Pointless Witterings

Released: June 2010 Range: The Main Range Range Number: 135 Starring Colin Baker, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Steven Kynman, Abigail Hollick, Ian Gelder, Charlie Ross, Alexander Siddig & Nicholas Briggs  Written by Mike Maddox  Directed by Nicholas Briggs  The Cybermen are on the march through the Land of Fiction, killing and converting as they go. Resistance is useless. Trapped on the outermost fringes of the battle, the Doctor and Jamie are astonished to encounter an old friend: astrophysicist Zoe Heriot.  It's the happiest of reunions. But what hope is there of a happy ending against the unstoppable Cybermen? Legend Of The Cybermen had a lot to live up to. It had to resolve this whole trilogies arc, provide an exciting conclusion for the older Jamie's story, bring Zoe back into the fold, bring the Land of Fiction back into the fold, and provide a nostalgic thrill ride for all those with hazy memories of the second Doctor's era. All that, and telling an exciti...

Released: June 2011 Range: The Lost Stories Range Number: 2.05 Starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Beth Chalmers, Angela Bruce, John Banks, Anthony Lewis, Dannielle Brent, Amy Pemberton & Alex Mallinson  Written by Andrew Cartmel  Directed by Ken Bentley  Margrave University in 2001, and Raine Creevy is enjoying her first trip into the future. For the Doctor, there are mysteries to solve: what are the alien creatures imprisoned in the science labs? And what are the true motives of the student Scobie and his followers? With enemies on all sides, the Doctor teams up with his old friend Brigader Bambera and the forces of UNIT in a battle for the future of the whole world.  Out of the four missing 'season 27' stories, Animal is the one that we, as an audience, knew the least about. It's also the one that, to me, seems to me to be most reminiscent of the seventh Doctor's era. It's so much like the sort of story that would have been told on television at the time...

Released: June 2014 Range: The Main Range Range Number: 187 Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Rebecca Night, Victoria Hamilton, David Chittenden, Andrew Dickens, Sean Brosnan & Francesca Hunt  Written by Stephen Cole  Directed by Ken Bentley  France, the year 1770: by special invitation, the famous 'Doctor', friend of Voltaire, arrives at the lonely of the lovely Marquise de Rimdelle - once a hostess to the highest of high society, now isolated by the strange, pernicious mist that lingers round the countryside. But there's more in that fog than mere vapour, confesses the Marquise's strange niece to the Doctor's ward, Nyssa. She senses some uncanny machine circling the fringes of the estate, in the space between the shadows. Watching. Always watching. She's given it a name: 'The Steamroller Man'. Meanwhile, the man in the cellar talks to the Doctor; a dead man, trapped behind the cellar walls. The Steamroller Man is coming, he says; coming to smas...

Released: June 2009 Range: The Eighth Doctor Adventures Range Number: 3.04 Starring Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith, Colin Salmon, Daniel Anthony, Liz Sutherland, Ian Brooker, Beth Chalmers & Nicholas Briggs Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs "This is a full scale war! Wirrn and Humankind locked in a deadly struggle for survival. When did that happen?" The Doctor and Lucie land right in the middle of one of the human race's bloodiest periods of history. Trying to make a difference here would be like standing up and calling for a cease-fire on the Somme. Certain death... Or worse. Survival can be a messy business.  It's no wonder that The Ark In Space has gained a sequel story. It was such a great story, and it just a suprise it took Big Finish ten years to get around to telling it. And Wirrn Dawn certainly hits the ground running, with a pace torn straight out of the new series. Put David Tennant and Catherine Tate in this story, and it would make an excellent ne...

Released: May 2014 Range: The Main Range Range Number: 186 Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Eve Karpf, Amy Ewbank, James Hayward, Jonathan Forbes, Ben Porter, Phil Mulryne & Francesca Hunt  Written by Gordon Rennie & Emma Beeby  Directed by Ken Bentley  The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Nyssa to a vast pyramid, floating in space. A tomb ship - the last resting place of the God-King of the Arrit, an incredibly advanced and incredibly ancient civilisation, long since extinct. They're not alone, however. Another old dynasty walks its twisted, trap-ridden passages - a family of tomb raiders led by a fanatical matriarch, whose many sons and daughters have been tutored in tales of the God-King's lost treasure. But those who seek the God-King will find death in their shadow. Death from below. Death from above. Death moving them back and forward, turning their own hearts against them. Because only the dead will survive. After Moonflesh, I was hoping for a more energet...

Released: May 2013 Range: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Range Number: 2.05 Starring Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Alice Krige, John Albasiny, Charlie Norfolk & Gwilym Lee Written by Jonathan Morris  Directed by Ken Bentley  On their mission to explore the Mariana Trench at the very bottom of the ocean, the deepest and most inhospitable place on Earth, the crew of the deep sea vehicle Erebus make an unusual and startling discovery. A battered blue police box. As the Doctor, Romana and K-9 join them on their journey, the submariners soon discover that the TARDIS is not the only unusual find lurking on the sea floor. Super-intelligent squid, long-lost submarines and their miraculous occupants are only the start of their troubles. The Goblins are coming. And they won't let anyone out alive. After the wimsical charm of The Auntie Matter, Jonathan Morris goes for an extreme contrast with Phantoms Of The Deep. Phantoms takes it's cue from the creeping horror of the early Tom ...

Released: May 2006 Range: The Main Range Range Number: 82 Starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Clive Mantle, Stephen Mansfield, Roger Parrott, Clare Cathcart, Hugh Lee, Alan Ruscoe, Ian Brooker, Steven Wickham & Simon Guerrier  Written by Simon Guerrier Directed by Gary Russell Sir. Having brought the army belonging to the Parliament of England before this place to reduce it to obedience, to the end effusion of blood may be prevented, I thought fit to summon you to deliever the same into my hands to their use. If this be refused, you will have no cause to blame me. I expect your answer and rest your servant. O. Cromwell. If The Settling was to have a counterpoint in classic Doctor Who, it would most definitely be The Aztecs. It's a story that sees one of the companion's growing up, and facing a difficult lesson in history, and that changes their outlook - forever. That's one thing that The Settling does really well, managing to get the companion'...