The second audio adventure for the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler keeps it local and dials up the scare factor.
The new run of The Ninth Doctor Adventures is keeping one foot in familiar territory. Like August’s ‘Snare’, the action takes place on the Powell Estate, home to the Tyler family. However, jumping on some thirty years, it offers us a look at the fate of the Rose’s South London home…
The Last Days of the Powell Estate
Long deserted, the decaying Powell Estate is the chosen location for futuristic video podcaster Ellis Coates – a self-styled urban explorer equipped with his trusty “droney” and a chilling tale to entertain his viewers. However, Coates’ urban myth is one the Doctor takes very seriously. The malign presence of Mr Fingers offers a threat to both the time travellers in 2036, and stretches back three decades too.
With this run of stories following ‘Father’s Day’, Rose is supposed to have learnt her lessons about time travel. However, she’s still apt to go her own way, despite the Doctor’s warnings, and so the action plays out dangerously in two time zones thanks to messages sent back to Jackie Tyler via Rose’s sonic’d mobile phone.
In a tight guest cast, we get to know Harki Bhambra’s likeable Ellis Coates as he strikes up a good relationship with Rose. Back in 2006, Jackie (Camile Coduri) is aided by the entertaining Brainy Betty (Mandi Symons), who takes her neighbourly duties very seriously and the impossibilities at face value. Together, the pair make a formidable team investigating the villain’s first incursion – we’d love to hear Betty return.
For his part, Mr Fingers – the guttural eldritch horror voiced by Dan Starkey – has a clever and creepy mechanic.
In summary
Timothy X Atack’s tale offers us a modern folk horror with a terrifying Moffat-worthy monster concept. The threat of Mr Fingers is cleverly built up, aided by tense sound design from Iain Meadows. It all builds to a barnstorming conclusion with a great outburst from Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor – talking about his trauma and guilt with the kind of intensity we saw in ‘Dalek’. It’s stirring stuff!
Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Last Days of the Powell Estate is available now from Big Finish.
Next Time: Dare You
‘Dare You’ continues the thread of stories set on the Powell Estate, featuring the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Jackie Tyler, and comes from writer Lisa McMullin.
Something or someone is playing truth or dare with the people on the Powell Estate. And it’s dangerous to play games with a Time Lord.
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can REALLY hurt you.
The story guest stars Beverley Klein as Polly Pemberton, Jack Ayres as Davey, and Harry Myers as Baz and the Hellion.
Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Dare You is available to pre order at Big Finish now. It’s released in December 2025, as the series alternates with new releases in The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures range.