Doom Coalition 2

Beachhead by Nicholas Briggs

Beachhead is basically The Galileo Trap In all but name. This is the kind of story I can’t really talk about much as there’s so little to say. The Voord are decent. I really like this is a village from one of 3’s unseen UNIT adventures, and I adore this TARDIS team. Ultimately Unoriginal, I can’t give this much of a full review, but it’s far better than Satanic Mill, so an extra half point for that I guess. Most things are though. Overall: 7/10

Scenes From Her Life By John Dorney

This is the stuff I love. Scenes From Her Life is ultimately, much worse than the Red Lady, but nigh everything is, and Scenes has its own riveting style and brilliance that makes it very much it’s own thing. 

Bring Me Knitting: McGann is constantly good. I don’t even know why I give him a section, he’s just so darn consistent. It’s never him that’s bad, more the writing. And with Big Finish, that can be rare. 

I’m Sorry About The Doctor: Peak Liv material, with her mentoring Helen as being the Doctor’s companion, and making her own wry comments throughout. Her saying that they go out immediately after The Doctor leaves is her best material so far.

I Could Do So Much More: Ultimately a Helen Story, scenes best moments are of Caleera and Helen’s dynamic and how Caleera is very much Helen gone wrong. The story’s at its richest when the two of them are together and you suddenly realize how very much Helen is a pawn in Caleera’s game. 

Overall: I could write about Caleera but most of what she does is only good in relation to Helen, minus the tantalizing idea that Callera’s In love with the Eleven which was ultimately ignored. But, the point is is that Scenes From Her Life is very very good, and what the modern series should be doing: 9/10

The Gift By Marc Platt

This is the guy who wrote Spare Parts. It’s hard to believe, as The Gift is very bad. It’s ultimately a story about a psychic gift that spews money for some dang reason, and how this is in fact, bad. Every idiom about how greed is downfall in this story has been done before, most of them by Charles Dickens in the 1800s and the rest by Star Trek’s Ferengi. I really don’t like this one. 

Bring Me Knitting: Despite the story being a subpar effort, he brings validity to it by his electrifying chemistry with Caleera. Which is good. Obviously. 

I’m Sorry About The Doctor: Doesn’t do much, but the moral of the story aside from the other tedious ones is that you do not rob Liv Chenka. 

I Could Do So Much More: I like that now we’re close to her own era, Helen becomes a more seasoned traveler, and teaches Liv the ropes for once. If only this was dwelled on. 

The Sonomancer: Cameos near the end, and these scenes were obviously edited in by someone else to add in a link between the stories, as they are so much better than the rest of the story,

Overall: Minus The King Lear, which gives some real flair to it, The Gift is piffling set up. Not a gift to your ears: 5/10

The Somomancer By Matt Fitton

Matt Fitton rarely nails it. He tends to put out one or two great stories once in a while, and the rest are potato salad. Whenever he tries the experimental (see Whodunnit) he fails terribly. But Doom Coalition tends to be his strongest showing. There’s a lot of him in here and Ravenous. Nonetheless, he can write ensemble exceedingly well, which is what stories like this need. We have our three regulars, our two recurring villains, and River fricking Song. That’s ignoring the guest stars. There’s a lot to do here, and surprisingly, The Sonomancer works rather well. There’s some fun bits with giant robot mining machines punching each other. It works a lot better on audio then you’d think. 

Bring Me Knitting: Paul McGann is not the focus here. He can’t meet River, so the work goes to Liv and Helen most of the runtime. 

Liv is Perfect: A Category Name Change was Necessary. 

I Could Do So Much More: Helen is our main here again, and it’s good, as she can sometimes be forgotten. I love her lampshading this with calling herself Unpaid hired Help. She’s really gelled with Nicola Walker and Paul McGann at this point.

The Only Water In The Forest Is The River: River shouldn’t be in Doom Coalition. But she works really, really well. I’m surprised too. She adds weight to the proceedings, and her chemistry with the rest of the cast is lovely. It gets even better when she becomes a Nun. I swear, it makes sense in context. 

The Sonomancer: She’s a bit stupid as she’s become one of those Ludicrously powerful threats that could kill the Doctor by blinking. It’s almost hard to believe how this random time lady got to Sutekh level. Nonetheless she’s a competent villain, if she seems a little more greater scope evil. 

The Eleven: The Eleven is much less screechy here, and he’s never going to reach the highs he did in his first story, but he’s still bloody great. You can believe he’d just randomly decide to kill any member of the cast at any moment.

Overall: The Sonomancer is a bit of a cluster problem the more you think about it, but ultimately it works. Barely. You can feel that one mistake in the writing it’d fall into pieces any moment, but somehow it reaches a 8/10.

UPDATE: