Plum Pudding Reviews

WORSHIP YOUR ONE TRUE GOD Expectant by Xanna Eve Chown “ For a hero, you’re the most selfish person I know!” “I know and I’m sorry” “Good!” Expectant is a delightfully simple story that actually goes somewhat crazy with its concept, and well, it’s very Torchwoodian. Throughout Torchwood, we often get unsympathetic portrayals of Jack. End of Days, Adrift, definitely Children of Earth and even in the audios with Poker Face, we usually see the side of Jack that doesn’t deal with the consequences of what he does, or really emotes much more than an eyebrow raise and a double entendre. Luckily, Expectant, while not being the best Jack story, still wonderfully understands how to deal with this and make Jack a sympathetic protagonist. Much of the story is Jack and his midwife Jonty running away from random threats (with the occasional Ianto cameo) but it goes surprisingly hard not only with the emotional ramifications of Jack losing Owen and Tosh and as such doing something incredibly impulsiv...

 

  (MAIN RANGE): Roswell  Starring Indira Varma as Suzie Costello 2003 Susie Costello was often considered the kind of agent that served as a Lone Wolf. Tosh was best at the computer stuff back at the base, she was good at teamwork. It wasn’t like you could call Owen a team player, and to be honest, Ianto was just some kind of tea boy.  Nonetheless, more often than not, Suzie was left to her own devices when she was assigned a mission.  Some kind of respect that Jack had for her or something. However minuscule it was.   To be honest, Suzie didn’t think much of the others. Jack wasn’t much of a leader, just a horny bastard who was always eyeing his team rather than supporting them.  Owen was good in bed and that was about it, and Tosh and Ianto usually felt beneath her attention.  So Suzie was glad she was left to her own devices. Still, that afternoon, she was invited into Jack’s office. “Orders from Yvonne. Torchwood LA has gone silent.” Jack said, loo...

  Static by Jonathan Morris Once in a while I'm reminded why I love the Main Range. Static is one of those brilliant tales out there, a real great one. While it in no way compares to The Chimes of Midnight like the website is so insistent upon, it's definitely the best Flip/Connie one, and also probably one of the best Big Finish horror stories they've done. High Praise, but what Static does best is cool sci-fi where the ideas are murky and vague, and still by the end, you've learned almost nothing.  A disclaimer: This Sleep Of Death, although a fine story, kind of infuriated me as I was listening to this one as everything Static does really well, Sleep of Death does slightly worse, and it does spoil this one while you're at it. It wasn't a good thing to have heard before this one, as it certainly dampened my enjoyment of it. Static is exactly the kind of story you have to go into Blind.  And so I'm not going to give it much more than that. It's tightly ...

Dear Doctor, Why Hello There. No. No I'm Not Dead. Surprise. Oh, I'm certain you thought I was. Oh, but someone kill the Doctor? Really? Yes, me. The original bloke. I survived!  I'm certain you remember that whole trick with Davros? How I managed to move incredibly quickly against all probability enough to reroute a laser blast into a Vortex Manipulator.  Well. I wonder if I could have possibily done that again to avoid the Valeyard's wicked laser bolt.  Surprise, I did.  So, I'm here.  Of course, perhaps I wasn't as fast as I should have been. Because I was feigning being asleep. I Got a bit singed. A Bit Regenerated.  New Face. I look a bit old, of course, but quite familiar. I have been rather impressed of recent. I know you've taken up Two New Companions already (Millie and Calvin their names are, I believe) But I want you to know. You are now the Doctor. You're always going to be the Doctor. You always have been, no matter what anyone says. You wer...

NCJDDAS: Diefall The Dench Doctor: The Last Adventure Part Six of Six Continues Directly From The Previous Story Happy 57th Doctor Who Day Chapter One The Cloister Bell Tolled as Roman, Cherry and Marsha began their planning. "We have to save the Doctor from the Valeyard." Cherry declared. "And it's going to work, because this time, there are three of us. And overcrowded TARDIS teams get shit done."  "I'm going to get shafted hard for screentime in this one, aren't I?" Marsha commented. "Hey!" Cherry complained. "At least you're on the cover!"  "Now, now, Girls." Roman said. "All we have right now is the Doctor's TARDIS and our brains to get a way around an intergalactic army of admittedly terrifying chairs. What do we do?"  "Well, who beat those chairs to begin with?" Cherry asked.  "Dorothy "Ace" McShane!" Roman declared happily. "Oh, I haven't seen her in ...

  NCJDDAS: The Return of the Existentially Terrifying Chairs From Lungbarrow The Last Adventure Starring Dame Judi Dench as The Doctor, Lisa Kudrow as Marsha and Scarlett Johansson as Cherry Guest Starring Sophie Aldred as Ace and Louise Jameson as Leela Takes place a reasonable gap after It's A Coup! So I can fill in as many Dench/Marsha/Cherry stories as I want. It's like that stupid infinite gap between Time Flight and Arc of Infinity or Planet of Fire and Caves of Androzani for some reason  Part Five of Six Chapter One The Doctor, Marsha and Cherry slumped around the TARDIS.  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" proclaimed Marsha. "We haven't done anything for ages! Why is the TARDIS taking so long to get somewhere?" "Hm, I dunno, that is odd." Cherry commented. "Doctor, do you have any idea?" The Doctor looked at Cherry and Marsha with weary eyes. "We're being drawn of course to the original plan of going ...

  The Middle by Chris Chapman The Middle is a sci fi story that is highly enjoyable, and although I didn't really love it, I did tend to enjoy it quite a lot in that it unlike many Main Range stories, was written precisely and efficiently, a sort of thing that really is absent quite frequently in these two hour runtime thingys. At least of recent. The Main Range is the most unforgiving of formats. You have the time to expand your story more than any other time, (unless you're writing an entire boxset and that never turns out well for just one writer woah boy) but you also have to have enough plot to fill it out. Stories like Last of The Cybermen or Absolute Power fail in this regard. They only have the basest of ideas, and aren't written very entertainingly. On the other hand, if you have a good story, your plot will shine in the Main Range more than anywhere else. I would herald the Middle as the best story in recent years if it wasn't for Quicksilver and The Two Maste...

NCJDDAS: It's A Coup!  The Last Adventure Part Four of Six Starring Judi Dench as The Doctor, Lisa Kudrow as Marsha and Scarlett Johansson as Cherry From a Prompt by Giraffe Chapter One "I WANT TO GO HOME!" Marsha screamed.  "You... want to go home?" Cherry asked.  "I want to go home!" Marsha whined. "The events of the as of yet unwritten story that continues on from The Century Box by Gallifrey_Immigrant, they have left me positively bereft!" Marsha hammed in the way only Lisa Kudrow can, collapsing onto the floor of the TARDIS overdramatically.  For, understandably, this serves as the first real Marsha story with her as a companion (no, Century Box and Living Doubt don't count) and now, you know that her primary character trait is overdramatic theater kid that never grew up whatsoever. A good therapist would say that this could be because of her difficult childhood (no parents) or the struggles of being a lesbian in the 1920s (yeah, maj...

   Brenda Blethyn's First Set Released as The Doctor! Is it the first chronological? Probably Not! 0.1 A Shooting Star Calvin is your ordinary neighborhood curmudgeon. He hasn't done anything interesting once. He wakes up to find a woman making him tea. She's called the Doctor. And she says there's a radioactive meteorite in his lawn. 0.2 Red Ledger Calvin doesn't go to parties. He can't stand them. So it's a tad confusing when he wakes up in a teenager's party, Halloween Night, standing over a dead body. The Doctor has a mystery to solve, and her new bestie is one of the suspects... 0.3 Rising Tides, Crashing Skies It's the same Halloween night and the Doctor has found the killer. It's not going to be easy to catch him. Naturally, she's going to enlist the help of AMELIA EARHART FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. I mean...wouldn't you?

 (MAIN RANGE): High Rise  Part Two  Starring Alison Brie as The Doctor, Gillian Jacobs as Paige and Paul Clayton as Colchester Warning: Body Horror  Previously On Doctor Who... The Doctor, trapped on earth without a TARDIS, went a bit nuts and bought an expensive apartment on sheer impulse. As her companion Paige tried to sort her out of her emotional depths, she discovered the Doctor wasn't the only one. With the help of Mr. Colchester, Torchwood agent, (and his hubby Colin) they uncovered a series of murders in the apartments...all serving as a cover for Cybermen experimentation on the tenants. And The Doctor, is first on the bill.  Chapter One "Doctor." Paige said, breathlessly. "What are they doing to you?"  The Cybermen continued to drill into her neck. The Doctor continued to smile, but she didn't say anything for a while, until the Cybermen took something out of her neck and then put something back in. She then spoke out with her newly replaced vocal...