the locals, used to near-permanent darkness, call ‘summer’. Part of the station’s rebooting process sees its walls rearrange themselves for no readily apparent reason, other than being a handy plot device to swiftly separate Mel and the Doctor from the TARDIS – a somewhat artificial means of engaging them with the adventure, it must be said, but an effective one.

Roaming the spaceport’s corridors, the travellers encounter Naysmith and her clan, as well as their sworn enemies from Business, the gruff Galpan (Chalmers again) and her subordinate, the trigger-happy Rogers (Adrian MacKinder). Then there’s Economy’s spiritual leader, Elder Bones (Ronald Pickup), who claims to have overseen the tribe’s welfare for almost 500 years – a task which includes warding off the Wailer, a savage beast normally confined in a remote section of the spaceport. Unfortunately, the arrival of summer, and the spaceport’s shifting walls, seem to have set the Wailer free.

The Doctor and Mel must now navigate the shifting corridors and make their way to the control tower in order to find and access the TARDIS, while avoiding the laser-blasts of Business and the claws of the Wailer. Simultaneously, they have to keep everyone else safe – and then there’s the small matter of the raging storm outside…

Observations:

Writer William Gallagher has woven together a number of well-established Doctor Who tropes in his third story for Big Finish (following the short Fifth Doctor story Doing Time on The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories and Sixth Doctor adventure Wirrin Isle). There’s a great deal of running down corridors here, as well as dramatic use of conduits and air-conditioning vents; a base under siege and a monster on the loose inside its confined spaces; but the most familiar motif in Gallagher’s script is of the devolved society, as seen in a number of televised stories including Season Three’s The Savages, Season Eight’s Colony in Space, Season 18’s State of Decay and Season 24’s Paradise Towers.

Perhaps the most famous example of devolution in Doctor Who is Season 14’s The Face of Evil, and it’s this story that most springs to mind when listening to Spaceport Fear – indeed, Gallagher himself references it in the interviews which appear as extras on disc two. But unlike Chris Boucher’s classic Fourth Doctor story, in which the warring tribes of Sevateem and Tesh and their backstory are integral to the story, the origins of Tantane Spaceport’s rival tribes are less a key plot point and more local colour – albeit local colour that serve as a striking metaphor for contemporary western society and the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Spaceport Fear is something of a homage to Boucher’s story but quite different in tone and intent. His dialogue, and the evocation of the world in which the characters live, is detailed and engaging, while the mood is light – not comical, but certainly less than entirely serious.

Unfortunately the story, too, is a little lacking in substance, with the third episode in particular feeling somewhat padded, though as a whole the adventure definitely entertains. Other flaws are evident: in the final act, Gallagher’s characters grasp the uses of advanced technology such as mechanised transport a bit too quickly given what we have previously learned about their society, while the revelation concerning the perfidy of a major character is rather obviously foreshadowed. Such flaws may be due to the story being rushed into production to fill a gap in the Big Finish schedule (as revealed in the story’s bonus features); more time in development might have helped craft a stronger narrative.

Other faults occur in production – Beth Chalmers tries her best to differentiate her two characters, but the presence of an additional actor would have greatly assisted proceedings – though as a whole, the story sounds excellent, particularly the sound design, which gives a strong sense of the scale of Tantane Spaceport. The chemistry between Baker and Langford sparkles, and Gallagher earns extra points for ensuring that Mel’s eidetic memory and affinity with computers are integral to the story.

Conclusion:

Though a fairly slight story, and not without its flaws, Spaceport Fear is engaging, imaginative and entertaining. It successfully references the classic era of the series without being a mere pastiche, and admirably fleshes out the relationship between Mel and the Sixth Doctor – a relationship sadly cut short by the powers-that-be at the BBC. Most importantly, it feels like a Doctor Who adventure – and an enjoyable one at that.