Doctor Who: Last of the Cybermen
by Alan Barnes (Big Finish, 2015)
A little too fan-indulgent in places and the humour doesn’t always work. Still, Barnes at least tries something interesting with plot and character, sending the Sixth Doctor back (rather than bringing an old Doctor forward) to pay homage to the Troughton era.
Running Through Corridors: Rob and Toby’s Marathon Watch of Doctor Who, Volume 1: The 60s
by Rob Shearman & Toby Hadoke (Mad Norwegian Press, 2010)
A book tailored to serious fans (although even those casual New Millennium Whovians who spurn the old DVDs could do worse than experience Doctor Who’s black and white era by proxy of Shearman and Hadoke). Generous critical analysis meets nostalgic love letter.
Doctor Who: Order of the Daleks
by Mike Tucker (Big Finish, 2016)
The people at Big Finish seem very chuffed with themselves for having thought of Daleks with stained glass panelling. Fair enough; it’s a nice image. But it’s also the only original idea on show (so to speak) in this run-of-the-mill audio adventure.
Doctor Who: Day of the Vashta Nerada
by Matt Fitton (Big Finish, 2017)
Conceptually, there’s a lot to like about bringing New Series monsters (and now even the Time War) to Classic Who. The story itself, however, is so bog-standard a rehash of earlier plotlines that it plays out like a badly degraded VHS transfer.
Doctor Who: The Carrionite Curse
by Simon Guerrier (Big Finish, 2017)
Guerrier captures the Sixth Doctor’s character and the salient features of that era (in a good way). Colin Baker’s vitality is undiminished 30+ years on, but the Carrionites—being the type of monster that screeches and threatens but never attacks—are disappointing.
Doctor Who: Empire of the Racnoss
by Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2017)
Peter Davison is in fine form and clearly relishing his freedom from petulant, dialogue deadweight companions. Unfortunately the Racnoss are equally hard to stomach, here proving themselves to be one of Doctor Who’s most incessantly shrill, one-dimensional and irrationally motivated alien races.
Doctor Who: Night of the Vashta Nerada
by John Dorney (Big Finish, 2017)
A standard base under siege story with stock characters but nice execution and snatches of dark humour. The script is slick and the actors embrace their parts, Tom Baker veering away from his latter-day flippancy to give an unusually measured, heartfelt performance.
Doctor Who: Terror of the Sontarans
by John Dorney & Dan Starkey (Big Finish, 2015)
The Seventh Doctor is in full-on affability mode, drained of all intensity; the Sontarans are demented à la Strax; and one of the minor characters is channelling his inner Lord Flashheart. A specious comedy where only Bonnie Langford takes her role seriously.
Doctor Who: The Two Masters
by John Dorney (Big Finish, 2016)
Though undoubtedly ingenious— relegating Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor to a supporting role while prefiguring the multi-Master double-up of ‘World Enough and Time’—The Two Masters asks too much of the audio format, voicing and characterising its twin antagonists in too similar a fashion.
Doctor Who: Tomb of Valdemar
by Simon Messingham (BBC, 2000)
Messingham writes in the present tense, and with a framing device fit to discombobulate readers weaned on Terrance Dicks and the like. The result is a fully fledged SF novel that artfully showcases—rather than props itself up on—the Fourth Doctor.