Plum Pudding Reviews

  The Memory Bank And Other Stories As someone who's written over one-hundred Doctor Who short stories (not all of them good, mind you) I have a special appreciation for the short story in Doctor Who, and the closest equivalent bar the short trips (I cannot handle narration for some goddamn reason) is these anthology releases from the main range. I love them so damn much, and I've only heard two - You Are The Doctor and Blood on Santa's Claw were two phenomenal collections, and they really, and I mean, really, worked. Both were incredibly consistent collections across the board - granted Blood had a better overarching theme, but that was because it told three stories instead of two (which worked out quite well for it I might add) and You Are The Doctor told four more seperate stories with their own identity than Blood - which had a cohesive center due to being penned by one writer. Although I prefer Blood on Santa's Claw for being fucking magnificent I still maintain a ...

Halloween Special: The Walking Dench Chapter One  -- Hello -  c c can   you hear me * * - * - This is Trinity -  - Wells  - They're everywhere  t hey're everywhere they 're  * -- If you can hear - me - then it's already too late. ** - No one is coming  -- - *  * * * - - N o   one C ccan stop them  - -  - -  * * * Most Zombie Apocalypses fail because Zombies are inherently walking dead creatures and have next to no brain cells. They are usually very slow, and if they are fast, they for some reason lose all form of durability that the slow ones had for no apparent reason. This is the inverse law of Zombies, because although all of humanity has collapsed to the zombie plague, the protagonists need to be able to escape long enough to tell a story. The invincible villain is an impossibility in media.  Most Zombie Apocalypses are less scary than Cybermen or Borg apocalypses, because the relentless hive mind villai...

 WARNING: Review contains politics The Silurian Candidate by Matthew J Elliott I before this review had glanced at two other reviews on separate sites which gave the Silurian Candidate respective scores of 1 and 10. Personally, I take a much more median approach. The Silurian Candidate is an interesting one, because in terms of plot, it's not really good at all, but in terms of character, I think it utilizes Seven, Ace and Mel like no other story with them does. The trio work so damn well that even in some of their worse stories I can't help but adore them. Perhaps the Silurian Candidate is a character piece. On the other hand, most of the time is spent on the runaround rather than the character - although Part One does it's best to start us off strongly at the least. Outside this, it does quite little to dispel anything from the classic Silurian formula, although it had a chance to on multiple occasions. The initial hook of the story makes you believe that the Doctor and c...

 Fortitude by James Goss With a quick return to the Torchwood range, I find myself once more encountering Queen Victoria. Fortitude is certainly an interesting one, the closest of the plays I’ve listened to to the Queen’s actual life. Her depiction in Fortitude is quite an unsympathetic one, portraying her as a brutal oppresser which is something that took me some time to get used to after her prior turns as something almost close to a protagonist (although to be fair, I did hear Save Our Souls before this one although it comes after) and one could say ultimate villain of the piece. She’s a venomous figure in this one, her kind depths feel like nothing but a front. That’s not to say that the other characters come across as very sympathetic either - it’s hard to find a point of view to latch onto as a protagonist. I’m not sure I’m happy with its portrayal of Maharaja Singh - it starts out quite well, but he does have a moment where our supposed protagonist and view point falls into ...

  The Waters of Amsterdam by Jonathan Morris  "Love has an inconvenient habit of overcoming hate." The Waters of Amsterdam genuinely feels to me like one of the best stories I've reviewed in months, possibly the best story since Year of the Bat or Night of 1000 Stars. It certainly even manages to trounce the Secret History and World Apart (Both of which I also gave a perfect score, so you know this will be an especially good one) and it does all of this and more whilst focusing on a love interest for fucking Tegan. If you told me that my favorite audio since Buying Time and The Wrong Woman would be one focusing on a romance plot involving TEGAN I would have laughed at you hysterically. Big Finish's romance plots oft fall flat for me - Mel's romance in the Blood Furnace in particular was a pathetic joke. And yet this story really managed to invest me. That's not the only thing it has going for it either - it's got a clever timey wimey core of a story that...

  Note: I am one of the two people on the planet that doesn't really care for the Lucie Eighth Doctor Adventures. This does not mean that I'm being like. Mean for the sake of being mean. I really like and respect the people involved in these productions. These are just my opinions on the ultimate products. The Eighth Doctor and Lucie series has been something I've been putting off for some time, as minus the magnificent Human Resources and No More Lies, I considered Series One to be utter treacle, and people said Series Two was worse. I mean, I'm only halfway done, and it's probably not worse? It's still mostly shit, I'll grant you, but I do so far think it's an improvement, and I have enough thoughts on the series halfway through to split this review into two sets - which I shall also do for the following series of the Eighth Doctor - I feel that the boxset length reviews remain the most manageable length, and it's probably best to stick to a four s...

Torchwood: Least Dangerous Game A Tale from the Worlds of Torchwood Starring Samuel Barnett and Kate Mulgrew * * *   "Have you ever read the Short Story, The Most Dangerous Game?" Norton Folgate asked, disinterestedly. He threw the card into the pile. Six of hearts.  "No." She responded, doing the same.  Three of spades.  "Really? Well, you'd like it." he replied. "Very gutsy little story. Read it in my English class. It stuck with me."   Eight of clubs.  "You see, it's all about this sort of fellow, Rainsford, and he goes to this island," He continued, "There's this madman there - a big Russian sort of chap, Zaroff. And our dashing hero is invited to his house for dinner." King of hearts.  "Zaroff, he's a hunter that has grown bored of hunting. He's killed wolves, and tigers, and lions, and hunted the dodo to extinction or something or other. No kind of game shows him any challenge. So he's got to...

  The Secret History by Eddie Robson The Big 2-0-0 of the Main Range is so good, it's almost difficult to summarize. Whilst 6/Jamie/Zoe failed to really grab me, (and I still haven't picked up the Defectors), 5/Vicki/Steven is just such an undeniably brilliant and magnificent pairing that it's disgusting we haven't gotten 23 boxsets. They're so good - Davison slots into Hartnell's role so well, even though he's obviously number 5 and something's wrong... it completely sells me on the very concept of the Locum Doctors trilogy. The first two parts are some of the most engrossing pure historical I've ever heard, and yet even when the monsters pop up for Part Three and Four, you might expect the audience to gag, but the seeds have been laid so expertly for the alien appearance, you're immediately willing to accept it. A spoilery fellow shows up in this release to galavant about and occasionally sprout vague spoilers for those who have heard the 8DAs,...

  The Blood Furnace by Eddie Robson I can't pretend that the Blood Furnace is an all time triumph of writing in Doctor Who - that it's completely original, has as many unique ideas as Mummy On The Orient Express, or filled with as much original character drama as Scherzo - but I doubt that it's trying to be that. The Blood Furnace is fun, and it's pleased enough with telling the story it wants to tell. I don't know if my standards are getting lower after a few of these releases, and it can be quite sleepy at first, but I hold the Blood Furnace over a few stories like Life of Crime or Absolute Power in that it held my attention for the two hours. It's a low bar, but you'd be surprised what a good bar of measurement it is for these stories - and when you can list things about it in particular that you actually liked - well. That's just marvellous! First - it's got a very good integral concept. The idea of these dockyards as a setting for a who story le...

All aboard, me hearties, for a rip-roaring tale of adventure on the high seas! There'll be rum for all and sea shanties galore as we travel back in time to join the valiant crew of the good ship Sea Eagle, braving perils, pirates and a peripatetic old sea-dog known only as the Doctor! Gasp as our Gallifreyan buccaneer crosses swords with the fearsome Red Jasper, scourge of the seven seas and possessor of at least one wooden leg! Thrill as Evil Evelyn the Pirate Queen sets sail in search of buried treasure, with only a foppish ship's captain and an innocent young cabin boy by her side! Marvel at the melodious mayhem which ensues as we sail the ocean blue! And wonder why Evelyn still hasn't realised that very few stories have happy endings...

 My Life is Murder: Hello, There. My name is Yvonne Hartman. I'm Director of Torchwood One. It's nice to meet you. I'm a people person, so we'll get along just great.  We do things differently here at Torchwood One - we care about our workers. We've made sure to invest in the most efficient mental health awareness program on the entirety of the continent. We make sure that our workers are comfortable. It makes things more efficient, you know. Camaraderie is really quite the important thing. We did a study on that. 9 out of 10 people interviewed said Camaraderie was the most important thing. Please - come this way.  I'm going to show you the heart of Torchwood One, and you'll see what keeps us ticking.  We're efficient. We work hard, and you can too. Work can be murder on the mind, it really tends to eat away at you. But you'll be safe here. Everyone's safe here at Torchwood One.  There's just one rule. Don't go downstairs.  Thank you for ...

  The High Price of Parking by John Dorney John Dorney brings his characteristically witty pen to a Seventh Doctor adventure ala Paradise Towers with a Russell T Davies style "Gridlock" tinge. This is very by the numbers Who, and I suspect it was certainly even intended as such, but the result has so much of an infectious sense of fun to it and enough twists and turns that I can't imagine anyone hating it - I could see why someone could dislike Maker of Demons for example, and I myself, can't stand Life of Crime, but I can't imagine anyone in the world not finding this story at the very least fun. That sounds like faint praise, but High Price is just a really good two hours. It has an excellent sense of scale - the story opens up and just keeps getting bigger as it goes on. The characters get good material, and it's while not riotously funny, certainly humorous, and it has a lot of clever wordplay to it too. This is exactly the kind of story you'd expect t...

  This story continues the plotline of Fall of the Four  which is itself a prequel to Parody Among Us Torchwood: Forgone Conclusion  A Parody Among Us Prequel Starring Fiona Shaw Hello? Is there anybody in there? Where Am I? What is this place?  Relax.  You're a professional. Focus.  Damn, My Ears are still ringing.  Focus.  One must be orderly. One must focus to prosper in an environment such as this.  Hello? Is there anybody in there?  No.  Everything's Black.  I can see, but everything is black.  Where am I? What is this Place?  Last I remember - Richardson.  Richardson. He shot me.  Remember to fire him. That's not the kind of professional behavior we look for at Torchwood. Torchwood.  I'm there - aren't I?  It's black. Torchwood is in the black. Layered in darkness, like some kind of poetic blanket.  God, I hate poetry. Never gets to the point.  I stand. I'm standing. In the Hallway....