Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2015

Doctor Who At Big Finish: Throwback Thursday - Destination: Nerva

Released: January 2012 Range: The Fourth Doctor Adventures  Range Number: 1.01  Starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Raquel Cassidy, Tim Bentinck, Sam Graham, Tilly Gaunt, Kim Wall & Tim Treloar  Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs  After saying their goodbyes to Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago, the Doctor and Leela respond to an alien distress call beamed direct from Victorian England. It is the beginning of a journey that will take them to the newly built Space Dock Nerva... where a long overdue homecoming is expected. A homecoming that could bring about the end of the human race.  Destination: Nerva is a story that has divided opinion. Yes, it certainly isn't the most innovative story ever, most can acknowledge that, but opinion is split regarding whether it's just the right side of traditional, giving Tom Baker a solid slice of traditional Who, or that it's a story that's been done to death so many times and it gives Tom Baker a poor introduction to

Doctor Who At Big Finish: Throwback Thursday - Jubilee

Released: January 2003 Range: The Main Range  Range Number: 40 Starring Colin Baker, Maggie Stables, Martin Jarvis, Rosalind Ayres, Kai Simmons, Steven Elder, Jack Galagher, Georgina Carter & Nicholas Briggs  Written by Robert Shearman  Directed by Nicholas Briggs & Robert Shearman  Hurrah! The deadly Daleks are back! Yes, those loveable tinpot tyrants have another plan to invade our world. Maybe this time because they want to drill to the Earth's core. Or maybe because they just feel like it.  And when those pesky pepperpots are in town, there is one thing you can be sure of. There will be non-stop high octane mayhem in store. And plenty of exterminations! But never fear. The Doctor is on hand to sort them out. Defender of the Earth, saviour of us all. With his beautiful assistant, Evelyn Smythe, by his side, he will fight once again to uphold the beliefs of the English Empire. All hail the glorious English Empire! Now that sounds like a jubilee worth celebrating, does it

Doctor Who At Big Finish: Throwback Thursday - Hunters Of Earth

Released: January 2013 Range: Destiny Of The Doctor  Range Number: 1  Starring Carole Ann Ford & Tam Williams  Written by Nigel Robinson  Directed by John Ainsworth  Shoreditch, London, 1963. The Beatles have beaten John Smith and the Common Men to No. 1. Satellites are being launched into outer space whilst on Earth a master thief is stealing some highly specialised equipment. In the streets and bombsites around Totter's Lane, the normally placid teenagers of Coal Hill are running riot: searching out the different and hunting down the alien.  Schoolgirl Susan Foreman just wants an easy life for herself and her grandfather, the mysterious Doctor. She wants to be liked and accepted by Cedric and all the other pupils at Coal Hill School. But Susan has been inadvertently drawing attention to herself. The hunt is on - and Susan and her grandfather are the quarry.  The first installment in the AudioGo/Big Finish co-productions for the 50th anniversary is a curious beast, but not an

Doctor Who At Big Finish: Throwback Thursday - The Judgement Of Isskar

Released: January 2009 Range: The Main Range  Range Number: 117 Starring Peter Davison, Ciara Janson, Laura Doddington, Nicholas Briggs, Raquel Cassidy, Andrew Thomas Jones, Heather Wright & Jeremy James  Written by Simon Guerrier  Directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery  On a planet where time stands still, the Doctor meets a woman who is just a few minutes old. She is a Tracer, sent into our Universe by her makers to locate the six segments of the Key to Time. This being without a name wants the Doctor to be her assistant, but she doesn't tell him the whole truth. Not at first.  Their first port of call is Mars, where a society that one day will become Ice Warriors lives in peace and civility. But the Doctor's arrival will change all that. The universe is dying, a choice must be made, and the Judgement of Isskar will be declared. The price must be paid - even if it takes centuries... The Judgement Of Isskar is a story that has divided fandom since it's release. Certainly, many

Doctor Who At Big Finish: Throwback Thursday - The Flames Of Cadiz

Released: January 2013 Range: The Companion Chronicles  Range Number: 7.07 Starring William Russell, Carole Ann Ford & Nabil Elouahabi  Written by Marc Platt  Directed by Lisa Bowerman  The TARDIS materializes in Spain in the late sixteenth century. The country is at war with England – and the travellers find themselves on the wrong side of the battle lines. When Ian and his new friend Esteban are captured by the Inquisition, the Doctor, Susan and Barbara plan to rescue them. But these are dark days in human history. And heretics face certain death... If I hadn't been mistaken, I would have said that The Flames of Cadiz was a story originally brodcast during that very first year of Doctor Who. Every single element that makes up the story is incredibly reminiscent of the grand historicals of the time, such as The Aztecs or The Crusade, and this is this stories greatest blessing and curse. Unlike those stories, this one really strains under the weight of it's four episodes, a