Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Doctor Who: The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Kate Bracen, Mark Bonnar, Peter Barrett, John Dorney, Anjella Mackintosh.

The key is information, how we translate the data supplied is down to the individual and how it is acted upon could arguably seen as a form of control. Information and secrets, the ingredients to winning a war, without either in your arsenal the battle is surely lost and as the Doctor prepares to fight a foe who makes much of how information is gathered, then the web he finds himself in under the foundations of Buda’s grand castle is enough to bite deep into the resolve of unravelling the facts of The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle.

Doctor Who: The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Planet Of The Rani. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Miranda Raison, Siobhan Redmond, James Joyce, Olivia Poulet, Dominic Thorburn, Tim Bentinck, Chris Porter.

There are characters so underused within the whole of the Doctor Who world that when they come along in a story that is just right for them, the heart feels the pressure of sadness that they have been ignored for so long. The Rani, one of the great members of The Doctor’s own celestial race, is one such character and whilst she has appeared on television, portrayed by the wonderful and much missed Kate O’ Mara, the link between the screen and Big Finish audio has perhaps been short, even if it has been sweet.

Doctor Who: Planet Of The Rani. Audio Drama Review. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Black Hole. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Rufus Hound, Janet Dibley, Anthony Keetch, David Warner.

It is the forgotten stories that matter, the ones that were never captured on screen but ones that a modern writer can bring to the fan and the join is invisible and superb. It is in that Doctor Who: The Black Hole really makes a valuable impression on the listener.

Doctor Who: The Black Hole. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(398 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 1, The Satanic Mill. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Mark Bonnar, Matthew Cottle, Ewan Bailey.

And did those feet in ancient times…take on all the evil and trickery thrown at humanity and try to save the people of Earth or did they run? The Doctor never runs unless he has to, unless there is a specific reason and as he enters the end game against the terrifying Timelord known as The Eleven, the thought of running would not have been held against him or his two companions Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair; for in the darkness of The Satanic Mill no light truly shines in hope.

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 1, The Satanic Mill. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Doctor Who: Doom Coalition. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Mark Bonnar, John Woodville, Esther Hall, Harry Myers, Gunnar Cauthery, Lizzie Mounter, Ewan Bailey, John Banks.

The trouble with time travel for the novice is that it can lead to the most peculiar syndrome of just aimlessly walking about and staring at things as if they had come from another planet, let alone another period in time.

Doctor Who: Doctor Who: Doom Coalition. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(370 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition, The Red Lady. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Caroline Langrishe, David Yelland, John Voce.

Sometimes all a Timelord needs in life is a little mystery, a little horror to stir their blood. It is what makes life that little more spark filled, a little more intriguing and whilst it is only a handful of Timelords hold fast to this ethos, for the everyday, for the ordinary person, it is a staple of life that makes the heart race and pump faster, it is the human factor that makes life so sweet.

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition, The Red Lady. Audio Drama Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition, The Eleven. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Mark Bonnar, Robert Bathhurst, Caroline Langrishe, Bethan Walker, Ramon Tikaram, John Banks, Sylvester McCoy.

Everybody is susceptible to the crowded thoughts that linger in the mind, after all the brain is a curious mystery, an enigma that is hard enough for one soul to carry across their natural lifespan, let alone a being to whom eleven would be enough to drive even the very best of us completely and utterly mad.

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition, The Eleven. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Warehouse. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Philip Franks, Dillie Keane, Clare Buckfield, Barry McCarthy, Anna Bentinck, Barnaby Edwards.

Shopping is so engrained into the modern human condition that at times it’s possible to believe that we are the products on display. What is actually being bought is not the plastic container with the animal testing free stamp on the side and the various liquids containing soap, shampoo or washing up liquid or even the multi choice boxes of cereal which promise a great start to the day, but us, each and every one of us. We are poked in our brains, defined by what we look at and ultimately put in our baskets, we are the great shopping experiment and there is no let up with the sale.

Doctor Who: The Warehouse. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: We Are The Daleks. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Nicholas Briggs, Kirsty Bestermamn, Angus Wright, Mary Conlon, Robbie Stevens, Ashley Zhangazha, Lizzie Roper, Dominic Thornburn.

Every human on Earth has the capacity to become something they detest, something that lingers in the dark realms and festers, seething with hatred, jealousy, rage and revulsion, a creature to whom the simple pleasures enjoyed by others become something of ridicule because they are not like us. This trait is something we overpower every day, something we must steer away from lest the terrifying notion of Fascism looks up and sees an opening in the crack and crawls like a demented pregnant Black Widow Spider, one filled with insanity and corrupted thought into the lives of everyone it touches. It is the Dalek that lingers in us all and appears without hesitation if pushed.

Doctor Who: We Are The Daleks. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Frazer Hines, Michael Cochrane, Veronica Roberts, Bernard Holley, Nicholas Briggs.

The name Telos is enough to have long term fans of Doctor Who reaching for the nearest bottle of glee and asking their friends and neighbours to pour it all over them without hesitation or complaint. Telos, the stuff of legends, it’s up there with Mondas and St. Paul’s Cathedral in terms of iconic homes for the Cybermen.

Revisiting Telos though is problematic for The Doctor, for a start getting in the way of a previous incarnation is always going to stir up agitation.

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)