Doctor Who: Out of Time
by Matt Fitton; dir. Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2020)
David Tennant and Tom Baker make for an arresting duo and are given time to interact, the story’s emotional depth further complemented by Kathryn Drysdale’s performance as Jora. A shame, then, that the threat had to come from blustering, blogging, self-opinionated Daleks.
Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, Part 4: The Brink of Death
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2015)
Colin Baker’s regeneration story. The Sixth Doctor is given the send-off he was denied in the 1980s. Indeed, he is compensated somewhat by being scripted a dual death—once knowing the underlying reasons, once not. Unsurprisingly, Baker puts in a character-defining performance.
Doctor Who: Dalek
by Robert Shearman (Penguin, 2021); audiobook read by Nicholas Briggs (BBC, 2021)
Lawks, what a slog. Shearman takes his own outstanding script and plumps it up into the most middling of novelisations, diluting the action with a stultifying deluge of minor character backstories. Audiobook bonus: Briggs’s Christopher Eccleston voice sounds like a comedy impersonation.
Doctor Who: The Annihilators
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2022)
Excellent voice performances by the actors recast to play classic Doctor Who characters. Conceptually, the story is fun and era-appropriate (albeit not much more than a rehash of Galaxy 4). The execution, however, is unnecessarily choppy, disavowing any hint of longer scenes.
Doctor Who: Spider’s Shadow
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2008)
An uncredited one-part coda to Stewart Sheargold’s ‘The Death Collectors’. The in-story repetition is clunky at first (to the point of sounding like a recording error) yet gradually refines itself into a clever little time-trap mystery. Sylvester McCoy rolls with the punches.
Doctor Who: The King’s Dragon
by Una McCormack (BBC, 2010); audiobook read by Nicholas Briggs (AudioGO, 2011)
Somewhat drawn-out, like an old four-parter told over six episodes. Nonetheless, McCormack tells a steady tale amidst the obligatory befriendings, betrayals and plot-twisting volte-faces. The support cast has some depth and the Doctor, Rory and Amy are spot-on. Nick Briggs reads well.
Doctor Who: The Light at the End
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2013)
A 50th anniversary celebration featuring Doctors Four through Eight. The story is remarkably coherent and remains so despite incorporating a plethora of characters and cameos. The Doctors themselves take centre stage and all feel important. Definitely one of Big Finish’s better efforts.
Doctor Who: The Last Day at Work
by Harry Draper; audiobook read by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2018)
Draper writes well for the Second Doctor and Jamie, crafting a short story with a neat premise and a mood very much in keeping with its valedictory nature. Narrator Nicholas Briggs joins in by giving a passable impersonation of the two leads.
Doctor Who: The Enigma Dimension
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2017)
John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce in a story with big ideas. What can go wrong? Answer: the Daleks—Doctor Who’s greatest folly—gone inexplicably viral. Fine acting notwithstanding, the Time War boils down to yet another tiresome harangue by demented pepper pots.
Doctor Who: Forever Fallen
by Joshua Wanisko; audiobook read by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2016)
A nicely low-key story exploring one of Doctor Who’s great untapped questions: what would happen if the villain just stopped when given the chance to rethink his megalomaniacal scheme? Between them, Wanisko and Briggs capture some of the Seventh Doctor’s melancholic brooding.