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.

REVIEW: Doom Coalition 1

The arrival of the Doom Coalition 2 box set recently could mean only one thing - the need to revisit the first four adventures to get back up to speed with the Eighth Doctor, Liv and new companion Helen.

I've always been a fan of the Eighth Doctor. Perhaps it's because, barring the vaguest memory of McCoy, Paul McGann was MY Doctor - and the TV Movie the first slice of new Doctor Who I could enjoy. Then there's the fact that he was superb in said TV Movie and also the nagging feeling that he was hard done by in not getting a series to follow up.

Never mind though, his vocal talents have helped shape this incarnation on Big Finish and he continues to go from strength to strength. I'm yet to catch up with the rest of the Dark Eyes saga - I'll jump back when I can - but the chance to launch into the intriguingly titled Doom Coalition was too good to miss.

Yet, sneakily, we begin the saga with Sylvester. Matt Fitton's The Eleven opens with the Seventh Doctor at his R rolling, menacing best as he consigns his foe to the 'big freeze'.

It's a fun opening and a neat way to establish that there's clearly a long back story to these adventures. However, it doesn't take away from the fact that this is all about the villain of the title. In one of 'those ideas' that sounds so right that it surely must've been done before (but hasn't), Mark Bonnar steps up to the plate to play a demented Time Lord whose mind is filled with all 11 of his personas at once.

It amounts to one of Big Finish's finest creations to date and works superbly thanks to Bonnar's brilliance. The Eleven veers from the vicious to the bookish and everything in between, in a constant chaotic state of war with himself. It's vivid enough to avoid being 'Master-lite' and Bonnar's performance contains enough distinctive voices without descending into something that could have been confusing to listen to. Every second in which he's involved crackles with edge-of-your-seat energy.

He returns to the action thanks to the academic interest of Academy student Kiani and quickly gives the authorities the slip, throwing Gallifrey into utter chaos.

The Doctor, by now very definitely the McGann incarnation and paired with Liv Chenka, is brought in to help his old school chum Padrac. There's plenty of rich moments as we discover a little more about the Doctor's past and race to a face off with the devilish Eleven.

Perhaps the only weak point comes with the ending. It's a little abrupt, although feels less so on second listen as The Eleven 'does a Doctor' and scarpers.

After pledging to follow the merest of leads to chase The Eleven, the second instalment has a fairly tricky brief. You'll soon come to realise that this box is far from a straightforward 'chase the baddie' exercise, just in the way that you feel that the whole 16-disc saga has twists and turns that we're yet to predict.

Yet in The Red Lady we find a story that is not only the best on the whole box, but probably the best I've heard from Big Finish for many a year.

The creepy tale of the mysterious Red Lady - a figure that crops up in a bizarre collection of artefacts - is gripping, wonderfully paced and rich with great moments and strong characters. As a standalone tale it'd be brilliant, but it also pushes the saga in a new direction and expertly introduces academic Helen Sinclair as a new recruit to the TARDIS team. Put simply, it's a great Doctor Who idea, wonderfully realised on the audio medium that still finds time to manage some important legwork. We'll take our Stovepipe hat off to John Dorney for this.

The Galileo Trap then, as you'll have guessed, sets the intrepid trio off on a mission to find the famous scientist. Galileo himself is brought to life excellently by John Woodvine (and Marc Platt's script). There's a nice idea here too and this is a story that certainly benefitted from a second listen.

Even after that repeat though, the villain still feels a little weak and slightly lets the side down. It's good, just not quite The Red Lady good.

In fact the second half of the box set inevitably suffers from the quality of the first. Faced with topping a triumphant introduction for a villain who deserves to become iconic and a story that should be hailed as a Big Finish classic it was always set for a challenge.

It doesn't fall away too much though. The Galileo Trap is fun and The Satanic Mill is also gripping. The return of the Eleven helps, as his motivation becomes clearer and the Doctor races to try to thwart him. There's also a tantalising hint that The Eleven's actions are part of something much larger, giving us a teasing nod to what might be to come.

The setting is interesting and the action allows Helen and Liv to develop their burgeoning partnership while the Doctor gets to go off and rail against 'the system' in which people are bread to work until they drop, quite literally. It's perfect for McGann's compassionate crusader and he rises to the challenge with top performance. In fact, it's fair to say he's flawless throughout, relishing the material coming his way.

Then, before we know it, it's time to pause and wait for the next set. These four stories are rich with ideas and seem to sew the seeds for plenty more to come. In any circumstances you might feel a little baffled to have bought a box set entitled Doom Coalition 1 and come away not even having the foggiest idea of what the Doom Coalition might be yet that can be forgiven. There's clearly much more to come and if it can match the start of box set one then it'll be a heck of a 16-story ride.

No TV, no problem: Why 2016 is a great year to be a Doctor Who fan

Barring a Christmas special, we've got no Doctor Who to look forward to on the television in 2016. It should be the cause of great consternation - surely there ought to have been a charity single by now? - but it isn't.

In part, of course, that's because we know there is plenty to come. There will be a full series in 2017 which will be a swansong for Steven Moffat, and then Chris Chibnall will take the reins.

Steven Moffat will step down after Series 10…
Chris Chibnall to take over.
FULL STORY @ https://t.co/7tjdSIGWO2 pic.twitter.com/1AU0neJQSR

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) January 22, 2016

But that's not the only reason that I'm happy with my lot as a Doctor Who fan.

Firstly, it'll be good for the TV adventures to take a break. No matter which way you look at it, the ratings have taken a dent in the last couple of years. The last series really wasn't marketed that well and also suffered from being shifted too late into the evening. The switch to the spring, where Strictly Come Dancing doesn't dominate, should hopefully mean a return to earlier in the evening and should ensure that the show doesn't come up against as formidable an opponent as the X Factor (which also suffered a rating slump).

Absence, too, makes the heart grow fonder and you'd hope a longer gap alone should increase the excitement levels around the next series. The BBC statement made a promise to turn the next run into an 'event', which is probably, in part at least, a reaction to the poor promotion for Capaldi's second run ('same old, same old).

That's not in any way a reflection of the present TARDIS incumbent either. Peter Capaldi's breathtaking performance in Heaven Sent was possibly the greatest of any actor in the role (only the passage of time will allow a sensible judgement) and his Zygons speech rightly earned praise. If anything it's probably right to take a breather after such heavyweight events (the weakness of the finale was probably that it couldn't top the week before). He's been good and it'll be interesting to see him with a different companion now that Clara's adventures (on screen at least) are over.

Still, it might also be good to reassess the format too. Last series probably had too many sort-of-two-parters while Capaldi's first run probably had too many one-offs. I can't help feeling that watching his whole run 'on shuffle' might deliver a more satisfying experience than the order they were aired. I love a two-parter, but a mixed line-up might be nice for the next batch.

One thing worth considering, however, is the timeline we've now been given. Not only do we have guaranteed adventures next year, but the BBC has also committed to another run under new showrunner Chris Chibnall, which should, you'd think, air in 2018. As fans who always fear the axe, this should please us all greatly.

But the best thing about the delay to the next series of Doctor Who is in what it clears a space for. I don't know about you but I feel there's been a lot of Doctor Who in recent years that I simply haven't had the time nor money to catch up with. Books, audios and even some old series DVDs are still on the hitlist to catch up with and these can have our full attention.

Best of all is that 2016 is packed full of new adventures for us all to enjoy thanks to the people at Big Finish (I'm not really a comics man but I gather fans of these are pretty well catered for too).

Big Finish has upped the ante in recent months and you feel we really will look back on this as something of a golden era for Doctor Who fandom. Without wishing to be too morbid, we're lucky to be getting new material from several stars of the classic series who won't be around forever and should cherish this while it lasts.

The War Doctor box set released before Christmas also took us headlong into the Time War and it was excellent. (I'll do a review soon) John Hurt has a magnetic voice that makes him a perfect Big Finish Doctor and I'm looking forward to hearing where his upcoming stories take the character.

On top of that I've recently enjoyed hearing River Song's debut (if ever a character deserved a spin off...) and have just come off Doom Coalition 1 (Paul McGann is surely the only man with a better voice to listen to than Hurt). We'll have more McGann and Kingston to look forward too soon.

Then, of course, it's the return of David Tennant. It's the first time that I've seen a Big Finish announcement make the news beyond the sci-fi/Doctor Who world and will be a big deal for the company. It's even more perfect for them that it comes in a year with no TV adventures, meaning it will be the biggest Doctor Who event of the year. The pressure is on but the War Doctor adventures et al have shown that the team at Big Finish should be able to rise to the occasion and impress the casual buyer wooed by Tennant and Tate.

Beyond that there's an intriguing multi-Master trilogy and more from every other Doctor thanks to the effective way the first three have been realised. Tom Baker seems to be relishing returning to the role and continues to roll back the years (another great voice - it's almost as though these men were case with Big Finish in mind!).

The long and the short of it is that there is an awful lot coming up. In the days before the TV Movie (can you believe it is 20 years since it was on?) we'd have given anything for any of those projects. All this new stuff comes despite the fact I'd still like to catch up on the Sixth Doctor's regeneration, the 'locum Doctor' stories, Dark Eyes 2-4 and many many more.

All this and then at least two more TV series lined up for our viewing pleasure. A golden era indeed. It's time to make the most of it. Reckon I might finally get that second War Doctor set ordered...