Big Finish has treated Doctor Who fans to a feast of new releases this month.
The Fourth Doctor Adventures 4.08: ‘Return to Telos’
Here we have the final release in this year’s Fourth Doctor Adventures. These star Tom Baker (of course) and also Louise Jameson as Leela. For most of the run they have also had John Leeson reprising K9 – last month’s ‘Fate of Krelos’ showed how K9 became overpower by cyber-technology; in this month’s sequel we ‘Return to Telos’.
In this story, writer (and director, and voice of the Cybermen) Nick Briggs puts together a clever tale woven into the tiniest of cracks in the TV story ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’ and gets Frazer Hines recreating both Jamie and the Second Doctor in a single-disc story that bring the series to a satisfying conclusion and accurately recreates the tone of the original. A very clever production from start to finish.
Main range #202: ‘The Warehouse’
The Seventh Doctor continues a trilogy of stories as Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford (companion Mel Bush) explore ‘The Warehouse’ in a Mike Tucker story directed with aplomb by Barnaby Edwards.
Mike Tucker hasn’t written a Doctor Who story for Big Finish since 2001’s ‘Dust Breeding’. We forgive him for the gap as he has been busy running The Model Unit for the last ten years and giving us a phenomenal range of special effects for both TV Doctor Who and a vast range of other productions.
The story itself is clever and builds in instalments over the two CDs to a revelation that, while treading some familiar ground in the style of the 1980s show, also manages to work in some exotic ideas about other types of intelligence and makes us wonder about the eventual destiny of Amazon when they take over all means of shopping! This is a strong release and we can only hope we don’t wait move than a decade for Mike’s next story.
Short Trips 5.08: ‘Foreshadowing’
Julian Richards’ Short Trips release ‘Foreshadowing’ is a story for the Eighth Doctor narrated by India Fisher as companion Charley Pollard.
The Short Trips range is set of short stories read by a single actor, and lasting just under 30 minutes. This particular story is set in a military base where the last thing a young lieutenant needs is to interview two self-professed time travellers who have trespassed his base. He is more concerned with stories of a giant insect and a very strange incident earlier that day.
Although simple in format, this is a very entertaining (and in places tongue-in-cheek) story with a couple of nice Easter Eggs for fans and a very satisfying conclusion. If you haven’t tried this particular range, ‘Foreshadowing’ might be a good jumping on point.
‘This is Colin Baker’
There is also the two-disc interview This is Colin Baker where Nick Briggs asks Colin about everything through his career and if you’ve ever wanted to know more about the man and his career, now is the time to find out.
What was your favourite Doctor Who release from Big Finish this month? Let us know below…