Tag Archives: Doctor Who

Doctor Who: The Evil One. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Keating, Gareth Armstrong, Nicholas Briggs.

If everything you knew about your life turned out to be a lie, how would you feel? If you had found out that all you held dear about yourself, the untold truths, the minutest detail of your very existence an elaborate lie placed in your mind by a master hypnotist who had somehow conveniently not reversed the flow of information to you and in doing so had turned you into a being so malevolent, would it be better to find out the truth?

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

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Dalek Contract. Big Finish Audio Play 2.06.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Dominic Mafham, Jane Slavin, Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney.

It is rightly considered one of the classic moments of Doctor Who ever; faced with the opportunity to eradicate the evil of The Daleks forever, Tom Baker’s incarnation of the man from Gallifrey chose to set them back 1,000 years in their evolution rather than commit genocide of the most hated race and feared in the universe.

Doctor Who: The Dalek Contract. Big Finish Audio Play 2.06. full post

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

Jago And Litefoot, The Spirit Trap. Series One, Big Finish. Audio Play.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Lisa Bowerman, Janet Henfrey, Lex Shrapnel, John Ainsworth.

The third instalment of Jago and Litefoot’s adventures in the dark world that shrouds the Victorian era takes a spiritual turn in the Jonathan Morris’ The Spirit Trap.

This penultimate story of Series One sees a slightly reduced cast from the previous two episodes tackle the Victorian world of spiritualism that has been captured in everything from romance, crime, even Victorian Lesbian drama and whilst not hitting the heights of the opening couple of tales in which Gordon Henry Jago and Professor George Litefoot have become institutions to the world of Doctor Who, is an interesting take on the field and one that is enjoyable and worth being involved in the initial series.

Jago And Litefoot, The Spirit Trap. Series One, Big Finish. Audio Play. full post

(438 words, estimated 1:45 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, Nightmare In Silver. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Warwick Davis, Tazmin Outhwaite, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Jason Watkins, Eloise Joseph, Will Merrick, Clavin Dean, Zahra Ahmadi, Aiden Cook, Nicolas Briggs.

The Doctor is never better when he is the only lunatic in the room, the mad man completely outside of his box fighting against himself, for there really can be no victor, the Timelord is not triumphant and in the penultimate episode of the series, Nightmare in Silver, that rage that he keeps well hidden is finally able to come out and play for a while.

Doctor Who, Nightmare In Silver. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling, Neve McIntosh, Cartrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Brendan Patricks, Graham Turner, Olivia Vinall, Michelle Tate, Scott Stevenson, Jack Oliver Hudson.

The Crimson Horror, the type of tale that would make readers of Victorian melodrama and penny dreadful salivates with the expectation of a reader enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the first time, transpose this expectation to the type of Doctor Who-lite story, add a splash of immense acting royalty from Dame Diana Rigg and her superb daughter, the incredible Rachael Stirling and it becomes not just Doctor-lite but extra-lite, no additives, no fat, just a wonderful story that was edging on the macabre  that writer Mark Gatiss obviously enjoys.

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis. Television Review. B.B.C.1.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jahvel Hall, Ashley Walters, Mark Oliver, Sarah Louise, Madison, Ruari Mears, Paul Kasey.

To follow up one of the classic stories of Doctor Who with something even better could never really happen but to come close, to get within a Tardis’ heartbeat of achieving that is still pretty special. Stephen Thompson made Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis have one big impression, one vital piece of the puzzle that had been hiding in plain sight come alive by doing something that no other writer had dared to do and that was to make the Doctor’s home the absolute star of the show.

Doctor Who, Journey To The Centre Of The Tardis. Television Review. B.B.C.1. full post

(505 words, estimated 2:01 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, Hide. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jessica Raines, Dougray Scott, Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Aiden Cook.

An old haunted house, an empathic psychic, an old war hero dealing with his own distracting memories and a girl whose life remains a mystery…has Stephen Moffat been peeking at the Doctor Who fan’s Christmas list?

Doctor Who, Hide. Television Review. full post

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

Doctor Who, Cold War. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Liam Cunningham, David Warner, Tobias Menzies, Josh O’Connor James Norton, Charlie Anson, Spencer Wilding, Nicholas Briggs.

 

Mark Gatiss must adore being part of the Doctor Who team. His occasional forays into the writing world of Britain’s longest running science fiction programme employs some of the best characters, some of the highest tension and most of all the dipping of his toe into his beloved horror genre, even if it pays homage with some of the best lines available.

Doctor Who, Cold War. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)