Plum Pudding Reviews

  The Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume One This is one of those releases that I'm not sure why it exists, but you know, I'm not going to complain about it at all. I rather like The Sixth Doctor and Peri. Sure. Give em a set. Why not? I'll listen.  In all actuality, this boxset is part of the "Mildly Older Peri" arc, an arc that started in the Main Range with The Widow's Assassin trilogy, and as of the moment, currently possesses no conclusion. It's a push to call it an arc even, as there is no story connecting threads other than the character drama between Six and Peri that comes to a head in Conflict Theory, by Nev Fountain, arguably the reason the set exists. The batch of stories are a tad eclectic in taste and tone beyond this - The Faceless Ones tackles colonialism through a Classic Who lens, while Like is perhaps one of the most modern Doctor Who tales out there, bordering on some of the territory of "Technophobia," "Smile," or perhaps

  The Seventh Doctor New Adventures ""Volume One"" The Seventh Doctor is so often misused. People love to make him a little ominous fella who loves killing or a silly little goblin man who loves juggling and spoons. For regrettably too many authors, there is no inbetween. I was a little cautious going into The New Adventures ""Volume One"" based on this. Are these not, the infamous books that helped to bolster the Seventh Doctor's darkest characterization?? I was surprised to find that The New Adventures may be my favorite Seventh Doctor release by miles, an inviting TARDIS team worthy of appreciation who deliver an excellent balance of stories in tone, atmosphere and setting. This is a seriously good boxset, and it's a shame that it will probably be the only one like it. Sometimes you just don't realize what you have...  The Trial of a Time Machine by Andy Lane Andy Lane wrote for the VNAs back in the day, and he did it very well, th

  The War Doctor Begins: Forged In Fire I, like many fans, have my own issues with the War Doctor. He's great in Day of The Doctor, and EU material such as Engines of War and his story in Twelve Angels Weeping, but he's a character that seemingly struggles to anchor a series of his own. I loathed Only The Monstrous, and decided not to pick up any more of that series, but when this was announced with the trailer (which was literally the first two minutes of Light the Flame) I figured that eventually I would tear off my preconceptions about The War Doctor and give it a proper go. The War Doctor's characterization is likely not something I'll ever be able to change, a BBC mandate of ultimate power, and so instead of viewing this as a massive new thing that had never been done before, I decided to view it as I would view any Doctor Who.  This did help my process. I came to the conclusion that I really really like Jonathan Carley. He's as good as Tim Treloar or Stephen N

  The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Silver and Ice While Silver and Ice is a much more competent production than the vast majority of The 7/Ace/Mel arc that closed out the Main Range, and at several points even borders on quite good indeed, it never quite reaches over into something I could recommend. When Big Finish rebooted the Main Range into the Adventures Boxsets, it tried to reorganize the various releases into jumping on points, which for the most part it did very well. The First Doctor and Dodo, Two beyond the War Games, The Sixth Doctor and Hebe, The Fourth Doctor Solo, these are very open and inviting boxsets that want newcomers to pick them up. On the other hand, there's stuff like Forty, The Eighth Doctor/Liv/Helen once again and Silver and Ice, which almost feels like stalling before Sullivan and Cross properly starts out something new. Silver and Ice is the opposite of what someone who's only seen modern Doctor Who should view for their first time, it's two audio

 Gallifrey Time War Volume Four Gallifrey Time War Volume Four for the most part, (we'll get to that), does retain the level of quality of the previous three sets. It's focus is primarily not on Romana, but on Leela and Narvin, and this is perhaps a strong move given the cliffhanger from Unity. Time War Four has an immense scope, wider than any of the previous sets in the series. The rise of the resistance against Rassilon gives the series a lot more quality work to do in the vast cosmos, which helps to mitigate some of the meanderingness of set three and give the set a conclusive focus, even if the series has lost a good deal of it's political edge since volumes one and two. Now the series is a monumental space opera with an ensemble cast of many characters to work with.  The volume delightfully has the return of Eris, Rassilon, Mantus and Livia, although that was indeed expected. What wasn't was the returns of Braxiatel - who flits into the series very nicely for an e

  Gallifrey Time War Volume Three Yeah, it's the weakest volume so far, but even Gallifrey at it's weakest can annihilate other boxset series. Gallifrey Time War Three is a strange boxset, not really ever taking place on Gallifrey, and without the previously established recurring characters the series has previously relied upon. For that matter, you could almost confuse these episodes with Doctor Who stories. On one hand, it does prove a point. That there's only one Doctor, and Romana and Narvin are a little out of their depth in their attempts to help people throughout the Time War. On the other hand, it can be not necessarily as original. Setting Romana and Narvin as ostensibly a Doctor/Companion duo actually at times can remove a good deal of nuance out of their complicated relationship. I don't have as many nice things to say about Volume Three as I did Volumes One and Two, but what really excites me about it is this range's continued propensity to reinvent itse

  Gallifrey Time War Volume Two Whilst Gallifrey Time War One was specifically about isolating Romana and the beginning of the Time War, Gallifrey Time War Two is built around the return of Rassilon and Gallifrey's slow descent into fascism over the set. While Volume One had the brilliant anthology aspect to it - (admittedly, doubtless expensive, so I can see why they dropped it) Time War Two mostly focuses on the impact of a singular planet, the planet Ysalus (pronounced Issalus) on the whole of the Time War. This gives the set at once an enormous and wonderfully small scope. It's all about a single battle in a way, the same McGuffin, but things proceed to snowball and as such we get what at once feels like an enormous swath of time and a singular battle with a distilled focus. If this is merely one front of the War, it adds to the shock horror that this is merely one planet out of thousands the war is focusing on. The War, while still explored, continues to feel expansive, en

  "We are the music makers! And we are the dreamers of dreams!!" The First Doctor Companion Chronicles Volume Two I love that I get releases like this from time to time - I think the last one was GAU 2, where I get to completely and totally lose all credibility as a reviewer and gush mindlessly about what I think is one of the best batches of stories under the sun. The First Doctor Companion Chronicles Volume Two is everything and more that I hoped Volume One would have been - it's just utterly, utterly, gorgeous, to the extent that there's unironically little to say about it. This is one of the best things you can get. Should you get it? Yes. Immediately.  That's it, really. No. Seriously. Go on. Stop reading now, go out and Grab the damn thing. Hand over your 30 bucks. I'm serious. This is one of the most fervent recommendations I could ever give. Do it now. Go in blind. Experience goddamn heaven.  There isn't much to go on about. The set does do a fair

  The Second Doctor Adventures Beyond War Games [DISCLAIMER: This review is kinda. like. mean and stuff?? I don't wanna be mean and stuff but this is what it is?? you know?? Anyway I'm not an asshole here I don't wish any harm on any of the writers or people involved and I hate that I have to specify that but you know this is the internet . I hope no one is offended, and if you liked it, you know, that's great!! I'm just being a reviewer person. Anyway, um. Review time] I don't know what to say. Um, first off, it's delightful that #2 finally has his own proper recast, even if Frazier Hines was doing a pretty good job with it. In terms of a recast, yeah, he's quite good. You can tell they put a lot of thought into the decision and didn't just cast Michael Troughton because he's related, he puts in a genuinely pretty great performance. Michael Troughton is a great recast, this is clearly a labor of love to him, and over the course of the set he get

  The First Doctor Companion Chronicles Volume One This is slightly baffling, especially considering that I'm not the #1 fan of the Second Doctor, as opposed to Hartnell, but I think I preferred The Second Doctor's first outing on the whole. That's not to say the First Doctor Companion Chronicles isn't good. There's... there's some good stuff here. I don't very much like dissing the First Doctor's expanded media. I don't like Hartnell that much on television, but there are so many beautiful stories that so wonderfully evoke that boldness the start of the program had. Some of my favorite ever stories are First Doctor ones, and the original cast members still going are all pretty much powerhouse performers, frankly. That's the one big thing this volume has going for it. These amazing performers.  The Sleeping Blood by Martin Day Susan, while being up there with Ryan Sinclair, Turlough and Calypso Jonze as one of my least favorite companions, is act

  "Folie a Something..." Suckers by Alexander Stewart I don't have much to say about Suckers other than - it's about damn time. At long last Tosh is getting her due in the Torchwood Main Range, and Suckers is one of their best installments yet. It's quite cynical and dark and Torchwoodian, but it also is completely the opposite route you would ordinarily expect. Despite the cover, it's not horny at all, but actually a rather subdued horror piece that makes some fricking hardcore choices. Suckers is one of the most bold Torchwood stories I've done, and also quite possible, provided the government discovered invisible squid entities of doom.  This is not a comfortable listen, and it's closest comparison in my mind is it is to mental institutions what The Empty Hand was to police violence. Naoko Mori gives an excellent performance of a drugged out Tosh out of her depth - which gives even more weight to the climax when we see Tosh at her best. The story al

  Torchwood Soho The Unbegotten by James Goss  I'm not going to lie to you and say that I'm not in the least bit biased. I usually am not biased in these reviews, but when I am, I am certainly aware of it, and it's in the Torchwood Soho range that I am most certainly at my most. This is by far my favorite range that Big Finish are currently producing. So I may be biased, yes. But even if I wasn't, I still think you'd be hard pressed not to like The Unbegotten.  I legitimately cannot lie when I say that Torchwood Soho is literally exactly what every range should be doing. It's brilliant, it's clever, and every episode is sharp and magnificent while also NEVER overstaying it's welcome with bloated runtimes like other ranges. It's been so long since I've done a good Six-Parter. They don't come up often, I'll be rather blunt, and when they do, with the overlong time span of certain episodes, it can be quite a drag to get through. I love The F