Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Doctor Who: Scavenger. Big Finish Audio Drama Review 184.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Tariq Bhatti, Kate McEwen, Anjli Mohindra, Tania Rodrigues, John Banks.

Space, perhaps the most dangerous place that Humanity’s eyes can ever see and yet the peril, the threat of the black canvas is one in which at some point surely anybody who has ever lived has dreamed about seeing. To take in the whole majesty of the speck of rock we cling to, to dare to take a chance on seeing for ourselves the neglected sphere for all its beauty and destruction, surely that makes space worthwhile.

Doctor Who: Scavenger. Big Finish Audio Drama Review 184. full post

(590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Brood Of Erys. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 183.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Nicola Sian, Tori Hart, Chris Overton, Brian Shelley, Glynn Sweet.

Every child feels the need to eventually pull away from their parent, to make their own mistakes, to discover the world by themselves and place their own very big personal stamp in the dust.

For Flip Jackson and The Doctor materialising in a unknown segment of space to do some routine maintenance work on the Tardis has its repercussions as Flip Jackson learns the hard way that sometimes you should not open the door to the creature at your door, no matter if they look benign and childlike, for the parent will certainly bear down upon you with big teeth.

Doctor Who: The Brood Of Erys. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 183. full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 2. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Ruth Bradley, Alex Macqueen, Chris Porter, David Dobson, John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs, Brian Shelley, Ian Brooker, Adrian Mackinder, Andrew Knott, Joseph Radcliffe, David Silby, Jo Castleton, Ian Hallard, Jacqueline King, Natalie Burt, David Shaw-Parker, Frank Skinner.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 2. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(701 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. One For The Mortuary. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Sam Clemens, Francesca Hunt, Nigel Carrington, Nicholas Briggs, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Derek Carlyle.

The final instalment of the first volume set of stories produced by Big Finish of The Avengers: The Lost Episodes is the first to be taken out of running order from the television series and yet by the powers of great adaption and original story-telling feels naturally at home as a sequel to the preceding audio drama Square Root of Evil.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. One For The Mortuary. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 1. Square Root Of Evil. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Phil Mulryne, Beth Chalmers, Tim Bentinck, Alan Cox, George Rainsford, Kieran Bew, Blake Ritson, Sophie Aldred, Colin Baker.

The murky world of forgery and counterfeit are the next in line to be investigated by John Steed and it gets all a little too close for comfort for him as the net closes in the third of the rejuvenated lost stories of The original Avengers scripts, the Square root of Evil.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 1. Square Root Of Evil. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Blake’s 7: Fractures. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Sally Knyvette, Michael Keating, Jan Chappell, Alistair Lock, Brian Croucher, Bethan Walker.

Nothing quite makes Science Fiction more entertaining than when the cast of your favourite programme have been set a problem which drives at the very psyche, the paranoia of the mind and the suspicion in those that you would normally defend with your life. It has been done so many times on screen and the tension it creates can be one of palpable enjoyment and dread that it might spill over too far. It is about the timing of the paranoia and suspicion and knowing when to pull back, leaving just the trickle of distrust seeping through after all is seemingly resolved.

Blake’s 7: Fractures. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

The Avengers, The Lost Episodes. Brought To Book. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Colin Baker, Adrian Lukis, Tim Bentinck, Alan Cox, Blake Ritson, George Rainsford, Camilla Power, Sophie Aldred, Philip Mulryne, Kieran Bew, Richard Franklin.

With the murder of his fiancé Peggy still haunting him, Doctor David Keel finds himself further embroiled in the plans of the mysterious John Steed and his attempt to bring down the latest in organised crime in London in the second story re-made by Big Finish’s The Avengers: The Lost Episodes.

The Avengers, The Lost Episodes. Brought To Book. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Hot Snow. The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. Volume One. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Camilla Power, Colin Baker, Tim Bentnick, Adrian Lukis, Phil Mulryne, Blake Ritson, Anjella Mackintosh, Kieran Bew, John Banks, Richard Franklin.

Arguably The Avengers was one of I.T.V.’s flagship programmes that for its time possibly rivalled B.B.C.’s Doctor Who for its intrigue and audience adulation. Like the B.B.C. though, the television programme‘s early broadcasts were not as keenly looked after as they should have been.

Hot Snow. The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. Volume One. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles. Counterfeit. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow.

A story that didn’t involve the commanding tones of Gareth Thomas as the Captain of The Liberator, Rog Blake, would seem to be as surprising as leaving out the main character of the television series for virtually all of its final series. Thankfully the people behind Big Finish audio dramas are the best in the business when it comes to getting old favourites to reprise their renowned and celebrated roles and in the episode Counterfeit, audiences once again get the chance to sample the delights of Gareth Thomas as the determined rogue turned freedom fighter in the final story in the box set of Season One of Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles.

Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles. Counterfeit. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(494 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles. Solitary, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Michael Keating, Anthony Howell.

Even amongst a tight band of renegades and misfits there will always be the one outcast who is different enough from the rest to make him a prime target for an introverted and perhaps self-contained lifestyle, even if that person deep down wants to be part of the group that he is associated with.

Blake’s 7: The Liberator Chronicles. Solitary, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)