The Seventh Doctor New Adventures Volume One

 

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, thank you very much. I loved All Consuming Fire to bits. It's the only Sherlock Holmes story I've ever done where I didn't feel utterly annoyed as all hell at the presence of supernatural elements. And in it, Sherlock fights bloody Cthulhu!! While I haven't read Original Sin, it's the book where Chris and Roz originate, and he wrote it. So it makes sense to invite him back to see if he's still got it, to introduce this pairing to a new target audience. Long story short - he nails it. This is a story about an IMMENSELY fascinating society predicated on a system of law unlike I've ever seen in science fiction. The story is just about exploring that concept. The TARDIS is alive - what happens if someone puts her on trial?? She can't defend herself, she's a sentient box! It's such an interesting idea, and Andy Lane and McCoy really run with it. Sylvester is on fire here, perfectly balancing his performance with loads of subtlety and warmth. The story also gives Chris and Roz a good deal to do as well, by using their space police background to it's advantage. Just a really strong outing, every high concept idea it has about this society is so nicely evoked: 9/10 

Vanguard by Steve Jordan

Vanguard is Steve Jordan's first Big Finish script, and it sadly really does show. It's one of those stories that really, really suffers from having no visuals. The concepts of the alien planet and those who inhabit it aren't very conducive to great imagery, so despite this being an audio where you can imagine literally anything, you do sort of tend to imagine the generic. The whole thing is about an alien planet, and if you can't really explain what makes this planet interesting in any way, the audience is going to imagine a dull little BBC quarry. Never before I thought I'd critique an audio of looking cheap, but here we are. There aren't really many ideas here. A series of robots oversee a world of two opposing sides. Very classic who. These two sides are called the intrepid and the dauntless. Most of them are dead, minus a few survivors. I couldn't begin to tell you anything about either of them, despite having done this story twice. There's a lady named Contessa. ...Look, I'm struggling to even describe this to find things to critique about it. It's just the dullest side of Classic Doctor Who, the padding sections that you usually get between that show's boundless ingenuity, but stretched out to an hour. I hate being this mean to a writer's first script, because there is potential here, but I earnestly can't think of anything positive to say about it that isn't our main trio. 3/10 

The Jabari Countdown by Alan Flanagan

Alan Flanagan's first Doctor Who script, is by contrast, an absolute triumph. We all know why, in the annuls of time, The Jabari Countdown will be remembered, as the first Doctor Who story with actors in it and everything to properly have a transgender character. While that does give the happy energy or whatever you'd like to call it, it's not really what I'll be talking about for a minute or two, because this is just a hell of a script regardless with some really cool concepts that deserve to be talked about in their own right. The Jabari Countdown has this clever story set around a group of mathematicians who soon find themselves trapped upon a dangerous island during World War Two. They soon begin to be infected by something that makes them all chant different numbers, which is ultimately one part of a gigantic puzzle. It's just a corker of a script. It's a witty little puzzlebox that really slots together in a very satisfactory manner. The Doctor and companions continue to be immensely well characterized, but Chris' really, really wins this one for me in my book. He's so lovable - the story opens with him begging to play hide and seek with Roz! This is Doctor Who on all cylinders, and yeah, it does also happen to have quality trans representation in a time period you wouldn't expect, which only serves to make it more moving. Gorgeous on pretty much every front, from the side characters to the plot - why haven't we asked this writer back again?? 9/10 

The Dread of Night by Tim Foley

The Dread of Night is a pretty little horror story that flows very nicely from beginning to end. It borrows a good deal from stories like Night Thoughts in tone and setting, but has an ultimately quite different plot. It's a Tim Foley script too - you know that it's not going to be garbage simply by the fact that his name is on it! By this point in the set I was thoroughly in love with this TARDIS team. It's really quite difficult to believe how fresh it feels, and how wonderful too. While I love Ace, her constant presence in the Big Finish TARDIS teams can be a little overbearing. This is the new and fresh dynamic I was looking for, and funnily enough it's coming directly from previously established book companions. The Dread of Night works basically entirely off of some strong acting and sound design. It's got actual jump scares to it, which to be fair, I will think is a little cheap if your name isn't Scherzo. The loud noise making you jump a little is just quite frankly frustrating if you've got headphones in. All the same, there's just an ominous energy here that makes some of the story's basic ideas really tense. While the old nursemaid character who's just a little too violent with her medication is a stalwart of horror media, Foley manages to make Nurse Hooley utterly petrifying. And she's not even the main villain! It's a complicated, fun and creepy tale that's very well paced. A little lesser than Jabari or Trial, but most things are - this is still a triumph and miles above the majority of tales: 8/10