Tag Archives: Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who: The Time Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Orla Brady, Peter Capaldi, James Butler, Elizabeth Rider, Sheila Reid, Mark Brighton, Rob Jarvis, Tessa Peake-Jones,  Jack Hollington, Sonita Henry, Kayvan Novak, Tom Gibbons, Aiden Cook, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Ross Mullan, Karen Gillan.

It seems like a bad dream now but there was a time when the absence of Science Fiction from television, especially British Science Fiction tales, was in danger of being seen as antiquated as the thought of Medieval History. Thankfully neither genres and those that love and cherish where we have come from and where we are heading will ever lay down and let the banality of life ever let some television executives get their own way.

Doctor Who: The Time Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(690 words, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Joanna Page, Ingrid Oliver, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Jonjo O’Neill, Orlando James, Aiden Cook, Paul Kasey, Peter de Jersey, Tom Keller, Ankur Sengupta, Tom Baker, Peter Capaldi.

The Day of The Doctor…Thanks to the way the B.B.C. has taken very seriously the notion of the longest running science fiction programme of all time turning 50 years old, it’s been more like several months of snippet here, a smidgen of misinformation there, the release of a rumour, conjecture, assumption and speculation.

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

An Adventure in Space and Time, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Bradley, Jessica Raine, Sacha Dhawan, Brian Cox, Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell, Claudia Grant, Anna-Lisa Drew, Reece Sheersmith, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford,  Sophie Holt, Nicholas Briggs, Sarah Winter, Jeff Rawle, Andrew Woodall, Ian Hallard, David Annen, Sam Hoare, Mark Eden, Lesley Manville, Cara Jenkins, Reece Pockney, Charlie Kemp, Roger May.

An Adventure in Space and Time, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(908 words, estimated 3:38 mins reading time)

Solitaire, Companion Chronicles. Audio Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: India Fisher, David Ballie.

Of all the companions to have stepped foot inside the Tardis, arguably one of the most much loved is Charlotte Elspeth Pollard. Having travelled with Paul McGann’s eighth Doctor incarnation from their first meeting in the excellent Storm Warning, through adventures such as Invaders From Mars, the sublime The Chimes of Midnight and to the fitting finale with her time with eighth Doctor The Girl Who Never Was, fans of Big Finish recognised something in her make-up, the way she handled herself when times were grave that placed her with the likes of Jamie, Tegan and Sarah Jane in terms of most admired and valued companions.

Solitaire, Companion Chronicles. Audio Review. Big Finish. full post

(575 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Light At The End. Big Finish Audio Drama.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Louise Jameson, Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant, Sophie Aldred, India Fisher, Geoffrey Beevers, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Frazer Hines, Peter Purves, Maureen O’Brien, Jean Marsh, Anneka Wills, Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Benedict Briggs, Nicholas Briggs, Oliver Hume, John Dorney.

Doctor Who: The Light At The End. Big Finish Audio Drama. full post

(830 words, estimated 3:19 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Daleks Among Us, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 177.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Terry Malloy, Jonathan Forbes, Nicholas Briggs, Tim Delap, Jessica Brooks, Paul Chandi.

There is only one way to perhaps to finish off what has been an absorbing trilogy involving one of the best female additions to the Doctor Who audio range, a machine so powerful that even in the Doctor’s hands can cause the listener anxiety issues and a fine quirky new companion straight from U.N.I.T.  and that’s by having the revulsion of the Doctor’s most hated enemy make an appearance alongside their creator. If all that can happen in one great story then what hope is there for others following after.

Doctor Who: Daleks Among Us, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 177. full post

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

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07.

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.

If for nothing else, and to be fair there is a lot of emotion running through this last episode of Tom Baker’s second series for Big Finish. For fans of the classic series of Doctor Who, the final moments and words of May Tamm as the compelling Lady Romana as she admits to want to carry on travelling with The Doctor in the Tardis and keep an eye on him are filled with a deep and lasting regret as this would be the last the devotees and story addicts will ever get to hear new and well-polished expressions by one of the finest actors to step on board the Tardis.

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 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)

Sherlock Holmes: Holmes And The Ripper. Audio Drama, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nicholas Briggs, Richard Earl, India Fisher, Sheryl Gannaway, Lex Shrapnel, Samuel Clemens, Matt Addis, Ian Brooker, Beth Chalmers, David Peart, John Banks,

The now familiar sound of a mournful violin playing draws in the listener to the story Holmes and The Ripper, what keeps them there is the unvarnished excellence that audio drama company Big Finish and writer Brian Clemens bring to one of the darkest periods of East End London and how they imagine Sherlock Holmes, portrayed by one of the main men at Big Finish in Nicholas Briggs, would have been coaxed into solving the murder.

Sherlock Holmes: Holmes And The Ripper. Audio Drama, Big Finish. full post

(613 words, estimated 2:27 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)