Tag Archives: Doctor Who

Doctor Who, Energy Of The Daleks. Big Finish Audio Play 1.04. Audio Drama Review.

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.

Doctor Who, Wirrn Isle. Big Finish 158. Audio Drama Review.

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.

Doctor Who, The Wrath of the Iceni. Big Finish Audio Play. 1. 03. Audio Drama Review.

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.

Doctor Who, The Renaissance Man. Big Finish Audio Play. 1.02. Audio Drama Review.

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.

Doctor Who, Destination: Nerva. Big Finish Audio Play 1.01. Audio Drama Review.

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.

Doctor Who, Asylum Of The Daleks. B.B.C. Television Review.

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.

Doctor Who: Time War -Volume Three. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Rakhee Thakrar, Michael Jayston, Nicholas Briggs, Adèle Anderson, Wendy Craig, Andrew Fettes, Raj Ghatak, Natalie Gumede, Anjli Mohindra, Jamie Newall, Jude Owusu, John Scougall, Venice Van Someren, Nina Wadia, Tracey Wiles.

If ever there was an arc of stories that deserved to be told for television within the Doctor Who universe, then The Time War would surely be the set that the fandom would overwhelmingly clamour, would petition in their droves to have given precedence over all others.

Doctor Who: Redacted. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Charlie Craggs, Lois Chimimba, Holly Quin-Ankrah, Jodie Whittaker, Anji Mohindra, Jacon Hawley, Siena Kelly, Kieran Hodgson, Juno Dawson, Clare Perkins, Sarah Thom, Findlay Robertson, Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver, Doon Mackichan, Natasha Hodgson, Pip Gladwin, Karim Kronfli, Ken Chang, Alasdair Beckett-King, Ambika Mod.

The extremeness of erasing a life from existence is not as simple as it may seem. For all the people, rightly or wrongly ‘cancelled’ by society because of ill-thought, of a perceived tone of voice when explaining a situation, or because deep down we find their presence to not agree with our judgement of society, the way some have come to believe that a 1984 like world can exist if we scour away all those that defy our perception and image we wish to project.

Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, John Bishop, Simon Carew, Crystal Yu, Marlowe Chan-Reeves, Arthur Lee, Nadia Albina, Jon Davey, Chester Durrant, Craige Els, Mickey Lewis, David Tse.

Nobody ever wants a disappointing end, but in life arguably we must make the most of the final reflection offered us, and whilst we may prefer a reward before the last gasp adventure, quite often it is sadness, perhaps melancholy, and certainly the unavoidable grief that haunts our last and most private thoughts.

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: India Fisher, Paul McGann, Rakia Ayola, John Banks, Shiloh Coke, Mark Elstob, Chris Jarman, Lara Lemon, Michelle Livingstone, Yasmin Mwanza, Cyril Nri, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Theo Solomon. Andrew James Spooner.

For the majority who don’t delve deep into the mythos and background of Doctor Who, the name Charley Pollard is possibly a whispered name only vaguely caught as reference when Paul McGann’s incarnation of the man in the blue box from Gallifrey lamented those he had lost along the way as he faced the unknown in a forced regeneration as the Time War raged, as the War Doctor waited in the shadows.