Review by Cavan Gilbey

Spoiler Warning!!! Review contains spoilers of The Union!!!

Big Finish’s diamond anniversary has finally come to an end, except for the coda story next year but I don’t think anyone is going to count that as a true end to the narrative. It has been a bumpy ride across these seven episodes, with wildly varying quality on show with some scripts such as The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 or Genius For War being quite good hour long excursions and other’s (looking at you Two’s Company) being the exact opposite. The plot threads, well those that have been half built up anyway, finally come to their conclusion here in The Union and Matt Fitton has done a brilliant job. Possibly bringing us the strongest story of the run so far, although that might because it is one of the few that feels like a full story with a beginning, middle and end as opposed to just a beginning and middle.

Our main Doctor here is a shared duty between McGann and Baker (Tom that is), which sort of makes sense for the finale given it’s the Doctor who Big Finish defined and the Doctor who is seen by many as the poster child for the franchise. Both actors are firing on all cylinders, with the Baker especially doing some brilliant work when getting play a warmer version of his character in the shared scenes with Susan. McGann does a great job at playing a Doctor who is finally feeling the weariness caused by the degeneration, always giving a sense that he is working through the pain perfectly. The rest of our cast also lend themselves to this finale really nicely, with Carole Ann Ford and Alex Kingston having shockingly good chemistry in the scenes they share which I would have never had anticipated.  The older, yet still quite naïve, Susan is played great by Ford and serves as a strong contrast with the flirty and boisterous River that Kingston brings to the story.

However, the real scene stealer in Maureen O’Brien as the eponymous ‘The Union’, a future incarnation of the popular Big Finish baddie The Eleven who desires to suppress their previous personalities in order to become complete. O’Brien is clearly relishing the chance to play a cackling villain and she hits the sinister notes with a gleeful high camp which makes her feel like some of the best villains in the classic series. The Union’s plan is a bit of a stock one however, and there were points where clearly Fitton was fighting for time between telling The Union’s story and wrapping up the Doctor’s degenerative arc. I think had The Union maybe been introduced to us gradually across each episode, maybe her plan might feel more impactful to me.

The whole story is a bit of a classic runaround, but it honestly works quite well here since it is more focused on the character stakes and relationships, especially the Doctor’s relationship with themselves which comes out brilliantly during a scene where is revealed we have been following the War Doctor this whole time. It’s a great monologue from Fitton, and as many Doctors he could get a hold of at the time, about how proud the Doctor is to be who they are and how they at peace with regeneration and celebrate change and difference. It’s a brilliant way of celebrating the show’s love of the unique, giving the Doctor a chance to soliloquise on just why their show has persisted for so long. 

Overall, The Union is a brilliant finale for a series that I’ve found mostly middling if I’m being brutally honest. It almost makes up for many of the previous stories being bland and forgettable. With a fun pairing of Doctors and companions, strong explorations of what the show means to us and the people who make it, plus a powerhouse villain performance The Union is as good a finale we could have asked for.

8/10

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Review: Doctor Who – Once And Future – Two’s Company

Review: Doctor Who- Once and Future – A Genius For War

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