The Tenth Doctor Adventures: The Tenth Doctor and River Song

"Now boys, does anyone want to shiver me timbers?"

 The Tenth Doctor and River Song

The Tenth Doctor and River Song is such a common sense boxset, and Alex Kingston is essentially trapped in Big Finish's basement for all eternity, that I'm surprised it didn't happen in the second or third David Tennant boxset and was instead the fourth. It's the sort of thing that opens up a lot of fun opportunities, and also allows to give the Tenth Doctor, a Doctor who sometimes has the problem of talking down to, say, Rose or Martha, a more equal and powerful companion to work with. Donna was the Doctor's best friend, but River is his equal, and I think this allows for a very interesting dynamic that we have only previously ever gotten with, well, Romana or maybe Bernice Summerfield. So it makes common sense that when Lockdown happened, they fricking SCRAMBLED.

Unlike the Dalek Universe sets, I feel this set has a bit of 9/10DA syndrome, the fact that they really had to rush to put this one out on time because Tennant was available and this was the first set next on the schedule. It's the same frantic panic we got when Eccleston joined - you could feel it in sets like Lost Warriors. While Dalek Universe feels like it had been being planned for quite some time, The Tenth Doctor and River Song is a result of opportunity, the same as volume one, two and three. It's got the same variety of stories - some feel rushed and don't really work, and some you wonder how they put together something so good so fast. I'm glad this set exists, and it's quite good... but I really do hope that they give it another go sometime. This set is "quite good," but a little 6-episode miniseries or something of Ten and River travelling together really does need to be done at some point. There's still opportunity here, and considering Ten and River essentially only really meet in person in two out of the three stories, there's a lot of fun stories you can tell with a Doctor/Companion dynamic like this. This feels flawed and quick in places, and well, to be frank... Big Finish's characterization of River has been so superb and truly classy it feels dumb for this not to be the prelude to something magnificent.

Expiry Dating by James Goss

Expiry Dating is a story that could only ever be told by Big Finish, for good or ill. It's a surprise for the Tenth Doctor Adventures range in general, to have a story that isn't deliberately trying to ape RTD. I can respect that it's very much it's own new thing. It's a story that essentially is supposed to acknowledge everything River's ever done in Big Finish, and how that changes her and the Tenth Doctor's relationship. There's a degree of "wait seriously, you can't do that," to it. It's absolutely scandalous in terms of continuity, as befitting River of course. It also is technically a multi-doctor story, and while Peter Davison and Colin Baker both perform admirably in their cheeky cameos, I almost wish they didn't appear. There's been an increasing lack of respect for the multi-doctor story, and while they're quite well written here, the way they are integrated is ridiculously casual. 

In basic terms, I like a great deal that Ten gets to essentially learn what River's been up to in all of her previous sets, gallivanting about across his timeline whenever she needs a fix. That's what the story is about on paper, the fact that Big Finish have played with their timelines quite a good deal and now can get some interpersonal character drama out of that, but the clever part of Expiry Dating is about how it's not about any of that continuity stuff at all.

It's a drama in "love letters," however you want to say that, using a clever way of writing letters on psychic paper to tell a whole plot. It reminds me a little of those children's novels that are written entirely in a scrapbook style of letters, newspapers, etc. If you don't know what those are like, I suppose the comparison is slightly niche. I think this works to give the piece it's own identity. The story has it's own clever b-plot about The Apocalypse Clock and how River and The Doctor are fighting over whether a disaster that has already happened can be "rewritten." Actually, that's the A-Plot, but in actuality, the story is one of those that is propelled by character interactions. Most of the story goes by in simple interaction through letters, which I think is definitely the best move for something like this. Adding more "plot" to keep track of would have made it quite annoying. As it is, It's quite a strong bit of work, and the best thing I can say about it is that as per the usual Goss scripts, it is very witty, and indeed, very funny. It's no Less Majesty or Death and the Queen in terms of hysterics, but it is quite amusing nonetheless. A quite decent installment that sets up the set very nicely. 8/10

Precious Annihilation by Lizzie Hopley

I've come to the conclusion that Lizzie Hopley is not good at writing NuWho. This isn't to say she isn't talented, although this does mean that most of the scripts I encounter from her I do dislike. But with works like One For All, The Miniaturist, Castle Hydra, and Sonny for Classic Who and Spinoffs, and stories like Curse of Lady Macbeth, First Son and this one for the RTD era of modern Who, I'm sorry, but I really do think that there's a disappointing pattern. This one is quite bad for reasons very similar to Curse of Lady Macbeth or First Son, in that, well, and there's no nice way to say this, is that it's boring as sin and has major pacing issues. 

The opening of Precious Annihilation goes by so quickly and so much happens in it that it's hard to keep track of - which is exceedingly problematic on it's own, but is an extra level of problem on audio.  The main problem of the story is the sudden jump from 1632 to 1912 and the lack of distinguishing between the two eras. The plot is very difficult to follow because of this event in general. If your plot goes by too quickly, and is too difficult to follow, you will zone out eventually and start to get bored, even if nothing is technically wrong, and yeah, the pace for this is really breakneck, and there is a lot of action to get through. There's imploding alien gems, there's sword fights, there's a ship in the middle of an ocean storm, it's big, bold, ambitious and piratical, but it's ambitious in the opposite sense that works for audio drama. It forgets to do the VERY IMPORTANT "audio-drama" thing of describing things at all sometimes. James Goss built down his story into what was essentially just Ten and River talking in letters. That's not what this story is - Precious Annihilation never stops building up. 

I will be honest, I can see why Lizzie Hopley keeps getting commissioned - the characters of Ten and River sound and act like Ten and River, and it's all shaped into roughly the right sort of shape of RTD blob. It looks like a story they'd do. You do not immediately think that anything is really wrong. It's interesting history that very few people have heard of, so again, Big Finish as normal. There are a few quite funny lines. David Tennant and Alex Kingston do have the natural chemistry required. Lizzie Hopley keeps getting work because she's very good at putting these technically competent pieces into place very quickly. She works very fast, and this was without a doubt one of the fastest turnarounds you could ask for, a set that entirely existed exclusively because of COVID-19 lockdowns. David Tennant was very suddenly not busy due to lockdown, so they had to work at this like hell, and very few people could write something this long and not disastrous that quickly. 

Yeah, I said "not disastrous," after ripping into this thing for twenty minutes, and I say that because that it's a story that's bad, yes, but it's got the right stuff for it to be good. Every ingredient for some rip-roaring and well written Doctor Who is available there if you give it a few more drafts and time, and there are as said, funny lines, and actually near the end, a very clever emotional beat involving River and her opinions on storing minds as data. Precious Annihilation is, yes, pretty horrible, but I can't say it's not got it's heart in the right place. Another draft or two, and yeah, we could have gotten something as good as The Miniaturist out of this. Oh well. Deadlines must be obeyed. All hail the Deadline God. All Hail. All Hail. 4/10 

Ghosts by Jonathan Morris

Ghosts surprised me like hell. I anticipated something very normal and very by the numbers to be the next one in line. The synopsis and title did not inspire confidence. The set in general kind of hadn't thus far. But ultimately, Ghosts is one of the best 10DAs out there. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but it really did. 

I like stories like this - intricate puzzleboxes that you can actually solve alongside the characters. There is a lot of good drama, a lot of good tension, and a clear love and care behind the characterization of the Doctor and River. The other stories in the set sort of struggled with the fact that River isn't travelling with the Doctor, this one is clever enough to get past that quickly and onto the story it wants to tell as fast as it can. That's not to say that it rushes like Precious Annihilation, it just knows what to focus on. The threat is purposefully more atmospheric than anything. A mist that floats in and people disappear in it. The easy comparison to make to this story would be something like Cobwebs, also written by Jonathan Morris, funnily enough. It's the same sort of story that satisfyingly comes together to explain how the main characters escape an inevitable death. Ghosts ultimately goes in a different direction though, and while I love Cobwebs, Ghosts is improved by having tighter pacing over the hour.

The ending scenes where we go through it all again and it *clicks* are really what makes this one brilliant, and a tinge experimental too. Jonathan Morris really is an author that surprises you. He writes so much Doctor Who that you don't really expect it to be astonishing, but then he turns around and does brilliant work on something like this, Chase The Night, The Waters of Amsterdam, Static - he's a man that knows what he's doing. I enjoyed Expiry Dating a lot more, but I think this one is the real actual best story of the set regardless. The fact that Morris churned out a script this good in the short time he had to make it is utterly monumental, and the acting is phenomenal - quite good work indeed. 9/10