Sometimes the ambition of a Doctor Who story utterly outstrips the production’s ability to deliver and 1977’s ‘The Invisible Enemy’ is a case in point. The story, involving a sentient space virus which infects the Doctor and prompts a Fantastic Voyage style adventure into the Time Lord’s head, is probably best remembered for the introduction … >
Given the title, and perhaps surprisingly with their shape changing abilities, there is no disguising which classic villain stars this month. The popular monsters have rarely been brought to life on audio, but thanks to the recent DVD release of ‘Terror of the Zygons’ and their role in ‘The Day of the Doctor’; it seems … >
Big Finish’s latest boxset release takes us back to 1982, for a reunion of Peter Davison’s original TARDIS team of Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. The participation of Matthew Waterhouse, who has stayed away from audio up until this point, allows access to an unexplored era of Doctor Who’s chronology. Comprised of two four-parters, the stories … >
With episodes lost to the mists of time, as expensive videotape was routinely reused, a mere two full episodes exist from the first series of The Avengers. Of course, we are not talking about the popular Marvel franchise here, but rather the British 1960s television series of the same name which focussed on the exploits … >
Occasionally a Doctor Who story comes along with such a great premise that you cannot believe it has not been tackled before. ‘The Abandoned’, despite its somewhat generic title, has just that. While it has been repeatedly established over the years that the Doctor stole his TARDIS from Gallifrey, or it stole him, we have … >
This month, the Doctor Who main range presents one of its occasional anthology releases, with four short stories starring Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant’s Peri. The first, ‘Breaking Bubbles’, finds the time travellers in a set of formal gardens much to the surprise of its sole resident. Safira Valtris is a deposed royal … >
Some Doctor Who stories have characters so well written and cast that they leave you wanting more. Like Jago and Litefoot before them, the team from 1988’s Remembrance of the Daleks cried out for their further exploits to be chronicled. Now three series in, Group Captain Ian ‘Chunky’ Gilmore (Simon Williams), Professor Rachel Jensen (Pamela … >
The last in the latest trilogy of stories begins in surprising circumstances with the arrival of a famed English Doctor, his ward Miss Nyssa and her governess, who come by invitation for an audience with the Marquise De Rimdelle. The year is 1770 and we are asked to imagine the Doctor in a powdered wig! … >
For the final edition of The Companion Chronicles, the range returns to the story of Zoe long after her travels in the TARDIS. Conscious of her missing memories, courtesy of the Time Lords, she recalls only her first encounter with the Doctor and Jamie although intensive memory probing has revealed other adventures that we have … >
With a temporal twist worthy of the Doctor himself, the story which was planned to introduce Nicholas Briggs’ new villain to the Big Finish canon has actually turned out to be the third to employ them. ‘The Eminence’, a malevolent gaseous entity with which humanity has endured a lengthy conflict, troubled both the Sixth Doctor … >