On Doctor Who Day, The BBC has given us a first look at this years Doctor Who christmas special titled ‘Joy To The World‘.
“There’s always a door like that in a hotel room, a funny locked one…”
TV
Classic ‘Doctor Who’ story to air at Christmas in brand new colourisation
Classic Doctor Who story ‘The War Games’ starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor is to receive a spectacular new colourisation. The new version will air on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer on 23rd December 2024…just in time for Christmas.
Review: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield – The Eternity Club 1
Review by Jacob Licklider
The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield are entering a new era after the passing of the late great David Warner who was co-lead five of the seven volumes in the range. Despite still being advertised as a Doctor Who range, The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield are going back to having Benny on her own, though with several Doctor Who aliens featuring in the range to keep it connected. The premise of this eighth series is The Eternity Club, one of those series that was clearly thought up as a four disc box set and split into four single releases, though this is slightly easier as The Eternity Club is presented as eight, half hour adventures from different writers. The tone is also considerably different from what has come before, both adventures in this first installment in The Eternity Club are considerably light affairs, playing heavy on the comedy and pastiche elements. The main pastiche is the premise being a Victorian style gentlemen’s club at the edge of the galaxy which is allowing Bernice Summerfield entrance, though her inability to pay member’s fees means that she is being put into the role of a servant for the other members of the club. The club itself is made up of Doctor Who aliens with an association with war, most notably Sontarans, Draconians, and Drahvins. This feels like an idea that later releases are going to play around with more, the second story of this release hints at it with the Drahvins, but it feels like an idea that hasn’t quite been explored. James Goss is at the writing helm for this release and it’s especially interesting to listen to this after Goss’ previous work with Benny. Goss as a writer isn’t always one that I would associate with comedy, but the style here is a more laid back, observational humor about the culture of gentlemen’s clubs with the second half wishing to examine the place of gender roles in the universe for much of the comedy. The directorial duties fall to David O’Mahony who provides a new touch to the series, his style also quite working with the comedy.
Review: The War Doctor Rises – Morbius the Mighty
Review by Cavan Gilbey
Now I like The Brain of Morbius quite a bit, as I imagine many fans do, but I have never quite understood the frequent clamouring for the eponymous villainous Time Lord to return. He’s a great presence in that debut serial because he was a brain in a jar, seemingly punished by the people of Gallifrey with great anger and viciousness thus leaving him reduced to such a state. His appeal stems from this great mystery about who he really was before becoming a Futurama celebrity head-in-a-jar, putting him back in a humanoid body just makes him essentially another Master or Omega really. Now Big Finish have brought back the character a couple of times, most recently with the Dark Gallifrey stuff giving him a whole three dedicated episodes; which I haven’t heard. But bringing him to the Time War offers up a potentially interesting set of interpretations of what you can do with him; is he a resurrected weapon, a manipulative background player or even a Dalek sympathiser?
After having heard Morbius the Mighty, the latest entry in the War Doctor saga and penned by Tim Foley, I’m not entirely sure of why this story needed to have him as a villain.
Review: Doctor Who – The Trials of a Time Lord
Review by Cavan Gilbey
Earlier this year we saw the release of The Quin Dilemma, a story which celebrates the rich audio history of Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor. Now it’s the turn of Season 22 and 23 to get a homage with The Trials of a Time Lord, a fortieth anniversary celebration penned by the team of Rochana Patel (episodes 1 and 2), Katherine Armitage (episodes 3 and 4) and Stewart Pringle (episodes 5 and 6). Now for context, Season 22 and 23 are among two of my favourites from the classic era of the show so I naturally had a lot of expectations for this story to be a proper celebration of that era. Did it deliver? Yes, and then some!
Review: Torchwood – Endgame
Review by Cavan Gilbey
It’s been a while since we last saw Toshiko Sato in a Torchwood release, with Naoko Mori last appearing in 2022’s SUV. But we return to one of the more underrepresented members of the classic team with Endgame, which appears like your typical Tosh story on the surface; we’ve got a tech based threat and a cast of characters who spend most of the runtime slightly underestimating her. Now the Tosh audios are a specific strain of stories that I do follow fairly closely, so I’ve usually got relatively high expectations when it comes to stories featuring her. Suckers, Cascade and Instant Karma all show just how interesting she can be when written well, and Endgame makes for a pretty interesting entry in the Tosh line-up.
Firstly I think first time writer for the range Tom Black has a brilliant grasp on the types of threat that feel natural for this series; a simulation of world threatening and extreme situations which goes awry because of mankind’s fatal hubristic flaws. It feels like the perfect story idea for a one hour audio, and Black’s small cast and sense of entrapment really makes the concept come alive. His focus on governmental bickering and inability for arms of state to actually work together for the betterment of innocent civilians feels pretty well chosen given current events, and Tosh fits really nicely in this story as we get to see how her ability to lead and manage a situation are shut down by people who simply believe that their rank gives them rights over others.
However I do think that Tosh is slightly underserved by the story itself, she doesn’t really get to do much until the end when the numbers of participants in the ‘simulation’ have been thinned out a bit. Naoko Mori continues to put in a great performance as the character, oozing professionalism and a strong sense of duty but the story doesn’t quite give her the opportunity to show that off until the final sequence of the episode.
The character that I ended up getting most interested in was Gerard Marsh, as played by Ed White. The supposed creator of the simulation who gets to slowly seem more and more sinister as the plot goes on, with Black writing in some good red herrings surrounding Marsh’s true motivations and morality. White does a good job at playing a dark reflection of Tosh and what she could very easily be had she abandoned her sense of good and justice.
Endgame partially feels like they just needed to get a new Tosh story out but I’m not going to complain about that because it’s generally a good little morality piece. Tom Black sets himself up for being a particularly strong new entrant to the series and I eagerly await to here what he writes next.
8/10
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Review: Torchwood – Art Decadence
Review: Torchwood – The Restoration of Catherine
Check out the rest of our Big Finish reviews!
First look at ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off ‘The War Between The Land And The Sea’ cast
The BBC has released a first look at the cast of The War Between The Land And The Sea, Ruth Madeley and Colin McFarlane return to the Whoniverse alongside the previously announced Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jemma Redgrave, and Alexander Devrient, in photos from a table read that were released today.
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Review: Doctor Who – Deathworld
Review by Cavan Gilbey
The Three Doctors is a beloved story from one of Pertwee’s most popular seasons, debatably one of the most popular seasons for the classic in general; it’s certainly one of mine. As much as I love Season 10, I had never really read any of the production history behind the season, so it was something of a surprise to discover this alternate take on that iconic first multi-Doctor story. Deathworld, originally penned by Bob Baker and Dave Martin and adapted for this new audio release by John Dorney. If you expected this to resemble to that original TV serial then think again, because this is a very different beast. I’m not entirely sure if this the equivalent of fandom sacrilege but this is way more interesting than The Three Doctors for me, although it is so clearly un-filmable on the 70s era budget.
Review: Doctor Who – Operation Werewolf
Review by Cavan Gilbey
It’s been a while since we’ve had a dedicated Second Doctor Lost Stories release, I’ve been waiting for one ever since Lords of the Red Planet came out. Sure we had the Early Adventures with brand new stories for this era, but fans knew there was still plenty of untapped potential in those unmade script. One of the most popular amongst fans was Operation Werewolf, a pseudo-historical proposed by Douglas Camfield and Robert Kitts set in the tense period before D-Day and seeing the Doctor attempting to stop a sinister Nazi experiment which could change the course of history. It’s a narrative which I am surprised the show has never really done all that much, with some exceptions. But it was down to fan-favourite writer Jonathan Morris and the recent but reliable director David O’Mahony to bring this story to life over the span of six episodes. Did they succeed? Well this story is my favourite Second Doctor release from Big Finish so I feel that must account for something.
New Whoniverse Spin-Off announced at San Diego Comic-Con
Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw lead the cast of new Doctor Who spin-off series for the BBC and Disney+, alongside Doctor Who alumni Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient.
Today (Friday 26th July) the BBC and Disney Branded Television jointly announce their first brand new Doctor Who spin-off titled The War Between Land and Sea, during San Diego Comic-Con.
Indie Mac User 