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.
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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).
Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen this pairing. They were together in a trilogy of stories in the Main Range, or which I've sadly only listened to Masters of Earth. This boxset doesn't rely too heavily on knowledge of this trilogy, and only references Peri's life away from the Doctor twice.
I love Class. I genuinely believe that it's one of the best things to come out of Doctor Who, and as such, I'm sad that we only ever got 8 episodes. Thankfully we got 12 more through Big Finish, and today I'm reviewing three of them!
I really ought to start keeping track of which Big Finish I've already heard. I got two-thirds through this story before realizing that I'd heard it before. Nonetheless, I enjoyed listening to it, and it was a reminder of all the reasons why short trips are so wonderful.
If you haven't listened to this story yet, then I beg you to please stop reading and listen to this story. It's absolutely fantastic and one of my new favorite Eighth Doctor stories. As is often the case, this review will have spoilers for this episode and I heavily suggest listening to the story before reading this review. Autons! We really don't get many stories with them, which is a shame, since I feel like they have a lot of potential. Their last appearance on television was the first episode of the modern series, Rose. Outside of that, I believe they showed up in one NDA book with the Tenth Doctor and in the anthologies, Tales of Trenzalore and The Target Storybook. They may appear here and there but they haven't had many major appearances since the Third Doctor era. Thankfully, this story gives them another chance and does it brilliantly.
My favorite thing about the autons' appearance is that it was so unexpected yet fit so well. I find that these tend to be the best kinds of twists and this made for a really delightful story. I really liked the use of the same date multiple times. I felt that it was an intriguing plot point and it drew me into the story. It kind of reminded me of Memory Lane, a main range story with the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'rizz. Both stories presented picturesque suburban scenes but for very different reasons, yet they both worked wonderfully. Overall, this was a really enjoyable story that I would definitely listen to again and that I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in the Eighth Doctor's Big Finish appearances. |
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