Doctor Who Reviews: 'The History of the Doctor'

I’m surprised that Beltempest was released so soon aft-er The Janus Conjunction, a novel with which it has much in common; at least, superficially. Most patently, both books deal with colossal cosmic events – mind-blowingly big cosmic events – and their effects on people. What sets the two apart though is that Beltempest is a masochistically compelling read, as opposed to a test of endurance...

You’ve got to admit, the concept of the titular Face-Eater is grossly macabre. Those who’ve seen Mark Gatiss’ later television episode The Idiot’s Lantern will be already be familiar with that fundamentally disturbing image of a human being with its face wiped clean, and here Simon Messingham pushed things even further by having his eponymous monster...

The Sensorites is an unfairly maligned story. OK, so it is a bit awkward in places, but you find me a Doctor Who story that doesn’t have a few moments where – like a theatre production going horribly wrong – you are sitting there awkwardly wondering if they will be able to recover from an embarrassing effect, a trite piece of dialogue, or even an abysmal performance. There are a fair number of guffs in this story, but there is much to enjoy as well. This is the story...

Nestled at the end of Season 1, The Reign of Terror is one of those Doctor Who adventures that everybody is aware of, but nobody is particularly passionate about. This is a shame because this story has a lot to offer: a dedicated cast, some fine period detail, and a nice mixture of drama and broad comedy. It does take its time to tell the story (hardly the greatest crime in a William Hartnell serial) but I think what really undersells this...

Joe Ford’s reviews of the classic series will continue in July.

It took Terry Nation a decade to write another Dalek-less adventure, and after watching The Keys of Marinus it is easy to see why he stuck to the creatures that assured him good ratings over and again. I have never been a fan of quest stories. I found The Lord of the Rings trilogy a chore to get through, and that was with the benefit of luxurious resources. But with a programme of Doctor Who’s meagre budget, you are really pushed what the designers can achieve over six episodes. Subsequent stories with an...

A very interesting thought struck me whilst I was watching The Aztecs on my spankingly-restored DVD. Barbara is actually the villain of the piece. Let’s take a look at the evidence… she is the monster that is trying to destroy the traditions of this civilisation, she is an impostor, she holds a knife to Tltoxol’s neck and has great, power mad lines like “If you reveal me to the people I’ll have them destroy you! DESTROY YOU!” She even has a telling moment with the Doctor...

I should begin by saying that I have loved Big Finish’s move towards these mini-seasons within the monthly range. This innovative structure has allowed the writers to tell broader, more intricate and more progressive stories that as a listener I’ve found engross me much more than one-off adventures ever did. In fact, of late I’ve found that my listening habits have changed considerably as a result – I now ‘save up’ each trilogy so that I can listen to it as a whole and fully appreciate its...

At the time of its release, The Janus Conjunction was a real divider of opinion. It’s many critics picked holes in author Trevor Baxendale’s scientific inaccuracies (though no-one picked up on the one about the time-travelling, dimensionally-transcendental police telephone box and its bicardial pilot) and its patent lack of freshness, whilst its passionate...

I was astounded to learn that Klein’s Story came about purely as a result of the decision to condense Survival of the Fittest into three episodes. To me, its presence at the heart of this season of adventures is of critical importance to the arc. Whilst the key events in Klein’s history could be inferred from the events of Steve Lyons’ Colditz, there is a world of...

There are certain Doctor Who sub-genres that I love, and others of which I’m less than fond. As a general rule of thumb, most historical adventures; contemporary invasions; wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, headache-prompting brainteasers; and even sweeping space operas are likely to prompt a thumbs-up from me, whereas even the most inventive and well-drawn alien jungles and bug-eyed monsters are unlikely...

What a shame that this should be David Whitaker’s first credited script for the series. Considering that he would go on to write some the best scripts for both Hartnell and Troughton, this is an underwhelming first effort. Let’s not forget his heavy involvement in rewriting many of Season 1’s scripts though, especially his major input into The Daleks. The idea behind The Edge of Destruction - an intense and claustrophobic psycho-logical study of our regulars rapped within the stifling atmosphere of the TARDIS...

Imagine tuning into to Doctor Who during that first year and being entranced by the plains of 100,000 BC, the haunting wilderness of post-apocalyptic Skaro, and even the claustro-phobic spaciousness of the TARDIS. The thrills and scares and laughs of this mad universe blossoming before you and not having a clue what was coming up next. The joy of finding out where the next story would be set, what the monster would be...

The Companion Chronicles were originally conceived as a vehicle for the first four Doctors, who - due to either death or plain old grouchiness - are unable to participate in Big Finish’s better-known full cast audio dramas...

If you haven’t already, please download Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbins today! The clock is ticking...

As January’s Last Voyage had been heavily promoted as the tenth Doctor’s final exclusive audio adventure, when Dead Air popped up on DWO’s release guide I was rather taken aback… just as I would be again, four weeks later, when I opened up my parcel from Play to find one CD less than usual but for the same price! The preceding Doctor Who “audio exclusives” have each been two-disc sets...

“Companion Chronicle”? More like an “Acquaintance Adventure”! As Big Finish’s series of multi-voice audio books has progressed, its remit has, somewhat inevitably, become much wider. The Mahogany Murderers was a bald-faced pilot for the forthcoming Jago & Litefoot series; a completely Doctor-less tale featuring two characters who, despite their vast popularity, could not be considered “companions” by the even the most liberal of fans...

A Thousand Tiny Wings is, at first glance, a straight-forward base-under-siege Doctor Who adventure. The aurally-opulent backdrop of the 1950s Mau Mau uprising and the Kenyan jungle may lend it a certain distinction, and the manner in which the author Andy Lane goes about disposing of his characters is certainly as innovative as it is horrifying, but what really makes this production such...

The first episode of Doctor Who is still one of the most innovative and stunning examples of science fiction that I have enjoyed. It is a magical step into another world for Ian and Barbara (and the audience) but it also kick-started British phenomena; a juggernaut of storytelling that is still evolving and growing to this day. Now that’s staying power. It is a well constructed piece that draws the viewer in within minutes. Everybody loves a mystery and...

The producers must have breathed a sigh of relief. After the culture shock of leaping from 1963 to 100,000 BC, the audience hung around for the next story (or at least 5-6 million of them). They needed to capitalise on that success, to add a new even more dangerous futuristic element to really draw even more viewers in. Get your thinking caps on lads...

I was surprised to see Sarah Sutton’s face adorning the cover of a Companion Chronicle. Even though Big Finish’s third season of the popular talking books had twelve slots to fill as opposed to just four, I had assumed that the run would simply be made up of four adventures for each of the non-Big Finish Doctors; the thought that a ‘later’ Doctor’s companion might feature hadn’t even occurred...

As many of you have already noticed, the site is regenerating alongside the series. We’re already sporting a new look on this index page, and over the course of 2010 the whole site is going to be receiving a major face-lift – one that should finally bring it up to the sort of standard that I’ve been trying to achieve since I first started it up in 2006, following the demise of Outpost Gallifrey’s reviews section.

New features will include Continuity Corner, which we intend to use to ‘show our working’, as it were, in respect of story placements that aren’t immediately obvious (something that we should have done a long time ago really); and Companion Corner, which is essentially a companions’ gallery for each Doctor, inspired by the series of liner notes featured in most of Big Finish’s Doctor Who CDs. There will also be a few cosmetic changes too, which I hope will be self-evident once they appear.

Obviously it’s going to take me a while to revamp the whole site (we currently cover almost a thousand stories across the ranges!) and so I’m planning to tackle one Doctor each month, starting with Ten and working my way backwards. This does mean that you may encounter one or two technical difficulties in the coming months, but I will of course strive to keep these to a minimum, particularly when reviews of the new season are posted and during other busy periods.

Thank you to those of you that have already fed back on the changes to date, and to all of you for your continued support of the site. Oh… and remember to download Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbins between the 7th and 14th of March – let’s get him to number one!

Well, Resistance certainly has curb appeal. Simon Ho- lub, who seems to design almost all of the Companion Chr-onicles’ covers, has really excelled himself with this one. His artwork tells listeners everything that they needs to know about this production, whilst just happening to look incredibly stylish and striking at the same time. And with a name like Steve Lyons’ proudly emblazoned upon it, who of course penned the seventh Doctor and Ace’s outstanding Second World War...

I love the idea of The Three Companions. For obvious reasons, Big Finish generally have to reserve “bonus stories” for their subscribers, however The Three Companions comes....

Like many Big Finish listeners, I was familiar with the fir-st two Lost Stories long before I ever had to chance hear them. In the late 1980s, having novelised every television serial that they lawfully could, Target Books turned to Doctor Who’s aborted 1986 series for some new fodder, their Missing Episodes range culminating in the...

January 2010 saw the release of the first Companion Chronicle to showcase a non-televised companion: Professor Bernice Summerfield. The Eddie Robson-penned story, Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code (or you can just call it ‘The Criminal Code’) starts on the planet Shanquis where pivotal negotiations...

I have very vivid memories of reading The Scarlet Empress the first time around. In keeping with my usual approach, before reading the story itself I flicked to the end of the book to read about the author. And on this occasion, I was surprised - not to mention rather delighted - to find that instead of limiting himself to a brief paragraph or a smattering...

Black Death is the final one-off adventure from IDW Comics, at least for the time being, and it’s a grim and spooky affair. With a 17th century rural setting, it feels quite unlike the majority of the tenth Doctor’s adventures, instead...

IDW Publishing continues its series of regular one-off adventures with Autopia, and, on the strength of previous offerings, I expected something pretty good. Sadly, what I got was a very bland, generic robot story. It’s all very much by the book here...

One thing that Doctor Who comics always do well is mixing up classic elements of the television show. Sometimes they can go overboard, but often they get it just right. And Cold-Blooded War is one of those that gets it right. It’s always fun seeing one of the ‘new’ Doctors meet a ‘classic’....

“Warning: Parts of this comic may read better backward rather than forward.” That’s the footnote on the first page of this one-off, and it’s certainly accurate. Fortunately, I’m quite good with timey-wimey stories…

Before Obverse Books, our favourite Transtemporal adventuress got her own short story anthology, part of Big Finish’s New Worlds label. This is before Panda, back in the days when Tom was Iris’s companion of choice, but after she had taken on the physical form of the wonderful Katy....

A very belated review for this Christmas special, due to heavy workloads and terrible stock shortages at online retailers. Still, at least it’s still winter - it was even snowing a bit when I first settled down to listen to this. So, to recap, Panda has vanished into the wilds of time, space and reality, leaving Iris alone...

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