Big Finish - Special Release
I’m not one to dwell on past Doctors, nor do I have a lot of time to review old episodes, whether new season or classic, so I am just guessing that these stories fit right into the tone of the 9th Doctor. And I have to say that I just had a grand time listening! I actually planned to stop between stories and just kept on going anyway. The writing and acting are fantastic, even with the limited cast. The least interesting was actually the first story, The Bleeding Heart. It was more of an adventure on an alien planet with a mystery to be solved, and the Doctor is sans companion even.
Then The Window gets quite interesting as we’re seeing something that happened in the past (in visions) and present through the eyes of a woman on Earth (I won’t spoil who she is) and the aliens on another world. There’s war and some confusion as the story moves back and forth to the different planets and the Doctor seems a bit ineffectual, ultimately. The artifact that opens the windows to other worlds could’ve easily been smashed at any point in the story, solving everything quite easily. But that would’ve been quite short, ultimately.
Then there’s the Adam story, which shows him in The Other Side, trying to actually make him seem worthy of being a companion. It’s an interesting attempt and he does come off as a competent helper, though very arrogant in his own genius. Being around the Doctor doesn’t diminish his own sense of self-importance, apparently. This story lets us see into the mind of Adam a bit more, which does show why he just didn’t cut it as a companion.
Retail Therapy is by far the most outstanding of these stories because of the pathos we get, the Doctor and Jackie Tyler cooperating to take down a bad guy while Rose is busy doing her own thing. Glubby Glubs? Wow. What a name. And what an innocuous product with evil intent. I thought they’d age the villainous henchman back to being a baby, to be honest. That’s quite a bit of energy they stole from the TARDIS! But the Doctor really does show some of how he feels in this and the first story. All in all, I loved this box set! Fantastic first go at a 9th Doctor series.
Nicholas Briggs (Narrator), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Bruno Langley (Adam Mitchell), Claire Wyatt (Adriana Jarsdel), Laura Riseborough (Emily Brontė). Other parts played by members of the cast.
Writers: Cavan Scott, Una McCormack, Scott Handcock, James Goss
Director: Helen Goldwyn
Release: May 2017