The sixth and final volume of Big Finish’s The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles concludes the run of Series 7V, bringing the epic 14-part story arc to an explosive climax with peak storytelling and Daleks galore! Yes, we finally have the long-awaited showdown between the Eleventh Doctor (voiced by Jacob Dudman) and the multicoloured New Dalek Paradigm. Victory of the Doctor, as a boxset, couldn’t be a better way to give Valarie Lockwood (Safiyya Ingar) an emotional, tearjerking farewell.

When Series 5’s Victory of the Daleks first aired, back in 2010, I wasn’t completely sold on the New Paradigm Daleks — not just the multicoloured designs, but also the direction the episode took by having them unnecessarily exterminate the ones they deemed “inferior.” As I’ve been saying for years, even before returning in the Series 7 opener Asylum of the Daleks, they could’ve just used them as backup. And Big Finish has finally answered my prayers.

(This review contains spoilers for the previous boxsets – Geronimo!, All of Time and Space, and Everywhere and Anywhere – and Broken Hearts. And don’t tell River Song that I’ve been peeking through her diary!)

The boxset opens with Didn’t You Kill My Mother?, by John Dorney, which involves Valarie in a legal battle with Arabella Hendricks (Lara Lemon), while the Doctor acts as an arbiter alongside his colleague, Tim (Homer Todiwala). An experimental four-hander, almost like a stage play, dealing with the events of The Inheritance (from Geronimo!) that culminated in the death of Valarie’s mother Patricia, the script keeps you thrilled with suspense as everything unravels. And with a few references to the Ellery Quest novels from All of Time and Space (i.e. the episode), the performances and worldbuilding brilliantly set up what’s soon to come.

We then return to Medrüth in Daleks Victorious, with the planet being invaded by the titular pepperpots. It has vibes of the Series 4 finale, The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, bringing back various characters including Roanna (Mia Tomlinson), Hayden Lockwood (Christopher Ragland), Hoster (David Dobson), and the panther-like Yearn creatures (Samuel Clemens, who also voices Darthan in this episode). But more importantly, the New Dalek Paradigm make their Big Finish debut with Nicholas Briggs marvellously modulating their distinctive voices, to differentiate between the individual ranks and colour codes.

After writing The Galois Group (Short Trips Volume 12), which takes place between All of Time and Space and The Yearn, Felicia Barker has received an opportunity to “ELEVATE!” Series 7V to a whole new level. Her script does the New Paradigm Daleks proper justice by making them increasingly threatening and unpredictable, with the Doctor cleverly identifying their colours in the most hilarious way possible; orange-flavoured Smarties and Colonel White spring to mind (lovely childhood references!). And the Time Lord himself getting interrogated by his iconic enemies… pretty grim.

The emotional character-driven subplots and performances, plus Valarie and Roanna’s romantic relationship, also deserve a shoutout, as they make further progression on the overarching narrative with plenty of callbacks to previous episodes. But everything takes a drastic turn during one of the most dramatic cliffhangers ever done by Big Finish, as well as the darkest in the entirety of Series 7V. It was so terrifying, I shivered with goosebumps as I heard it for the first time. You will be completely shocked to the core.

And here we are with the de facto two-part finale, The Last Stand of Miss Valarie Lockwood and Victory of the Doctor (which aptly shares the same title as the boxset), both written by producer Alfie Shaw – who also has a cameo as the Robo-Priest. That’s how I personally perceive it, in contrast to Alfie describing them with Daleks Victorious as a three-parter of sorts in Who Review’s preview.

“They’re three quite distinct episodes, but they do all flow into one another.”

I love that it’s left open to interpretation, just like with Series 9’s Face the Raven preceding Heaven Sent/Hell Bent; a prelude leading directly into a two-parter, or three connected episodes forming a loose trilogy.

Although I won’t spoil anything about the plots for both halves, they really resolve various lingering questions throughout the overarching narrative in a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey fashion — thoroughly developed from start to finish, with emotional beats and underlying themes that bring Valarie’s journey to an end, as well as Dudman’s final appearance as the Eleventh Doctor. And it was definitely the right decision to expand the boxset to four episodes, by allowing everything to be wrapped up in two whole hours; otherwise, it would’ve been too rushed with just three episodes – like how The Wedding of River Song and The Name of the Doctor unfortunately weren’t split into two parts, in contrast to the Series 5 finale, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang.

Everything about the multicoloured New Paradigm Daleks, in this boxset, couldn’t satisfy me enough. Far superior than their original TV appearances in Victory and Asylum, allowing the Strategist (blue), Scientist (orange), and Eternal (yellow), in particular, to have more prominence. Same goes for the return of the Dalek mutant Prime Minister and the Parliament of the Daleks, after having their memories of the Doctor erased by Oswin Oswald, with the red Drone Daleks being promoted to Commander; that rank now passed on to the RTD bronze variant. And despite their notable absence in The Time of the Doctor, the boxset gives the multicoloured pepperpots a proper sense of closure.

But there’s more… the Special Weapons Daleks are back! This time given the RTD style bronze design treatment by James Johnson (@ThePrydonian), who also worked on the “Reborn” New Paradigm variants. It’s really great to see these CGI designs featured on Caroline Tankersley’s outstanding cover artwork. I’ve always had such fondness for the Special Weapons Dalek, ever since its debut in Remembrance of the Daleks, followed by cameos in Asylum and the Series 9 opener, The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar. Here’s hoping for more appearances, either on audio or TV!

As a fan of Valarie Lockwood, it’s heartbreaking to see her go. Safiyya Ingar has delivered a stellar performance with energy and emotion, throughout the entire boxset. Well, the whole of Series 7V is to their credit for Valarie’s character development. Tragically losing her mother in The Inheritance, with Hendricks being responsible; falling in love with Roanna in The Yearn; having her cybernetic enhancements taken apart in Curiosity Shop, and later blaming the Doctor in Broken Hearts; seemingly killed off for real in All’s Fair, whilst meeting her husband Hayden; overpowering the Cybermen in Sins of the Flesh; and standing with the Doctor against the Daleks. A strong, original companion.

And what can I say about Jacob Dudman? Ever since watching him in The Great Curator, which also featured Jon Culshaw, I knew from the start he would end up doing Big Finish audios. His uncanny Matt Smith impression never disappoints. The way how Dudman captures the vocals, mannerisms, and emotions of this incarnation perfectly illustrates Smith’s onscreen portrayal in every single Eleventh Doctor boxset and individual release he has appeared in. And having him do a full 14-part story arc, across four volumes, is the best approach to giving him a big finish (no pun intended) and a fond farewell. But don’t worry, we’ll be hearing him again for one last time in the forthcoming third Twelfth Doctor Chronicles volume, You Only Die Twice.

Victory of the Doctor, overall, is a perfect conclusion to Series 7V. The best volume in The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles range, which majestically brings justice for the New Dalek Paradigm and gives Valarie Lockwood proper closure. Would it be wrong for me to say that it is, by far, the best Big Finish release of 2024? And furthermore, Series 7V has already become one of my favourite serialised arcs ever produced, right up there with the Dalek Universe saga. A perfect bridge between The Snowmen and The Bells of Saint John, coinciding with the Doctor’s search for Clara Oswald across time and space. It builds upon what I wish Steven Moffat had done for the entirety of Series 7, as showrunner, during the lead up to the 50th anniversary: serialisation and dramatic cliffhangers, with an epic two-part finale. The perfect approach for Series 7V, which supersedes the standalone storytelling format of the first two volumes.

I’d also like to say a big thank you to Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar, plus all the cast members, for bringing these characters to life. Same to Helen Goldwyn and Nicholas Briggs for your outstanding directing, Borna Matosic and Jamie Robertson for the scores, Caroline Tankersley for the cover artworks, Lee Adams for the sound design (who’s also known for The Dalek That Time Forgot fan animated serial), and Alfie Shaw for shaping up the series and bringing together all the writers. None of this would’ve been possible without the amazing cast and crew at Big Finish.

Victory of the Doctor is available now from Big Finish.

After two anthologies with a mixture of two- and four-parters, we are finally treated to a single six-part story with the First Doctor (Stephen Noonan) going up against the iconic, titular pepperpots (voiced by director and script editor Nicholas Briggs). Full of twists, nostalgic references, and funny moments, Fugitive of the Daleks is an outstanding masterpiece that revitalises an unconventional Classic era format in the best way possible.

(I’ll do my best to avoid revealing any major spoilers, before the Daleks can pinpoint my location!)

In Carthage, decades after her departure in The Myth Makers, an older Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) says goodbye to her grandson Antiphus and enters the TARDIS, only to find the Doctor apparently feeling unwell. They make their first trip to Perpetuity Station, where the Doctor receives medical attention until things don’t turn out to be what they seem involving the crew on board, before the Daleks arrive to capture him in their time machine. As the Doctor and Vicki resume journeying across time and space, with the Daleks in pursuit, they end up in various locations and unravel the mystery of the Doctor’s amnesiac behaviour as they go along.

The plot brilliantly acts as spiritual successor to The Chase, and The Daleks’ Master Plan to a lesser degree, by utilising the experimental storytelling structure without being derivative. There were a number of intriguing historical events that I learned for the first time in the story, such as General Custer in 1876, before the Battle of the Little Bighorn; and also the first Solvay Conference at the Hotel Métropole in Brussels, 1911. A fascinating way to incorporate some educational elements, paying homage to the early historical serials of First Doctor era. Ironically enough, on the same day as Fugitive of the Daleks was released, I decided to try out The Chase on BBC iPlayer; followed by The Keys of Marinus shortly afterwards (good thing I wiped my memory before watching the former serial).

Jonathan Morris has nailed the gravitas (or should I be saying “mavitas”?) and pacing in his script, after writing some of my personal favourite Dalek audios, The Curse of Davros, We Are The Daleks, and Emancipation of the Daleks — all underrated gems! He is a real expert in devising unique, compelling Dalek concepts that attempt to manipulate or rewrite Earth’s history; the Terry Nation of Big Finish.

What can I say about Stephen Noonan, hmm? Ever since our first taste of him as the First Doctor, his uncanny William Hartnell impression continues to shine with the mannerisms and vocal tics. Not just in the previous two boxsets, The Outlaws and The Demon Song, but also his cameos in the Once and Future 60th anniversary event; with an expanded appearance in the fifth chapter, The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50. It’s a real honour that Noonan has already joined the line of Doctor recasts at Big Finish, alongside Michael Troughton, Tim Treloar, and Jonathon Carley. I’ll say no more, hmm!

Honestly, I didn’t expect Vicki Pallister (later known as Cressida) to return as a companion… and it works splendidly. I love how Maureen O’Brien adds layers of maturity in her portrayal, whilst maintaining Vicki’s youthfulness. Although Dodo Chaplet (Lauren Cornelius) doesn’t appear until during the latter half of the story, I’m very pleased that she gets an opportunity to meet Vicki, as they both played significant roles in the Doctor’s life. It also helps having The Incherton Incident briefly recapped with flashbacks, plus referencing former companion Steven Taylor who Vicki and Dodo knew all too well.

I have such a soft spot for six-part audios, which is why I consider Fugitive of the Daleks to be the best First Doctor Adventures release so far. Right up there with Kaleidoscope, The Auton Infinity (Forty 2), and Cold Fusion, the format gives enough room for the main characters and plot to develop whilst avoiding unnecessary padding. Not to mention the supporting cast — Mark Elstob, Ashley Cousins, and Gary Turner — who have mastered voicing multiple guest characters and changing accents; plus Genevieve Gaunt superbly stepping in as Hedra. And I also want to give Christopher Naylor, best known for voicing Fourth Doctor companion Harry Sullivan, a shoutout for applying his painting skills to the outstanding cover artwork (which belongs in the Louvre)!

For anyone who has yet to try out a Big Finish First Doctor audio, go for this one. It’s a perfect starting point. We have no idea what’s next for the range, but I hope they’ll do a boxset at some point featuring the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, (Carole Ann Ford), sometime before travelling with Ian and Barbara is what I have in mind.

Fugitive of the Daleks is available now from Big Finish.

A new Vworp Vworp! is always a treat to be savoured, but the team have outdone themselves with this superb sixth issue. The brainchild of editor and designer Colin Brockhurst and publisher Gareth Kavanagh, Vworp Vworp! started life as a publication celebrating Doctor Who Magazine, particularly its comic strip, but has since broadened its focus and, fittingly for this new edition released in the year of the programme’s diamond anniversary, travels back in time to examine An Unearthly Child.

You may think that the story of Doctor Who’s origins has been told very comprehensively before, not least in Paul Hayes’s impressive volume Pull to Open, but the team of writers assembled here find plenty of new things to say. There are in-depth articles on key players in the programme’s early months and years such as Jacqueline Hill, Anthony Coburn, and David Whitaker, as well as interviews with Carole Ann Ford and Waris Hussein. Andrew Orton brings us another of his stunningly realised recreations of Doctor Who’s sets, showing how they were all squeezed in to that small space at the unloved Lime Grove.  

The story of An Unearthly Child didn’t end in 1963, of course, so we also get pieces on the 1981 repeat, the VHS release, and the sadly still unreleased 2013 audio novelisation. The 50^th anniversary drama, An Adventure in Space and Time, is covered too, with an in-depth interview with Mark Gatiss, complete with abandoned scenes. And it’s wonderful to read Brian Cox’s memories of Sydney Newman, and his thoughts on how he might have approached playing the Doctor if the part had ever come his way.

There’s a very funny article by Tim Burrows who recalls his (surely unwise) decision to watch the epically disastrous Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty in 2013 alongside his new girlfriend. Romantics will be pleased to know that the relationship survived. Jonathan Morris brings us right up to date with an afterword lamenting the absence of the first story from BBC iPlayer.

Elsewhere, comic fans are catered for with three new strips (including an appearance by the Fifteenth Doctor) and a detailed feature from our own Philip Bates on Hunters of the Burning Stone, DWM’s celebratory 50^th anniversary strip, with input from writer Scott Gray and artist Martin Geraghty.

Vworp Vworp! has always rewarded buyers with a fine array of free gifts, and this issue we’re presented with a DVD consisting of three new animations, including David Whitaker’s very different opening to his novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. My personal favourite was Andy Lane’s Interlude on Totter’s Lane, a tale involving the Doctor returning with Steven (voiced by Peter Purves) to that famous junkyard and unwittingly altering the course of Doctor Who history.

This weighty volume comes in at 180 pages so it’s impossible to give every contribution its due, but I was especially impressed by Colin’s detective work in unearthing previously unknown details about not only Reg Cranfield, the first person to appear on screen in Doctor Who as the policeman patrolling Totter’s Lane, but also Fred Rawlings, who played the same part in the pilot episode. Colin has also tracked down Larry Leake, who as a teenager co-founded William Hartnell’s fan club (the original, you might say) and is still a keen follower of the series today, as evidenced by the TARDIS shed in his garden.

The whole package is beautifully presented and includes several newly colourised photos. Whether fan-produced or licensed, Doctor Who publications don’t get any better than this. If I had one request to make of the team for future issues (of which I hope there’ll be many) it would be for slightly larger text. These old eyes are wearing a bit thin for some of those closely-printed pages…

Vworp Vworp #6 is a wonderful collection of research, insight, ephemera, and fun. Perhaps most importantly, it makes the reader appreciate even more just what those pioneers involved in the creation of Doctor Who achieved all those years ago.  

Vworp Vworp! #6 is available, price £12.99, from vworpvworp.co.uk. 

Russell T Davies created a new Doctor so he could have David Tennant and Catherine Tate acting together again, and Big Finish arguably went one better in 2023 by reuniting another all-time great combination.

For the ninth release in the War Master range, titled Solitary Confinement, Sir Derek Jacobi got to play the Master against Siân Phillips as Mendrix. Fans of both of their careers, or of the history of British television drama, will know they appeared in I, Claudius together way back in 1976 to much critical acclaim.

Having an actor as legendary as Jacobi onboard already lifts every War Master release, and pitting him against Phillips again makes Solitary Confinement, which has four different writers for its four episodes, an even more thrilling listen.

The start of episode one, The Walls of Absence, is stunning with a great musical score supporting the Master’s well written monologuing before the titles come in. After that, the audience is introduced to Mendrix, who appears to be playing a grandma. How sweet! Except we know this is a War Master story, and Phillips is an actor known for gritty roles. And just as those thoughts come in, their characters meet.

A beautiful amount of detail is put into the pair’s lines, with the Master as trustworthy as he could possibly seem. He knows who Mendrix is and what she does, so he clearly has a hidden motivation, and you don’t need the ego of the Master for that to come out as Phillips gives Mendrix such an aura of brilliance that you know she’s already figured it out and is entertaining the Master’s limited patience while she tries to return to grandparenting duties. There’s no action here, but it’s two acting greats making you hang off their every line.

There’s then an abrupt scene cut, putting the power-playing between the two in a totally different position; in a new setting, Mendrix is now in something very far away from grandma mode. And she has some bad news to deliver to the Master.

Not a moment is wasted in the opening episode as the audience gets to experience them in multiple environments, showing off their acting chops and building a level of trust while also introducing a background threat: the Master’s own health. He’s renowned for doing anything not to die, or for ensuring he will always regenerate instead of remaining dead, but rather than that be presented as his primary objective, there are multiple philosophical sessions about what makes him him (a common theme for incarnations of the Master from 21st Century Doctor Who). It feels fresh, rather than repetitive, due to the two names delivering it.

Mendrix acts as the Master’s therapist, a role with a clear goal but with parallel motivations for both practitioner and recipient as this is set deep in the Time War. And once they get close… well, who would be able to resist the urge to write a romantic subplot for two acting greats?

You don’t need to be a follower of this range or even a Doctor Who fan to enjoy how this is set up, and probably for the same reasons RTD pulled his favourite double act back together. If the material works, they can make the most out of it and sell it to any audience. And there are many quotable lines in this beautifully written piece. If it were a late-night television drama then it no doubt would have captured the imagination of TikTok and older viewers.

One of the best things about this story is it can ramp up the relationship and the level of threat at the same time effectively, sweeping you into its world and both the small and large consequences of what is happening to and around the Master. A great script, a great realisation of its science-fiction ideas, and accompanied by superb performances and music.

A classic Master cliffhanger means later episodes cover different territory and troubles, enabling him to be more villainous but with his madness still a key plot point and something that is known to other characters too since this whole release centres around the Master’s time as one of the Drane Institute’s most twisted prisoners…

The War Master: Solitary Confinement is out now from Big Finish.

Big Finish had a nine-month release schedule for the first two series of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, but for the third, it has spread out the 12 episodes over 12 months.

There’s a half-year wait between Travel in Hope, containing episodes four to six, and this February’s release, Buried Threats, which contains the next three. Little seems to link the two, with each boxset mostly feeling like an individual release rather than part of a series so far, so you can comfortably purchase Travel in Hope without needing to have listened to any other Ninth Doctor action from Big Finish.

Below There is the boxset’s first story, and is set in the deepest area of deep space. Vyx Leeson is alone on a ship and keeps having flashbacks to a space massacre. The Doctor finds her, but he doesn’t involve himself straight away after that. Instead, the production team go for a bit more of Alien vibe as a highlights reel of her lonely life (traumatised by flashbacks) takes place. And occasionally there’s a knocking on her spaceship’s hull…

This is stretched out until one day the Doctor communicates with her once again and asks for a game of i-spy. She doesn’t want her time wasted by childish games, but does explain why she’s actually alone in space. She’s the equivalent of a station porter for LeapCore, the commercial successor to T-Mats. Nothing exciting about that, so why is she scared?

It’s an old-school sci-fi story that bides its time before properly introducing the Doctor, and then waits even longer to introduce its threat. Between those two points, Vyx does plenty of explaining under the enthusiastic scrutiny of the Doctor, revealing how much she deliberately limits what she can see in the space below and beyond her ship, and the real reason as to why she’s alone.

The plot accelerates back into proper Doctor Who territory at this point, delivering a harsh message about the dangers of the human race’s future technologies and how capitalism — in a universe where labour is still needed rather than everything being handed over to AI — gets in the way of the right decisions being made.

There’s an emotional conclusion that results in ultimately what the Doctor would have wanted, and is definitely the type of outcome that Christopher Eccleston would have enjoyed turning from words on a page into a performance.

As effective as that is, it then hurts the start of episode two, The Butler Did It, due to its setting feeling too similar. The Doctor lands the TARDIS to a spaceship repair port and basically nothing happens through the first 13 minutes as the Doctor searches for a cup of tea. As he approaches that goal, an alien who he claims to be friends with falls ill and he thinks they have been poisoned by someone nearby. At which point the Agatha Christie-style plot is set into motion.

The Doctor interviews as many suspects as possible, bringing them into the same space together before talking to them privately one by one. Eccleston is full of quips while also trying to assert himself, the usual challenge when he visits a place and quickly encounters trouble, and at one point he does wonder if his interviewing technique is a bit too bold and accusation-focused.

Once others get involved in the interviewing, this becomes a story about the power the Doctor has to instil confidence in those around him. But that has negative repercussions, as if often does, with one of the Doctor’s new friends being targeted.

So everyone is reunited in true Agatha Christie fashion and the Doctor hosts a ‘whodunnit?’ With the criminal yet to be identified, it technically means they can still be up to no good. To detail more would spoil the conclusion, and explain the choice of title.

Run concludes the set and kicks off as an intergalactic parody of US elections featuring Raxacoricofallapatorians, Draconians, the natives of Mars, and the Doctor’s old friend, Alpha Centauri (this time voiced by Jane Goddard), who is the representative for their home planet of the same name. It has a 1990s feel to it too at first, probably due to the inclusion of rocket-powered megalimos and the American accents used for the intergalactic mobsters.

Alpha Centauri is at the start of their career as a senator in the Galactic Federation and doesn’t know the Doctor yet, while Eccleston enthusiastically plays his love for the friendly alien to show the familiarity his character already has with them.

A very nervous Alpha Centauri gives their first speech to the chamber as we get another murder mystery when one of the two presidential candidates gets killed. Sometimes, it leans on the comedic/farcical element of the American political sphere, while at other times, the story goes heavy on the murkier nature of political feuds. And within it, the Doctor pushes Alpha Centauri into being a replacement presidential candidate to act as opposition to Bellatrix Vega.

That puts Alpha Centauri’s life, and the galactic federation, at threat and it’s up to the Doctor to keep peace and power in place. All that’s missing is Josiah W. Dogbolter in this political caper. There’s action scenes, political ones casting a mirror to various infamous periods of Earth ideologies, and an element of mystery that rests on how good the listener’s hearing is.

There’s a very satisfying conclusion as the day is saved, and the Doctor once again instils confidence in someone. In this instance, it’s a young Alpha Centauri.

The cast and production crew from the three stories make great contributions to the behind the scenes material, and it’s clear they all love working with Eccleston.

With that in mind, it’s a surprise Big Finish has not yet announced The Ninth Doctor Adventures will continue into a fourth series. Series three was announced in March of last year, so maybe we just have to wait a few more weeks to find out if Eccleston will continue to play the Doctor…

The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Travel in Hope is available now from Big Finish.

Bringing Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary year to a close, the 2023 winning entry of the annual Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity is a Sixth Doctor adventure written by Paul Davis, and read by none other than Old Sixie himself, Colin Baker.

Without giving away too many plot details, the Short Trip explores the life of George White, who apparently has no memory of meeting the Doctor and, more importantly, a mysterious woman when he gives a presentation of his travels at the Hoxteth* Village Hall. Later on, he searches through his titular time capsule and discovers more photographs of himself with the same woman.

(* At first, I thought Hoxteth was the name of a planet, until listening to the Short Trip which describes it as a fictional English village. Very much reminds me of the Scottish fishing town, Lichyrwick, from the 2021 winning entry.)

Paul Davis brilliantly nails the narrative and characters in his script, giving enough room for the mystery of George’s life and memories to be unraveled, with plenty of cultural references providing an adventurous atmosphere. The story is also set during the Doctor’s travels with Evelyn Smythe, but at some point after their falling out, with a tasty reference to chocolate cake (her specialty). It’s a heartfelt tribute to Maggie Stables, who sadly passed away nearly a decade ago, in 2014.

When Big Finish announced Colin Baker as the narrator for The Hoxteth Time Capsule, I was surprised and ecstatic. I couldn’t be impressed enough with his eloquence in his narrating, after doing all the Sixth Doctor stories in the first four Short Trip audio anthologies; including his very own The Wings of a Butterfly (in Volume 1). Definitely a perfect opportunity for Old Sixie to do the honours!

As for Tom Newsom’s magnificent artwork, it gives vibes of The Two Doctors being filmed on location in Spain, with the Sixth Doctor observing himself with his iconic multicoloured coat removed in the photograph, during his visit to India; almost reminiscent of a telesnap from a TV episode. Not to mention that it also reminds me of the Series 10 opener, The Pilot, which saw the Twelfth Doctor going back in time to take photos of Bill’s late mother, as a Christmas present.

Eight winning Short Trips, thus far, in honour of Paul Spragg’s memory. I honestly can’t express how brilliant they all are in different ways, giving new writers a chance to showcase their ideas with experimental storytelling. Despite having entered several times, but never won, I always look forward to supporting whoever wins the competition.

The Hoxteth Time Capsule is available to download for free from Big Finish.

(And once you unlock the Short Trips story, you’ll also be able to download both the studio script and the original submission in PDF.)

Ah, Warriors of the Deep. A story that, with a few little tweaks, could have been one of Peter Davison’s best. It holds an infamous place in the history of Doctor Who, thanks to its hasty turnaround, its over lit sets, the Myrka with paint still dripping off it, and some marvellous overacting from its guest stars — it’s no wonder that Michael Grade would one day use this story as a way of bashing the show over the head into its cancellation a year-or-so later.

But somewhere, lurking under the depths, I’ve always thought are the seeds of a great story. If only we could dim the lights on the set, maybe having a little water dripping noise in the background as if the base is being held together with the shoestring budget it was made with… you could hide a multitude of sins, including the pantomime horse-like Myrka, which would probably look more formidable in the near darkness.

To his credit, the late great Terrance Dicks does try his best with his adaptation. And a lot of it is down to the story being freed of its budgetary limitations and he succeeds in making Warriors of the Deep actually feel like there are some high stakes. Thanks to his prose, the idea that there are two opposing power blocs ready to choose the nuclear option comes across as a much greater threat than it ever did on television; indeed, when the Silurians are priming Sea Base 4 for war, I found my attention held a lot more than the televised story manages.

Dicks goes a long way to making this dangerous new world feel real and a lot of world building is dedicated to the opening chapters. Some might find this a little tedious — the TARDIS team doesn’t arrive until about fifteen minutes in — but Dicks sells this world as a dangerous one, with the Silurians and Sea Devils manipulating the undercurrents.

Anyone who has read the original Target novelisation will know that Dicks also tries to clear up some of the stories’ odder elements. The gas used to kill the reptilian invaders at the end is given an actual reason to be used in the Sea Base and the Doctor’s apparent death at the end of the first episode is given a lot more explanation and helps to make sense of why Turlough is so quick to say the Doctor has drowned.

Dicks’ handling of Turlough is a definite highlight: still obviously playing with the character outline introduced in Mawdryn Undead, here he is portrayed as someone who’ woul’d be happy enough to leave the Doctor and Tegan to die if it means getting away and it’s always fun to hear other characters calling out his cowardice throughout this adventure, especially when Commander Vorshak and Security Chief Bulic commandeer him into protecting the base from the Sea Devils.

As with his other Target novelisations, Dicks has a great handle on all the regular characters, and Tegan especially comes across well, though she doesn’t get a great deal to actually do. She really just stands around with the Doctor and gets used as a hostage towards the end; Dicks even smooths over the sticky incident where she finds herself under a door that you wonder why she didn’t see it falling! The other characters here get a bit more to do too, and he does a great of job of selling Nilson and Doctor Solow as baddies. Solow in particular gets a lot more emotional depth than Johnny Byrne’s original script could offer and she feels a lot more real as a result.

One does have to wonder though what Terrance Dicks thought when he was writing this novelisation — this is twice now that Byrne has used some of his co-creations, the first being Omega in Arc of Infinity, and one wonders what he made of it. He certainly seems to be having more fun using the Silurians and Sea Devils than he does in the novelisation for Arc. They feel like a proper threat but there is a lot more depth injected into their actions — they just see humanity as a warring race (they aren’t wrong), so as they say, they “Shall die as they have lived… In a sea of their own blood.” Even that line gets a lot more credence here.

The reading duties for this audiobook fall to Janet Fielding, who played Tegan Jovanka in the original story. She does a marvellous job here, effortlessly bringing the story to life. There are a few more enhancements too: we get some great voices for the Silurians and Sea Devils and it feels like they all joined in with Tegan in remembering this story. Maybe they could now say these Target readings are taken from the Memory TARDIS introduced in Tales of the TARDIS? One tiny gripe was that the name Sauvix did come dangerously close to sounding like ‘cervix’ thanks to the voice modulation…

There can be no denying that the novelisation for Warriors of the Deep is a lot better than the televised version. But if anything, this helps prove that somewhere in the original are the seeds for a great story, something that should have been a triumphant return for these reptilian meanies. Where the serial falls a little flat for me is in all its doom and gloom, having two factions posed to wipe out one another. Doctor Who has done that before and to much better effect; luckily, Dicks’ prose does a good job of exploring it in a way that feels real and not just your bog-standard science-fiction affair. The tale fares a lot better this time around — just imagine those dimly corridors, the sound of water falling ominously around you, and the hideous Myrka lurking in the shadows. You may find you have a great time!

Warriors of the Deep is available now.

There was a rather interesting section in The Church on Ruby Road, the first full episode with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and introducing Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. No, I don’t mean the singing; nor the time-rewriting stuff, or even the mystery around Ruby herself. I’m talking about the Doctor pondering new languages. It was somewhat tongue-in-cheek nonsense about learning the language of “rope”, but in amongst it, we experienced a new way of approaching Doctor Who. It’s a rather convoluted and difficult thing to get a grasp on, full of contradictions and things that make you squirm, but that’s language for you. You won’t find either Doctor Who or rope on Duolingo, so for now, we’ve just got to go with it, see how this language progresses, and hope we can catch up before our new-found knowledge-base becomes anachronistic.

Because for years now, we’ve been told that “Doctor Who is about change”, but it’s not really, is it? For much of its history, the franchise has adapted, yes, but essentially stayed true to its origins. There’s a clear line to be drawn between now and then; yet, like The Beatles’ last track, we find that, with all the changes and with the absence of change, nonetheless we miss you, Doctor Who. What “Doctor Who is about change” likely means is that we change, so our relationship with the series changes as well – so too our views on stories, on themes, on that central character and the overall narrative. Still, I find myself in a difficult position, admitting that that point of view was then; this is now, and our favourite sci-fi show isn’t the same as it once was. Sometimes, you drift so gradually that you don’t think to look up before it’s much too late and you’re a long way from the shore; other times, you’re caught in this riptide and the land has vanished in an instant. And in some very rare cases, both things happen, as is the case with Doctor Who.

What makes this period of the franchise so stark is that things feel so different despite there being a renewed hope a couple of years ago that returning showrunner, Russell T Davies, would bring things full circle (full circle, that is, for 21^st Century Who). But Davies is rightly a different person now. Compare how you are now to how you were in 2005. This is only natural. So why and how does The Church on Ruby Road feel like both more of the same and something new? Why does it sit so awkwardly?

Davies does a lot of things that he’s done before: perhaps most subtle (though I use that word very loosely when approaching anything by the writer) is how new companion, Ruby, is part of a band with a trans person, a retread of Russell’s Rose novelisation, which saw Mickey Smith in a band called Bad Wolf, led by a trans woman, Sally Salter. Less subtle is Ruby herself, who appears at first glance to be a generic companion – meaning a confident, sometimes sad, young, caring, pretty go-getter – for the Doctor and the audience to fixate on. Having never seen Gibson in anything before, I was certainly intrigued to see how she’d get on, and I was let down slightly by her tumultuous first scene in which she and Davina McCall have a curiously hectic TV interview. But she soon charmed me. The loud Northern façade hides a deeper performance and a lovely connection with our new Doctor.

There’s a warmth to her that draws you in, although it’s interesting that she never really feels at home in her actual home. There’s a clear love there between her, Carla (Michelle Greenidge), and Cherry (Angela Wynter), but her home doesn’t feel very… homely. There aren’t many trappings of everyday life there. That could be because Ruby is sadly the only one of Carla’s foster children to stay there, to make it her home, so it feels a little like a transitional space. That coldness is only added to because Carla doesn’t act the way she should: in writing that’s shockingly uncharacteristic of Russell, she doesn’t react as a normal person would when the Doctor, a complete stranger, wanders into her home after Ruby is erased. She’s just… okay with it. Accepting. Despite the door being locked. (And the less said about the new sonic “screwdriver” the better.) That really jars.

Ruby’s absence does hit hard though. The audience’s realisation that she’s gone surely comes much earlier than the Doctor’s; similarly, we presume that the photos on the fridge will have also vanished before the Doctor makes this revelation (if only because it was set up nicely, and Davies is much too good a writer to forget that key law of screenwriting: show, don’t tell).

The Goblins are a strange creation too. They straddle the line between what Doctor Who does and what it doesn’t do. Russell mentioned before that he’s incorporating elements of fantasy (as a genre) into Doctor Who, and that makes me nervous – I simply don’t connect with fantasy, and it troubles me that Doctor Who is straying farther away from the shore on which I’d contentedly found it. But the Goblins are just aliens. Swap them with Bok or the Zocci and there’d be very little difference. Oh sure, they sing, but so does the Doctor. Oh sure, they eat babies, but so do the giants in The BFG. They can, however, travel in time (no matter what the Doctor says), and that sets them apart, makes them a bigger threat than they initially seem. Actually, they should be a bigger threat than they are, considering they just dissolve away once their King experiences the Timothy-Dalton-in-Hot–Fuzz treatment. As with most aliens in episodes that introduce companions, they’re a gateway to our new dynamic.

Davies would’ve been safer going with an established threat, either a recognised foe or something that fits the standard alien invader outline, but you’ve got to admire his need to do things differently, even if not every note hits the right tone. Or indeed, even if a few knots can bring down the plot. This wasn’t the strongest of narratives, but it swept along at a cracking pace with enough character beats for you to invest in these additions to the Doctor Who mythos. One of the most startling things about Russell is that he exudes enthusiasm from every pore, so it’s just as surprising that The Church on Ruby Road doesn’t fizz with refreshing notions. It’s not exactly Doctor Who as we expect it to be, but it’s perhaps Davies as we expect him to be right now. It’s interesting that someone so alive with notions is still very much set in a particular mindset. That’s ironic, too, given the diatribe fed to us in The Giggle about the dangers of always thinking you’re right. That isn’t a criticism of Davies: he’s one of the show’s best ambassadors, and he will always have my utmost respect. I just find it interesting, in this strangely intangible way. That is likely the word I attach to the mixed bag that is The Church on Ruby Road most of all, and so far to Davies’ return to Doctor Who: interesting.

And what of the elephant in the room? What of Ncuti Gatwa? Our Fifteenth Doctor? He’s excellent. There’s something fascinating about him, from his confidence and fragility (is he the first Doctor to cry in his first full episode?) to even his accent and grin. You can see there’s so much more going on behind those eyes. I didn’t always buy it, sadly: the thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was his dancing in that nightclub. Why? Lots of Doctors have danced. The nightclub itself felt a strange move, but the thing that jarred most is that he looked… too cool? The Doctor is awkward! He’s not human! There’s a marked difference between the drunk giraffe the Eleventh Doctor showed off on a couple of occasions and the whirling storm the Fifteenth Doctor immediately is. The former is a storm that has the capacity to be a drunk giraffe; the latter hasn’t demonstrated anything but his sure-footedness. I hope that’s still to come because I like my Time Lord to be something other. And Gatwa is very capable of it.

Despite that bump in the road (and the awful bigeneration guff), he’s the Doctor, and that in itself is an achievement so early on. Because when things went wrong, when the Goblins took Lulubelle, when Ruby disappeared, we knew things were going to be alright because the Doctor is here to fix them. Bizarrely, I didn’t even feel that way with David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor, who was so consistently on the back foot.

The Church on Ruby Road isn’t my ideal Doctor Who: its semantics, phonology, and referents are all askew; I’m scrabbling around, looking for its foundations; and who the heck put that accent grave there?! But after watching it, I did feel this little frisson of energy, something that I’ve not truly felt since 2017. Doctor Who is back. Oooh, Doctor Who is back.

I might not be very good at it, but it’s okay – I like learning new languages.

The penultimate volume of “Series 7V” takes the Eleventh Doctor (voiced by Jacob Dudman) and Valarie Lockwood (Safiyya Ingar) to darker territories in three outstanding, emotional episodes — all which make further progression on the epic 14-part story arc, with strong character development and themes. A perfect Christmas gift from Big Finish!

(This review contains spoilers for Geronimo! and All of Time and Space. Be warned, or beg mercy from River Song!)

We begin with Series 7V’s Christmas special – Spirit of the Season, by Georgia Cook. A fascinating festive-themed ghost story with the Doctor and Valarie encountering Clara (Becky Wright) inside a 19th Century style mansion, along with Harpreet (Natasha Patel) and Edmund (Edward Harrison) – both taken from two different time periods. Definitely not the Clara you were expecting, but more of a twisted, psychopathic version that bears no relation to Jenna Coleman’s portrayals of the Clara “Oswin” Oswald splinters; toying with memories and fears.

At the same time, Valarie has a heartfelt, poignant reunion with her mum Patricia (Mandi Symonds), after the latter’s tragic death in The Inheritance. There are plenty of emotional moments that’ll leave you sobbing or hyperventilating, in Georgia’s magical script, alongside a cheeky reference to the flying sharks from A Christmas Carol (which features the late Sir Michael Gambon, who sadly passed away back in September). And while ghost stories are right out of my comfort zone, I thought the concepts were brilliantly executed. Clever double entendre in the title!

The second episode, All’s Fair, by Max Kashevsky, has Valarie going on a date with Roanna (Mia Tomlinson), last seen in The Yearn, at Chicago’s World Fair in 1893. And Hayden Lockwood (Christopher Ragland) as Valarie’s… husband?! Not what I was expecting, but amazingly played out. And don’t we love a few American cultural references from time to time, especially a brief foreshadowing of Series 12’s Nikola Tesla episode?

Previously credited as Max Curtis, after writing two fantastic Short Trips — Still Life (Subscriber range) and Salvage (Short Trips Volume 12) — this is Kashevsky’s first full-cast audio for Big Finish; apparently a real dream come true for him to be given the opportunity to script-edit and receive a thank you credit on the CD releases. His outstanding script is a romantic, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey love story like no other; and comes at a devastating cost. You’ll have to listen until the very end to understand how the pivotal plot twists neatly weave into in the overarching narrative, something along the lines of the dramatic cliffhanger in A Good Man Goes to War. It doesn’t disappoint.

The third and final episode, Sins of the Flesh, by producer Alfie Shaw, sees the long-awaited Big Finish debut of the RTD era Cybus Cybermen, a design which I grew up watching, since 2006 — easily noticeable on Caroline Tankersley’s spectacular artwork, with a deliberate nod to Handles from The Time of the Doctor (which premiered a whole decade ago)!

Since the Cybermen were specifically referenced in The Inheritance and the trailer for All of Time and Space, I knew that the Doctor and Valarie would end up encountering them… and the results are extraordinary. Not just Nicholas Briggs lending his voice to these Cybermen and their villainous Cyberleader, but also Shaw’s script giving them prominence in the Eleventh Doctor era; vastly superior to some of their TV appearances as the main antagonists (particularly Closing Time and Nightmare in Silver). And let’s not forget the use of the wrist blasters — they brought back memories of the Series 2 finale and The Pandorica Opens. I personally prefer them to the “electro attack”.

This isn’t your typical Cybermen story. It’s a justified, nuanced depiction which explores the dangers of conversion therapy, in a literal sense… with the Rebirth Organisation forcing children into “redemption suits”, including poor Carmen (Maddison Bulleyment). That is how you do proper LGBTQ+ representation. As a Christian, I personally loved how the themes lampoon the distorted aspects of my religion, with cultists being deceived into “worshipping” the Cybermen. Very Trumpian indeed, but with a clear, powerful message to raise awareness. If Big Finish were to do more audios with the Cybus design, make them as epic as this one.

Everywhere and Anywhere is the strongest boxset in the Series 7V arc, thus far — up there with Broken Hearts; retroactively the fourth story in All of Time and Space. Such imaginative concepts, character-driven storytelling, and powerful, emotional performances from the entire cast, this is already one of my favourite audio releases of 2023. A hallmark of Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary! Since we have to wait until February for the final volume, Victory of the Doctor, which features the return of the multicoloured New Paradigm Daleks, check out Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar answering listeners’ questions (including one from yours truly), alongside Who Review’s preview from earlier this month.

Everywhere and Anywhere is available now from Big Finish.

Released in time for the 60th anniversary celebrations, Broken Hearts, featuring the Eleventh Doctor (voiced by Jacob Dudman), continues the events of Curiosity Shop, the third episode in All of Time and Space. The midpoint in the serialised “Series 7V” arc (thank you, Max Kashevsky!) which sort of acts as the second half of a two-parter, bringing 14 episodes in total; just like with Series 7 (both parts combined), if you count The Snowmen.

Valarie Lockwood (Safiyya Ingar) decides to leave the Doctor, as a result of blaming him for what he did which literally cost her cybernetic body enhancements. It’s an emotional, two-hander character study that neatly weaves into the overarching narrative. As someone who has been through depression and grief within the past few months, I can easily relate to Valarie. She has every right to resent, and so do the listeners, including Lisa McMullin who wrote this outstandingly heartbreaking, hour-long bonus episode.

The Doctor takes Valarie to Iptheus, a planet previously featured in The Famished Lands (from The Eighth Doctor: Time War 3), similarly written by McMullin. At the same time, two sentient rescue bots, Augustus and Lionel, also voiced by Dudman and Ingar, are on a mission to locate survivors on the devastated planet affected by the Time Lords’ empathetic weather – a weapon which identifies emotions and controls aggressive weather patterns, previously used against the Daleks.

With the Doctor and Valarie having to endure swimming in a thunderstorm, it’s as if they’re on the brink of drowning in sorrows (quite literally). Even later on, when the two are increasingly filled with rage, you can’t help but feel sorry for them both. The Doctor’s actions in the Time War had cost lives when he had a different face, which indeed explains the statue of the Eighth Doctor (as portrayed by Paul McGann, who doesn’t make a vocal appearance) being featured on Caroline Tankersley’s lavishing cover artwork. If you want to hear her go into detail about the statue, check out the bonus interviews.

As for the references to the Time War, the story perfectly pays tribute to The Day of the Doctor, and how it traumatically affects the Eleventh (and “final”) incarnation. (Feels like yesterday when the 50th anniversary special first aired, over a decade ago.) The atmosphere, the affliction, the anguish. Unimaginable concepts packed into a full hour, and spread out quite fluidly. I was so close to breaking down in tears at times, especially when the Doctor suddenly yells at Valarie. Dudman perfectly captures Matt Smith channeling his fury, which you can easily imagine the latter doing so onscreen. And Ingar couldn’t be magnificent enough with their layered performance as Valarie, who has already become one of my favourite Big Finish companions.

As Lisa McMullin is a devoted fan of Series 7V, we should thank producer Alfie Shaw for giving her the opportunity to bring some closure for Valarie, without leaving key aspects of her character arc unresolved. Despite her script being the very last story to be recorded in the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles range, it’s a real dream come true with fascinating results; “a story of healing”, which she describes in Who Review’s preview. And let’s give a warm welcome to Borna Matosic, who brilliantly composed the melodramatic score for Broken Hearts (with the music suite available as a bonus download). You’ll be hearing his music again in the final two volumes, Everywhere and Anywhere and Victory of the Doctor (yes, the multicoloured New Paradigm Daleks are back!), as well as the Eleventh Doctor’s new theme, Basically, Run.

Overall, Broken Hearts is one of the strongest entries in Series 7V, if not the best thus far – equally magnificent as Curiosity Shop. It’s more or less standalone, according to McMullin, hence why you don’t necessarily have to listen to this bonus episode to understand how it connects with the overarching narrative. Essentially optional.

“You don’t need to listen to this release to make sense of the series arc; I don’t want people to feel they must have it for the series to make sense.”

And my rating for Broken Hearts, by quoting the Eleventh Doctor in Asylum of the Daleks: “Out of ten? Eleven.”

Broken Hearts is available now from Big Finish, as a digital download only.