Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Sherlock Holmes: The Death And Life. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Roger Llewellyn.

James Moriarty has long been the associated with being the ultimate nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, two sides of a coin, the yin and yang, one a force for peace, the other, the dark blackened contamination that spread its evil and chaos throughout London. Moriarty never showed his full hand until the two men fought at Reichenbach Falls and for a while the avid readers of the great detective’s work and the money men of the Strand magazine felt the shortfall in quality and income.

Sherlock Holmes: The Death And Life. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(564 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Phantoms Of The Deep. Big Finish Audio Play 2.05.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Alice Krige, John Albasiny, Charlie Norfolk, Gwilym Lee.

There are stranger things at work in the universe than humanity could probably ever cope with, especially when the human race doesn’t know what type of creatures can live at the very bottom of the deepest, darkest trenches of the oceans and the secrets they hold.

Doctor Who: Phantoms Of The Deep. Big Finish Audio Play 2.05. full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

UNIT Dominion, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Beth Chalmers, Tracey Childs, Alex McQueen, Julian Dutton, Bradley Gardner, Miranda Keeling, Ben Porter, Sam Clemens, Alex Mallinson, Sophie Aldred, Martin Johnson.

The Doctor in all his incarnations can never be truly trusted…especially when the Doctor is not all he seems to be.

UNIT Dominion, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Roger Llewellyn.

Sherlock Holmes has long since retired and his greatest friend Dr. John Watson has died, quietly and without fuss, the way he always would. Thus begins the last tale of Victorian England’s finest detective, however, as with all great last tales, the memories and the vestige of a story that has captivated millions since Arthur Conan Doyle, is always worth re-telling from the person’s own perspective. So the history of Sherlock Holmes is captured by writer David Stuart Davies and the towering, looming presence of Roger Llewellyn.

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Lady Of Mercia. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 173.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Sarah Sutton, Anthony Howell, Abigail Thaw, Rachel Atkins, Catherine Grose, Kieran Bew, Stephen Critchlow.

Not everything gets recorded in time, somewhere along the line events get muddled, facts get lost in rumour and legend and gaps appear in history. These gaps, although maddening for academics that have to hazard a guess at what could have happened to certain individuals in antiquity are for writers of science fiction and historical dramas pure gold. The journey they can take people on makes for a fascinating story and in Paul Magrs tale of long forgotten Queens of pre-English History, the absorbing The Lady Of Mercia, Big Finish’s Doctor Who series does what the series does best, it gets deep down and dirty in the historical stories of Humankind.

Doctor Who, The Lady Of Mercia. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 173. full post

(544 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Eldrad Must Die! Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 172.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Sarah Sutton, Stephen Thorne, Nancy Carroll, Pip Torrens, Jessica Claire, Brian Protheroe, Mark Field.

It is perhaps fitting that some of the older foes from the classic series of Doctor Who make their way into the Big Finish roster, especially as the parent television programmes gears up for what is fast becoming a very special 50th anniversary but some monsters and villains having been used once during the 70s and 80s should be left where the memory of their time on screen can be quietly and easily forgotten and the relation to the programme left to slivers of reminiscence when the mood descends. Such is the fate of the latest release Eldrad Must Die!

Doctor Who, Eldrad Must Die! Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 172. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Seeds Of War. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish, 171.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford, Ray Fearon, Ony Uhiara, Stuart Organ, Lucy Russell, John Banks, Beth Chalmers, Barnaby Edwards, David Sibley.

In the best traditions of Doctor Who there is a new terrifying enemy for the fans to get to grips with but as with timey-wimey approach to the Doctor’s life, this isn’t the first time he has met The Eminence or his Infinite Warriors as he battles against them in The Seeds of War.

Doctor Who, The Seeds Of War. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish, 171. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Justice of Jalxar. Big Finish Audio Drama, 2.04, Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Trevor Baxter, Christopher Benjamin, Mark Goldthorp, Rosanna Miles, Ben Bishop, Adrian Lukis.

Two of the best loved characters from the classic period of Doctor Who make a stunning return in the canon and manage to lighten the mood in their own superb interminable style in one of the stand out highs so far of Tom Baker’s return to the role he relished in for many years. Jago and Litefoot appeared nearly 40 years ago in the episodes surrounding the mystery of Weng-Chiang and now they return in The Justice of Jalxar.

Doctor Who, The Justice of Jalxar. Big Finish Audio Drama, 2.04, Review. full post

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

Doctor Who, War Against The Laan. Big Finish Audio Play, 2.03. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, David Warner, Hayley Atwell, Jane Slavin, Toby Hadoke, Hugh Fraser, Nicholas Biggs, John Dorney, Beth Chalmers.

With The Lann about to destroy Earth as billions of the species mistake the planet as their own personal birthing pool, the second part of the two part story by Nicholas Briggs takes on one of those great sidesteps and gives fans something else to chew over and digest. Rather than the thought of interplanetary war between two species, the subtext offers something different, something not implemented in the Doctor Who world for a long while.

Doctor Who, War Against The Laan. Big Finish Audio Play, 2.03. Review. full post

(655 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

I, Davros. Audio Review. Big Finish Audio Drama.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Terry Molloy, Nicholas Briggs, Sean Connolly, Rita Davies, Richard Franklin, Richard Grieve, Scott Handcock, Lizzie Hopley, Rory Jennings, Carolyn Jones, Peter Sowerbutts, Jennifer Croxton, Gary Hopkins, Joseph Lidster, James Parsons, Gary Russell, John Stahl, Andrew Wisher, Lucy Beresford, David Bickerstaff, Sean Carlsen, Daniel Hogarth, Katarina Olsson, Lisa Bowerman, Peter Myles, Toby Robinson.

I, Davros. Audio Review. Big Finish Audio Drama. full post

(712 words, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)