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The 8th Doctor pt. 1

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Paul McGann
 

The Eighth Doctor

* Enemy Within (Grace & Chang Lee) (85' 47")

DVD Commentary: Geoffrey Sax
The Master's last wish was for his old enemy, the Doctor, to bring his remains home. In San Francisco on New Year's Eve, 1999, a trap is sprung that could mean the end of the world. Only the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor can stop the Master — if he can only remember who he is.
My review:  The novelisation does take some liberties with the story, written as it was while Enemy Within was still being filmed. You get the feeling that it's based on an earlier draft of the script as things are scimmed over that go into more detail in the broadcast version.  The story itself is well told, a couple of very sly references to Timewyrm: Revelation and Sophie Aldred's Ace. However the main thrust of the book is establishing the new Doctor and his battle with his best enemy, the Master.  Caught up along the way are heart surgeon Grace 'Kelley' Holloway and gang banger Chang Lee. Each serves as companion to one of the two time lords, acting more as cyphers than true companions as in the TV version. Had this book been written after transmission there is no doubt that the characterisations would be spot on and dripping with Gary's usual glee for writing real and believable people.  The actual ending is rather rushed, what is a major battle on screen is only a couple of pages in the book, due no doubt to the visual nature of the conflict.  As a novelisation this book serves its purpose but as a book in its own right it falls short in every respect, the TV movie version is far superior and should be considered the definitive introduction to the 8th Doctor.

 

* The Eight Doctors (Sam)

Recuperating after the trauma of his recent regeneration, the Doctor falls foul of a final booby trap set by his arch-enemy, the Master.  When he recovers, the disorientated Doctor looks in a mirror and sees the face of a stranger. He knows only that he is called the Doctor - nothing more. But something deep inside tells him to trust the TARDIS, and his hands move over the controls of their own accord.  The TARDIS takes him to a strangely familiar junkyard in late-nineties London, where he is flung into a confrontation between local drug-dealers and Samantha Jones, a rebellious teenager from Coal Hill School.  But the Doctor soon finds the TARDIS transporting him to various other places in order to recover all his memories - and that involves seeing seven strangely-familiar faces...
My Review:  Some sections of fandom (the pretentious ones who are eager to show they don't know what they're talking about at great length) deride The Eight Doctors as utterly crap. They are of course utterly wrong because this is a really good book. It's not a classic by any means, it's got a lot of flaws but that doesn't mean it's not a good story well told.   With a book like this there was never going to be a lot of room for character development, instead we get three simple story strands which is one too many, as the whole Flavia angst arc can easily be dumped with no harm to the main story line.   Also Sam's intro is cut off abruptly then guiltily tacked on as a coda at the end. Her story really could have done with more room to grow and develop. And the allusions to 100,000 BC easily lost for what nothing it adds.   The main storyline then is the 8th Doctor losing his memory (I wonder if something like this will ever come up again? and he has to travel back along his timeline meeting his prior selves to regain his memories.   The Hartnell flashback is so brief as to make it unimportant, why bother with it if all you get is a couple of pages? The Hartnell era was the foundation of the series and as such it deserves a lot more than a few pages.   The Troughton era is similarly dismissed in a few pages, I can't understand why the author would spend so very little time on these eras.   The Pertwee era sees a little more meat, with the 3rd Doctor and Jo on the trail of the Master at the end of The Sea Devils, but sadly he gets away again. What's important is the interaction between Doctors 3 & 8 with Doctor 3 actually considering killing his successor to get a hold of his TARDIS.   The Tom Baker era sees a revisit to the authors vampire story of season 18 but very little more is added that wasn't already known in the author's earlier work Blood Harvest. All in all this section is wasted.   The Davison era gets a curtosy nod as the author ransacks one of his own stories again but at least this time we get some interesting ideas and interplay between the Doctors and the Sontarans turn up too.   The Colin Baker era is the most indulged in as two of the story arcs sort of merge for a bit. If only the 6th Doctor had stuck around a bit longer...   The McCoy era only gets a couple of pages as by now we're running out of pages and an ending in needed.   The Eighth Doctor is once again restored and he returns to save Sam by changing the past and she sneaks on board the TARDIS. (I wonder if this change of events will have some sort of impact on the timeline?  All in all a competently written book, it entertains enough even after a reread which is all you can ask of any book...

 

* Earth & Beyond: Bounty (Sam) (36' 08")

Seventeen-year-old Sam Jones's first trip in the TARDIS is to the Seychelles in the present day - and involves a deadly encounter with alien bounty hunters. Can the Doctor stop them making Earth their battleground?

My review:  A short story that serves as a coda to The Eight Doctors as the Doctor decides wether or not to take Sam with him in the TARDIS.   The story is quite full considering the briefness of it. Sam shows tha Doctor that she can handle herself, although she still needs him, which shows her vulnerable side.   The Doctor goes into Pertwee mode as he recreates a classic James Bond moment and then switches to Troughton/McCoy mode as he pleads witht he aliens to leave and then manipulates their weakness of salt water against them.   All in all it's a fun little story that fills a small continuity gap.

 

* The Dying Days (Benny)

On the Mare Sirenum, British astronauts are walking on the surface of Mars for the first time in over twenty years. The National Space Museum in London is the venue for a spectacular event where the great and the good celebrate a unique British achievement.  In Adisham, Kent, the most dangerous man in Britain has escaped from custody while being transported by helicopter. In Whitehall, the new Home Secretary is convinced that there is a plot brewing to overthrow the government. In west London, MI5 agents shut down a publishing company that got too close to the top secret organisation known as UNIT. And, on a state visit to Washington, the Prime Minister prepares to make a crucial speech, totally unaware that dark forces are working against him.  As the eighth Doctor and Professor Bernice Summerfield discover, all these events are connected. However, soon all will be overshadowed.

My Review: A fantastic rollercoaster of a novel packed full of fantastic cinematic imagery from a crashing helicopter to the UK sending people back to Mars and then a giant floating spaceship hovering over London and an Ice Warrior being made the king of the UK! This is all great stuff, I enjoyed each sentance of each page of each chapter, not once does the pace relent as betrayal upon betrayal causes events to remain fresh and interesting. The addition of the Brig is a nice touch too and it's great to get the feel of the UNIT days but in a modern context, like Battlefield but even better. Where Lungbarrow failed to be a satisfying finale ot the 7th Doctor era The Dying Days is an amazing farewell to the New Adventures series, but with the promise of new and interesting things to come for alcoholic/adventuress/scoundrel/unduplicatable Bernice Summerfield...

 

* Telos Novellas: Rip Tide

Unsettling things are afoot in a sleepy Cornish village. Strangers are hanging about the harbour and a mysterious object is retrieved from the sea bed. Then the locals start getting sick.  Could this have anything to do with the alluringly beautiful Ruth who local lifeboatman Steve has taken a shine to ... or could the other stranger, a man calling himself the Doctor, be somehow involved? And why is Ruth both drawn and terrified by the sea?  The Doctor is perhaps the only person who can help, but can he discover the truth in time?

 

* Telos Novellas: Eye of the Tyger

Inhabiting a colony spaceship in the thirty second century are members of a religious cult which left Earth to find a world of their own. Their leader, Seraph, has downloaded his mind into the ship's computers, but now he has gone silent, enticed and serenaded by a siren song coming from inside a black hole.  Trapped in orbit around the void, Seraph's followers are confused by his silence, and when the Doctor arrives, he finds a world on the brink of chaos.

 

* Shada (Romana & K9)

The Doctor has a spot of unfinished business. Reunited with his old friends Romana and K9, he answers a summons from Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord now living the academic life in a Cambridge college.  But the Doctor isn’t the only visitor to Cambridge. Somewhere in the city is the sinister alien Skagra, who is intent on stealing an ancient and mysterious book brought to Earth by the Professor many years before.  What is Skagra’s diabolical masterplan? And who or what is the mysterious Shada? To discover the truth, the Doctor and his friends must embark on a perilous journey that will take them from the cloisters of Cambridge to the farthest reaches of deep space, risking deadly encounters with a sentient spaceship, the monstrous Krargs, and an ancient Time Lord criminal called Salyavin. As the Doctor soon discovers, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance…

My Review: I liked the 4th Doctor vhs version, which is unusual because St. Tom is not one of my fave Doctors, but Paul McGann is and he does a splendid job making this story his own from start to finish. The 8th Doctor is a wide-eyed and passionate being, ruled by curiosity and fuelled by hope and tempered by a fiery sense of right and wrong. This story makes clever use of the limitations of the original material and it's inclusion in The Five Doctors, it's a clever tale of changing history so that this version fits neatly into the events of the original. The story itself is cleverer than most DW tales with the calm timelessness of Cambridge University as a backdrop for the beginnings of an attempt to fundamentally reshape the entire universe. Romana is effortlessly recreated by Lalla Ward, as is K9 by John Leeson. The story shows what is best about the Doctor, he's charming, witty, intelligent and totally determined when he puts his mind to a task, no matter how bad the outcome might be for himself. He's a hero in every sense of the word.

 

* Storm Warning (Charley) (116' 24")

October, 1930. His Majesty's Airship R101, sets off on her maiden voyage to the farthest-flung reaches of the British Empire, carrying the brightest lights of the Imperial fleet. Carrying the hopes and dreams of a breathless nation.  Not to mention a ruthless spy with a top-secret mission, a mysterious passenger who appears nowhere on the crew list, a would-be adventuress destined for the Singapore Hilton… and a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.  There's a storm coming. There's something unspeakable, something with wings, crawling across the stern. Thousands of feet high in the blackening sky, the crew of the R101 brace themselves. When the storm breaks, their lives won't be all that's at stake.  The future of the galaxy will be hanging by a thread.

My Review: I'm not usually a huge fan of pseudo-historicals but this one's ok but imo it would have been better as a full-on historical. The stuff with the Triskele seems to be a ham-fisted bunch of ideas thrown in at random and ultimately has no bearing on the outcome of the story except as a means of determining the Doctor's worries about Charley and so can easily be cut out of the story without affecting it at all. This is all about introducing Charley and setting up the temporal paradox that will be exploited later on down the road. We learn a few things about her, her dreams and what beliefs but there's enough left untouched so that later stories can add more details of her life and who she was and will be. Ramsey the Reaper Vortisor is a pretty interesting idea but wasted on audio. The Doctor is on fine form, full of vim and vigour and played to the hilt with reserved forwardocity by Paul. I just couldn't see any other Doctor than number 8 in this adventure and I wouldn't want to either.

 

* Sword of Orion (Charley) (123' 21")

The human race is locked in deadly combat with the 'Android Hordes' in the Orion System. Light years from the front line, the Doctor and Charley arrive to sample the dubious delights of a galactic backwater, little suspecting that the consequences of the Orion War might reach them there. But High Command's lust for victory knows no bounds.  Trapped aboard a mysterious derelict star destroyer, the Doctor and Charley find themselves facing summary execution. But this is only the beginning of their troubles. The real danger has yet to awaken.  Until, somewhere in the dark recesses of the Garazone System, the Cybermen receive the signal for reactivation...

My Review: It's all a bit too yankee doodle dandy for me, so casting gung-ho stormtrooper binmen with west country accents doesn't sit well with my ears. That said the story limps painfully from one stock cliche to the next like a penguin with a head wound, entertainingly distressing. At least Paul & India give story saving performances, when they're in a scene, otherwise it's a garbled mess of incoherant warblings leaving the listener no idea what's going on for 6 or 7 minutes at a time. The writer obviously forgot how to write for audio or something, or the director was directing from the bar. Anyway, there are some positives but as I've aldready mentioned those I'll continue with the dislikes. Aliens & Blade Runner. If you're going to steal, do a better job of it please. Luckily though the most merciful part of the story is the fact that it finishes, if a thing is the sum of it's parts then this story is made of the holes in swiss cheese and Idon't like swiss cheese either oh and I worked out Deeva was a droid as soon as her first name was given, I do so like Kryten from Red Dwarf.

 

* The Stones of Venice (Charley) (111' 19")

The Doctor and Charley decide to take a well-deserved break from the monotony of being chased, shot at and generally suffering anti-social behaviour at the hands of others. And so they end up in Venice, well into Charley's future, as the great city prepares to sink beneath the water for the last time.  Which would be momentous, if rather dispiriting, event to witness in itself. However, the machinations of a love-sick aristocrat, a proud art historian and a rabid High Priest of a really quite dodgy cult combine to make Venice's swansong a night to remember.  And then there's the rebellion by the web-footed amphibious underclass, the mystery of a disappearing corpse and the truth behind a curse going back further than curses usually do.  The Doctor and Charley are forced to wonder just what they have got themselves involved with this time…

My Review: Ah, tragedy sweet tragedy. This is classic tragedy in the best tradition, bitter regrets and recriminations to last three life times over. The Doctor and Charley almost seem superfulous to the story as it unfurls like a diseased flower. The prolist addition of the servile slave class struggle is about the only thing faultworthy in the scripts but as they're used only as generic cliffhanger threats before being discarded for the main storyline it's forgiveable. Vinchenzo is in full-on maniac mode of the finest tradition, one could easily imagine the cuckoo-clock minded Heironymous from Mark of Mandragora or perenial madman Zaroff at his best shoutisimal ranting fury. The slight influence of the Doctor is as salve to the concience and balm to the psyche ashe picks his way through the myths and memories to arrive at the truth and effortlesly bring about reconciliation and restitutionto save the day and indeed the cityand as an afterthought the enslaved underclass as he recreates his punting days of Shada.

 

* Minuet in Hell (Brig & Charley) (147' 36")

The twenty-first century has just begun, and Malebolgia is enjoying its status as the newest state in America. After his successful involvement with Scotland's devolution, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart has been invited over to Malebolgia to offer some of his experiences and expertise.  There he encounters the charismatic Brigham Elisha Dashwood III, an evangelical statesman running for Governor who may not be quite as clean-cut and wholesome as he makes out. One of Dashwood's other roles in society is as patron of a new medical institute, concentrating on curing the ills of the human mind. One of the patients there interests the Brigadier - someone who claims he travels through space and time in something called a TARDIS.  Charley, however, has more than a few problems of her own. Amnesiac, she is working as a hostess at the local chapter of the Hell Fire Club, populated by local dignitaries who have summoned forth the demon Marchosias. And the leader of the Club? None other than Dashwood, who seems determined to achieve congressional power by the most malevolent means at his disposal...

My Review: More padded than the bras at a Westlife concert, longer than Tom's bar bill, weirder than Terrance Dick's eyebrows, yet it's quite a good story at hearts. Fred Crane is interesting as the maybe-Doctor, but an amnaesiac 8th Doctor is just such a cliche now that it's not funny. The Brig is back and he's a bad ass, he's like Fagin meets Uncle Albert with a healthy dose of blood and thunder thown in for good measure. Alas the terrible yankee drawl accents are omega-awful and tend to slip a lot too, they should have pushed the boat out and hired Jerry Hardin. Still the single good moment was cleverly woven into the action before being shoved back into the tag with sledgehammer subtlety, the Psionovores claim that Charley is dead...

 

* Invaders from Mars (Charley) (93' 52")

Hallowe'en 1938.  A year after a mysterious meteorite lit up the skies of New York state, Martian invaders laid waste to the nation. At least, according to soon-to-be infamous Orson Welles they did. But what if some of the panicked listeners to the legendary War of the Worlds broadcast weren't just imagining things?  Attempting to deliver Charley to her rendezvous in Singapore 1930, the Doctor overshoots a little, arriving in Manhattan just in time to find a dead private detective. Indulging his gumshoe fantasies, the Doctor is soon embroiled in the hunt for a missing Russian scientist whilst Charley finds herself at the mercy of a very dubious Fifth Columnist.  With some genuinely out of this world 'merchandise' at stake, the TARDIS crew are forced into an alliance with a sultry dame called Glory Bee, Orson Welles himself and a mobster with half a nose known as 'The Phantom'.  And slowly but surely, something is drawing plans against them. Just not very good ones...

My Review:  From dixieland to Italian Americans in New York, the accents continue to fail beautifully!  Invaders however doesn't take itself remotely seriously however, it's a glorious gangster runaround with some good audio noir moments and a wonderful Flash Gordon feel to it. The 30's esque audio cues are wonderful too and add to the story rather than intrude on it. Paul & India are effortlessly superb as Doctor 8 and Charley P, you'd think they'd been playing the roles for 20 years and not just 1. Setting an alien invasion story during the infamous Wells broadcast is a stroke of genius too, it really adds to the story as well as providing a unique way to resolve the situation. Only the Glory Bee scenes are less than wonderful and they're still adequately interesting and I loved the in-joke about the radio cast doubling up roles.

 

* The Chimes of Midnight (Charley) (115' 51")

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring.  But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight.  Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where even the victims don't stay dead. Time is running out.  And time itself might well be the killer...

My Review:  As General Rene Bosquet might have said: Magnifique, mais ce n n'est pas la Docteur. Chimes is a technically brilliant story, complex story strands are interwoven with loving precision that shows real affection for the characters and the tale, but there's just one small thing that nags, it's a Sapphire and Steel story and not Doctor Who. One can easily imagine the dark and sinoster Steel confronting the emerging house pyche and demanding it to kill itself, or the enthusiastic Sapphire being caught up in the narrative out of concern for those caught in the loop, but it's very hard to imagine the Doctor and Charley even as I listen to Paul & India. Shaunessey the butler is the very epitomy of Uriah Heep, very 'umble tohis Lordship and the Doctor, but cold and bullying to Edith and Mary. The Cook I could have quite happily murdered myself, I hate christmas pudding that much. The others were more cipherific but that was the role they were playing, people who's identities were subsumed by their jobs and they did it so well.

 

* Living Legend (Charley) (22' 11")

The world faces imminent destruction when Italy wins the World Cup! Can the fabled Time Lady Charleyostiantayshius save the day, or will her idiot assistant, the Doctor, ruin everything?

My Review: Short and sweet, the story is both funny and deadly serious as two ham-fisted invaders try to invade Italy by stealth. World Cup Fever as a plague is very funny, as is getting one of the aliens drunk and getting the other riled up by playing on his insecurities. I dare say the story could have been eeeked out a little longer, perhaps with the Doctor accidentally nearly stealing the world cup itself?

 

* Seasons of Fear (Charley) (119' 28")

On New Year's Eve, 1930, the Doctor lets Charley keep her appointment at the Raffles H otel in Singapore. But his unease at what he's done to time by saving her life soon turns into fear. Sebastian Grayle: immortal, obsessed, ruthless, has come to the city to meet the Time Lord. To the Doctor, he's a complete stranger, but to Grayle, the Doctor is an old enemy.  An enemy that, many years ago, he finally succeeded in killing. And this is his only chance to gloat.  The Doctor and Charley desperately search human history for the secret of Grayle's power and immortality. Their quest takes in four different time periods, the Hellfire Club, the court of Edward the Confessor and the time vortex itself. And when the monsters arrive, the stakes are raised from the life of one Time Lord to the existence of all humanity.

My Review: Packed with everything and much more besides! Seasons is a story and a half, and what stories it is too. The main story is a simple murder mystery, with the Doctor investigating his own demise! Grayle is an interesting villain of the unbalanced evil genius variety, eager to please his masters because they can give him what they want. All the clues are there of course, black holes, graviometric distortion, refernces to Minoan culture. The Nimon are back and it's like Soldeed never really died.  The other half story is the Doctor recounting his adventure to Rassilon, such foreboding, and the first mention of the Zagreus nursary rhyme too, things are kicking into gear now. Then there's the unexpected appear of Sentris in Charey's form tokill a couple of people who have been exposed to temporal energies wether by TARDIS or paradox. It's all good stuff, in fact it's the best so far.

 

* Embrace the Darkness (Charley) (124' 59")

The Doctor and Charley travel to the remote Cimmerian System to unravel the mystery of its sun. But darkness has already embraced the scientific base on Cimmeria IV in more ways than one. In a fight for survival, the Doctor must use all his wits against a deadly artificial life-form and an ancient race whose return to the Cimmerian System threatens suffering and death on an apocalyptic scale.

My Review: It starts off interestingly with a fleet of TARDISi before slipping into generic hanuted house mode, but luckily it recovers itself quickly before falling into Forbidden Planet territory. The story is like a slowly opening rose, firstyou have the thorns, then a glimpse of colour, then unfolding beauty and finally the inexpressable joy of the full bloom. The molecular science concepts are pretty interesting but sadly seem quite limited to just damaging and repairing eyesight, could htye have given people more arms, bigger brains, more compassion? Still it's not a bad story at all, although the Cimmerian's are annoyingly quiet and ROSM annoyingly loud, perhaps a balance could have been found?

 

* Dalek Empire: The Time of the Daleks (Charley) (121' 31")

The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare. So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn't hold the galaxy's greatest playwright in the same esteem. In fact she's never heard of him.  Which the Doctor thinks is quite impossible.  General Mariah Learman, ruling Britain after the Eurowars, is one of Shakespeare's greatest admirers, and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays' original performances.  Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely.  The Daleks just want to help. They want Learman to get her time machine working. They want Charley to appreciate the first ever performance of Julius Caesar They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory.  Which the Doctor knows if utterly impossible.

My Review: Full of sound and fury signifying, hang on who's that Shakespeare bloke everyone's on about? Oh right. A modern day renaissance man, secretly plucked out of time while a young lad and made to warp and alter history to enable a Dalek fleet trapped in the vortex access back to reality. It's one huge circular paradox, but that's the theme of the season isn't it? It's a lot more interesting that that book paradox stuff too isn't it? Time is only briefly attatched to the Dalek Empire series, there's tender connections to Genocide, Apocalypse and Phase. The rest of the story is about a mad bint with a Shakespeare fetish who isn't a Carrionite and that's the main let down, a pseudo-Thatcher cipher wielded as a sock plot device rather than a crafted and shaped character. Still it ends and that's the main thing.

 

* NeverLand (Romana & Charley) (143' 32")

The Web of Time is stretched to breaking. History is leaking like a sieve. In the Citadel of Gallifrey, the Time Lords fear the end of everything that is, everything that was... everything that will be.  The Doctor holds the Time Lords' only hope - but exactly what what lengths will the Celestial Intervention Agency go to in their efforts to retrieve something important from within his TARDIS? What has caused Imperiatrix Romanadvoratrelundar to declare war on the rest of creation? And can an old nursey rhyme about a monster called Zagreus really be coming true?  The answers can only be found outside the bounds of the universe itself, in a place that history forgot. In the wastegrounds of eternity. In the Neverland.

My Review: Peter and Wendy get caught up in a terrible adventure with Captain Hook and the nasty Corodile known as Zagreus. It's all a bit Lexx-like at the start, with mad recountsof dying time lines and scream, never ending screaming. Then the action moves to deep space and the Doctor is captured by Charley's maturing wisdom. Rommy wants the Doctor's help to stop her turning into Darth Evilbitch and he agrees to help her, but it involves putting Charley in a zappy electro-blender! This was well-weird stuff of the freaky kind. Then things get really weird as they go to a universe of anti-time! It turns out that the Time Lords are insane mass murderers who devised a way of killing that makes the death an unevent so the victim and their dispatch never were. This is of course not impressive as any impressive thoughts were deleted. There's a couple of whacky scenes with that arch-funster Rassilon and a lot of shouting, jesturing, argueing, joculating and matriculating before something happens and everyone goes back to Gallifrey with a huge bomb! This was quite funny, the time lords as simple-minded imbeciles. Luckily the Doctor saves the day and as a reward is allowed to slap Charley about a bit before finally changing his name to Zagreus. All in all a very good story.

 

* Zagreus (Leela, Romana & Charley) (224' 26")

Zagreus sits inside your head.
Zagreus lives among the dead…
Zagreus sees you in your bed
And eats you when you're sleeping.

My Review: The first installment begins with a lengthy recap of NeverLand, ideally suited for when it was first released but for the purposes of this marathon it's pointless filler. That said Paul's cry that he's Zagreus is slightly different, less maniacal, more subdued, an alternate take perhaps? The main story is the Doctor/Zagreus trying to work out what has happened (yes it's the return of the 8th Doctor amnesia meme) but some clues are filled in by a barely audible 3rd Doctor voiced seemingly by Jon Culshaw.  Why couldn't they have Pertwee's voice more audible in the mix? Anyway D/Z gets a right run around and ends up as the cat in the box. Charley briefly thinks she's a rabbit before meeting the Brig again, who's really the TARDIS in disguise and he takes her to see the 5th Doctor and some of his companions a mysterious experiment at Cardington run by Dr Stone and Reverend Townsend. Here they open a tear in space that leads to the Divergent Universe and seemingly leads ot the deaths of everyone. Not a bad start but why did they turn ten minutes of material into a near 80 minute excercise in padding beyond the point of sanity?   There's some dark humour in the second segment. Peri Ouida killing off Mel Cassandra for instance. Colin's vampire Lord Tepesh is very evocative of the 6th Doctor, perhaps a little too so, then again the 6th Doctor never lost (except to the Rani's shoulder pads) so there's a difference. Much of the story is set up for the last few minutes of the story andagain there's a lot of it that can easily be cut and never missed. The battle between the theme park robot attractions is both funny and sad, but Uncle Winki is a fun character, not unlike the 7th Doctor in season 24. However the climax of Heartland is what this disc is all about, the TARDIS betraying the Doctor and going over to the side of Lord Rassilon. There's some filler with Romana and Leela and a K9 too, but that hardly matters, the final reveal is of the Dark Tower in the Death Zone, Rassilon's tomb.  Lots of talky preachy speaches tend to get in the way of the exposition in the final segment, but they're necessary to pad out the padding, alas this episode contails about 5 minutes of plot and 70 minutes of pretty sparkly soundscapes and ranting. The basic plot is thus, the Doctor gives into Zagreus, exiles Rassilon, gets a temporary cure and then exiles himself. How the story loves to take its time and never get there except by oblique sideways hops and spiral staircase logic. If it wasn't for all four Doctors together this would be a damp ending to a very mediocre story, it's ironic that they followed a fantastic story like NeverLand with such lightweight non-storytelling. How can they create something so complex and intriguing and then follow it up with something so simple and dull? I'm mystified, bamboozled even. If Lewis Carrol was alive today he'd sure the pants off BF for this days work. However it's all over now, all in the past and now there's better stories ahead, I shall enjoy them because they'll never be as bad as this.

 

* Scherzo (Charley) (94' 21")

There were two friends, and together they travelled the cosmos. They thwarted tyrants and defeated monsters, they righted wrongs wherever they went. They explored the distant future and the distant past, new worlds and galaxies, places beyond imagining.  But every good story has to come to an end.  With no times or places left to explore, all the two friends have now are each other. But maybe that's one voyage too many. Maybe they'll discover things they'd rather have left undisturbed... hidden away in the suffocating, unfeeling, deafening brightness.  Once upon a time. Far, far away.

My Review: A simple two-hander that somehow manages to fill four 20 minute episode thanks to overly large opening preludes that tell a far more interesting story than the main bit. The prologues could almost be a parable of Rassilon himself and forms a much more interesting version of Zagreus than Zagreus ever was. Zaggy also seems to have been forgotten, dropped like a hot potato from a tall place. India grates like a cheese grater alas, this is the first story where I've actually not wanted to listen to her, normally she's a very good actress, giving a very intelligent portrayal of Charley, here though she's a clingy brat of the worst kind and I found myself praying for an Old Yeller ending.

 

* The Creed of the Kromon (Charley & C'Rizz) (129' 09")

The Interzone is a fearsome nether-world protecting a zone ruled by the Kromon. Theirs is an arid land of dust and dying trees. Across the landscape are spheres that look like giant anthills. The Doctor believes that within one of these structures lie the clues that will lead him to his lost TARDIS.  The spheres are ruled by the insect-like Kromon who covet the TARDIS. When Charley is captured she is forced to metamorphosise into a hybrid-insect Queen and so to save her, the Doctor must barter his knowledge of space-travel technology, all the while knowing that he risks opening up all the realms of space to a rapacious race whose creed is not to create, only to plunder.

My Review: An interesting rewrite of all the best bits of Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, mutation, slavery, company politics, betrayal and blind obedience. There is still however some new and original material to make the story stand up on its own merits. C'rizz is an interesting (if moody) addition to the cast and Kro'Ka is very bizarre and officious, he reminds me of ORAC from Blake's 7.

 

* The Natural History of Fear (Charley & C'Rizz) (129' 33")

IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE TO COPY OR ATTEMPT TO COPY ANY PERSONALITY OR MEMORY-RELATED ARTICLE SHOWN OR DISPLAYED IN THIS PUBLIC THEATRE, INCLUDING THIS WARNING. PUNISHMENT OR CONVICTION IS AN UNLIMITED REDUCTION OF AUTHORISED OVERTIME HOURS AND TOTAL PERSONALITY REVISION. YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BRING ANY JUKEBOX OR RECORDING EQUIPMENT INTO THIS PUBLIC THEATRE. THIS WILL BE TREATED AS AN ATTEMPT TO BREACH COPYRIGHT. ANY PERSON DOING SO CAN BE EJECTED AND THE EDITOR MAY CONFISCATE SUCH ARTICLES. WE ASK THE PUBLIC TO BE VIGILANT AGAINST ANY SUCH ACTIVITY AND REPORT ANY MATTERS AROUSING SUSPICION TO THEIR LOCAL CONSCIENCE. THANK YOU.

Public Warning

Faction Against Character Theft

My Review: Beautiful pictures without a canvas, TNHOF uses words, phrases and inflections to paint with sounds,it creates a rigid and inflexible world full of suppression and fear, a world ready for revolution and anarchy to restore freedom and individuality, but with no means to achieve this distructive creativity. It is also a very sly potted history of the TV series, by refering the the Doctor's donated memories as a series of broadcasts, some of which were lost/never made. It's a very clever story that relies on both confusion and simplicity to tell the tale of Light City. The regulars excel at switching roles effortlessly, it's an art the way they can just change character in an instant, and the story is top rate too. Minally the Doctor's spirit emerges and succeeds in starting the bloody and violent revolution and the story ends with the biggest what happens next ending possible. Maybe one day we'll find out...

 

* The Twilight Kingdom (Charley & C'Rizz) (120' 15")

The blood of innocents has been spilt ­ a terrible sequence of events has been set in motion. The forces of darkness are on the move.  Deep underground, an army of light prepares itself for the oncoming war.  The Doctor's used to winning. Stumbling in, reading the face of the enemy, and then beating the odds but what if this time he's got it wrong? Charley and C'rizz think he has.  Stripped of all that is familiar, just who is the Doctor? Major Koth thinks he knows.  Lost among the dark caverns of an unknown world, has the Doctor finally met his match?

My Review: Quite an atmospheric adventure. The tense claustrophobic paranoia is like fingers in the cloying mud. Some of the characters alas are voiced very similarly and at times its confusing as to which character is speaking. Better direction and casting would have solved this problem easily. The evil entity (tm) is one of the better kind, a nasty neural parasite that can read any mind and influence emotions, thoughts and hence minds. Michael Keating is good as the wounded king archetype, a gruff and moody man who swings back and forth like a pendulum. The regulars are of course treated to the standard distrust and execution attempt before they start to in fight and bicker, it's like 5thy, Tegan and Turlough never broke up.

 

* Faith Stealer (Charley & C'Rizz) (104' 25")

When the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz find their journey through the Interzone interrupted by a nightmarish vision, they are surprised to find the Kro'ka offering the perfect solution.  The Multihaven ­ a vast array of religions and faiths housed in one harmonious community ­ appears to offer the perfect sanctuary in which to convalesce. But under the guidance of the charismatic Laan Carder, one religion seems to be gathering disciples at an alarming rate.  With the Doctor and Charley catching glimpses of an old friend and C'rizz on the receiving end of some unorthodox religious practices, their belief, hope and faith are about to be tested to the limit.  It's time to see the light.

My Review: An interesting and humerous story, it tells of religious bigotry and divicive issues as well as common good and tolerance. The 'Bloody Tourists' line made me giggle out loud and the Woops religion seems quite appealing. There's also some similarity to Twilight Kingdom, a lone man corrupted and used by something he hopes will serve him well, of course Laan Carder and Koth have their differences too, Koth is world weary, while Carder is hopeful of doing good. Kro'ka makes a single appearance alas, he's one of the more interesting characters. C'Rizz constantly releaving his mercy killing of L'da is quite horrific and I hope he does find peace of mind soon.

 

* The Last (Charley & C'Rizz) (141' 16")

Trapped on a dying world, the Doctor and Charley come face-to-face with those responsible for the war to end wars, while C'rizz tries to understand what has happened and learns the terrible truth.  Powerful forces are at work on Bortresoye that not even a nuclear holocaust can tame; natural forces that have excited the interest of Excelsior, the self-proclaimed saviour of her people.  With Charley immobilised and C'rizz left to battle against the elements with some of the victims of war, one final, desperate hope of escape presents itself to the travellers.  But who will be the last to leave the planet? Who will have to stay behind? And will the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz live long enough to find out?

My Review: Queenie lives! Excelsior is every bit as fruit cake as her predecessors. She's Helen A, Maaga, Thatchos even Lady Peinforte in her more lucid moments. This is a tale that expounds the Gaia hypothosis and bleeds the meme dry like a vampire. The characatures are all nice and shiney and demented, the rants and speechifying is pitch perfect and scrubbed so clean you can't even see a tide mark. Many metaphors are scrificed by the Doctor to explain things he has no idea are happening and only in the lst minutes of the story does he even realise what is going on, bless. The murder of Charley and C'rizz are both horrifyingly evil and malignant, Darth Excelsior is one lightsabre short of a Star Wars movie at the best of times, at the worst of times she's nuttier than a bag of dry roasted. Then there's the ghostly figures who alternatley help and hinder, their use is well crafted, they reveal the truth drip by drip, coaxing the characters down the long dark corridor towards the light of death. The final solution is indeed final as the great loopy thing of that time thing the Doctor keeps going on about is finally broken and instead of nuke death there's lovely peace and medals for all. See you all in Berlin for tea and cakes!

 

* Caedroia (Charley & C'Rizz) (105' 43")

Self-exiled to a new universe, separated from his TARDIS, opposed and manipulated by the Divergence and their agent the Kro'ka, the Doctor has been struggling to work out the nature of the cosmic game in which he's an unwilling pawn. Now, at last, he has a chance to find the answer ­ and regain the TARDIS!  Threatened and desperate, the Kro'ka abandons his behind-the-scenes machinations to confront the Doctor directly. But will both of them lose their way in the maze of the strange world in which they find themselves? A world in which a clock may have a cuckoo but no hands, a labyrinth imprisoning a paradox, and a Garden of Curiosities reveals something the Doctor has never seen before.  As the Doctor faces these challenges, Charley and C'rizz provide valuable help. But with the TARDIS itself at stake, the Doctor reaches deep inside himself to find some surprising new allies...

My Review: An interesting tale that really isn't what it should be about at the time you hear it, like a dislocated arm never quite getting back into its socket again. The Doctor and co want answers but they get enigmas, puzzles and diversions. They get officialdom of the worst order, an infinitely vast series of offices all seemingly run by the same man, a cuckoo clock when there's no concept of time and a garden of curious creatures on an alien world that features rabbits from Earth! Kro'ka is up to his Mystic Meg routine again, alternatly trying to find the Doctor's secrets and stop the Doctor from revealing Kro'ka's. It seems that Kro'ka has been using the Doctor to try and get access to the TARDIS, which is a break in the agreement he had with Rassilon! Very good build up and the reveals are perfect, I just wish we could have kept the three Docti (Happy, Grumpy and Doc) a little longer. I wonder what seven Docti would be like and would that make Charley the sweet and innocent Snow White of the story or the paranoid and jealous queen?

 

* The Next Life (Charley & C'Rizz) (187' 45")

Washed up on the sandy shores of a paradise island, a wild-eyed shipwreck survivor is rescued by the wife of Daqar Keep, the richest man in the galaxy.  Her name's Perfection. He's the Doctor. Together, they face a journey into the dark heart of this mysterious island, to discover the deepest secrets of this timeless cosmos. That's if the giant crabs, killer crocodiles and murderous natives don't get them first.  Meanwhile, fellow travellers Charley and C'rizz have their own ordeal to endure, in the grip of the Doctor's most dangerous rival. And in a universe that's facing extinction, even the best of friends may soon become enemies.  This life is almost over. And not everyone will make it to the next...

My Review: Anyone fearing another Zagreus must be delighted that TNL effortlessly surpasses said deadful flop. TNL is a monster, full of twisty-turny storylines as betrayal after betrayal takes place and surprise after surprise is unleashed. Rass is back and he's madder than hatter. He's in super villain mode but he's far too evil even for his own underpants and in the end he's forced to swing them back to the start as it's revealed he's caught up in a repeat loop of ihs own failure, crime does not repay. Kro'Ka suffers more than ever but there's some small measure of reward for him as he assumes the Doc role in their shared epilogue. The other guest characters are all relatives of the fruitcake family. There's homicidal ham Keep who is the great plot absorber, the manipulative Perfection who is anything but, in fact she's Zaggy in dead woman's clothes (and indeed body) then there's Guidance who for once is a very restrained version of Avon and not the glorious set chewer like we saw in Timelash, sadly. Doc, Char & C'r are all their usual bitchy, moody selves but a forced bit of 2 minute bonding cures all and then they're off to 'our' universe and a new adventure with Davros and his wacky Dalek army...I loved every moment...

 

* Terror Firma (Charley & C'Rizz) (102' 36")

Welcome back, Doctor…  Centuries ago on the war-torn planet Skaro, a great scientist created the most evil creatures the Universe would ever know… Daleks. It was at their genesis that the scientist, Davros, first met and was defeated by the Doctor. Over the years and throughout space, they fought, a fight that ended with the Doctor's destruction of Skaro and the Daleks. Except…  Davros survived. Alone. In the dark. With only thoughts of revenge keeping him alive.  The Doctor is back. Davros is waiting. Their destiny is now.

My Review: After the last duel with a mad tyrannical maniac comes...another duel with a mad tyrannical despot! Except this one's even cooler because it not only messes with the listner's head, it also messes with the Doctor's head! The basic set up is before the Doctor met Charley he travelled around with Gemma and Samson, until they accidentally rescued Davros and he royally screwed the Doctor over big style. TF is the eventual fall out from that, with the Doctor remembering those lost days and the realisation that Davros has corrupted not only his companions but also 99 1/2 % of the world, turning all but a handful of humans into Daleksor exterminating them. Except the Daleks don't want the ranty goodness of Davros in charge anymore, they want a pure Dalek emperor, it's almost C'rizz but the Doctor is able to save the day and set Davros up for the biggest of falls. Davros' split personalities are driven even wider apart and the malignant perversity of Davros is seemingly gone forever. The Doctor saves what's left of humanity before going off to Blackpool. The major sting-shock is the revelation that C'rizz has the minds of others inside his own, he's able to keep people alive in his mind after they die and he plans to do the same one day to the Doctor and Charley!!!

 

* Scaredy Cat (Charley & C'Rizz) (74' 04")

"Yaranaa - it means literally, 'the soul of the vengeful' - those whose lives have been cut short early and died with empty hearts"  Millennia ago, the people of the planet Caludaar pledged never to set foot on their sister planet Endarra. But what secrets does the planet hold? There are laws even the Doctor won't break.  And while C'rizz learns that some tragedies can't be averted, Charley must decide who the enemy actually is. For death walks on Endarra, and this time she won't be denied.

My Review: Short, weird and it should have been a single disc release, or had a bonus interview or something to justify the double disc release. The story itself is quite a simple one of the awakened planet gone mad variety they do so well on Trek. The supporting cast are alas unmemorable, although Flood is the best of them, in a weird David Warner soundalike way. The regulars all get their moments to shine and the Doctor gets to act a little darker and colder than usual. Alas the story is over all too soon and the promise of a titanic battle between natural order and human chaos is at best a nasty hairpulling contest, and soon forgotten as nothing much really happens. At least they didn't opt for the full-tilt maximum evil rest button of death ending, or this would be my least favourite audio of all time.

 

* Other Lives (Charley & C'Rizz) (125' 46")

London, 1851.  Scene of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. Scene also of a plot to un-seat the government, de-throne the monarch and start a republic.  If the Duke of Wellington himself is to be believed...  While the Doctor and Charley are drawn into the murky world of nineteenth-century politics, C'rizz struggles to maintain his dignity against growing odds.  What begins as an attempt to prevent murder quickly becomes a desperate race to avert revolution. Separated from the TARDIS, the travellers are left to wonder if they'll get their own lives back or be forever entangled with the lives of others.  And who is Mrs Georgina Marlow? What need does she feel the Doctor can satisfy?

My Review: Annoyingly safe, OL doesn't seem to want to take any risks and any time there's a chance to really stir things up it hoists its skirts and runs screaming the other way. The events the regulars go through are interesting but seem to be done more for comedy purposes than a sense of drama or even melodrama. Charely mistaken for a prostitute was mildly funny and the Doctor aquiring a wife was funnier still. C'rizz being abducted by a psychotic confidence trickster and sideshow freak showman is about the only real character building that takes place alas. We see C'rizz suffer and suffer and then his dark side is revealed when he escapes and turns on his captor, blinding him and crippling his legs. Nothing else of real consequence happens but it's enormous fun listening to anyway.

 

* Time Works (Charley & C'Rizz) (106' 10")

“You want to know about the Time Keepers?  We work in their shadow, every tick and tock of our lives. We hear them in the workings of the Great Clock. We work hard, turn our hands – but we all wind down in time, and that is when they come for us: when our time is up.”  The TARDIS lands in between times, in a time where this is no time. A time in which nothing can possibly be. But something is…  The Doctor, Charley and C’rizz are rats in the wheelwork, a threat to the schedule of a world where timing is everything. And the seconds are counting down to a fateful future that has already happened. Unless they can beat the clock.  Tick, tock.

My Review: The ticking problem with the story is the tocking insistance of substituting perfectly good and ordinary words with references to ticking clocks. Clock me but it's tocking annoying, on and on it goes until the brain blanks the ticking words out lest you go tocking mad. The one good thing in the whole ticking mess is the Doctor's cool line about him enjoying his work again as he defeats the boring and predictable mad computer. I'm just glad the tocker finished so I could get it over with.

 

* Something Inside (Charley & C'Rizz) (118' 34")

WARNING

YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE CUBE

ALL FORMS OF TELEPATHY ARE PROHIBITED.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TELEPORTATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

PSYCHIC POWERS WILL BE FORCIBLY REMOVED

(MENTAL SURGERY IS COMPULSORY)

CAUTION

YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS

YOU HAVE NO POWERS

YOU HAVE NO DEFENCE

YOU ARE NOW INSIDE THE CUBE

My Review: I'm impressed that they had the nerve to make this story, a tissue thin plot that relies on suspicion and paranoia alone to keep the story running for 100 minutes of root-canal drilling pain. It's a monument to everything BFP is supposed not to be about, it's got to be the number one contender for worst story ever. I thought Time Works was bad but this sinks to new depths of cliche and ham. It makes The Horns of Nimon look like a restrained gritty film noire story! Thank goodness they're going to euthanise Charley and C'rizz, they're well past their best.

 

* Memory Lane (Charley & C'rizz) (93' 39")

No summer can ever quite be as glorious as the ones you remember from when you were young, when a sunny afternoon seemed to last forever and all there was to do was ride your bike, eat ice-lollies and play with Lego. Tom Braudy is enjoying just such an afternoon when the TARDIS lands in his Nan's living room and interrupts her in the middle of the snooker.  After they've apologised, the Doctor and his friends soon discover matters of far greater concern than the fact that their time machine is blocking Mrs Braudy's view of a thrilling century break. The street which Tom happily cycles up and down appears to have no beginning or end, and every single house on it is identical.  Is this the future of suburbia, or something even more sinister? Why doesn't Tom look as young as he behaves? And can anybody remember which house the TARDIS is in?

My Review: I'm impressed that they had the nerve to make this story, a tissue thin plot that relies on suspicion and paranoia alone to keep the story running for 100 minutes of root-canal drilling pain. It's a monument to everything BFP is supposed not to be about, it's got to be the number one contender for worst story ever. I thought Time Works was bad but this sinks to new depths of cliche and ham. It makes The Horns of Nimon look like a restrained gritty film noire story! Thank goodness they're going to euthanise Charley and C'rizz, they're well past their best.

 
* Absolution (Charley & C'rizz) (??' ??")
Confession. Penance. Absolution.  The Tardis breaks down in a forbidden sector of space. Ghostly voices cry out for salvation and only C'rizz, the Doctor's Eutermesan companion, can answer their call - for only he knows the secret of the Absolver. But will he use it to rescue his friends or save the universe?  The Doctor's sins are catching up with him and the infernal beast Borarus is hungry. Time is running out and Judgement Day is at hand.  Welcome to Hell.
 

* The Girl That Never Was (Charley) (??' ??")

'Dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot. Someone's listening. Somewhere.'  A ghost ship. A girl with no memory, adrift in time. An old enemy. This could be Charlotte Pollard's finest hour - or her last.  Set course for Singapore, 1931. Journey's end.

 

* Blood of the Daleks (2 Parts) (Lucie) (101' 45")
"People of Red Rocket Rising, my fellow citizens. Our long night is over. I've been contacted by a benevolent people. They too have known great trials, but they have overcome them and made it their mission to help others do the same. They have offered us refuge, and passage to the nearest human worlds. They have the resources, and the patience and compassion, to evacuate every one of us. My fellow citizens, my friends, rescue is at hand!"

"The crashed ship. The one Tom Cardwell saw all those years ago. And you borrowed its technology, didn't you? Maybe even found a Dalek or two in the wreckage. Dead, but intact. And you began to turn human beings into creatures like them. You did that? I'm right, arent I?"


* Horror of Glam Rock (Lucie) (50' 41")

The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way. But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?

 

* Immortal Beloved (Lucie) (49' 13")
'Theosophy? Ha! Surely you mean theophany? Because we're not talking about real gods here, are we? We're talking about the appearance of gods. Your heavenly powers are a little too mechanical for my liking. And, if I may be so bold, Lord Zeus, your demeanor is not very godlike.'


* Phobos (Lucie) (51' 42")
The TARDIS lands on Phobos, moon of Mars - where extreme sports nuts of the future indulge their passion for gravity-boarding and wormhole-jumping. But there's something lurking in the shadows, something infinitely old and infinitely dangerous. It's not for nothing that 'Phobos' is the ancient word for 'fear'...


* No More Lies (Lucie) (49' 14")
What links a disintegrating spaceship to a posh garden party, where a wealthy couple are celebrating their love for each other in style? Gatecrashers the Doctor and Lucie think they know the answer. But they're not the only uninvited guests - ferocious alien warriors riding pterodactyl-like Vortisaurs are about to make their entrance!


* Human Resources (2 Parts) (Lucie) (98' 47")

Lucie Miller's been headhunted to join the staff of Hulbert Logistics, a respectable blue-chip firm in Telford. Great prospects, competitive salary - you don't have to be mad to work here! But wasn't she made for better things, like travelling by TARDIS through time and space? The Doctor, meanwhile, has been fired - into a confrontation with the most terrifying of enemies...

 

* Dead London (Lucie) (??' ??")

The Doctor and Lucie find themselves trapped in a maze of interlocking Londons, from Roman times to the present day.

 

* Max Warp (Lucie) (??' ??")

When a test flight of the new Kith Sunstorm ends in disaster, the Sirius Exhibition Station is plunged into a web of murder and intrigue. Someone – or something – is trying to re-ignite a war between the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy. As the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance, only two investigators, the Doctor and Lucie, can hope to uncover the truth.

 

* Brave New Town (Lucie) (??' ??")
The inhabitants of the quiet seaside town of Thorington in Suffolk are living the same day over and over again.  What's so special about the 1st of September 1991? Why haven't the villagers noticed that the same song has been number one for years? And just where on Earth has the sea disappeared to?  The Doctor and Lucie must solve the mystery before the 'visitors' return...

 

* The Skull of Sobeck (Lucie) (??' ??")

Mysterious mirages and murdered monks disturb the contemplative devotions at the Sanctuary of Imperfect Symmetry...

 

* Grand Theft Cosmos (Lucie) (??' ??")

Here's to crime, Doctor!  The Doctor and Lucie visit nineteenth-century Sweden and become embroiled in an attempt to steal the infamous Black Diamond.  But the stone is guarded by forces not of this world...

 

* The Zygon Who Fell To Earth (Lucie) (??' ??")

There are no monsters this time... are there?  Ten years later and Aunty Pat is in her prime. She's snagged herself an ex rock star at the Kendal Folk Festival and now, in the brave new world of the early 1980s they manage together a snazzy hotel on the poetic and shingly shore of Lake Grasmere. However, still waters run deep and friends from the past are returning, intent on milking the old cash-cow...

 

* Sisters of the Flame (Lucie) (??' ??")

The richest man in the galaxy has just bought a backwards planet with no obvious mineral wealth in the outer reaches of the universe. An obscure mystical sect has been revived after centuries of neglect. A new race of aliens are hunting for prey. Why?  As the Doctor and Lucie attempt to discover the answer, it becomes clear that someone is attempting to resurrect the past - and they need a Time Lord to help them achieve it.

 

* Vengeance of Morbius (Lucie) (??' ??")

The universe is in grave danger. The Doctor and Lucie may have to sacrifice everything to save it.

 

* Orbis (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* Hothouse (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* The Beast of Orlok (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* Wirrn Dawn (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* The Scapegoat (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* The Cannabalists (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* The Eight Truths (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* World Wide Web (Lucie) (??' ??")

tbc

 

* To Be Announced (??' ??")

tbc

 

THE DOCTOR'S ENEMIES:

The Master

Ice Warriors

Cybermen

Nimon

Daleks

Zagreus

 

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