Plum Pudding Reviews

  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 expansi...

  "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 ...