Big Finish - Special Release
I just have to start with WOW, I didn’t even realize that it wasn’t David Tennant playing the Doctor at first. Jacob Dudman does a great job of imitating him, that’s for sure.
The Taste of Death
-by- Helen Goldwyn
This story opens with the Doctor and Rose getting a taste of the high life on planet MXQ1, where right away Rose gets sucked into a problem as she’s eating food she’s given like she can’t stop eating. And apparently all of the patrons are doing so at this luxury resort. One of the chefs, Orentino, is there looking for his missing brother so he ends up on the adventure with Rose and the Doctor. First the Doctor and Rose expose the Bluestone brothers, who run the resort, as fakes while Orentino hunts for his brother.
It all comes to a head towards the end, while the Bruhla slave race enact their revenge by saving everyone. Along with the Doctor and Rose, naturally. The ending is a bit crazy and the motivation of the villains, who I won’t name here, is a bit dependent on their greed. But nothing else, which is a bit meh. Not terrible but they weren’t given a very good motivation in the TV series, in my mind.
Backtrack
-by- Matthew J Elliot
And we are on to another companion, Martha! The Doctor and Martha land on a temporal cruise ship being powered by some rather fishy engines, which ultimately have caused the TARDIS to crash into the ship in the space-time vortex. There is an out of control fungus that Martha manages to contain for a bit, while the Doctor goes to handle the owner/pilot/crew. It’s a bit oddly infeasible for the story, at least from my perspective. Temporal cruises at a reasonable price? Um, okay, so who feeds the people? Cleans the rooms? The head guy, Nathan Hobb? Yeah, doubt it. He’s a major coward and sleezeball, which he proves from moment one. This story is the weakest of the set, with the motivations being blah and the idiot factor being very high.
Wild Pastures
-by- James Goss
This is the absolute best story of the bunch! I can’t recommend it enough. First, the Doctor has Sylvia Noble along as his investigative partner, a comedic turn of events for the listener despite the serious nature of their investigation. Sylvia is a bit horrid yet somehow manages to turn out to be a good investigator, in her own way. We finally get to see some humanity in Sylvia beyond the TV series and I think this is pitched just right. The story takes place in a rest home and the Doctor is incapacitated by a plant, so Sylvia ends up having to save the day. And she does so in grand style, while the aliens in charge of the rest home have a wonderful message for the people of Earth. Don’t waste your history and your elders. It’s really quite an excellent story!
Last Chance
-by- Guy Adams
The Doctor has a mission, to save some endangered species about to go extinct because the Deagle is hunting them down. He captures them, keeps them alive for awhile, then shoots him for the satisfaction of killing the last of a species. It does seem incredibly cruel as he is also the last of his kind, though he killed them off himself. While the Doctor meets Lady Christina de Souza as he’s saving the last black rhino in Africa, he then brings her along to help save the other species going extinct. The biggest adventure being centered around the Oarkes, a species I honestly never heard of. Kind of like the dodo, perhaps? She then helps him rescue to species in the Deagle’s ship, except for one last one…
I really enjoyed this story. It was fun though a bit of a meandering tale at times. I suspect it has something to do with his companion in this one, mind you. But it was a good story overall. Fun but not the best story ever.
Jacob Dudman (Narrator / The Doctor), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Michelle Ryan (Lady Christina de Souza), Jon Culshaw (Nathan Hobb), Arinzé Kene (Orentino). Other parts played by members of the cast.
Writers: Matthew J Elliott, James Goss, Helen Goldwyn, Guy Adams
Director: Helen Goldwyn
Release: April 2018