Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The mystery and the cryptic unknown that flirts with furtive secrecy as the tarot cards are laid to determine, or at least pinpoint your fate across time, have beguiled many, and lured many more to a place where The World itself seems to stop in time as it breathes in contentment and delivered understanding that there is more to our time than just being numbers and clocking in to another’s tune.
Originally published by L.S. Media. April 22nd 2012
L.S. Media Rating * * * *
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Alex Lowe, Mark Benton, Caroline Keiff, Dan Starkey, John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs.
Tom Baker’s incarnation and time as the fourth Doctor was never better than when he faced off against the scourge of Skaro, The Daleks. In Nicholas Briggs’ latest story for Big Finish, Energy Of The Daleks, Tom Baker is once more pitted against one of his greatest enemies and even though it was the first story that was recorded for the return of Tom Baker, there is much to admire in the delivery and the script.
Originally published by L.S. Media. March 28th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating * * * *
Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Tim Bentinck, Jenny Funnell, Tessa Nicholson, Rikki Lawton, Dan Starkey, Helen Goldwyn, Glynn Sweet.
There must be something about the Wirrn that can give dedicated listeners of Doctor Who delicious and nerve wracking nightmares. Add in the almost lonely, desolate feel that you get in William Gallagher’s script for Wirrn Isle and the creeping music that overlays the action and the play becomes a near pinnacle of Colin Baker’s time as the Doctor.
Originally published by L.S. Media. March 27th 2012.
L. S. Media Rating * * * *
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Ella Kenion, Nia Roberts, Michael Rouse, Daniel Hawksford.
The latest Tom Baker/Big Finish story, The Wrath of the Iceni, finally sees the savage Leela meet her match in the form of Boudica, the legendary warrior Queen of the Iceni. If this story is anything to go by, both the Doctor and Leela may have met their physical equal in the form of a woman who has gone down in history as a mixture of a heroine and a woman driven mad by revenge.
Originally published by L.S. Media. February 25th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Ian McNeice, Gareth Armstrong, Anthony Howell, Daisy Ashford, Laura Molyneux, John Dorney.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In the world of Doctor Who it can lead to downright murder! The second of Big Finish’s new Tom Baker stories, The Renaissance Man, shows with a certain delightful irony that just because you may think you know everything, doesn’t mean you have experienced it and of course there is always just that little bit more to know, even if it’s on the relative value of cow parsley.
Originally published by L.S. Media. January 24th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating * * *
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Raquel Cassidy, Tim Bentinck, Sam Graham, Tilly Gaunt, Kim Wall, Tim Treloar.
Destination: Nerva is the brand new Doctor Who audio from Big Finish that requires a fanfare so loud and devastatingly proud as it finally brings the much loved and much missed Tom Baker back into the realm of original adventures. However, it also requires a discretion, the will to give this new series a chance to grow and for Mr. Baker to find his feet at Big Finish whilst immersing himself back as one of the premier Doctor incarnations.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *****
Cast: Matt Smith, Karen Gillian, Arthur Darvill, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Anamaria Marinca, David Gyasi, Naomi Ryan, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, Zac Fox.
It is the stuff that legends are made out of and then there is Doctor Who. The nights are beginning to draw in and what better way for the B.B.C. to showcase the autumn schedules than by the re-materialising of the blue box, two of the great companions of the modern and any era, the Doctor and an introduction to a new companion that might just be the best since Janet Fielding as the Australian flight attendant Tegan Jovanka.
Originally published by L.S. Media and Liverpool Live. March 1st 2012.
March 5th sees the highly anticipated return of The Stranglers to the o2 Academy, Liverpool. In recent years the band have had nights on stage in the city that have been talked about for weeks afterwards. This though will see the punk rock legends do a national tour on the back of a new album release for the first time in six years. Not since Suite XVIwas released in 2006 have the band come out on the road armed to the teeth with a trunk full of new songs.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 6th 2012.
Deacon Blue, one of the iconic pop bands of the 1980’s and beyond, are making their way back to Liverpool in October as part of tour that spans 15 nights in support of a brand new album. Their songs have inspired many and loved by millions. Time before a tour is hectic, there is so much planning to be done, arrangements to be finalised and of course the odd interview to be done.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 8th 2012.
The very name of Frank Zappa still feels like an enigma, somebody that was never really understood except through his music. When the musician passed on in 1993, the world lost one of its great musical eccentrics, most prodigious, prolific and all round good guys. With more than 60 albums to his name, whether solo recordings or with his band The Mothers of Invention, he had created music that was as diverse and difficult to categorize as any musician alive. The self- taught musician’s taste for the eclectic was marked him out as a true superstar and when he passed on, it seemed that the music may have died with him.