Doom Coalition 4

Ship In A Bottle By John Dorney

Ship in A Bottle is actually not that good, which is a rarity for two or three-hander audios. The stakes are as high as they can be, and Ship In The Bottle would be Fine- if it wasn’t for the fact that it feels irrelevant due to the fact that the stakes are so high. There is some pretty good character work in it, and Helen and Liv are getting really close for some glorious reason. But ultimately, ship in the Bottle is nothing to write home about. 

Bring Me Knitting: I love this Doctor. He’s pretty much pitch perfect at this point. The Eighth Doctor is usually best at his rawest, and he’s pretty good here. 

Liv is Perfect: The episodes best moment is Liv really going at the Doctor for him vamoosing during the Crucible Of Souls. It’s exactly what the audience was thinking. 

For once, as the audience, we are the companions perspective. Why did eight leave? We don’t know, and it’s brilliant that we don’t. We have to guess at his character. 

And Liv’s determination to win being stronger than the Doctor and Helen’s, I wouldn’t have suspected, but it does make perfect sense.

I Could Do So Much More: Helen is useful and integral to the plot, but it’s hard not to be with only three characters. She comes up with some pretty smart ideas, and you don’t feel like she’s sidelined.

Overall: There’s some good to be found here, but this point in the story we don’t need a break/recap/only-exists-to-fix-cliffhanger episode. 7.5/10

Songs Of Love By Matt Fitton

Matt Fitton actually puts out a belter of a story here, Songs Of Love is River’s final Doom Coalition appearance and wraps up a lot of her arc in both this and the Diary Of River Song. It also reintroduces Calleera into the Doom Coalition plot, and features Gallifreyan politics without being boring.

Only Water In The Forest Is The River: River takes over from the Doctor as our main character, and although Helen and Liv are there, they’re doing other things, as more of an afterthought, whereas, River’s chess game with Padrac where she manipulates him and Calleera takes center stage. River is always at her best when she’s a unknown capacity, and without the Doctor she’s far more edgy and pragmatic. 

River is absolutely astonishing here. I adore her, she’s really made an impact on this series. The final moments she has with the Doctor are especially wonderful.

Liv is Perfect: Liv and Helen feel like a second thought to this story, and are it's weakest point, but Liv does steal a plane.

I Could Do So Much More: Helen Could Do So Much More. Her remarks about her being unpaid hired help in The Sonomancer are becoming more accurate by the day.

Overall: Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for River, but this one is lovely, and builds up the second half of the set exceedingly well. 9/10

The Side Of The Angels By Matt Fitton

The Side Of The Angels has (count ‘em!) The Monk, Ollistra, The Weeping Angels, The Eleven, Padrac, Calleera, The Doctor, Liv, Helen, and the ongoing plot of Doom Coalition to take care of, and it is only barely acceptable.

The Side Of The Angels admittedly does use it's titular monsters very well, with great sound design, but everything feels crowded, even if it does wrap up neatly with a bow. The Eleven is Especially marvelous. The latter half of Doom Coalition 4 heavily features him, and it’s pretty extraordinarily good throughout, now that all of the 11 personalities have been developed better. I can’t even do my usual character sections I do for these reviews, as all of the characters are crowded, and it’s Some stray observations:

The Monk and The Doctor are really mad at each other, which is nice continuity, and I love Rufus’ Hound’s incarnation so much.

Ollistra doesn’t need to be here, and it seems like a stupid advertisement for the subpar War Doctor series (Sorry John Hurt)

Liv and Helen Have some great scenes, they fight back the angels exceedingly resourcefully. Liv gets her best dig in at the Eleven with “The Carnival’s In Town Again,”

Caleera gets a nice cameo. She’s basically a god, she’s a lot more frightening in set four than in two.
The Angels are extraordinarily creepy on audio, the dead voices usage established in Time of Angels used to amazing effect.

The Doctor does more stuff than other people do at least after being absent. With a rewrite this could be a modern classic.

Overall:  My opinion has changed completely on this one, it’s a well done 9/10.

Stop The Clock By John Dorney

Stop the Clock is a pretty great story that does weird things to the entire arc of Doom Coalition, bringing it back to the start with the assumedly standalone Red Lady, which makes The Red Lady in turn lose a bit of impact, but all in all, it’s pretty spectacular. It is climactic, the usual action set piece of Gallifrey feeling pretty amazing for once, and it nails that siege feeling. Least of all, it eloquently beats the “How Do We Beat The God” problem by having Caleera betray Padrac, which was even rather nicely foreshadowed. The King of Stop The Clock is decidedly the Eleven, given some bloody exquisite material. I wonder why fans don’t seem to like him as much after Doom Coalition One, it really doesn’t get much better in terms of baddies, and Mark Bonnar is utterly fantastic. It may feel crowded, similarly to Side of Angels, though a lot less so, but Liv Helen and The Doctor get plenty to do, and the conclusion to the arc feels decisive while still Setting up more and taking the eight doctor series to new places.
9/10

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