Pointless Witterings

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Alex Kingston, John Shrapnel, Tim McMullen & Nicholas Woodeson. Written by Matt Fitton & Directed by Ken Bentley . While River Song takes Helen on an archaeological expedition like no other, the Doctor finds himself enlisted by an alien Queen to save her people. Trapped and alone, Liv stares death in the face as she meets the enemy who’s been dogging the TARDIS travellers’ footsteps throughout Earth’s history. The Doomsday Chronometer has been protected for five centuries: secret cults and societies jealously guarding its mystery. But what is their real purpose? The Doctor is about to discover the truth… After the triple-whammy cliffhanger that ended The Eighth Piece, I did wonder how Fitton was going to continue the story, bringing in more of the Doom Coalition arc as he does. And while The Doomsday Chronometer falls into some of the pitfalls that I mentioned The Eighth Piece avoided, the story does continue fair...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Alex Kingston, John Shrapnel, Tim McMullen & Nicholas Woodeson. Written by Matt Fitton & Directed by Ken Bentley. 15th Century Prague: in the castle dungeons, a prisoner raves about the end of the world. Outside, Liv Chenka seeks out the workshop of a strange Clockmaker to see what he is creating. England, 1538: Lord Thomas Cromwell finds his duties interrupted by otherworldly forces – clockwork soldiers, an unusual nun, and a mysterious scholar calling himself ‘the Doctor’. Perhaps the truth can be extracted in the torture chamber of London’s Bloody Tower? Rome, 2016: Helen Sinclair has an appointment with an enigmatic Professor, whose greatest work is almost complete. Only the Eighth Piece is missing… For nine episodes now, we've all be wondering 'what is the Doom Coalition?' For nine episodes, seemingly random events have been threaded throughout numerous stories (the escape of the Eleven, the unloc...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Jeremy Clyde & Ian Puleston-Davies. Written by John Dorney & Directed by Ken Bentley. Earth. The late 20th century. Across the world, the mobile phone is gaining popularity as more and more people decide to join the digital age. But for the residents of a sleepy English town sitting in the shade of a new transmission mast, that ubiquity has a troubling cost. When the TARDIS veers off-course, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. And sometimes the future does as well. After eight episodes, the Doom Coalition arc seemed to be going nowhere really, merely laying hints for the future that didn't really seem that interesting or exciting. I hoped that, with this third box set, the questions that the first two sets had built up would begin to be answered. And, while Absent Friends is only one quarter of Doom Coalition 3, if this story is a...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Alex Kingston & Mark Bonnar. Written by Matt Fitton & Directed by Ken Bentley. On the other side of the galaxy a mining company is exploiting the already unstable planet of Syra for every precious mineral it contains. River Song is attempting to save the native people. She needs the Doctor’s help, but she also knows he mustn’t yet discover her true identity. The final confrontation sees the Doctor once again face his enemy the Eleven in an attempt to prevent the destruction of Syra and the genocide of its inhabitants. I'm really not sure where Doom Coalition's going at this point. We're eight stories in, and I've no idea what to make of the whole thing. The Sonomancer is possibly the ultimate expression of that: there are some really great ideas here, and a really doom-laded tone to the whole piece, but the whole thing feels really perfunctory, and there are a billion loose threads everywhere. In man...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker & James Jordan. Written by Marc Platt & Directed by Ken Bentley. The TARDIS deposits its crew on Earth in San Francisco, 1906. There they find an actor-manager desperate to stage his definitive production of King Lear. But a real storm is headed their way when he becomes the possessor of a mysterious psychic ‘Gift’ which is hungry for power and intent on wreaking havoc and destruction. But exposure to so much psychic activity has the Doctor becoming increasingly erratic. Can he battle his demons and save the world? It's strange to think that, in 20 years of adventures, the eighth Doctor has hardly ever been back to San Francisco, the setting of his first (and only full length) televised story, The Enemy Within (aka The Movie). But, with The Gift, Marc Platt has rectified that fact, giving the eighth Doctor another story in the city, this time on the eve of the 1906 earthquake. And, while The Gift has pl...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Vincent Franklin, Emma Cunniffe & Jacqueline King. Written by John Dorney & Directed by Ken Bentley. Investigating the appearance of the Voord on Earth, the Doctor, Liv and Helen follow a trail which takes them to the other side of the universe. There they discover a mysterious and almost deserted gothic city lost in space and time, in which the grotesque inhabitants are conducting a vile and inhumane experiment. The Doctor and his companions must hurry to save the lives of those in danger before the experiment is a success and the unimaginable consequences become all too real. Following on from the initial mystery presented in Beachhead, Scenes From Her Life is perhaps one of the most bizarre bits of modern Big Finish. The premise of the story (odd psychic experiments taking place in an inside-out TARDIS) isn't an idea that springs to mind immediately, and it's thanks to the talent of writer John Dorney th...

Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Rebecca Night & Julia Hills. Written by Nicholas Briggs & Directed by Ken Bentley. In an attempt to recharge his batteries after his confrontation with the Eleven, the Doctor takes Liv and Helen to the sleepy English seaside village of Stegmoor. But they find the village in turmoil and, to make matters worse, their arrival uncovers a mystery from the Doctor’s past which threatens the future safety of the planet. Can the Doctor prevent the Voord from invading Earth? And more importantly why have they come in the first place? After the huge success of Doom Coalition 1, there was a lot of onus on the second set of stories to deliver. While the first set is probably overall not Big Finish's best box set, there was a lot of really strong reviews about how it was a very well constructed set overall, with one of the best villain introductions for the Eleven. Even I found the first box set a great success, som...

Starring Alex Kingston & Paul McGann. Written by Matt Fitton & Directed by Ken Bentley. As shocking secrets are exposed, and a grand plan for the universe is revealed, River decides it’s time she took control of events once and for all. Out in deep space, a clandestine society faces off with an ancient and powerful alien force – but, for River, there’s an added complication. The Eighth Doctor has been caught in the middle, and she must make sure her future husband can arrive at his own destiny with all his memories – not to mention his lives - intact… And so, we enter the final part of The Diary Of River Song. After a slightly faltering start, the third story in the set really upped the game and so, with the stakes as high as they could be, the onus was on The Rulers Of The Universe to deliver. And, for the most part, I thought The Rulers Of The Universe did deliver, with a really strong story and some amazing acting. I wouldn't say it's perfect, and it does...

Starring Paul McGann, India Fisher & Michael Sheard Written by Paul Magrs Directed by Gary Russell The Doctor and Charley decide to take a well-deserved break from the monotony of being chased, shot at and generally suffering anti-social behaviour at the hands of others. And so they end up in Venice, well into Charley's future, as the great city prepares to sink beneath the water for the last time... Which would be a momentous, if rather dispiriting event to witness in itself. However, the machinations of a love-sick aristocrat, a proud art historian and a rabid High Priest of a really quite dodgy cult combine to Venice's swansong a night to remember. And then there's the rebellion by the web-footed amphibious underclass, the mystery of a disappearing corpse and the truth behind a curse going back further than curses usually do. The Doctor and Charley are forced to wonder just what they have got themselves involved with this time... The next instalment of...