Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

 Doctor Who Unbound Masters Of War This continues the from Sympathy for the Devil; David Warners ‘unbound’ 3rd Doctor and the Brigadier arrive on an alien planet where the Daleks are ruling the locals. The city it turns out is a Thal settlement on Skaro. The Daleks and Thals living together, albeit with the Daleks in occupation.Its not something we’re used to, so its in interesting spin on the idea. The Thals have a resistance which the Doctor befriends. David Warners Doctor is a little dry, but I’m surprised at how easily he’s ‘The Doctor’. Though he was introduced Sympathy For The Devil, there’s no need for a  ‘getting to know him’ period, but maybe its David Warner - such a great actor. As we find out more about this Skaro we hear videos of Dalek propaganda which features Davros - played by Terry Malloy, and he does it so well. Its the second half where he actually appears in person. And we get the Doctor meets Davros for the first time (well in this universe anyway),...

 Blakes 7 Crossfire 2.2 Shock Troops A trooper in the federation army, going through routine operations until she meets another fellow solider, and things are not quite what she thought. This comes across a bit ‘Love and Monsters’ at first. You know you’re in the Blakes 7 universe, and are following the exploits of one of its inhabitants, but not sure why. And where are the heroes you’ve come to enjoy? Dayna does (eventually) turn up as the other solider, and the only other of the seven to make an appearance, is Avon - but in a reduced role. So some patience is needed as you don’t know where the story is going. You do pick up on the clues and gather Dayna is undercover but why and whats the goal? With Yasmin Bannerman not being the original voice of Dayna, giving her the lead may seem a little odd, as you’d expect one of the original cast would be better placed to take the spotlight. But as the Doctor Who audios, where sometimes none of the originals are left, its the story and cha...

Doctor Who The Early Adventures 3.4 - The Sontarans 
 The Doctor, Steven and Sara arrive on an asteroid. They find a group of Space Security Service people, but they appear to be from an earlier time than Sara. Otherwise its just the little matter of the Sontarans… 
 The mission of the SSS is to destroy a space cannon to allow human passage through the system. With the TARDIS crew getting involved, and the Sontarans aren’t making it easy. 
 I have heard a few audios with Steven and Sara, and I’ve enjoyed them. Though the stories are placed right in the middle of the Daleks Masterplan and it does stretch believability a little, but any fan of Big Finish isn’t going to let that be an issue. 
 There is a feel of the first Doctor era, where it took time for the adventure to take place - the journey during Marco Polo for instance. In avoiding he Sontarans they descend into a creator, travel though caves (a little reminiscent of that part in ‘The Daleks’). There’s the usual perils, dange...

The Waters Of Mars The Tenth Doctor, traveling alone lands on Mars: the red planet. Its 2059 and the first humans settlers have set up a base and everything seems ok… One of the things I love about this episode and Doctor who in general, is that you can just put on a story and  as long as you know the basics you can enjoy it. These days most series are continuing dramas: you have to have watched everything single one up until that point to understand what’s going on. Also this does have a certain feel of those sci fi adventure films, Warlords of Atlantis, Journey to the Centre of the Earth - a group of people exploring the unknown, with dangers and peril along the way. The base on Mars has only a few people operating it, and one of their objectives is growing food using water from an underground frozen lake. The water however contains something alive. Its a great setup, but the big focal point of the episode is that the Doctor knows that on this date in history, the crew all die. A...

Time Lord Victorious Secrets of the Time Lord Victorious/Dataworm messages So when the TLV series was ongoing, the Doctor Who Newsletter had a series of brief notes from the Data worm. I didn’t have them, at the time I only had a passing interest. I found 8 of the entries someone posted on a forum (a quick search will bring them up). The entries aren’t really adding anything to the greater story, it was more a bit of info on (presumably) current releases, just to temp you into the range. There are mentions of The Archive of Islos, Vampires, the Dark Times, the Hond etc.  It is kind of keeping you updated on some of the details, but its not a story in its own right and you’re not missing by not reading them.

Blake’s Seven Crossfire part 2 1. Funeral on Kalion The ruler of the natural planet of Kalion has died. There is no heir. Its the biggest manufacturer of space ships in the galaxy. There are two presidents vying for power and then there’s the Liberator crew… The ‘crossfire’  idea introduced in the first set carries on here. Servalan seized the presidency, yet the old president hasn’t given up just yet. They both want power and will fight to keep it. The first set didn’t really do much in the way of making the most of the idea- in fact almost ignoring it. So at least this set, or episode is doing something about it. The two presidents show up for the funeral, the seal of Kalion is the key to ruling, and they both desperately want it. Of course Avon and co also want to put a spanner in the works. Its set during series 3, where, after losing Blake and the federation shattered. They were a little aimless so this crossfire idea, does restore some of that purpose. Unfortunately, not a lo...

Doctor Who The Companion Chronicles 1.4 - The Beautiful People ‘ If there’s one thing I can’t stand - its celery’ The Doctor wants doughnuts, too bad he and Romana land on a planet that’s dedicated to health and weight loss. I wasn't invested in this at all. Its nice enough, the Doctor seems to vanish in part one and we follow Romana’s exploits - its fairly standard for a companion chronicle. The story of weight loss and how its done - consider the Tv episode partners In Crime, with the Adipose. You know there’s something more to it. There is a hint of Fight Cub (the bit with the soap), but what’s happing isn’t that dramatic. Yeah its not what the guests assume, but they are getting what they want. Its not exactly the Daleks invading Earth. The idea to force it on those who are overweight is the only real issue. The episode lengths are a bit all over the place, part 1, 25 minutes, and you assume a part 2 of similar time, but no, its 17 minutes. Followed by two about 12 minutes.  It...

Doctor Who Unbound Sympathy For The Devil What if after the second Doctor was forced to regenerate and became the third, and he arrived on earth later than he did? Its 1997, Hong Kong, the day before the handover to the Chinese. The Doctor meets an old friend or two. Its possibly the first time I’ve heard this since its release. Having taken advantage of a Big Finish sale and purchased the Benny Summerfield Unbound adventures that features this Doctor it seemed a good opportunity to go back to listen to this and the Masters of War. Its quite a cast, Nick Courtney, David Warner, David Tenant and Mark Gatis - to be honest two of those names I wasn’t aware of in 2003. It is strange listening to the Doctor Who audios David Tenant did before he became the Doctor himself. In this he retains his Scottish accent and plays the rather angry Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood. Mark Gatis is the Master is is really good at portraying the evil side of his nature. It feels a bit odd to have the Brigadier in t...

Time Lord Victorious Short story: Canaries A woman called Anke, owns a very small museum, The museum of the impossible, sometimes she get a phone call, always the same person, but different voices… This seemed to be a bit tenuous, an after thought to the TLV, but its actually quite a nice story. The ‘Impossible’ things come from alternate realities, relics of things that never were. A Toclafane is one such item. Of course the person calling is the Doctor. The suspense is nicely done, you do wonder where its going, and what the mystery is. As far it connects to the Time Lord Victors series, there are mentions of Mordeela and Adelaide Brook and a fracture. So nothing that really  It does help to know about Faction Paradox - I don’t, so the ending wasn’t something that worked that effectively for me, but it was a little creepy. A nice read. Its available here  https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/read-an-exclusive-time-lord-victorious-story-canaries

Time Lord Victorious Eaglemoss short story: Exit Stratagy Told from the Dalek Strategist point of view, and after the deafeat by the Doctor in Mutually Assured Destruction. Falling through the vortex the Strategist considers the situation. The Emperor was to blame, all efforts in the Dark Times came to nothing. If I’d of experience the TLV series in some sort of order this would have been nice bit to read after the audio. However as I’m kind of mopping up the last few bits and with most of the interesting stuff done the momentum has gone. There is a good bit at the start of the magazine, The Dalek Executioners, and as with the other its recaps some of the Dalek events, the Archive of Islos, battling the Hond, Wraxians from the audio etc. It does help if you’ve missed parts. Ok 

Time Lord Victorious Comic maker: Tales Of The Dark times I’m relying on a YouTube video for this. Part 1 I can only assume this is set during All Flesh is Grass. The Tenth Doctor and Brian the Ood. The Doctor wants to do some good, but from Brians point of view its just ghosts the Doctor sees. Its very brief and skippable Part 2 On the planet Velosa the people are worried the Kotturuh are coming: the Bringers of Death. However someone is there is save them - the Daleks. Slightly longer than the first, but still short. Part 3 The Eighth Doctor and the Daleks. The encounter a ship that’s draining their energy. The ship seems to be a resource of information form a species wiped out by the Kotturuh. The Daleks are only interested in the Huon Particles though.  I assume that takes pace just after the Eighth and Daleks arrive in the dark times. Part 4 The Ninth Doctor and Ikella are exploring the planet Parvanna - one of the least welcoming planets of the dark times, but they are not al...