Articles It's Competition Time!

Xmas Competition Time

A while ago, we interviewed Frank Cottrell-Boyce, about Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth and his love of Doctor Who. This year, his children’s novel was made into audio form and read by Peter Capaldi, the twelfth Doctor.

A few months ago, Frank’s latest film came out at my local cinema – Sometimes, Always, Never, starring Bill Nighy. Frank hosted a Q&A after the film and signed copies of his many books, including Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth.

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth is about a young boy and an alien dog, and the adventures they have in and around areas of SW Scotland. It’s a great read for 8 – 9 year olds, and the big kids that want to learn a thing or two about science and indeed a few little experiments. The things I learnt…

It seemed only fitting too, that Frank set our competition question. So here it is…

Peter Capaldi has a fictional encounter with a giant insect long before he was on Doctor Who, what was that?

To enter this competition for a signed copy of Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth, post your answer by tweeting us @ProTorchwood on Twitter or posting on our Facebook Page and adding #PTXmasComp followed by your answer.

We will announce the lucky winner on Boxing Day.

The competition is open to everyone. Post as often as you like. 

Good Luck!

The Whoniverse Round-Up December 2019

December 2019

Jonny Owen

“Well I did it and it’s unbelievably hard work. Uncomfortable, damp, noisy.”

Club's Chief Executive Ioannis Vrentzos, and Executive Director Jonny Owen joined Nottingham Forest for the Big Sleep Out, raising money for the homeless through Framework. So far they've raised over their £5000 target. 'All funds go directly to supporting those who are sleeping rough locally, getting people off the streets...' This is Nottingham Forest's second Big Sleep Out. It took place on 23rd November at The City Ground.

You can still donate to the page by helping them raise even more, by following this link. 
Either click on the link or copy and paste

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nffc-sleepout2019?fbclid=IwAR3q7pCYNLhaqqDcgduQ1wMei9qINggYuEmI7f0V4Jji8vA7XbAflwi8nO4

Jonny posted on his Facebook page about his experience at the event, photos are also courtesy of Jonny Owen.

“The life expectancy of someone who is homeless is 47... You can totally understand that at 1am on a damp November. It's so difficult to get warm let alone sleep. It’s in your bones the rain. Winter must be particularly awful. Also, you're much more likely to be attacked or abused when you're on the street sleeping. How you're much more vulnerable. I mean you're in cardboard boxes but people kick you and spit. Dreadful really, isn’t it?

The great Nye Bevan said we judge our society by how we treat those less fortunate than us. The sick, the homeless, the poor. I actually think it’s incredible how many DO care and try to help. There [are] loads of people doing as much as they can. Volunteers lots of them. They told me about a Welsh lad from Cardiff who was sleeping rough in some church grounds in North Notts. They saved his life. They woke him and his thin tent had completely frozen and he was hours away from dying. He’d recently got off the drink and drugs because they’d got him on a course and into temp accommodation and was even applying for jobs now. That’s Framework. They really do care.

Bless them for that. Bless them for everything they do."

John Barrowman

John Barrowman is back with his latest web series Acursian, the time travelling journey between 1745 and present day, where Charlie Stewart, descendant of Bonny Prince Charlie looks set to lose everything on his 40th birthday, if three talismans are not retrieved from Bregan, the god of war.

If anyone fancies writing a review of this latest series, in the New Year, do please get in touch, by email or through our social networking sites.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/acursian/list?title_no=1452&fbclid=IwAR0h3LZlG_NIUkpLSI0tJy2DGYlWWzHYMBDMZKO9dqjHnWsUcznkS94XG3M

On 1st December, Barrowman had a little procedure after suffering a C5/6 facet joint injury. He was given a series of intraspinal injections which reduced the inflammation and got him back on his feet again. An injury like this, can take up to 6 weeks to fully heal. So, we hope he takes it easy and avoids back flips for a while!!!

On 29th November, John's new Xmas album A Fabulous Christmas was released, and I don't think there are many fans left who don't own a copy, downloaded or physical ones. Plus, a gorgeous collection of merch. Joshua has eyes on the teddy!!!

https://www.themerchandisingshop.co.uk/shop/shop.v3/product_list.php?&shopid=764

That’s it for now. See you all in 2020.

Big Finish Reviews+ The Home Guard by Tony J Fyler

We’re doomed, says Tony.

The black and white era of Doctor Who has a greater potential for totally tonto mysterious tomfoolery than the colour era. There, I’ve said it, come at me with your Talons of Weng Chiang.

I only say this because The Home Guard by Simon Guerrier is absolutely bonkers in its initial set-up, and doesn’t get particularly more sane and balanced as events unfold. But it’s absolutely bonkers in precisely the way Classic Doctor Who fans will eat up with the biggest sonic spoon in their cutlery drawer.

It’s wartime in rural England. Jamie and Polly McCrimmon (you’re free to start going doolally at this point) are in the local Home Guard, the force of domestic anti-terror designed to repel the Nazis house to house if need be, to stop them conquering the green and pleasant land. Their friend, Able Seaman Ben Jackson pops by on leave to see his old…

…Wait…how does he know them again? Did they…did they travel together or something?

No-one can quite seem to remember, but anyway, he pops by to visit. The Home Guard is run by the doddery old doctor whose mind seems to be going, and whose scruffiness is clearly a sign that he shouldn’t be in command of anything as responsible as a prescribing pad, let alone the defence of the village from the Nazi hordes. And the local vicar is a terribly nice, terribly persuasive chap who’s not at all keen on that doctor…

The thing is, there are things about a set-up like that which make you think you understand what’s going on. The Doctor being the leader of the Home Guard is curious, but it runs vaguely in time with his record of mounting resistance to a bullying invading force. What the Early Master (yes, damn it, if no-one’s called him that yet, I’m having it) is doing there, stirring up trouble, re-running scenarios of invasion against a small village full of Brits is by no means as straightforward as you might think – of course it isn’t, it’s a Simon Guerrier script, it’s more or less mandated to be odder than you can initially imagine.

What it certainly delivers is plenty of neighbour-against-neighbour semi-apocalyptic tension, akin to anything Big Finish has delivered in the Survivors range, but also strangely topical in a world where divisions over the likes of Brexit and Trump have been absorbed down to the bones, in a strange parallel of the black-and-white realities of England during wartime. When everyone is watching everyone and loose speech can be fatal at the hands of mob rule (albeit terribly genteel mob rule), there’s a hair-raising febrile atmosphere in which to move the elements of a Doctor Who plot around.

I can more or less guarantee that what’s going on is not what you think is going on. Take absolutely nothing for granted in a Simon Guerrier script at the best of times. These are among the best of times, because the reality is mad, the cliffhangers occasionally shocking, making you wonder if you can even actually trust the Doctor you think you know, and Dreyfus’ Master is in delicious form, pitching this first encounter with the Troughton Doctor somewhere between his diabolical grandiosity in The Destination Wars against David Bradley’s First Doctor, and the easygoing chicanery of the Delgado incarnation when he arrives on Earth in Terror of the Autons, with perhaps just a dash of Five Doctors Ainley to sweeten his snarl. The relationship between he Troughton trio, Ben, Polly and Jamie is rather more grown-up and complicated here than at any point on screen, because of the switch-around in what seems the usual order of things, with Polly and Jamie together and Jamie, allegedly, ‘knowing there was never anything between us.’ Murky emotional waters – certainly murkier than would have got on screen in the Sixties, but a great anchoring element for this science fiction story in human realities.

What actually is going on, it would be a crime to spoil for you, but it too has a certain cultural resonance with our day and age, and in particular the notion of a small group of very particular people, culturally speaking, aiming at separation, isolation and self-determination. While the atmosphere is a hundred percent pure black and white era Doctor Who, Guerrier manages to tap into the worries of our era, creating a story that pleases on many levels at once, while absolutely doing its job and confusing the bejesus out of listeners in its first act, only to strive, through action, reaction and eventual necessary explanation what the hell is actually going on  quite close to the end.

Sign up for The Home Guard, and it’ll absolutely draw you in with its Dad’s Army-meets-Private-Army mysteries, its murky sense of imminent threat, its hat-tips to the likes of War of the Worlds, and its strong performances from the regulars, the guest cast, and in particular from Hines and Dreyfus as the Doctor and the Master, not yet as implacably opposed as they would become, but getting there fast in adventures precisely like this one. It’s mysterious black and white Who in the best traditions of the era, but with twists that are both timeless and shockingly relevant to our time.

Big Finish Reviews+ Hall of the Ten Thousand by Tony J Fyler

Tony doesn’t know much about art…but he knows what he likes.

The Ten Thousand are a glorious work of art – ten thousand would-be warriors, represented in gold and glory as a monument not to war, but to peace. They’re a symbol of everything the Doctor believes in, and everything we too would want – peace, not war. Love, not hate. Unity and common cause, not strife and violence.

Except…

Except when the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard go to visit them (out of hours, naturally, because it’s the Eighth Doctor), while their beauty and sculpted skill seems undiminished, there’s something not…quite right.

When the time travellers try to blag their way into seeing the famous artist behind the monument to peace, they’re told she’s seeing no-one – fifty years on from sculpting the ten thousand soldiers of the incredible display, she’s planning something even bigger and better than the original.

This is when having a time machine comes in really handy. They might not be able to see her now, the Doctor reasons, but they might be able to see her then – back in the day when she was putting the final touches to her dazzling monument to reason and peace.

And so, displaying that delicacy of trans-temporal touch that has become the Doctor’s gift by the time he reaches his Eighth body, they do just that, popping back those fifty years to meet the artist behind the Hall of the Ten Thousand.

Except something’s still not quite right. In fact, something, in that time and place, is altogether more wrong. Jaine Fenn gives us a good deal of context for the monument when it’s a new commemoration of a peace between the north and south territories of a planet that was set to tear itself apart. But then…there’s the thing that’s wrong.

It’s Charley who spots it, and it would be utterly spoilerific to reveal it for you here – when you hear it in this new Short Trip, it’ll make you jump, and gulp, and drive a wave of nausea all the way through you.

The Ten Thousand are not, perhaps, everything they’ve always seemed. But perhaps – just perhaps – they’re something more. More, and worse, and horrifying.

The story itself is a delicate cat’s cradle of powerful emotion on the one hand – what would you do to stop a war that would cost the lives of lots of people? Where would you draw the line of suffering for peace? – and time travel tinkering on the other. When you’ve seen a grim thing existing fifty years from now, what can you do to make any damn part of it better? The Doctor and Charley dart deftly through the minefield of causality, knowing they cannot do anything terribly much to undo a dreadful act, but that maybe, just maybe, they can prevent something worse from happening down the line. And, as it turns out, that they might be able to salvage one thread of hope from a situation which, make no mistake about it, goes from beautiful to incredibly grim in a handful of heartbeats.

But hold on to your celebrations. Writer Jaine Fenn does not intend to let you off the hook quite so easily. From a premise that feels inherently straightforward – the celebration of a peace that ended a war - Fenn takes you on a trip that gets grimmer and grimmer, gives you a glimmer of hope, and then shows you the Eighth Doctor lying to Charley by omission, and reveals the consequences of their actions. There’s a kind of peace, a kind of justice at the end, absolutely, but there’s not really anything that would warrant a full-on whoop.

The Hall Of The Ten Thousand is a fitting release for November – the month in which the UK commemorates those lost in wars throughout history, particularly the wars of the twentieth century. Its story is grim, going behind the simplicity of remembrance to the reality of war, and particularly the reality of decisions made for ordinary fighters by high-handed people who thought they were acting in their ultimate interest. Whether they were right or not is almost a moot point, though it’s a reality with which the Doctor and Charley have no option but to contend. Ultimately, the story is a morally complex maze of action and restriction, of what felt right and justified to stop a war, and what will break the heart of anyone who fully understands the cost of that action. It’s a powerful piece that never shies away from conflict, power or a punch in the heart. It’s not a trip that will leave you smiling, but it’s one you need to take. Go – visit The Hall Of The Ten Thousand today.

They have a tale to tell you.

Big Finish Reviews+ Ravenous 4 by Tony J Fyler

Tony’s bloomin’ ravenous…

Four box sets. More or less sixteen hours of storytelling.

It all culminates here.

No pressure.

Ultimately, the tale of the Ravenous – a very odd species that are pitched as the Time Lord’s natural predator from the dawn of Time Lord history and that look strangely like evil clowns (because go figure) – has taken the Eighth Doctor’s Tardis team on quite the journey, including a stop-off of a year or so for Liv Chenka to allegedly mend some fences with her sister (We’ll hear how that goes in upcoming spin-off series The Robots), Helen Sinclair ageing more or less to the point of death, only to be rescued from a fate very much like death by something which would be spoilery if you haven’t heard an earlier Ravenous box set, and the Doctor going on a journey of attempted redemption of a long-held enemy.

But this set is where the story of the Ravenous ends, so it needs a few things to happen: it needs either to explain the Ravenous properly or to defeat them utterly; it needs a sense of the epic, of scales so enormous they warrant the previous twelve hours and the four of this set. It needs to pay off story arcs, to reward characterisation and development, and to make us nod once we’re done, satisfied that we’ve come to the end of a full-on saga.

…

Mission accomplished.

The set opens up in the suitably low-key Whisper, by Matt Fitton, with the Doctor and friends – loosely including the Eleven in that collective – needing a break and some recuperation time after the high-stress ending of box set 3.

Bless.

They arrive on a planet with a predator which hunts based on loud sounds – so every conversation on the surface has to be conducted in whispers. For those who know the movie, this will be familiar territory from A Quiet Place. Lots of planets, it turns out, have a quiet place. This one though has something altogether more creepy going on. We mean that literally – when the Doctor and Co are separated, they each encounter survivors of an expedition to the planet, who have a subterranean base, where the predator can’t catch them.

Or…

Can it?

Events unfold like a smashing together of a classic base under siege story with a dash of post-modern horror movie (Did you lock the enemy out, or trap them inside with you? And, which is worse to contemplate, how do you find out without risking your life?). Matt Fitton creates a situation which is inherently tense and puts people on edge – the idea of whispering is instinctively linked to secrets, to hiding, to doing something wrong and not wanting to be found out, so you listen to this story with a heightened intensity, not just to clearly hear everything that’s being said, but because the very premise puts your fight or flight response on high alert. The revelation of the truth of the planet is delivered with practiced aplomb – you almost feel it coming, and yet when it arrives, it craaaawls up your consciousness, taking its time to deliver the fullness of its horror to your brain.

And then you yelp, and whimper, and rely on the Time Lord with the once-floppy hair to get you out of the story alive.

So with nerves freshly jangled, you’re almost relieved to escape to a seemingly barren desert world – the Planet Of Dust of Fitton’s second story. There’s a touch of Revelation of the Daleks about this one (Disclaimer – no Daleks appear in this story), in that the Master is coming over all ‘Great Provider’ on the planet Parak, despite of course being in reality a life-stealing, slave-driving cowl-covered ultra-git. More than in most Geoffrey Beevers Master stories though, there’s an edge of urgency in his sadism here, because the Master is running out of time. Finally. Actually. The constant reversion of his stolen bodies to the decayed, burned appearance of the Pratt and Beevers Masters is wearing thin, and wearing him out. So the Master is on Parak looking for one very specific thing. And if he finds it, he hopes, he’ll be able to avoid the destiny of his death and go on again.

But the Doctor and friends arrive to mess up his desperate archaeology (Oh for a pal with a sonic trowel – it’s not like the Doctor doesn’t have a couple to spare), while the Eleven becomes a major factor – will he join with the Doctor to stop the Master’s obscene and terrifying plan, or will he jump ship and join the Master in his excavations for the secret of an immortality beyond anything Rassilon ever hoped for? Or, just possibly, does he have a gameplan of his own in coming to Parak? And what of the Ravenous? With the Master seeking to uncover an endless supply of Time Lord life, how long can the Ravenous be held at bay?

There’s a feeling in The Planet Of Dust of it not being an Eighth Doctor story at all, but actually the long, hard, action-packed version of a Caves Of Androzani for the Beevers Master, his ultimate facedown of his own mortality showing his diligence, his monstrosity, his determination to burn the universe to death if it will let him live as king of the wasteland. It’s a powerhouse piece that showcases the Beevers Master, while allowing room for many other forceful characters to run about, make plans, connive, rebel, revolt, and try to steal the potential of his triumph from under his fingertips. Without giving away too much, if you’re a fan of the Beevers Master and the journey he’s so far had on audio, this is always going to be a special story for you. It’s also got enough underlying oomph to offer listeners more directly interested in the story of the Ravenous their fair share of the action and story development too. And if you’re a fan of Liv Chenka’s no-nonsense pragmatism about people in the universe in which she lives, you’ll love and laugh at this story too, as Liv’s appraisal of what’s going on turns out to be blisteringly accurate.

It’s possible you could have got all the way to listening to it without realising that the culmination of the Ravenous story arc is a two-part epic entitled Day Of The Master and written by John Dorney. It’s not likely you’ll have done that, but if you have, apologies. There are Masters everywhere you look in this final two-hour extravaganza – Derek Jacobi’s War Master matching wits and bullets with Liv Chenka. Michelle Gomez’s Missy reprising her pointy stick routine, but this time with the more acquiescent Helen. And the Eric Roberts Master…

Well, the Eric Roberts Master has gone somewhere very, very special. Tres dangereuse. Maximum ‘Are you out of your tiny freakin’ mind?!’

Needless to say of course, it’s where the Eighth Doctor decides to go too, so there’s a pitched battle between these two reunited adversaries, for the heart and soul of Time Lord history. You know of Omega. You know of Rassilon. You’re about to meet a third figure from the days when time travel was new and regeneration was just a glint in a Gallifreyan eye. You’ll know their name, but never necessarily have appreciated their place in the Time Lord hierarchy. So, buckle up – your understanding of the Doctor Who universe is about to change, probably forever.

In addition to which, there are significant, important callbacks here to earlier in the Ravenous story arc – in fact, without having listened to one particular interlude in the arc, you may find yourself spun off the ride at this point because – guess what? – Things Were Not As They Seemed.

I know – shocking.

The point of all of this though is that the reason and the way in which things weren’t as they seemed ties in with a shedload of previously unexplored Gallifreyan history, what the Beevers Master was looking for, the origin of the Ravenous, the Eleven’s ultimate plans, three Masters working together to secure both their past and their future, and an ending which involves the expansion of a Time Lord gift to the whole universe, Liv Chenka getting increasingly angry every time she gets shot (well, you would, wouldn’t you?), Helen Sinclair flying out of a window and the conversation she has there, and the finding of a way to undo what was done before the Ravenous turn the universe into a feeding frenzy.

It’s an epic battle that creeps up on you – the symphony of Masters working together is utterly sublime, and a peculiarity about the Roberts incarnation is put to good use within the story, but it’s the consequences of the McGann-Roberts battle that chiefly decides the future. It ends with the sewing up of strands from across the whole story arc, and with a final scene that is glorious in ways it would be an absolute crime to spoiler for you. In a way, it’s the end, but by the time we get there, the moment has been well and truly prepared for.

The fourth Ravenous box set had a lot to do. That it does it in a satisfyingly, air-punching way that delivers treat after treat along the journey is not really the surprising thing. The surprise is the way in which the storyline escalates, creeping up on you from Whisper through Planet Of Dust to the full-on tonto-fest of wonder that is Day of The Master, delivering character development all the way and still managing an epic, Time Lord history-shifting nail-biter, with three freakin’ Masters (at least) in at the death.

If you’ve come through three Ravenous box sets, you’re going to have to get this one whatever we say. The fact that it rewards you for your loyalty on such a cosmic canvas is just a significant perk. More importantly, if you haven’t followed the Ravenous arc as of yet – you’re gonna need to bite the bullet and do that, because this is an ending you really, truly, hand on both hearts, won’t want to miss.

Big Finish Reviews+ The Paternoster Gang Heritage 2 by Tony J Fyler

Dinner is served, human scum, mutters Tony.

All of what you’re about to read should be understood through a very clear and singular prism: I love the Paternoster Gang. Always have, always will, and on audio at Big Finish, both the characters and their adventures have a chance to grow by virtue of the characters being, like most of us, the focal point in the stories of their own lives.

So: Tony loves Paternosters. Clear?

Now, read on.

Heritage 1 did everything it needed to do with the Paternoster Gang’s first solo outing on audio – it established them front and centre of their own narrative, gave them a focus, in terms of alien doohickery and gittery in Victorian London (as opposed to the frequently macabre and unexplained shenanigans of Messrs Jago and Litefoot). Heritage 2 massively expands their reach, both in terms of geography and in terms of the challenges they’re called upon to tackle. The world of Paternoster Row is getting bigger and more complex.

Dining With Death, by Dan ‘Dan, Dan the Sontaran, if he can’t blast it, no-one can’ Starkey, sees the Gang tackle the impromptu hosting of an interplanetary peace conference between a species habituated to lying and killing even their own kind, more or less out of occasional existential boredom, and a race who’d make you measure the circumference of the dots on your ‘i’s to ensure they conformed to protocol before they signed anything. The previous peace conference between the two races in a discrete London restaurant was atomised by person or persons unknown, there are factions on both sides that don’t want the peace to go ahead, the races are only coming together to fight a third invasive species who neither of them have actually set eyes on, and Madame Vastra is determined that the tensions surrounding the conference will not spread out onto the streets of London, and into the wider world. It is her duty, she feels, to protect the Earth from the cosmic idiocy and bloodshed of any failure to communicate between these races, and so she offers the house on Paternoster Row as the location for the negotiations, with herself as chair and Strax as butler, taking care of all the delegates’ many pernickety needs, while Jenny is despatched to find out who blew the first peace conference to its component atoms – and whether they might try again.

While it’s absolutely the case that all three of the Gang have their own storylines here, and that all three get plenty of chances to shine, Starkey’s closeness to the way Strax speaks and thinks makes this an extra-special treat for Strax-fans, from Strax’s decidedly…erm…RentoKillWithMaximumPrejudice approach to plumbing, to an insistence on the surrender of even ceremonial stabby things while the conference is in session, to fixing atmospheric conditions for the different aliens and, when necessary, wrestling the cheese into submission. Because, y’know…Strax gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘lactose intolerant.’

Of the three stories in the set, Dining With Death is probably the most overtly comic, and as such, it reminds you of some of the things unique to the Paternoster Gang and gets you into their particular three-way chemistry, before things take a darker, screamier tone with the two remaining stories. Maybe it’s a mark of personal shallowness, but the outright comedy means it’s my strong nomination for easiest and most regular re-listen on this set.

Guy Adams takes the writing reins for the second story, The Screaming Ceiling, which pairs the Gang with young, gadget-addicted ghost-enthusiast, Thomas Carnacki to investigate…well, a screaming…erm…ceiling, really. The joy about this story is that it’s told as if related by Carnacki himself (for those not in the know, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder was a fictional paranormal investigator created by William Hope Hodgson in the early 20^th century). The two investigating teams are employed independently by the husband and wife owners of Castle Kraighten in the Highlands of Scotland – cue mists, rain, horrible weather and the desperate isolation of an old, old castle for atmosphere. Castle Kraighten has…well, there really is no other way to say this, it has a ceiling with a mouth, and a mouth that screams. 

But other things are weird in the castle too – people have a history of wandering off down its corridors and never being seen again.

Bring it on, Stephen King!

The chemistry between various members of the Paternoster Gang and the young, self-important Ghost-Finder propels this story along to good effect, certainly, but there’s a real sense of creepy gothic ghost stories about the tone of the piece, especially when it becomes clear that Carnacki himself may not be quite the reliable narrator he thinks he is. Will they all get out alive? Especially after the ceiling eats Strax? While Madame Vastra, Jenny and the aggrieved Sontaran have all the nous and the aptitude to work out the mystery of Castle Kraighten, it’s just possible that the lives of our heroes – and after them, the world – might depend on the self-aggrandizing chatterbox before the affair of The Screaming Ceiling is drawn to a close, because of the crucial difference between knowing what is happening and being able to stop it. Joe Jameson as Carnacki is a particular delight in this story, giving him quite the peacock touch while retaining an essentially good heart, so that, while we sympathise with Strax’s position, we can’t ultimately agree with him when he pleads that he should be allowed to kill the arrogant young rodent who attaches himself to the Madam Vastra…

…At least, not this time…

And as if meeting Carnacki the Ghost-Finder wasn’t a big enough humblebrag, the final story in the set has the Gang engage the infamous Spring-Heeled Jack of old London town.

The story, by Gemma Arrowsmith, starts with a giant premise – Spring-Heeled Jack is an actual London legend, being able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, with burning eyes and fiery breath – and as it develops, becomes something rather more emotionally complex. When the sweetheart of one of Jack’s victims turns to the Gang for help, Madam Vastra takes some convincing to debase herself by investigating folklore tales. But when the sweetheart starts forgetting her beloved, his name, his face and the details of his life, it’s clear something sinister’s going on. It might not be legendary jumping demons, but neither is it exactly another ordinary day at Paternoster Row. Before you can blink twice, Strax is jumping into the Thames to follow an aquatic lead, while Madam Vastra takes to the rooftops to follow a trail, leaving Jenny to investigate drier sources of information alongside Gwendoline Platt, an over-hungry journalist with an exploitative turn of mind. When they eventually find the infamous Spring-Heeled Jack, it would be spoilerific to tell you the ways in which things get more complicated than anyone imagines, but suffice it to say there’s unlikely to be a dry eye in the house by the time you’re done.

The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 2 eases you in with a gag-packed tale of intrigue and diplomacy, takes you into gothic ghost stories and very nearly traps you there forever, and hits you with an emotionally rich line on a longstanding London mystery, to make you hug your loved ones tighter and more often, while imagining the indignities of losing the memories you swear you’ll never lose and would never willingly surrender. It’ll make you laugh, and thrill, and cry, all within the setting of a super intelligent lizard-woman, her wife-cum-maid, and their butler-of-war in the Victorian world. It’s heartwarming, gorgeous, emotional, fun, and you’d be ill-advised human scum to miss it.

Big Finish Reviews+ Daughter of the Gods by Tony J Fyler

Tony’s up among the gods.

The stakes for fans in Daughter Of The Gods are ridiculously high. You’d have to be incredibly brave or stone barking mad to go anywhere near the storytelling territory it covers.

Naturally enough, it’s a freakin’ triumph.

I mean, right up there with all the high water-marks you think of as outstanding Big Finish triumph.

Given the cover art which you’d have to have seen to buy the story, it’s no spoiler to tell you this is a multi-Doctor story, almost literally crashing the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe into the lives of the First Doctor, Steven and Katarina.

Yes.

Katarina.

She who came from Troy after Vicki stayed behind in the city.

She who laboured under the moderately morbid assumption that the Doctor was a god, the Tardis his temple and that, at least to some degree, for both of these things to be true and for her to experience them, she herself was probably dead.

She who shockingly died not long after she arrived on board the Tardis, during the events of The Dalek Master Plan.

The thing about Katarina of course is the lack of wiggle room to fit any additional stories into her Tardis time. With Jean Marsh’s Sara Kingdom, another casualty of the Master Plan, Big Finish found a way to give her some additional adventures with Steven and the Doctor. With Katarina, it’s fairly cut and dried – she joined, she had the on-screen adventure of the Master Plan, and she died during its time. The end. It’s part of what makes her time on board the Tardis so shocking, the fact that she had little time at all to see the wonders of the universe before she was killed by it, the first person to travel with him that the Doctor, in some sense, failed to save.

How to you deliver a Katarina story while staying true to the power of all of that?

More or less, you do it just like this. A time crash in the vortex, narrowly avoided, takes the First Doctor and his crew to a world where they have to stay for some time so that Steven can recover from some injuries, the Doctor can earn some money and prestige as an academic, and the Tardis can repair itself after such a close temporal shave. Katarina, too, has the chance to immerse herself in the local culture and exercise the wits no-one in Troy ever gave her particular credit for having.

But she has bad dreams.

Bad dreams that continually tell her she is dead, or should be dead, that none of this amazing life so far beyond her birth and station was meant to be.

And then their comfortable, productive break is interrupted by hostile aliens.

Aliens with a weapon that ages whole populations to death in an instant. Aliens with whom it’s useless to plead for your lives or your liberty.

Aliens the Doctor and Steven have met before.

When the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe turn up on the planet in the middle of a mass exodus, there are too many Doctors for a single planet to cope with, and the story zeroes down to one moment, one decisive moment that set this timeline going. One moment that changed the future for the entire universe.

The question is, when all is revealed, digested and understood, will Katarina have the strength to do what is called on her to do? And perhaps more importantly, will the First Doctor have that same moral fortitude?

It takes them both, ultimately, to set the timeline straight, and it takes the multi-Doctor nature of the story to teach them both what ‘straight’ looks like in this circumstance. It’s huge and moral and tiny and personal and if you don’t end up sniffling at the end of this story, you might need a Grinch procedure to grow the size of your heart, because the balance is perfect – half of you will want one thing to happen, half of you another. There’s no winning in this situation, but losing either way will wet your eyes.

Ajjaz Awad steps into Katarina’s sandals for this story, and while it’s not a straight impersonation of Adrienne Hill, she delivers a highly accessible version for a modern audience, without sacrificing any of the rigidity of belief in her gods and her understanding of the universe that Hill established back in the Sixties. Katarina comes across as a warm, likeable innocent, with much to learn and a straightforward view of the world, but an increasing ability to understand the places and the company in which she finds herself.

The story, by David K Barnes, is importantly not that grandiose in nature. It’s almost Dennis Spoonerish at the start – the First Doctor and friends hanging out somewhere over an extended period for perfectly logical reasons. But the establishment of that normality, where Steven gets an engineering job while the Doctor hob-nobs with the highfalutin’ academics, allows for the building of strong character relationships that kick in when the world goes to hell in a very rapid handcart, and add to our emotional buy-in to the terror of the mass evacuation when death drops out of the sky.

Meanwhile, the Second Doctor’s strand of the story is for the most part significantly calmer, not least because he and his friends don’t come into the panic until late in the game.  

Nevertheless, there’s plenty going on with the Troughton Doctor and his friends, and once they turn up and meet Katarina and Steven, it’s almost as though they bring a calming influence with them.

They don’t, though.

That’s not what they bring at all.

What they bring is the central moral dilemma of the piece. It’s a dilemma not dissimilar to that in Nikos Kantzakis’ Last Temptation of Christ. Which life is better? That where you live, maybe, and everyone else lives in fear? Or that where you die, definitely, but are remembered forever as having done the right thing?

What David K Barnes has delivered with Daughter of the Gods is an absolute hymn to Katarina’s worthiness for the wider universe, for her place on board the Tardis, without making it a soppy, heavy-handed mourning. It’s an action-packed, character-rich belting slice of Sixties Who with 21^st century complications and sensitivities, and the budget of your whole imagination – which also happens to sing a hymn to Katarina, the Daughter of the Gods. Finding the best of Big Finish in any given year is tricky. This may not make it to your absolute top spot, but if it’s not in your top five, we’d be very much surprised.

Connections The Crown by Djak J Forrest

The Crown returned in November 2019, with a huge host of well-known faces, including those from a certain sci fi series. So much so, that it would take an enormous length of time, filling in the already completed first and second series post from last year. So, we just had to put together a new one. And quite rightly so, given the length of cast and indeed crew list.

The new series was directed by Benjamin Caron, Samuel Donovan, Jessica Hobbs and Christian Schwochow, and written by Peter Morgan, Edward Hemming, Jon Brittain, Jonathan Wilson, James Graham and David Hancock.

Stepping down from their roles as the young Queen and Prince, Claire Foy and Matt Smith were replaced by Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies who carried off their role with aplomb. Although at times, I felt that Menzies certain quirks could better suit Prince Charles, in later life than perhaps Prince Philip.

Josh O'Connor, however, played a really good Prince Charles, having his mannerisms and those lip curls down to a tee. I really enjoyed watching his performance in the episode Tywysog Cymru, and indeed hearing the Welsh language with Mark Lewis Jones and all Welsh speakers. It was like watching an episode of Un Bore Mercher again!

  

Cast 

Olivia Colman played Queen Elizabeth II for 20 episodes from 2019-2020. Played Mother in Doctor Who episode The Eleventh Hour in 2010, credited with an (e) in Colman. Appeared as herself in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot in 2013.

Tobias Menzies played Philip, Duke of Edinburgh for 20 episodes from 2019-2020. Played Lieutenant Stepashin in Doctor Who episode Cold War in 2013.

Josh O'Connor played Prince Charles for 14 episodes from 2019-2020. Played Piotr in Doctor Who episode Cold War in 2013.

Jason Watkins played Harold Wilson for 7 episodes in 2019. Played Webley in Doctor Who episode Nightmare in Silver in 2013.

Patrick Ryecart played Duke of Norfolk for 6 episodes from 2016-2019. Played Crozier in Doctor Who story The Trial of a Time Lord parts 5, 6, 7 & 8 in 1986.

Michael Maloney played Edward Heath for 3 episodes in 2019. Has voiced several characters for Big Finish Who Range, including Rennol in Kiss of Death, Fratalin and the Viyrans in Patient Zero, Gregor Saraton as well as Destiny of the Doctor story Enemy Aliens where he voiced Hilary Hammond. In Latter Days he voiced the character William Hogan for The Rockery, part 3 of the Torchwood One audio story by Big Finish, written by Tim Foley.

Derek Jacobi played the Duke of Windsor for 1 episode in 2019. Played Professor Yana in Doctor Who episode Utopia in 2007.

Samuel West played Anthony Blunt for 1 episode in 2019. Played Cyrian in Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (TV short) in 1993.

Angus Wright played Martin Furnival Jones for 1 episode in 2019. Played Mister Dread for 2 episodes of SJA in 2010 - Vault of Secrets.

Mark Lewis Jones played Edward Millward for 1 episode in 2019. Played John Ellis in Torchwood episode Out of Time in 2006.

Rupert Vansittart played Cecil King for 1 episode in 2019. Played General Asquith in Doctor Who two parter Aliens of London and World War Three in 2005.

Colin Morgan played John Armstrong for 1 episode in 2019. Played Jethro in Doctor Who episode Midnight in 2008, probably better known for his role as Merlin in the television series of the same name.

Nia Roberts played Silvia Millward for 1 episode in 2019. Played Ambrose in Doctor Who episodes The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood in 2010.

Togo Igawa played Emperor Hirohito 1 episode in 2019. As we know, Igawa played the doomed Dr Tanizaki in Torchwood episode Cyberwoman in 2006. Recently, (12th Doctor era) played Secretary General in the Doctor Who episode The Pyramid at the End of the World in 2017.

Gwyneth Keyworth played Gwen Edwards 1 episode in 2019. Played Emily in SJA episode Lost in Time parts 1 & 2 in 2010.

Peter Straker played Elevator Operator for 1 episode in 2019. Played Commander Sharrel for Doctor Who story - Destiny of the Daleks for episodes 1 - 4 in 1979.

Julian Glover played Cecil Boyd-Rochfort for 1 episode in 2019. Played Count Scarlioni, Scaroth, Captain Tancredi, and Richard the Lionheart for Doctor Who from 1965 - 1979.

David Summer played Thomas Parry for 1 episode in 2019. In 1982 played a Terileptil, uncredited, for the Doctor Who story The Visitation, for Parts 3 & 4.

Teresa Banham played Mary Wilson for 1 episode in 2019. Played the Governor in Doctor Who episode The End of Time: Part One in 2009.

Alan David played Ben Bowen Thomas for 1 episode in 2019. Played Gabriel Sneed in Doctor Who episode The Unquiet Dead in 2005.

Anthony O'Donnell played the Mayor of Merthyr Tyfdil for 1 episode in 2019. Played Kaagh in SJA episodes The Last Sontaran and Enemy of the Bane for parts 1 & 2 in both in 2008.

Clifford Rose played Dean of Windsor for 1 episode in 2019. Played Rorvik in Doctor Who story Warriors' Gate in 1981 for 4 episodes.

Colin Stinton played Lawrence E. Spivak for 1 episode in 2019. Played the American President in Doctor Who episode The Sound of Drums in 2007.

Tim Bentinck played John Betjeman for 1 episode in 2019. Played The Doctor - Body Double in Doctor Who: Shada video in 2017. Voiced the Monk in Doctor Who episodes The Pyramid at the End of the World and Extremis in 2017.

Kevin Eldon played Priest Michael for 1 episode in 2019. He played Ribbons in Doctor Who episode It Takes You Away in 2018. He was also the voice of Antimony in Doctor Who story Death Comes to Time from 2001 - 2002.

Jason May played a Worker 2 for 1 episode in 2019. Played Soco for Torchwood episode Everything Changes in 2006.

Daniel Joseph Woolf played a Garden Party Guest for 1 episode in 2020. Played a Knight, Refugee and Diner Chef in five episodes of Doctor Who from 2017 - 2019, uncredited in all.

Costume Design

Amy Roberts was costume designer for 20 episodes from 2019-2020. Was costume designer for 24 episodes of Doctor Who from 1977 - 1983.

Makeup Department

Chris Lyons was special effects teeth for 40 episodes from 2016-2020. Was special effects teeth for 8 episodes of SJA from 2009 - 2010.

Second Assistant Director

Claire Lamarra was Crowd PA: recurring daily for 6 episodes in 2019. Was apprentice assistant director for 10 episodes for Doctor Who from 2018 - 2019.

Lynsey Muir was second assistant director for 2 episodes in 2019. Was second assistant director for 10 episodes of Torchwood from 2006 - 2008, and third assistant director for 2 episodes in 2006. Was third assistant director for 11 episodes of Doctor Who from 2005 - 2006 and second assistant director for 2 episodes in 2006. As an actress played a Woman in the episode Captain Jack Harkness, uncredited in 2007. And appeared as herself in Doctor Who Confidential in both The Fright Stuff and Cybermen in 2006.

Art Department

Bryan Stanislas was dressing props for 10 episodes in 2019. Was special effects for 14 episodes of Doctor Who in 2005.

Sound Department

Nick Roberts was adr mixer for 7 episodes in 2019. Was adr recordist for 5 episodes of Doctor Who in 2010.

Meltem Baytok was foley artist for 1 episode in 2019. Was foley artist for 6 episodes of Doctor Who from 2016 - 2018.

Special Effects

Dave Kneath was special effects technician for 1 episode in 2020. Was special effects technician for 16 episodes of Doctor Who from 2014 - 2015

Visual Effects

Vicki Juhasz was compositor for 4 episodes in 2019. Was roto/prep for 5 episodes of Doctor Who in 2017.

Stunts

Paul Bailey was stunt driver for 1 episode in 2019.  Was stunt driver for 3 episodes of Doctor Who from 2018 - 2019.

Camera and Electrical Department

Sophie Mutevelian was still photographer for 5 episodes from 2019-2020. Was still photographer for 4 episodes of Doctor Who from 2018 - 2019.

Arran Shearing was libra head tech: dailies for 1 episode in 2019. Was stereoscopic supervisor for Doctor Who episode The Day of the Doctor in 2013.

Location Management

Andrew Ryland was location manager for 16 episodes from 2016-2019. Was unit manager: London for Doctor Who episode The Bells of Saint John in 2013, but uncredited.

Music Department

Olga FitzRoy was score engineer & mixer for 10 episodes in 2019. Was score engineer for 12 episodes of Doctor Who from 2018 - 2019, score engineer & mixer for 3 episodes of Who from 2018 - 2019, recording engineer for 3 episodes in 2018 and score mixer for 2 episodes in the same year.

Script Supervisor

Karen Jones was script supervisor for 12 episodes from 2016-2019. Was production assistant for Doctor Who story The Trial of a Time Lord parts 5, 6, 7 and 8, in 1986.

Llinos Wyn Jones was script supervisor for 7 episodes from 2017-2019. Was continuity for 7 episodes of Doctor Who from 2005 - 2009. Was continuity also for SJA for Enemy of the Bane part 1 in 2008, and also for 12 episodes of Torchwood from 2006 - 2008. Was also production assistant for 2 episodes of Doctor Who in 1985.