The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Back to Earth

 

The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Back To Earth

omigod you guys!! he's like, back to earhth and everything. OMG. the like ninth doctor never does that at all oooooo I'm like totes excited for, like, the earth, and ...the back. like that stuff is just f a b   you get me sis? spill the tea

Okay, bitchiness to the side, what I will be further referring to as 9DA volume 5 as that title is just plainly stupid, is more of the same content we got so far in series one. I can't exactly fault that necessarily. There have been plenty of series before where we got stuck with an arrangement for two seasons - Jo Grant, Clara and a few other companions stuck with their Doctors for quite some time so I can't necessarily fault the season for doing what is essentially the same. You could argue that if it isn't broken you don't necessarily have to fix it. What it does do, however, I must admit, is refuse to innovate in any way upon what was established in series one. I think that's primarily why there's been a lot of controversy surrounding series two - much more than the already contentious series one. There is a sense of horror in that Matt Fitton in Vortex 158 stated, and I quote, "after the big arc of the last series we've gone for more standalone stories dotted across the entire run," especially when some were complaining about how scant the series one arc was in the first place. Seams are beginning to show. But I can't help but still be excited that at long last Christopher Eccleston has returned to the role and I can at last get to know Doctor Number Nine the same way that I am so familiar with all of the other incarnations - that 17 years after he left our television screens with an astonishingly strong first series the Ninth Doctor is still getting his due. 

As these reviews go on, it becomes increasingly apparent to me that whatever score I choose to give a story is frankly variable and arbitrary. I might feel in a good mood and give a story a 6 and mean that as a good ranking but then some other day I might give the same story a 6 and not really like it much. I'm killing off the ratings in this and all future posts. You'll just have to pay attention to what I'm saying more. 

Station To Station by Robert Valentine

Station to Station is the most boldly traditional of the set, although I can totally see why it was made. It's a yummy little story about The Doctor meeting up with the wonderfully named Saffron Windrose in an abandoned subway station that seems to be a space that doesn't exist. Station to Station is very economical. It focuses almost purely on Saffron as a character, exploring her doubts about her family not accepting her for who she is. It does this with sci-fi elements like the inbetween space of the setting and the delightfully titled Grimminy-Grew, one of Big Finish's most memorable monsters in years. I really loved the Grimminy-Grew, I'd love to have such an original and entertaining villain back, even if doing so probably wouldn't make any sense considering how he could be defeated in the same way again quite easily. Anyway, The Ninth Doctor Adventures can sort of live and die by the strength of their guest cast, so having Saffron be a remarkably strong character with a full arc that takes place in the hour makes Station a satisfying listen. Simplicity isn't necessarily a flaw in a script. Station to Station knows exactly what it should do for every single beat in the story, and executes each one quite well. It never really soars, but it doesn't make a single mistake in it's runtime and feels like a story in the range I definitely will come back to.

The Last Dimitri by Sarah Grochala

The Last Dimitri's biggest problem is it's sandwiched between the two heaviest hitters of the range so far, and thus can't ever really catch up. I don't think The Last Dimitri is horrible or anything, it's just not got the same priorities by any nature as the other two tales, and never really focuses on exceedingly strong substance of character. Taking place in Russia, or rather, a Russia where everyone has exceedingly strong British accents that they don't even attempt to hide, a robot bearing the face of the dead prince kills the current monarch as a random person claiming to be Dimitri is gaining followers and planning to take control of the castle. The Last Dimitri has a very good idea, and attempts to explain a little historical incongruence that the average person may not actually be aware of by saying that it was aliens. It's a cute little story, but it's just not got deep character substance like the best tales of this range do, and I can see why quite a lot of people who might not really be interested in said history could indeed turn against it. It sort of lacks a main focal stand-in companion/guest-star for the Doctor to have real chemistry with, and none of the characters really ended up exciting me. It's not painful to listen to, it's just certainly one of the lesser efforts of the range.

Auld Lang Syne by Tim Foley

Auld Lang Syne is a hell of a drug. There are very few Big Finish plays which have completely enraptured me like Auld Lang Syne has - it's absolutely one of their all time best productions they've ever done, a strange and uplifting little tale about a family that meets up every single New Year at the same house - where the Doctor happens to be the caretaker. All of the Ninth Doctor Adventures at least roughly riff on some of the Russell era classics in some way, but this is the first story so far that genuinely feels to me like Davies himself might have ghostwritten it. It's a warm and inviting story that spends most of it's time fleshing out the members of said family rather than worrying about them aliens again. To describe Auld Lang Syne thoroughly, like so many other of the best Big Finish Productions - Absent Friends, The Scorchies, Who and The Pirates - is to ruin it. I don't want to tell you shit, really. In earnest, I might be happier with you closing this page right now and going out to get it. But what is important is that the story is intimate, expertly written and audacious in all the best tiny ways. Leah Brotherhead and Wendy Craig give all time best guest star performances and Eccleston is on top form. This story is just expert Woe betide literally anyone out there saying the Ninth Doctor Adventures aren't very good. I'm having the time of my life.