Doctor Who: Masters of Earth

Writers: Mark Wright & Cavan Scott
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Anthony Lamb
Music: Nicholas Briggs
Sound Design: Martin Montague
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Colin Baker & Nicola Bryant
Released October 2014

The most remarkable thing about Masters of Earth is how much of a melting pot of stock Terry Nation plots it is: obviously Daleks and another visit during their invasion of Earth, but there's duplicates, Varga plants, trans-solar discs, double-crossings galore, a secluded community with its own system of justice and a mysterious island that you have to cross dangerous waters to reach. Mark Wright and Cavan Scott embellish these with a few short-lived innovations of their own but at its heart this story is trying its hardest to be the ultimate Dalek story. Unfortunately it comes up short.

After their fractured reunion in The Widow's Assassin, the Doctor and Peri of Masters of Earth are indistinguishable from the characters at any other point in their history. There are a small number of token lines like "it's been such a long time" or "how I missed you" sprinkled throughout, but they could quite happily be cut and the rest of the story would be unaffected. It's understandable on some level: such straightforward action-adventure stories rarely dwell on luxuries such as character unless it later serves some plot function. But if that's the case, why make this the first story after they've finally found each other again? Why not change the story to fit the two central characters, rather than carrying them through a narrative they are bound not to interfere with? We've seen that it's possible to tell a Dalek story that is affecting on a personal level. Something along those lines might have had much more of an impact than this rerun of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The story begins, as you might expect, with the Doctor and Peri cut off from the TARDIS, meeting a subjugated community and then being carted off by the Daleks. The twist here is that they've landed at least a year before the first Doctor and co in the 1964 TV story, meaning the Doctor is bound from getting involved in case he disrupts what has already happened. Lucky it's the shy and retiring sixth Doctor on hand, not known for ruffling feathers. Pleasingly, Masters of Earth does get to the refinery much quicker than it took to reach the mine on TV, but it turns out to be completely inconsequential to the plot anyway. The bulk of the adventure is actually relatively Dalek-free, instead foregrounding their more gruesome creations - Robomen, Varga plants and Slythers - and taking place on the aforementioned island, and the journey to it.

Masters of Earth is fine scene-to-scene but completely unchallenging and almost entirely forgettable. Even the writers' invention of a higher tier of Robomen, and the reason why they are quickly dispensed with, feels a bit like clutching at straws to add yet more to an already overlong story. It's hard to believe that if Big Finish wanted an unapologetic sequel to a sixties Dalek story set entirely in Scotland nowadays, it wouldn't be Andrew Smith getting the call. And the execution is uncannily similar to how Smith might have dealt with the brief. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are unfazed by the shallow material and get almost exactly zero opportunities to showcase how their characters have developed in the years since they were last together. The Doctor is also more callous and closer to his Season 22 personality than we've seen in a while, taking his character in the exact opposite direction to what the listener might expect. Kyle Inskip, easily the best original character in this thanks to yet another winning performance from Hugh Ross, has his prized motorbike stolen and dumped by the Doctor after offering him refuge, and then spends the rest of the story hauling the TARDIS out the swamp. His thanks? A box of knock-off whisky that the Doctor says is foul. We can only hope the Doctor snaps out of this mood soon.

While the script is slavishly adherent to sixties conventions, the production of this story is not. The Dalek voices sound far too modern and the mechanical, electrical sound effects are a far cry from the creaks and thumps of their 1964 counterparts. I realise that since this is an audio drama more work has to be done but there must surely have been some middle ground of this. The sound design is otherwise excellent, especially for a script that demands the inclusion of so many different dialogue-free horrors. The music is another matter however. Frequently out of place, missing the point in scenes and breaking any immersion the listener might've managed to work up, its inclusion is arguably to the detriment of the story. One thing that can be said is that it is at least authentic, sometimes too authentic. I hope Roger Limb's royalties aren't too steep. A soundtrack with a sparser, more sixties feel would have been welcome but at least it's not too far a cry from what we might've got had this been on TV in the mid-eighties.

Masters of Earth is not actively bad but we've heard it all before and it's somehow still less than the sum of its well-worn parts. Shockingly for their first trip back together, you could skip this story without missing any of the Doctor/Peri storyline. This is a massive oversight on the part of the script editor and huge potential squandered. To think a story that really gets under the skin of these two characters was sacrificed for this Saturday afternoon shallow adventure tale only sours the impression Masters of Earth leaves. So what if it's Peri's first Dalek story on audio? Nothing is made of this - in fact it took quite a bit of effort to check this was actually the case. In case the listener was in any doubt there'd be another one along in a minute, Bryant has only had one trilogy since this and, oh look, there's another Dalek story. In the same way, the concept of there being disastrous consequences if the Doctor gets involved in any way goes out the window almost instantly, flattening the only real hook this story had.

Despite its incredible 140-minute length, Masters of Earth is another inconsequential set piece-based adventure narrative that goes in a big loop. Fine but far from essential.

Counter-Measures: The Fifth Citadel

Writer: James Goss
Director: Ken Bentley
Script Editor: John Dorney
Cover Illustration: Alex Mallinson
Music: Nicholas Briggs
Sound Design: Martin Montague
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Pamela Salem, Simon Williams, Karen Gledhill & Hugh Ross
Released June 2013

The Fifth Citadel is an immediate step up for Counter-Measures. James Goss easily demonstrates how to really make this series work, mixing mystery and horror with real history and hard science and coming up with something much better than that sounds.

As with Ian Potter's script for the first series, The Pelage Project, The Fifth Citadel wastes no time in scoring points through its atmospheric setting and intriguing premise. Counter-Measures can't seem to escape one of the regulars bumping into an old acquaintance each episode but at least here Goss gives Sir Toby some agency in his pursuit of Dr Elizabeth Bradley (Celia Imrie). The story never shies away from the truth of what's in the Underground tunnels, nor what's beneath them. This gives it an edge that lifts it beyond pulpy spy-fi and at times makes for challenging listening.

But the production team and cast never forget themselves and while the awful story of the bunker might take its time unravelling, the episode plays more on the feeling of dread than trawling through the gruesome details. The Fifth Citadel inventively divides the four lead characters in a way that not only gives us unusual combinations but also makes narrative and character sense once the cards are on the table.

This is a story best enjoyed untainted, but safe to say the level of the production values is reliably commendable, particularly in the use of mechanical and metallic noises. In the tunnel scenes, the listener is never in any doubt that life carries on for the rest of London, trains screeching past in the distance (and not-so-distant). Imrie and Hugh Ross as Sir Toby are an electric pairing, and the latter once again turns in the episode's standout performance. But it's also a more dignified entry than the season opener for Pamela Salem (Professor Rachel Jensen), Karen Gledhill (Dr Alison Williams) and Simon Williams (Group Captain Gilmore). Not bad for three characters from a Doctor Who story broadcast in 1988.

Intelligent storytelling at every turn and captivating right to the end, The Fifth Citadel raises the bar for Counter-Measures. It is a great character piece but tackles a situation with potentially disastrous consequences head-on and doesn't pull any punches and somehow also finds time to build on the listener's uneasy impression of Toby's new aide Templeton. A superb, albeit chilling, episode.

Doctor Who: Scavenger

Writer: William Gallagher
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Damien May
Music: Howard Carter
Sound Design: Neil Gardner
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Colin Baker & Lisa Greenwood
Released March 2014

A sense of finality hangs over Scavenger. The last in the second trilogy of releases starring Colin Baker and Lisa Greenwood, it appears to have been designed as the conclusion to a number of ongoing stories.

Principally, Scavenger foregrounds the sixth Doctor's latest accomplice Flip (Greenwood). They are separated early on, never to meet again thanks to the faith each has in the other, putting everyone else first before working their way back together. This is one of the deepest dives into Flip's character, and definitely the deepest since The Curse of Davros, her debut proper. We don't just learn about her family, but why it matters - and why it matters to her. I sense script editor Alan Barnes' guiding hand in these sections, but they are well-tempered such that they don't become an overload of information and remain relevant to the story's themes.

Scavenger is a very hardware-heavy story that begins in the near future with the launch of the Clean Up Space 2071 programme and various perspectives on it as a space craft, You Only Live Twice-style, swallows up junk lingering near Earth. This makes for an intriguing first episode and it's actually a bit of a disappointment when the titular craft shows up and the story seems to simplify with a common enemy to fight. The story also looks at the relationship between India and Britain in the near future, chiefly through the characters of mission controller Salim and obstructive bureaucrat Jessica Allaway. But India's inclusion isn't as throwaway as director Nick Briggs suggests in the interviews at the end of the story. It is embedded throughout and writer William Gallagher cleverly weaves the myth of Anarkali into the backstory of Scavenger, and uses it to drive the plot forward.

Briggs, sound designer Neil Gardner and composer Howard Carter combine to create a relentless story that, even split into four instalments, will leave you short of breath. This is well-cast, with Anjli Mohindra brilliant as Jyoti, and maintains the tension, if not always building on it, across its two hours; not an easy feat. And it seems The Widow's Assassin comes next for the sixth Doctor, a story I've been looking forward to for years.

Not unlike its namesake vessel, Scavenger demands your attention from start to finish. But it rewards in spades with easily the most competent and enjoyable story from this second Colin Baker/Lisa Greenwood trilogy. William Gallagher's sophomore story set in Earth's near future isn't as strong but his interest in the exploration of cultures and technology, and how they affect each other, remains true. A very solid script, well-realised. Can't ask for much more than that.

Doctor Who: The Brood of Erys

Writer: Andrew Smith
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Damien May
Music & Sound Design: Steve Foxon
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Colin Baker & Lisa Greenwood
Released February 2014

Big Finish's listeners are, by definition, very dedicated. Dedicated enough to seek out extra stories inspired by their favourite TV property (probably Doctor Who, let's be honest). My dedication, however, does not extend to enduring The Brood of Erys.

I had been dreading this, having first listened within a couple of years of its release, but did intend to give it another go as part of my protracted marathon of stories featuring the Sixth Doctor and Flip (Lisa Greenwood). After 25 minutes, however, I gave up. The Brood of Erys is a generic sci-fi yarn of irritating imps, babbling moons and archetypal guest characters. I am yet to be impressed, or even entertained, by an Andrew Smith script, and this fits the trend no problem.

Steve Foxon puts in a valiant effort with the sound design and music, but even casting the great Nicola Thorp in a starring role isn't enough to save this. What a waste to have two write-offs in a row for such a promising combination of Doctor and companion. Absolute rubbish.

Save your cash; life's too short.

Counter-Measures: Manhunt

Writer: Matt Fitton
Director: Ken Bentley
Script Editor: John Dorney
Cover Illustration: Alex Mallinson
Music: Nicholas Briggs
Sound Design: Martin Montague
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Pamela Salem, Simon Williams, Karen Gledhill & Hugh Ross
Released June 2013

The opening episode of Counter-Measures' second series leaves the strong impression that it will basically be more of the same, no reinventing the wheel. But that's OK because wheels are fine as they are, and so too is Counter-Measures. This series of sixties-based adventure that's as much spy-fi as sci-fi fielded a promising first box set and Matt Fitton's Manhunt continues resolutely in that vein.

One of the most refreshing things about Counter-Measures is its lack of reliance on extraterrestrial incursion. This could easily have simply been a precursor to UNIT but science is usually placed at the heart of the story, some secret experiment or project uncovered when it goes wrong. In this respect, Manhunt is no different.

The story begins with Group Captain Ian Gilmore on the run, wanted for murder. He is of course innocent, which makes waiting for everyone else to catch up a little tedious. But there's intrigue at the centre of this conspiracy and although the twist concerning two characters is genuinely unexpected, it's also, to put it politely, complete bobbins. Even for a series based in the orbit of Doctor Who, Fitton's use of science stretches credibility and he gets away with it pretty much by having laboratory boffins Professor Rachel Jensen, also the boss of Counter-Measures, and Dr Alison Williams reason that it must be possible because it's happening in front of them.

With the villain riding off into the sunset, it seems like round two is in the offing, and given the title of the series finale is Sins of the Fathers, there may not be too long to wait.

On the production side, this is nearly immaculate. Ken Bentley's talented cast ably race through the material, even if it sometimes becomes a challenge to distinguish the three RP ladies. Particular praise to Hugh Ross, reliably excellent as the slippery Sir Toby, Big Finish's only original addition to the series' line-up. The sound design is faultless throughout but the music once again throws up a few issues. The theme tune revamp did not fall on grateful ears; it was already a racket and the last thing it needed was even more going on. Likewise, some of the incidental music that errs closer to sounding like Nick Briggs falling asleep at his synthesizer breaks the illusion Bentley creates, interrupting and overwhelming dialogue. On the whole, the pieces containing just a couple of instruments work well but the cacophony of flutes, pianos, drums and goodness knows what else really make it seem like Big Finish are sending up the sixties rather than trying to evoke them.

On balance this is a vanilla episode to ease the listener back into Counter-Measures, exactly on par with Fitton's contribution to the first series. Hopefully the remaining three episodes will push the boat out a bit more, but as a benchmark, the series could do worse.

Doctor Who: The Iron Legion

Adapted by: Alan Barnes
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Nicholas Briggs
Cover Illustration: Will Brooks
Music & Sound Design: Alistair Lock
Producer: Jamie Anderson

Starring Tom Baker
Released March 2019

The first half of a prestige set taking comic strips published in Doctor Who Weekly's fledgling issues and turning them into full-cast audio dramas, The Iron Legion is something of a disappointment. In the year or so since its release, this story has received a swathe of glowing reviews so discovering it was quite so lacking was something of a surprise.

The basic premise is that an army of robot Roman legionaries has invaded the town of Stockbridge and after swiftly sending them packing, the Doctor follows them back through time - and, as it turns out, space. The bulk of the story takes place in Rome, 79AD, but in a parallel dimension where the empire is ruled over by a boy and aliens and robots are a fact of life. Setting The Iron Legion almost entirely in another dimension rids it of some of its mystery, as the clashing iconography is purely for its own sake, rather than there being an internal reason for interference in history. This is not exactly the end of the world, just unexpected.

The four episodes are essentially a jaunt from one outlandish character or set piece to another, and while it is a well-realised production, with a very consistent tone and strong performances (particularly Esther Hall and Joseph Kloska), the material itself is relatively unengaging. Pitched - and, to be fair, received - as a highly witty tale, The Iron Legion did seem to be wanting. The original strips were the very first published in Doctor Who Weekly in autumn 1979, spanning the broadcast of City of Death, The Creature from the Pit and Nightmare of Eden. Big Finish have experimented with the reputed Season 17 tone of wit and whimsy before, most notably with their adaptations of Gareth Roberts' nineties Missing Adventures novels (including the superb The Romance of Crime). The Iron Legion is not a patch on past efforts, although there were some aspects and additions that were very much appreciated, such as the fourth wall-breaking sound effects as we explore the Doctor's mind.

To adapter Alan Barnes' credit, as someone unfamiliar with the original story, it is hard to tell where the comic strip ends and the new material begins. But overall, this was not a particularly enjoyable experience and after the first episode, this set of eight felt like a waste of money. The story did improve, and is carried by a broad performance from Tom Baker, but ultimately it inspires no urgency to listen to The Star Beast, the other story of the set.

Doctor Who: Primord

Writer: John Dorney
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Guy Adams
Cover Illustration: Tom Webster
Music: Nicholas Briggs
Sound Design: Lee Adams & Joe Meiners
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Tim Treloar, Katy Manning, Jon Culshaw & Daisy Ashford
Released May 2019

The ninth in Big Finish Productions' string of full-cast original audio dramas set in the third Doctor's era, Primord is all about looking backwards.

The four-episode story is an unashamed sequel to the 1970 classic Inferno, but unfortunately sets its sights no higher than that. The basic plot stems from an army General, Sharp, thinking he knows what is best for Britain and weaponising the primordial slime collected from the Stahlman project. So how does the Doctor come to be involved? Taking up an invite from Liz Shaw, now a Professor at Cambridge, he and Jo decide to take a well-earned weekend off. Coincidentally, the Brigadier (sans UNIT) is off to investigate reports of escaped prisoners in the same area in lieu of there being any alien invasions to fend off.

With all the pieces in place, the story kicks into gear as we learn how Liz has been helping General Sharp increase the effectiveness of the Stahlman liquid as a biological agent and military weapon. The Doctor obviously makes it plain that he is dead against this - until he is infected too.

So can do I justify the idea that Primord is all about looking to the past? Only a quarter of the principal cast actually featured in the third Doctor's era on TV for starters. But it goes deeper than that. As already mentioned, the story is ostensibly an out-and-out sequel, reassembling the same characters - plus Jo - and centering around an element of the original - in this case, the Primords. But even the General and his ally in the Cabinet essentially want to restore the empire, and Liz can't let go of what happened to her fiance. Plus the plan of using 'alien' creatures to wander into enemy territory for military advantage, but having to keep them under special isolated conditions to control them is almost beat-for-beat Carrington's strategy from The Ambassadors of Death.

Recasting characters is nothing new, even for Big Finish, and it's not necessarily a problem in itself, but headlining a story with an actor that occasionally sounds like Jon Pertwee, an actor that doesn't really sound like Nicholas Courtney and an actor that doesn't really sound like Caroline John gives it a different feel. Tim Treloar, an excellent actor in his own right, is an old hand at his third Doctor impression now but seems to be going off the boil slightly compared to his near-faultless performances closer to the start of this series. Daisy Ashford, daughter of Caroline John and Geoffrey Beevers, and Jon Culshaw are perfectly passable and capture the spirit of their characters but at no point does this feel like a story from the early seventies. Katy Manning also overdoes trying to sound younger but settles into the role over Primord's two hours.

Unusually for Doctor Who, the strongest episodes are probably the middle pair, with the first leaving a bad taste in the mouth, the way it is directed feeling more like taking the mick out of a creaky old kids show than an affectionate homage, and the last negating characters' identities to play Liz off as the Brigadier's opposite number. Their chat while their respective armies tear chunks out of each other does little to impress. It may just be because it's only a month since I listened to it, but this story does almost feel like the archetype of Counter-Measures' first series, complete with an overbearing, overwrought score from Nicholas Briggs to distract from the dialogue. He seems to really enjoy going for it on sixties and seventies-style instruments but without any sense of restraint and there is almost inevitably too much going on, for too long.

Overall, Primord is fairly disappointing. It is not half the story of Big Finish's other Season 7 tribute, The Last Post by James Goss, and twice as long. Stories set within Pertwee's first year feel like an inevitability now but any interest I might've had in that has now been severely tempered and even though I have already bought and downloaded it, I am in no hurry whatsoever to listen to The Scream of Ghosts, the other half of the set Primord was released in. A lacklustre attempt to evoke one of Doctor Who's best series.

Doctor Who: Antidote to Oblivion

Writer: Philip Martin
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Damien May
Music & Sound Design: Fool Circle Productions
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Colin Baker & Lisa Greenwood
Released January 2014

The opening of this new trilogy of Doctor Who audios from Big Finish Productions sees Flip (Lisa Greenwood) having to drag Colin Baker's sixth Doctor away from a well-deserved rest and into the story practically kicking and screaming. Frankly he would've been better off staying put.

A shallow look at a future Earth that doesn't offer half the intrigue or nuance of William Gallagher's Wirrn Isle, the closing story in this pairing's first trilogy, Antidote to Oblivion is a real chore to get through. With stilted dialogue where characters end every sentence with the name of whoever they were talking to and a plot with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, this is not even popcorn fodder. 

The basic story is that a few centuries from now, Britain is no longer a country but a company, ConCorp. Faced with the problem of overpopulation, the President has enlisted the help of Sil, from TV stories Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, and he in turn has in tow the daughter of genetic scientist Crozier from the latter. Together, these two plan to create a virus that will wipe out 90% of the population - for a fee of course. 

This idea in itself is not irredeemable but the execution is severely lacking. The virus requires a Time Lord's DNA or something, which is how the Doctor gets roped into the matter, and this basically takes well over two hours not to happen, as we know it won't. Sidelines such as an infected water supply and a couple of vapid locals only serve to delay matters. Given this is supposedly built around a showdown between the Doctor and Sil, they have very few scenes together and most of the ones they do are just Sil showing up just when the Doctor thinks he's escaped. 

Lisa Greenwood seems more comfortable in the role of Flip but the character as written often sounds stilted and out of place. This is far from Flip's story but Greenwood still makes the most of a severely underwritten part. Nabil Shaban returns once more as the slippery Sil and almost single-handedly energises a production which is otherwise populated almost exclusively with hushed tones and lofty conversation. None of the remainder of the cast make much of an impression, though Dawn Murphy hams it up sufficiently as Crozier's daughter Cordelia that she too could have stepped straight from mid-eighties Doctor Who.

The standout performer, as ever, is Colin Baker. Accustomed to making the best of a bad lot and having long since honed his characterisation of the Doctor to his liking, he rises above the material here to keep the four long episodes listenable.

The remainder of the production is good enough, though the score is often overly grand. And it seems I can't go two minutes without Nick Briggs popping up as some lacky or other lately (often the same one by the sound of it).

Crass, protracted and above all boring, Antidote to Oblivion has little working in its favour. As a company that has perfected the art of mining fans' nostalgia, it is hardly surprising Big Finish want to bring back the only villain originated in the Colin Baker era that he faced twice. But it would seem that is not enough to hang a story on, at least when it means Philip Martin is in tow. I only listened to this again as part of my trawl through the Lisa Greenwood stories, and safe to say it was my last time.

If anyone wants the CD I'm open to offers.