Big Finish – Doctor Who Short Trips: The Blame Game/Damascus

Review by Kenton Hall (Director of ‘A Dozen Summers‘ featuring Colin Baker)


Big Finish, as regular listeners will have no doubt noticed; offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to providing new Doctor Who stories from across the history of the programme. With numerous Doctors and Companions taking part in full cast stories; however, some of the other narrated ranges can; occasionally I fear, get lost in the shuffle.

The Short Trips range is a case in point. I hope I’m wrong and that these marvellous short stories, enthusiastically performed by a range of wonderful actors are taken to the bosom of fans everywhere. And then removed from their bosoms and put in their ears, because that makes more sense. Continue reading

Big Finish Review: Doctor Who – Maker of Demons

Review by Doctor Squee (Host of Gallifrey Stands Podcast)


I could almost feel like when Matthew J Elliott wrote ‘Makers of Demons’ that he had read my review of ‘Fiesta of the Damned’. I am not enough of an ego-maniac to think so (and he wouldn’t have had enough time) but it’s like he missed any of the pitfalls I found in ‘Fiesta’ to deliver a wonderful story (with due respect to the fore mentioned story!)

The story is straight-forward and engaging. The Doctor and Mel have been to the planet Prosper to settle some humans in with the locals (the Mogera) and negotiate a treaty to make this possible. Leaving behind a new and sustainable energy source ‘Doctorium’ (discovered and named by guess who!). Years later The Doctor, Mel & Ace return to the planet; but the peace has been shattered and the Mogera have been transformed into monsters, seemingly by Doctorium; but as you might guess there is more to this than meets the eyes.

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Big Finish – Doctor Who: The Chimes of Midnight Limited Vinyl Edition

Review by Doctor Squee (Host of Gallifrey Stands Podcast)


When Big Finish first got the rights to add the 8th Doctor to their line-up it was such an exciting moment. At the time we only had one TV outing for this Doctor and a few books. Yes, the first adventure sets a tone for a Doctor but there was still so much to know about him. So once we were getting 8th Doctor audio’s what would they do with him? Some of these first audio’s seemed to lean into the suggested psychic powers from the TV movie; others tended more toward a sense of mystery, but the best included a heavy sense of wonder and excitement to them and an adventuring spirit buoyed on by his new companion Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Pollard (Edwardian Adventurer).

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Big Finish – Doctor Who Early Adventures 3.1: THE AGE OF ENDURANCE

Review by Doctor Squee (Host of Gallifrey Stands Podcast)


As this is my first review of an ‘early adventure’; I’ll talk briefly about this range.

It’s been really good to see classic doctors revived and companions brought back in the ‘early adventures’. There were some really nice companion chronicles, but Big Finish doing full cast audio adventures have slightly ruined me for narration when we can hear a story with a full cast acting it out. These early adventures are mostly acted out with a full cast, with occasional narration to set the scene. The companions like Frazer Hines as the Second Doctor and William Russell as the First do such a good job you feel like they are there and I’m really glad they made the brave decision to do early Doctors replacing the actors we miss so much.

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Big Finish: Phillip Hinchcliffe Presents Doctor Who – The Genesis Chamber

Review by Doctor Squee (Host of Gallifrey Stands Podcast)


Phillip Hinchcliffe had a lot to live up to from his much esteemed producing of Doctor Who when he re-joined Tom Baker for the Big Finish adventures. With his first couple of adventures he more than delivered; as he does with The Genesis Chamber.

Set at a human colony where half the people live inside a domed city and procreate using a genesis chamber and the other half live outside in the wild in a tribe and do their procreating the old fashioned way. At the start the Doctor and Leela meet up with some joy riding nobles from the domed city; who crash land in the tribe and from then on nothing will be the same for either of the peoples on the planet again.

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BBC releasing lost Doctor Who story ‘The Power of the Daleks’ in animated form

BBC Worldwide has announced it will be realising the lost 1966 Doctor Who story ‘The Power of the Daleks’ in a brand new black and white animation based on the programme’s original audio recordings, surviving photographs and film clips will be released 50 years to the day after its only UK broadcast on BBC One. The episoses featured second doctor Patrick Troughton taking over from William Hartnell in the first ever Time Lord regeneration as the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.thedoctor-57cec739

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Filming wraps on Doctor Who spin-off ‘Class’

After 4 months in production, it’s the last week of term as filming wraps on BBC Three’s brand new Doctor Who Spin-off series, Class. 

Class is being released this Autumn on BBC Three (Via iPlayer and BBC website).

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Bafta Cymru Awards – 2016 Nominations announced.


The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in Wales, BAFTA Cymru, has announced today the nominations for the British Academy Cymru Awards. Continue reading

Big Finish Review: Fiesta of the Damned

Review by Doctor Squee (Host of Gallifrey Stands Podcast)


It’s really nice to still see a story come up in any part of the Doctor Who world that is based on real historical events and especially when it’s a part of history that is maybe less well used in modern fiction.

Now when you are dealing with a history based episode you have a few choices. You can go for a straight telling of the events and get the Doctor and companions mixed up in established events, like classic DW story ‘The Romans’. You can create a secret threat to history that the Doctor must defeat to save the timeline a-la ‘The Unquiet Dead’. Or you can add in a supernatural element that the writer makes part of the original events as they did in the ‘Fires of Pompeii’. This story tries to have its cake and eat it too on this front.978-1-78178-891-2

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Adric Returns to Big Finish !!!!

The TARDIS returns to 1982 as three companions join the Fifth Doctor for new stories brought to you by Big Finish !!!!!

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As first revealed in this week’s brand new Doctor Who Magazine, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) is back with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) for three more main range Doctor Who adventures!


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