Sixth Doctor Adventures: The Eleven

 

The Sixth Doctor Adventures: The Eleven

I have such admiration for this boxset, especially if it's how things are going to go as we move forward. The Three Story Boxset can still feel a little sacrilegious, because, well, it's not as much as four. And we'd really prefer to get four stories of Christopher Eccleston or Michelle Gomez, rather than three, isn't that right? But this boxset takes a different approach to it, and one I heartily stand by... it's sort of three stories, and at the same time, it's also just in all honesty, a single Main Range release, because only two of the episodes contribute to the story arc actively - that's not to say that the other episode is superfluous, because it's the best of the lot, but technically, well, you could skip it and you'd have something not far off a Main Range release like Planet of The Rani or Order of the Daleks. But what this boxset does, really, is it spends an extra hour, on well, the character and the context. And frankly, that's smart, because not only is the middle story of the episode absolutely fabulous, it elevates the material around it. The Eleven is a set that's a very good model as to what Big Finish should be doing moving forward, because it's not really a Six Parter or anything like that, but it does have that runtime, and it's all the better all around for it. It reminds me of James Goss' Ghost Walk, the phenomenal episode that was essentially a three-part main range story with it's fourth part being used exclusively to give Nyssa her own journey throughout the material and, doing so, it elevated the whole thing. This is how your three part boxsets should be used. Two parts for story, and one for elevation. But not the episode Elevation, because that one's plot related. I hope you get what I'm saying. It at the very least does excite me for Big Finish shaking up the format like this in the future, if we are getting gems like this set, really. While I was quick to mourn the extra hour for certain ranges - I can imagine it must be frustrating for ranges like the 1 and 3DAs, where the 2x2 hour format has served them so well, but it does offer up opportunities, and I hope - I at least hope, that Big Finish see what can be done with them, with this format. After all, the Fifth Doctor sets seem to be doing a Two hour one hour thing, which I think might be the wrong move, but who knows! Bold experimentation is what got Big Finish to where they are, and it's why I herald things like the Torchwood Main Range so much. This really does have me excited for the future. 

All for One by Lizzie Hopley

There's something special in general about the Eleven. He's an original time lord, and one who has as much story ideas that work well for him as The Master or The Rani. It feels natural, and brilliant, that Six can just go up against the Eleven. It just...works. He's a brilliant figure, and he's of course played along Paul McGann with great aplomb, but he's not a one trick pony - he feels like Big Finish's Anthony Ainley at this point because he can go up against Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker and have an equal amount of chemistry with them, it doesn't feel like he skips a beat. The story for One for All is kind of thin, but it does feel momentous in the right way. Six and The Eleven fighting each other is just natural. The stakes are immediate. I appreciate that. He's not a flawless character, the Eleven, but he does lend himself very well to fun stories like this, and All for One, while weirdly feeling like a complete tale, is a nice one. We've had Six and Constance show down against the Rani previously, and The Eleven feels in that classical villain vein, while having this edge to him. The whole thing is made more enjoyable by the setting and central concepts. The Doctor and Constance arrive on a planet where everyone has two minds in one body. It's a brilliant concept, especially to use for a set about The Eleven, quite frankly speaking, it's just phenomenal. This is taken to further lengths by The Eleven fricking around with cloning and mind transplantation, which ultimately results in a lot of the actors getting to play a lot of different and fun roles than they might be used to. It's a single hour simple showdown with fun performances abounding and some cool concepts relating to the whole world that's going to be set up throughout the set. Molaruss is just the perfect setting for these stories, and to be honest, while it's probably not Lizzie Hopley's creation, it is to this story's benefit. Weirdly, there's not much to be said about All for One beyond that, because it's just a rather decent Big Finish episode that doesn't offend but also has a lot of nice parts to it, like, I only think of All for One in a positive light. It's just a good episode, and that's it, really. Nothing really bad sprouts out, it's just really enjoyable and I love these kinds of episodes, just run of the mill good time stories that you can really come back to. 8/10 

The Murder of Oliver Akkron by Nigel Fairs

The Murder of Oliver Akkron is incredibly creative, and also somewhat irrelevant, as All for One and Elevation feel like a single Main Range release on their own - it almost feels like before the Main Range ended this feels like it was on their docket, but they added this one in when it became a boxset. But it's good that this is a boxset, because we CAN get one off stories like this. The Murder of Oliver Akkron, fitting for a play about duo minds, is doubly brilliant. For one, it's experimental in that The Murder of Oliver Akkron has neither The Sixth Doctor or Constance. Mark Bonnar and Simon Slater are the only actors in the whole thing minus a quick appearance by Lucy Gaskell at the end of it. The whole thing feels marvellously personal, and that brings me to two. The Murder of Oliver Akkron is almost entirely one conversation between two people on their outlooks on life. Just that. It's that simple. It takes a fair while for there to be any actual plot development, the whole thing is just a dinner conversation in real time between two people who you know are both lying to eachother about not being psychopaths... that's the kind of drama I live for. There's a lot of irony to it, it's deep actual drama shit, not so much feeling like a Doctor Who story than a sort of macabre theater piece about who The Eleven is. In a sense, it's like a War Master episode starring The Eleven - The Murder of Oliver Akkron is a theatrical piece, a simple story about the drama taken out of one single conversation that lasts much of an hour, and unsurprisingly, I utterly fucking love it. This is the kind of thing that comes from just really studying a character for an hour, the plot, well, the plot is good, and it's there, but it's secondary to these big sweeping monologues from Mark Bonnar about The Eleven's life, and the best part about it is at no point do you ever know whether he's lying or not. I love that - The Eleven is so often raving and starkmad, but it is utterly brilliant to see him as quiet and duplicitous, it only works to make his stronger moments all the stronger. This story reminds me of how good The Eleven was when he started in his very first episode, which some have said is his strongest. Some people are tired of the Eleven for just being a villain character similar to the Master or the Rani or Monk, but there really is a point to him, because there's not another character in all of Doctor Who that can give us something like this. Something this deep, layered, cerebral, psychological, and frankly frightening. Bravo. This is as perfect as audio drama gets. 10/10 

Elevation by Chris Chapman

The truth is, Elevation, is like I stated earlier, quite similar to One For All, but it's just as strong, and it does finish off the arc without a single weak point. We've seen the Eleven in so many different ways before, as a murderous criminal, as a Machiavellian plotter, a henchman, a duplicitous companion, and a tyrannical ruler, but never have we seen him in a scenario where he is actively accepted. This is where Elevation starts off, and I think it's a fascinating hook to begin with. The story does sharply disregard this and go into what I like to call "the finale bullshit" but the story is long enough to give us enough of this to satisfy before it goes a little power mad. Chris Chapman calls this a "Russell T Davies" style finale in the Vortex issue accompanying this set, but I don't think that quite fits because a lot of the story is preoccupied with character. Not that Russell T Davies finales aren't, but they're more in the sort of big emotional beats way, and Elevation is a little more quiet than that, at least until it gets to the whole 'oh no the Eleven is destroying the planet' part. It is satisfying though, and the sound design, while immaculate throughout the set is on another level here. I think what shocked me most about the story, is that although she's not really been the star of the boxset up until this point, Miranda Raison as Constance is essentially the largest player on the board. It's a surprising move to make her so important this late, up until now she was just the companion in episode one, but in truth, while Six and Eleven do all of the nice 'stop destroying the planet Eleven,' 'no, I don't want to stop destroying the planet' dialogue, Constance is subtly Elevation's greatest weapon. Not to say that the Sixth Doctor and Eleven scenes aren't fine as hell, they're just, lesser to that we get with Constance and Miskavel. I'm not sure how we've gotten this far without mentioning Miskavel, but she's another one of the story's greatest assets, and I do like her a lot, but I'm not sure her ending is as strong as it could be. Regardless, Constance's perfect character work helps to seal the set off, and it parallels with what we know are her later travels with Flip rather nicely. It's just another strong episode this one, and I am sort of in love with this set, really. This is just so damn brilliant, I'm so excited to see where Six and Constance go next. Although, to be fair, Six and Mel travelling together again is an equally brilliant sounding alternative... 8/10 

Anyway, yeah, if you can't tell from my egregiously positive tone (I hate when I sound this joyful, I think it does make my whole 'reviewer' element feel slightly less so when I don't have much to critique) I think this set is definitely worth your time, and may be one of my favorites from 2021, an especially strong year for Big Finish with the whole "Dalek Universe," "Masterful" and "Christopher Motherfucking Eccleston" things going on. But seriously, this set is just a winner. I'm not sure where I'd place it against those sets, but it's definitely worth your time and giving it a listen, especially if you're into The Eleven or Six and Constance. I think I've said my piece on it now, really, so I'll sign off, but truly speaking, this sort of thing really is exciting as hell. Oh yeah! And it's completely standalone! Shocking! This is a brilliant release and I'm super happy to see where it goes...