Top Nine Underrated Big Finish Characters In No Order

For the 200th post on this blog, I wanted to do a special thing. I debated putting up an episode of the Last Adventure, or a Main Range story, but this blog started as a review blog, and a subject I wanted to talk about occurred to me. The Characters of Big Finish. Primarily the companions, but also the other inventions of the company over the years. Of course, not all their successes have been their own characters. I intend to do another list shortly on reinvention of characters, the way they took duds like Mel or unexplored slates like Yvonne Hartman and made them great. But for the moment, I wanted to look back and consider the few magnificent characters the company has made, and talk about a few of them. Mostly the lesser knowns. Of course, there are monolith's on Evelyn Smythe and Charley Pollard, and how they're great, (they're even better than most on this list, if not all) but for this post, let's speak for the characters that aren't always remembered, just because they're on audio instead of television. 

Ann Kelso 

Ann Kelso is a particularly brilliant character that actually plays on our perception of the companion, and the interchangeability of them. Ann Kelso enters the TARDIS as a relatively competent police woman to bounce off of the Fourth Doctor. She is bland enough, but likable. We don't think twice about her, really. She has the coolness of Romana, which allows her to take The Doctor down a peg at times, and is remarkably human like Sarah Jane, and as strong-willed and awesome as Leela (okay, less awesome, very few are) but that's the point. She is a generic who girl, and well, delving into spoilers now, run while you still can but that makes the fact that she's a sleeper agent, and not really the Doctor's friend, that's so terrifying. She's convincing. It plays on us so well, because of our perceptions. Ann Kelso changes so completely as Anya Kingdom, and I couldn't be more excited to see her play off of David Tennant in the next year. An underrated companion that is fantastic, because she's so warm and inviting, and usual, that allows her to sweep the rug out from beneath our feet. No other show can really do that, and it's a remarkably brilliant feat to play off of Doctor Who's continually changing cast.

St. John Colchester

Mr. Colchester is the best gay character I have seen in any piece of media. He's a wry, awesome terminator like figure in a cardigan, serious, and late middle aged, and yet, he's gay. It's not that important to his character. It's nice that he's in a loving relationship, of course, that's great, but even so. I don't love Colchester for that reason, even though he's a icon for what creators should be doing, making characters first and gay characters second, but I love Colchester because he's just so incredibly enjoyable. I love curmudgeonly characters like him that are actually awesome leaders. Colchester gets the best moments of Aliens Among Us too, from his introduction in Changes Everything, to fighting off Bilis Manger's assassins at the top of Ritz Tower, to the chilling ending of Tagged. Colchester is just so incredibly perfect. 

The Eleven (and his other incarnations) 

The Eleven is the best concept for a Time Lord villain ever. There. I said it. And as much as I love his other selves, Mark Bonnar as The Eleven, I think is one of the best performances we've received on audio. Doesn't mean I won't be talking about the others too! Throughout Doom Coalition and Ravenous, The Eleven's central concept was amazingly well performed. The best part about the character is how well both Mark Bonnar, Julia McKenzie and John Heffernan play all of their incarnations. It really is amazing to hear them, but even despite that, the writing surrounding the character, his odd friendship that develops with Helen, the manic frenzy of the Nine trying desperately to convince Liv and Helen he was The Doctor, there's so much good stuff surrounding the character. I just love them.

The Doctor (David Warner)

There were plenty of Unbound Doctors, actors who played the Doctor for one or two stories. Yet only one of them proved so undeniable, so incredible and impossible to shake off, that he came back. 

David Warner is just, undeniably to me, the Doctor. He's breathtakingly good, similar to Eccleston, as a Doctor with cracks in his normally unflappable skin. He breaks down under responsibility. He's tired of being so famous throughout the universe that armies run at the mention of his name. He doesn't like that. It's rather annoying to him. And he's the president of the universe. As ludicrous as it sounds, unlike the way that Moffat played the concept for comedy in an unconvincing fashion, this is played completely straight and for biting drama. The Doctor can't handle that. He's the Doctor. And his chemistry with Lisa Bowerman and Mark Gatiss Sam Kisgart! David Warner is every bit as valid to me as John Hurt or Jo Martin or David Bradley, or even Paul McGann. Just because they haven't had a real TV run doesn't make them not the Doctor. Just because he's from another universe doesn't make him not The Doctor. 

Phillipa 'Flip' Jackson/Ramon

I debated listing Connie here too, but I thought that was perhaps a little unfair that Six's companions would eat up two spots. Flip is just magical. She's a beacon of light, so optimistic and so fun to listen to. Yep, that's right. Fun. Flip is especially great because she is a new series kind of companion shoved right next to a classic Doctor. The Doctor at this point in his life, isn't even quite sure how to react!

Flip is the kind of character who quips and makes pop culture references, and isn't the usual Victoria, Liz, Vicki, Nyssa, classic kind of companion archetype. And well, Flip is really still half of Connie to be honest, they work so well together. Because Constance is that archetype. As Flip says it, the two of them have the Doctor on the ropes!

Orr

When I first heard the concept of Orr, my first thought was "oh no. the writers are gonna ruin this." And well... they did the exact opposite. Orr is a character that could have easily been exploited by lesser writers. But Orr is treated like a human being (or an alien being or whatever) and given all the dignity and respect that that deserves. They're an empath, and so that predicates them to being caring and thoughtful. It's fantastic. Orr is by far and away the new series of Torchwood's best creation. A wonderfully kind empathic soul. They're simply phenomenal.

The Rani (Siobhan Redmond) 

What? No Master spot on this list? You gave one to the RANI? What the heck? 

Ah, here's the thing. The Master, Alex Macqueen being incredible aside, The Master in Big Finish is usually a character that amounts to Big Finish utilizing the already amazing television casting and making Geoffrey Beevers, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Gomez, and the like, even better. Once again, I'd love to add a Macqueen spot to this list, but once again, the universally praised characters aren't gonna get as much love here. The Rani (and the same is true for Rufus Hound as The Monk) is a recasting that although is nothing like Kate O'Mara, is just so purely The Rani! She has the same amount of joy radiating from her at all times, that same raw hamminess that Kate O'Mara possesses. She's incredible. 

'Nat'

No, I'm not looking at the bottom of the barrel, Nat IFORGOTHERLASTNAMEIMSORRY is a phenomenal character, played to perfection by Niky Wardley. The emotional resonance she brings to this side character who is really only there to play off of Donna is incredibly impressive. She's a woman unsatisfied with her life, who thinks that Donna has everything, she's still sort of superficial like Donna, but a quieter, emotionally worried woman who can't cope with time travel and aliens and all that kind of stuff well. The Sorceror of Albion barely has Donna in it, Nat can carry the story so well. And honestly, when I heard Donna Noble Kidnapped was a thing for the first time, I thought Big Finish were scraping the bottom of the barrel, giving a comedy side character a spinoff. Nat is a big reason for that spinoff's incredible success. 

Tania Bell

Tania Bell broke me. I didn't think such a thing was possible, Doctor Who has always been, absolutely, THE number one LGBT franchise, but Tania Bell moved me to tears in Wild Animals, and remained utterly awesome for the rest of the set. She's a wonderfully down to earth and realistic character, despite being girlfriends with a time traveller and a Torchwood agent, and all of that, but Tania Bell pushed me to realize how little quality attention and character is given to Transgender characters, and how they can be so easily forgotten. I can only think of one other Transgender character I have seen on television, a version of Mrs. Hudson on the show Elementary that was quickly shoved under the rugs after season one. As someone with close transgender friends this can be painful. And Tania Bell is the perfect example of what Big Finish does that is right, and how important it is. Tania Bell is awesome. 

The ultimate example of how important representation is, but no matter how important it is, it's still secondary to creating good characters. And with Tania Bell, Mr. Colchester, Orr, and many others, Big Finish is making a wonderful stand, of which I utterly appreciate. 

Big Finish: We Love Stories.