The Thirteenth Doctor is on her way back as filming for Series 13 of Doctor Who is now underway!
With Jodie Whittaker once again reprising her role as the Doctor, fans can look forward to seeing her on her adventures once again as she fights the good fight across space and time.
Season 13 will be three episodes shorter due to the coronavirus pandemic restricting filming, it has also been confirmed.
Review by Jacob Licklider
“Shadow of the Daleks is an interesting idea for a Doctor Who Big Finish release, at least for the Main Range. Instead of a single release, this is a story arc crossing two releases made up of eight individual episodes from different writers, all with the conceit of the Time War breaking into the life of the Fifth Doctor and a collection of people.”
This is how I opened my review of Shadow of the Daleks 1 last month here at IndieMacUser, and sitting here about a month later having finished Shadow of the Daleks 2, I realised just how apt that description is of these two releases.
Review by Jacob Licklider
The War Master since its inception in 2017, has become one of Big Finish Productions’ most consistent ranges, with three of the four previous sets being released to critical acclaim with only one falling short. The range has been characterised by an exploration of darker themes throughout the Time War, giving Derek Jacobi one of the darkest incarnations of the Master to portray and explore. War is the prominent theme and how war changes people and planets, the hopelessness associated with a war to end all wars such as the Time War, and the atrocities which arise from two societies being pushed to their limit. The audio format is perfect for this type of story as it allows the cast and crew to go as dark as possible, using the power of suggestion to depict such atrocities and the listener’s mind is responsible for the gruesome images, all the while never having to restrict themselves to an adult only audience. These types of stories were best explored by the first, third, and fourth sets, while the fifth sets, Hearts of Darkness, instead decides to focus in on how the war is most effecting the two Time Lords set to survive the Time War, the Doctor, here played by Paul McGann, and, of course, the Master. Keeping the established format of four stories written by two authors, in this case David Llewellyn and Lisa McMullin, telling a linked tale over the four-hour period. Unlike previous sets, Hearts of Darkness employs several plot twists which recontextualises what has come before in the set, making it near impossible to separate each episode from one another. Things change, and like any good story, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Continue reading
Meet the Impossible girl and say goodbye to the Ponds! The Blu-ray steelbook of Doctor Who series 7 will be released Monday 14th December, featuring new and exclusive artwork.
Series 7 is the final full series of adventures with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. This series also said farewell to Amy Pond and Rory Williams, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, and introduced Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman.
Review by Jacob Licklider
The Paternoster Gang as a spin-off has suffered from a bit of an identity crisis through its first three volumes. It doesn’t know if it wants to be a spiritual successor to Jago and Litefoot or a straight out character driven comedy or a serious Victorian drama and examination of Victorian culture. The subtitle of the first four sets being ‘Heritage’ implies the later, but the first two sets don’t really examine the idea of heritage or the theme. 
Review by Ian McArdell
Children of the Stones is a new podcast audio drama, produced by BaffleGab for BBC Radio 4, and based on a story first presented in the 1977 HTV television series, which starred a pre-Blakes’s 7 Gareth Thomas. Famously terrifying, it follows the story of the Brake family, a father and son who move to Milbury; a village famous for its prominent circle of standing stones. This new interpretation, from writers AK Benedict and Guy Adams, comprises ten episodes which vary in length from twelve to twenty-one minutes, and runs to just over two and a half hours. The bones of the tale remain as before; although the writers have shifted a few of the pieces around to suit more modern ears.
Penguin Random House will be publishing Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown, a collection of stories written by Doctor Who writers in response to COVID-19, in aid of BBC Children in Need.
Review by Jacob Licklider
Shadow of the Daleks is an interesting idea for a Doctor Who Big Finish release, at least for the Main Range. Instead of a single release, this is a story arc crossing two releases made up of eight individual episodes from different writers, all with the conceit of the Time War breaking into the life of the Fifth Doctor and a collection of people. This review is of only the first release, as it serves as the October Main Range release, Shadow of the Daleks 1, as the second installment has not been released and the story has not been concluded. As a series of four individual stories that have an overarching narrative, I will be foregoing any sort of format and just talking about what strikes me as this is a very different type of story. Listeners going in should expect that the title Shadow of the Daleks is apt as while the Daleks appear, and Nicholas Briggs is always excellent, they are not the focal point, staying in the literal shadows of each of the four episodes. The implication is that they are fighting the Time War, and possibly dragging earlier Doctors into events in a gambit to win, but as it stands there isn’t much to know of what they are. They are even referred to only as the Enemy in one of the stories which brings back images of the Eighth Doctor Adventures and Virgin New Adventures where the Terry Nation estate did not allow their use in the novels.
This year BBC Children in Need have created some super special Limited Edition Bears in collaboration with some of your favourite TV shows! The Tenth Doctor Who Pudsey as David Tennant is super cute and ready to jump in the TARDIS for adventures!
Review by Michael Goleniewski
On a whirlwind solo trip to see the Seven Hundred Wonders of the Universe, the Eighth Doctor decides to travel to a pleasure planet filled with floating cities, large-scale oceans, and a wondrous statue that’s all the talk of the galaxy. But upon arriving, he finds an inhospitable desert filled with metal debris and a young woman with a peculiar Ood servant, both of whom are injured and seemingly desperate for help. As the group makes their way across the landscape to a battered ramshackle town, a ruthless killer is waiting for the opportunity to make his move. But a bigger problem is hiding behind the scenes that’s about to drag the Doctor headlong into something far nastier…..
Indie Mac User 