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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.
First things first, it's clear that this story is basically a rip-off of Top Gear but with spaceships and a murder thrown in. That is glaringly obvious from the beginning of the episode. There's not really anything that makes the story stand out except for the ending, in which (spoilers), it's revealed that no one actually died, something rather unusual and unique for a Doctor Who story. The other main point I want to make is that Lucie felt a bit out of character in this story. She's very much like Donna in that she challenges the Doctor frequently and they often have good banter in their stories. Lucie didn't feel that way to me in this story. She felt right in scenes with other characters, but when she was with the Doctor, she didn't really feel like the Lucie Miller we all know and love. Outside of those two things, there's nothing too special about this story. It's unique in it's spaceship-game-show vibe, but there's nothing else that really stands out. I listened to it less than a week ago and could barely tell you the plot, a sign I often find indicates that a story is either average or below average. Even so, next Wednesday we'll be reviewing the next Eighth Doctor Adventures story, Brave New Town, a story that succeeds where this story fails. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that this is the first Fifth Doctor solo adventure from Big Finish. And it's a wonderful story too, which I'm presenting a rather short review of today.
Today we will be reviewing the modern story that has perhaps had the greatest impact on the show's history, The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary special. As usual, spoilers will be present in this review.
This review will have spoilers for this book, the Dalek miniseries that is part of Time Lord Victorious, and Defender of the Daleks.
This past week, I've been reviewing some of my favorite Christmas specials and today, on Christmas, we come to the most recent Christmas special, Twice Upon a Time, featuring the First and Twelfth Doctors.
Well, that was a redundant title for a review, wasn't it? Makes me wonder if this formatting of listing the range, set, and episode is always the best choice. Oh well. Today I'm reviewing the first story from the audio anthology by Big Finish: Blood on Santa's Claw, entitled, you guessed it, Blood on Santa's Claw.
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