Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

The Silurian Candidate    229 in the Monthly/main range    The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Mel arrive on Earth in the future. And the two major power blocs are on course for war. Is this the chance for the Silurians to claim back their planet?    This felt much more of an early Seventh Doctor story in Sylvester’s delivery. I had expected the Doctor to have more gravitas than the comedic feel to his early adventures.    As for the plot… well it took a lot of time to really work out that there was one. For the first couple of episodes it didn’t feel that there was actually a narrative. There’s an encounter with a dinosaur, robot helpers/killers and the ides of Silurians. I say idea because it took a while for them to really enter the proceedings.    There were parts that didn’t seem to quite reconcile with the current TARDIS team, or came a little out of nowhere. Some of it felt like it been done by numbers, ingredients lifted from other stori...

Collision Course Part six in the Legacy Of Time release Leela and Romana remember adventures they had with the Doctor, same place so why didn’t the Doctor remember he’d been there before? So two stories are relayed, One with the fourth and Leela and the Other with the Fourth and Romana. Not as confusing as you think. Sometimes with two lots of the same characters its easy to forget which one you’re listening to. The Doctor is secondary character (as he seems to be quite often) with Leela and Romana taking the leeds. There is some interesting things going on. The flight of the first TARDIS for instance. I did enjoy the two stories motif. The “theme’ or series arc has been a little thin on the ground, most of the stories could be quite  happily enjoyed on their own. Not that thats a complaint. But this is where it all comes together that being the time distortions. Spolier section The final part of this is where all the Doctors come together and there are some nice cameos. One thing ...

The Avenues of Possibility Part five in the Legacy Of Time release Its present day Earth and ‘doorways’ into the past have opened up, luckily a certain DI Menzies is at hand. Not to mention The sixth Doctor and Charlie. I tend not to read much about the audios I buy, so it was a bit of a surprise when the sixth was accompanied by Charlie. I enjoyed the storyline at the time, when Charlie left the Eighth and ended up with the sixth, but with the plot line resolved, I kind of felt that was the end of it. But I love Charlie so a nice surprise. The first couple of release that featured DI Patricia Menzies, she was a great character, however the last one and this, her accent has softened and her humour hasn’t been a dry as it was, she seemed to have more of a laconic attitude. I struggled with this one and I’m not sure why. It starts off seemly about one man, but when the Doctor shows up he’s there for someone else. But there’s time annominallies to investigate, so far so good but the next ...

Relative Time Part four in the Legacy Of Time release Having recently listened to The Gates of Hell, with Peter Davison and David Tennant - father and son in law. It now its father and daughter, with Peter Davison and Georgia Tennant (Jenny) . Aside from the tv episode she was in, there’s only one other audio I’ve heard her in which was the Once and Future set. I wondered at the time how the fifth Doctor was aware of Jenny, well, now I know! Jenny is on board a time cruiser, which is where the Doctor finds her. There has been some kind of time explosion, what more the Nine is there too. I didn’t get to listen to this in one go or at least a couple of goes. But the plot wasn’t as interesting as the first couple in this series. More like the previous instalment, its more about the characters. It is real life father and daughter playing father and daughter, so its quite nice. The Nine (or whichever incarnation is the current) is an interesting character, and makes use of Timelord anomalie...

The Sacrifice Of Jo Grant. Part three in the Legacy Of Time release You can’t really go wrong with Jo Grant, well not in my opinion anyway. Katy Manning is a great actress whose good at voices and I’ve really enjoyed pretty much all of her audios. Here Jo and Osgood are enjoying swimming when Kate interrupts, there is some temporal interference near the coast, a group of people form the 16 century have found themselves in the 21st. Whats more this has happened before when it was solved by the death of Jo Grant! It is a little odd when two eras come together more so when they are so far apart. I was quite surprised when the third Doctor turned up, I don’t know why but I imagined this wasn’t going to feature the Doctor (maybe I’d heard too many Companion Chronicles) The way the Doctor meets Jo is nicely done, as he fails to notice that she’s got old. When they enjoy dinner together, an interesting thing that cropped up, and is something thats caught attention, is that why isn’t the Docto...

The Split Infinitive Part two in the Legacy Of Time release. In this we have the Seventh Doctor and Ace with the Counter Measures team. The premise is interesting, something is pulling the 1960’s and 1970s together, The Doctor has left Ace in the 60’s with the counter measures team, while he is also working with Counter measures in the 1970’s. As the memories of what happens in the 60’s come to Ian, Rachel and Allison the Doctor can co ordinate events to put things right. I’m not a massive fan of Counter measures, I listened to their first audio, and maybe if had more time I’d listen to more, but I’ve got no really drive to. With UNIT and Torchwood they seem more of the same. But I did enjoy them here and I think likewise with unit. You would think that having the same people in two time zones might be a little confusing on audio but that wasn’t the case. I listened in bits and pieces so didn’t take it it as well as I’d of liked, so its defineatley up for another go. Not as good as the...

Lies In Ruins Part one in the Legacy Of Time release. Other than to mark 20 years of Big Finish I wasn’t really sure what this was about, but with most celebration stories it features lots of stuff past and present. This starts with River Song breaking into a tomb only to find Benny Summerfield has got there first. The two know each other as River was Bennys student, and there is a little rivalry there. River has really met her match here and the interaction is great, both are great characters and had their own share of adventures. When the Eighth Doctor arrives with anew companion who seem to be more or a parody, you do wonder if this is the real Doctor as he doesn’t seem that interested in Benny or River. The place seems to be whats left of a planet thats been spit out by the time war and an aliens want it for its mineral wealth. The Eighth Doctor is avoiding the time war here. With that and the mixture of old and new it does feel like they use the same idea for Once and future serie...

Timeslip the Age Of The Death Lottery I’ve only watched the TV series once a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed it. As with Sapphire and Steel the first story was a little slow but got better as they went along. The first episode of this was a free download, and though I listened to it twice at different times I didn’t remember much about it, which usually isn’t a good sign. This audio is presented in 6x30 minute episodes and the original stars have returned - Spencer Banks and Cheryl Burfield. They’re much older now (its over 50 years!) so their voices don’t imeadiatley stand out as to who they are. Simon and Liz are not as close as they were, this begins with Liz not answering his calls. The population crisis is at the forefront of things, Simon himself having to head up a government body with Liz’s friend Charlotte (Played by Sarah Sutton). When two young people discover a time barrier Simon and Liz reunite. Neil and Jade are from the 1980’s who find themselves in 2020, together ...