REVIEW: Doom Coalition 3

If Doom Coalition 2 ramped up the 'doom', then the third box in this intriguing saga not only grabbed that baton but it also gave us much more of the mysterious 'coalition' too. This third box was a thrilling and intensely satisfying set of stories that will leave us with a long old wait until March until the climax.

Before I continue though, I probably ought to do the usual 'public service announcement' and warn you of the spoilers to come in the course of this review. Don't do it to yourself, you'll regret it. Oh, and while I'm at it, feel free to catch up on what I made of Doom Coalition 1 and Doom Coalition 2 in previous posts.

Right, good, on we go then.

One of the real joys of the Doom Coalition saga has been the combination of the slow and tantalising reveal of the big over-arching story combined with some stellar standalone plays. The Red Lady from box one is one of the best things Big Finish has ever done, for example. So, it was a good sign that John Dorney, the man behind that story, returned to open up this third set with Absent Friends, another (largely) one-off story.

Safe to say he certainly delivers the goods. Absent Friends is a clever piece of writing dominated by the emotional rollercoaster it sends the two companions on. Helen visits her brother and, while pretending to be her own daughter, learns of the ruin she caused the 'family name' by running away from her job. Liv, meanwhile, explores her past with a phone call from her dad from beyond the grave. There's some pretty smart plotting to get us to these emotional moments and both Hattie Morahan and Nicola Walker rise to the challenge with aplomb.

John Dorney also teases us into thinking the story will go down a very different path. The mysterious phone mast and shady telecoms company sounds like classic fodder for a Pertwee-esque Auton story, yet that's all a red herring. There's humour to be had when it's revealed that the Doctor and Liv have been flummoxed and it's also refreshing to see a story when there aren't really any 'bad guys'.

One thing remains a mystery too. Thanks to the time distortion caused by a piece of the Doomsday Chronometer (more on that in a moment), characters receive calls from the people they wish they could have said goodbye to. As if to tease us further, the tale ends with the Doctor answering the phone without revealing who is on the other end. Will we ever find out who he spoke to?

If that intrigue wasn't enough, Matt Fitton steps into the writing breach and sends us into a meaty mystery. Doctor Who fans love debating what constitutes a two or three-parter so I won't 'go there' but safe to say The Eighth Piece and The Doomsday Chronometer are heavily linked. The first story sets up the story of the clock established during Absent Friends. The Doctor and his companions are scattered across three different times, giving us 15th century Prague, Tudor England and modern day Rome as the backdrop.

Yet it's two key characters from outside the TARDIS trio that catch the ear here. Firstly River Song is back and flitting between the three story strands with her trusty vortex manipulator. Cleverly, she chooses to shroud her appearance from the Doctor so not to spoil his own future deploying the hilariously named 'psychic wimple'. It's a funny device - and very River - which allows us to get lengthy scenes with Alex Kingston and Paul McGann in this and the next two stories. Alex Kingston is in great form too, injecting energy and fun into every scene.

Then there's Nicholas Woodeson's Clocksmith. A superbly sinister Time Lord with a passion for art, the Clocksmith has a wonderfully macabre take on 'still life' which has plenty of emphasis on the 'still' and less on the 'life'. Woodeson makes for a formidable foe as he bids to complete the aforementioned Doomsday Chronometer.

The start of the third story takes us into a Moffat-esque time-travelling caper with River having whisked off Helen at a moment earlier in the tale. It's still easy enough to follow though and is done with a skill that keeps us on our toes as much as it does the characters.

There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, not least at the end when it emerges that The Eleven's 'good man' eighth persona has been watching the action unfold all along. Liv and Helen end the story thinking that the regeneration they've witnessed is The Doctor's and not The Eight into The Nine, while the Doctor and River head off to follow the trail of intrigue set off by the chronometer.

Which brings us to The Crucible of Souls and back to John Dorney for the finale. Here we finally see that an evil band of Time Lords wants to wipe out the entire future in order to preserve their own skin, showing the sort of mad warmongering traits that they show in the Time War.

It was a surprising but very neat twist to hear the Doctor's old friend Padrac was behind the scheme all along meaning that, just like the Doctor, we've been hoodwinked since the very beginning of the first box set. Padrac's cool, calm evil contrasts neatly with the madness of The Nine and is no less menacing.

While the concept of the Crucible itself was a little confusing, it ends very neatly in the Doctor and his companions being trapped in an impossible position, sent off to their doom by being cast into a future that doesn't exist.

It's going to be a long old wait until March, when it will all come to a head, and details are still thin on the ground. The fourth set now has a hard act to follow. The Doom Coalition saga has been a real treat so far, and this third set brilliantly built on the groundwork laid out and delivered more cracking stories for Paul McGann's magnificent Doctor. No wonder he sounds to be enjoying the role so much at the moment.

No Padrac, you haven't won....we have.