When Doom's Day was first announced, I was quite trepidatious as to whether it would actually produce any good stories. After all, of what interest would a series of stories about a character I'd never heard of be to me? Even so, I decided to give the series a shot, beginning with BBC Audio's release, "Four From Doom's Day," the title a play on the Fifth Doctor story, "Four to Doomsday." Here, we are presented with four of the twenty-four hours of Doom's final day, as she searches desperately for the Doctor (but apparently not just any Doctor, a specific incarnation). The four stories contained within each take up one of these hours, though the runtimes are all roughly half an hour.
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I rarely have high expectations for BBC Audio stories. They tend to be much more average than Big Finish stories and I have yet to see any do anything particularly unique or interesting with the Doctor and his adventures. However, I found this story to be intriguing and engaging. Though Eccleston returned to the role of the Ninth Doctor for Big Finish well over a year ago, we have yet to receive new stories of him with Rose, and so I was excited to hear this story to fill that Ninth Doctor and Rose hole in my heart. And it was good. Bushnell captures the comples relationship between the two of them rather well, and though it took a bit for me to get used to Andoh's narration, she captured the characters rather well.
This is a rather odd book, as it is one of the earliest written fiction works about the Doctor and is notable for being the first original novel based on the series (something that would not happen again until the show went off the air over 20 years later). Most of the problems that the book suffers are not the fault of the book itself, but rather the design of Doctor Who in 1966. While some of the problems are humorous, such as the Doctor being referred to as Dr. Who and the Tardis being referred to as Tardis (as if that was the ship's name), but others are much more confusing, such as the Doctor's inability to believe that machine's could be sentient. The Doctor's disdain for his companions (in this case, peasants from midieval Europe) is also rather disconcerting. These two flaws, along with the averageness of the stories themselves are the primary reason that I only give this release three of five stars. The villains of the first story are rather nice, and are very similar to the Daleks and Cybermen in that they evoke ideas of human superiority to machines through emotions and irrationability. The second story contained in this audiobook is "Ten Fathom Pirates," in which the Doctor (traveling alone this time (one of the only times we ever see the first Doctor alone)) comes across a group of underwater pirates and finds himself roped into their pillaging. It's a fun simple story, reminiscient somewhat of Big Finish's Short Trips range (though this came much earlier). Overall, though these stories are among the least interesting Doctor Who stories I've read, the chance they present us to see how the Doctor was portrayed in early expanded media is invaluable and makes the listen well worth it. Class. The oft forgotten spinoff of the modern series which lasted a mere season. Thankfully, Big Finish remembered its existence and graced us with four boxsets of new adventures set during the original season, yet the question of the final episode's cliffhanger still loomed in the air, unanswered. Despite my hopes for it, Secret Diary of a Rhodian Prince does not answer all the questions left at the end of the first season. What it does do is hint at what happened to the characters after the final episode and provide further backstory, especially for Charlie and Matteusz's relationship, and it does so in a way that is just as satisfying as if it had been a continuation of the original series. I've not seen the original Peladon story, The Curse of Peladon, but a few years ago, I did watch The Monster of Peladon, and though it wasn't the best story, I certainly enjoyed seeing a new Third Doctor episode. I also listened to The Bride of Peladon, with the Fifth Doctor and Erimem, a few years ago, and it also wasn't the greatest story, but I still enjoyed it (though even as I write that, I remember virtually nothing of the story). However, Peladon, a Doctor Who set released in January of last year promised a series of stories with political intrigue, and this convinced me to listen to it, in the hopes that it would be similar to Gallifrey. Though the set wasn't entirely what I expected, I greatly enjoyed it, and it was a solid release with no bad stories and many references to the original Peladon episodes. Happy Torchwood Tuesday! With my second experience listening to Torchwood on audio, I chose the only episode to also feature Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, reprising her role from Doctor Who and the second season of Torchwood. Released before her spinoff series, this is also her first appearance with Big Finish. This story is set after the second season of Torchwood and follows Gwen as she reconnects with Martha. While I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I enjoyed The Green Life, it was still a very enjoyable listen. I've been extremely excited for this release ever since I first heard about it. A continuation of the Second Doctor's era, with room for new companions? Big Finish actually releasing Second Doctor stories? On paper, this set is a dream come true. In reality, it sadly falls flat of its lofty goals. Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen a version of Season 6B. It's been around since just before the Pertwee Era, with the TV Action comic strips. After that, we saw a bit of it in the Past Doctor Adventures novel, World Game, by Terrance Dicks. However, this is its first appearance in an Audio Drama (assuming we ignore The Annihilators, also released earlier this year, although that addressed it somewhat less directly).
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