Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

Dark Tides                                                 The Ninth Doctors Adventures 4.7                                                                             It maybe the future where the Doctor and Rose have travelled but its also a era of decline, a dark age. The Knights of Atlas seek a treasure aboard a lost ship, now reachable from the Dark tides. This is a welcome change from the Powell estate audios. The future, space, spaceships - a bit of space opera. Though with the Knights, and Rose being called ‘fair maiden’ there’s a hint of an historical, though it doesn’t last that long. It does feel that the Doctor is back where he belongs.  The lost ship isn’t as deser...

The Locked Room                                                      The Companion Chronicles 9.4                                                                                                                   Once the ruler of a people he left the TARDIS to lead, Steven lives hidden away. His granddaughter Sida, now president, gave him money to build a radio telescope, but what exactly is he doing? So first off to appreciate this story to its fullest, you really need to not only know the TV series, but have heard the previous two ‘older Steven’ CC’s, and the Oliver Harper...

The Kamelion Empire                              Doctor Who Monthly Adventures 249                                                    Kamelion and his kind receive a recall signal: its time for Kamelion to go home… Its not quite the homecoming as the Kamille are all but gone, the remains of kamelions are scattered around but the Locus can revive his species… I’ve not been that complimentary of Kamelion in my reviews of the previous 2 audios. It feels that he’s one trick pony, just gets taken over by a stronger mind. Once you know one story, you know them all. This audio does for Kamelion what Domain of the Voord did for the Voord, which is to fill in the back story and expand on the little we’ve been told. The only issue with giving Kamelion a backstory is that part two is almost one l...

Thirteen O’Clock                                                                                    The Ninth Doctor Audios 4.6                                                                                               If you’ve been flowing this series then this is more of the same.  The Powell Estate and something is wrong. It does start out with the Doctor and Rose on board the TARDIS trying to see how far they can get away from the estate, but back they go. This time people are isolated, afraid and trying to navigate is impossible as corr...

The Second Doctor Adventures                                      War of The Morai                                                                                 The Tardis crew are back at the Vanishing point, but so are the Daleks. I didn’t write a review when I first heard this, mainly because I never really understood it. I didn’t think I could write a fair appraisal, and after another listen; it's no better. The Vanishing point - not really sure what it is, but I never got a sense of what it was either. Other than some old buildings, I have no idea of the layout, the soundscape gives no clues. Is it a black void? A village? A spaceship? When we hear the Daleks discussing plans its assumable ...

Timewyrm: Genesis                                    The New Adventures 1.1                                                                       An alien on the run lands on earth, can she use her powers to control the minds of the primitive race? I saw a copy of the novel of Paradise Towers, and having remembered watching it a couple of year before I bought it, and it rekindled my interest in Doctor Who. When the New Adventures were announced, I was excited: It was new Doctor Who. I bought the first ten or eleven, but never got farther than the first couple of chapters of the Timewyrm: Genesis. Stuck for something to read, I thought I’d see how I find it now. The story of Gilgamesh is not something I’m that familiar with, an...

The Keeper of  Light                                            The War Doctor Begins Battlegrounds                                                                                                    A disused lighthouse, an older married couple, the Doctor and his companion, and an entity. This wasn’t quite what I had expected, and as so frequently is the case, I wondered if I’d missed or forgotten where things had ended in the previous set. All becomes clear, but patience is needed. It's a slow burn, almost glacially and it struggled to hold my attention, as I found my mind wondering. The fact is that virtually nothing happens ...

The Founding Fathers                                                       The Companion Chronicles  The First Doctor 1.3                                         Steven’s grand daughter takes him to visit the Doctor, yet its not the actual Doctor. There they tell a story of an adventure they once had where they met Benjamin Franklin. So perhaps a little more unusual, in that what’s happening with the current Steven is as, if not more interesting, as the story that’s being narrated. The narrated story tells of the TARDIS arriving in Leicester in 1762. With it being quite warm, the Doctor takes off his coat and throws to back into the TARDIS inadvertently locking the crew out. Getting back in is a little tricky and the only man that can help is Benjamin...

Devil In The Mist                                                                 Doctor Who Monthly Adventures 247                                                 ‘The snakes can hiss off” The Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion arrive on a ship that’s carrying a single prisoner.  Things aren’t exactly harmonious on board the TARDIS as Tegan is distrustful of Kamelion - you can’t blame her he has form. The ship they land on is transporting a criminal who can change into a mist at will, so not easy to contain. The crew of the ship consist of two hippopotamus like people. When things go wrong on the ship and it crashes; it's merely the start of their problems. It's nice to have Kamelion as a ‘proper’ compan...

The Tactics Of Defeat                                         The Companion Chronicles 12.4                   Ruth Matheson is in the jungle, heading towards an temple with only a recording of Zoe Herriot to guide her. I don’t do my research, and having finished my current play list for the month early I brought this up to fill the gap. The companion chronicles make a nice rest between boxsets. I did wonder if I’d missed something - whether this carried on from something else. I do believe what happened to Charlie Sato is explained in a short trip, a usually they’re together. Assuming you know who Ruth is then you’re good to go.  I’ve come to quite like Ruth, and its nice that Daphne Ashbrook gets to still get to play a role in the Doctor Who universe This is mostly a two hander between Ruth and adversary Deakin. Ruth has traveled to a tem...

After The Daleks                                                                           Doctor Who The Early Adventures 7.1                                                                The Dalek Invasion Of Earth is over, the Doctor and TARDIS have gone leaving Susan and the human race to rebuild the planet. The Dalek Invasion Of Earth is one of my favourite stories, so this audio intrigued me. Though we’ve had stories - An Earthly Child - dealing with what happened to Susan this takes place much closer to the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Growing crops, and choosing leaders is where they’re at, and ex governor of zone 5, Marcus Bray, i...

Borrow Or Rob Eighth Doctor Adventures Time War 6.4 Back on the ship in the Void, The Doctor, Alex, and Hieronyma/captain are being attacked. This carries on from where The Road Untravelled left off, Cass having fallen through a doorway and presumed dead. They suddenly have to defend themselves.  I was somewhat underwhelmed but this. The ‘reflections’ that seemed so interesting in ‘The Road Untravelled” become mundane. They’re not getting accurate readings from what’s outside, and the reveal of what’s really going on turns an interesting premise into something rather dull and ordinary. Cass eventually turns up, and yet again maybe not quite the version she was. And brings a whole new set of mysteries.  There are a couple of twists, though the one that began in ‘The Road Untravelled’ - with the ‘Cass-cade’ episode being a bit of a detour - the momentum has gone. The build up isn’t as satisfying as maybe it should. The set as a whole seems to be a two parter with a prelude and a...

The Road Untravelled Eighth Doctor Adventures Time War 6.2 At the end of the last episode the Doctor and co had got out of the fake reality they were in. Now they find themselves on a spaceship in a void space. With 'Nowhere, Never' having some unanswered questions, this doesn’t do much to help. The ‘Captain’ seems to be known by the Doctor and it's one of those times where you’re suddenly trying to work out if you should know them as well. With so many different Big Finish ranges it's hard to keep up: Hieronyma Friend - the captain, we encountered as the non existent passenger in Meanwhile, Elsewhere. Yeah I had to look it up! Conrad Westmass plays the Captain, with his previous role as the Eighths companion C’rizz, it's a little odd, but it maybe due to the character he’s playing. The void space has reflections, and they are reflections of the ship hence the title. Other versions, but which version will make it out? Add to that the ship is of old Gallifrayan origi...

Cass-Cade                                                       Eighth Doctor Adventures Time War 6.3                                                    Cass is on a space station, a queue for the food counter is where she meets the Doctor and Alex who don’t know her. Suddenly she’s somewhere else, where she meets the Doctor and Alex who don’t know her, and, well… you get the idea. Its tempting to say this is a more straight forward story, yet that is isn’t. The space station is falling towards the sun and Cass is jumping around time meeting the Doctor and Alex at different points in the adventure, each time as if for the first. Like much other such adventures it starts to come together and you can build an idea of what’s the ...

Brimstone and Terror Missy 2.2 Here Missy is in charge of a boarding school, perhaps not the best for the pupils, especially Oliver Davis who knows Missy of old and so does his sister… Oliver and Lucy appeared in the first episode of series one of Missy - A Spoonfull of Mayhem. So it was quite nice to have them reappear. Things aren’t good for Oliver, being somewhat bullied by another boy - McAllister is bad enough but his old association with Missy seems more detrimental to his situation than anything else. Things pick ups when Lucy enters the story as does Strax the sontaran of Paternoster fame. Though he did add to the story and I enjoyed him, I do wonder if it was necessary to included him. Overall an enjoyable episode but I’m not left moved. It has all the right elements and some nice writing but there was something missing

Nowhere, Never                                                         Eighth Doctor Adventures Time War 6.1                                                                                                 Cass - a house wife, doing her daily routines. The Doctor and Alex in some strange hospital during the war. None of them knowing who they really are. When I first listened to The Natural History of fear, C’rizz had only just joined as a companion so I wasn’t so familiar with his voice. With that audio, like this, with the main cast not quite playing themselves so it was almost like he wasn’t there. It was only a ...

The Quantum Possibility Engine                                              Doctor Who The Monthly Adventures                                                             The last adventure left on a bit of a cliffhanger: Mel having betrayed The Doctor and handed over the TARDIS to president Dogbolter. So now we find out why? President Dogbolter - to be honest I had to look up who he was as it felt as if I should know. He was in the DWM comics and also featured in the Maltese Penguin - though I must admit its been sometime since I listened it. Mel has debts which Dogbolter bought, and to clear them its going to take the TARDIS and its manual. If she doesn’t? Well it doesn’t bear thinking about. This is very much a Mel led story...

The Quest of the Engineer                                     The Fourth Doctor Adventures 9.4                                               On a planet that reconfigures it surface, the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 are seeking info on a CVE. They encounter the ‘Engineer’ who is also interested in CVE’s, though there is more to him and the planet than at first seems. I had to check that I had started with part one, as it begins with Adic having been arrested for taking K9 though the streets where technology is forbidden. They meet Rigis Tel played by George Layton (perhaps more noted in DW circles as being the Space pirates) and go on to find the truth about the planet. As for the plot… Well it is tempting to say what plot. The planet is… mild spoiler… a giant space ship. Being a Hitch...

Pandemonium                                          The Ninth Doctor Adventures 4.5                                                                             Once again its the Powell Estate, this time the Doctor and Rose discove local historical figures are suddenly appearing. Though I would prefer something a bit more sci fi/spacey I’ll take what I can get. Its the Ninth and Rose. With Camile Caduri as Jackie Tyler its a not a bad combination. So Jackie has Edith Nesbit in her living room, writer of Five Children and It etc. also quite the protester, filling up the space with placards. So what is going on. This is by no means a deep or complex adventure. Leaning more to the comedy side of thi...