2.1 Infamy of the Zaross by John Dorney
When Jackie Tyler takes an away day to visit her old friend Marge in Norwich, she finds her holiday immediately interrupted in the worst way possible – an alien invasion! The infamous Zaross have come to take over the Earth. Or have they? After Jackie calls in the Doctor and Rose to deal with the menace, it soon becomes clear that this is a very unusual invasion indeed. The Doctor is about to uncover one of the most heinous crimes in the history of the galaxy. And if he can’t stop it an awful lot of people are going to die.
2.2 The Sword of the Chevalier by Guy Adams
1791 and the Doctor and Rose get to meet one of the most enigmatic, thrilling and important people in history: The Chevalier d’Eon. She used to be known as a spy, but then she used to be known as a lot of things. If there’s one thing the Doctor knows it’s that identity is what you make it. Choose a life for yourself and be proud. Mind you, if the Consortium of the Obsidian Asp get their way, all lives may soon be over…
2.3 Cold Vengeance by Matt Fitton
The TARDIS arrives on Coldstar, a vast freezer satellite, packed with supplies to feed a colony world. But there are cracks in the ice, and something scuttles under the floors. Soon, Rose and the Doctor encounter robots, space pirates and… refuse collectors. As Coldstar’s tunnels begin to melt, an even greater threat stirs within. An old enemy of the Doctor puts a plan into action – a plan for retribution. Nobody’s vengeance is colder than an Ice Warrior’s.
INFAMY OF THE ZAROSS
The first set of Tenth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish was a roaring success, reuniting David Tennant and Catherine Tate in three stories that culminated in a masterpiece. Volume 2 is finally here, and it reunites another of the series’ most beloved pairings: Tennant and Billie Piper. Yes, it’s the tenth Doctor and Rose, back together again to travel the universe battling the forces of evil – and, naturally, the first story returns them to contemporary Earth.
“Infamy of the Zaross,” by John Dorney, is a smart story that comes the closest to recapturing the feel of the Russell T. Davies/David Tennant era. Jackie Tyler witnesses the start of what appears to be an alien invasion, so she places an emergency call to her daughter and the TARDIS arrives shortly thereafter. (Or rather, in a clever bit of plotting from Dorney, it’s been there the whole time, and the Doctor has been waiting until after Jackie makes the call to reveal himself.) The story follows two parallel threads: the invasion itself and the relationship between Jackie’s friend Marge (Rosie Cavaliero) and her daughter Jess (Beth Lilly), and both threads are surprisingly layered.
The invasion seems unusual from the start: the initial landing is halted and started over so the alien leader can give a better reading of his speech. The pre-credits sequence basically ruins the surprise – it’s a staged invasion for a reality TV show – but watching the Doctor investigate and react to his findings is the essence of Doctor Who, and Tennant’s indignation at the casual disregard for human life is straight off the TV screen. I also enjoyed how Dorney gave the Zaross a chance at redemption without offering them absolution or presenting them as misunderstood – honest writing is almost always more valuable in that way. The other thread is RTD in every way: Marge has no respect for her daughter, and that lack of respect is self-reinforcing, as Jess has no desire to better herself because she’s internalized her mother’s criticism. When Rose appears, and takes the lead as a hero, Marge tries to use this as another example of Jess’s failures – but Rose intercedes and tells Jess she’s important, thus breaking the cycle. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be: honest, raw human emotion like this was a hallmark of Doctor Who in this era, and it’s great to have it back.
Speaking of emotion, here we encounter the biggest problem with this story and indeed the set as a whole: there is absolutely no depth to the Doctor or Rose and absolutely nothing interesting happens to either one of them. On television, this era was always sure to include notable character moments in almost every episode, even if they weren’t tied to the plot. Here, the Doctor and Rose are cheerfully adventuring together with neither tension nor chemistry between them. It’s no coincidence that a horde of shippers embraced the Doctor and Rose as an item, but you’d never understand why if you listened to this story. For that matter, you’d never understand why anyone became romantically involved with anyone else – “Infamy of the Zaross” is as resolutely chaste as the classic series.
Overall, though, this story is a success, and a great way to start off the set. It’s smart, it’s relevant, it’s layered, and it feels like the soundtrack to a missing TV episode. I just wish it went for something a bit deeper.
Recommended.
8/10
THE SWORD OF THE CHEVALIER
I’m impressed with Big Finish’s work to keep these Tenth Doctor Adventures as true to the era as possible, and “The Sword of the Chevalier” from Guy Adams comes through in spades in that department. This is a classic Russell T. Davies-era celebrity historical, in which the Doctor and Rose become involved with a historical figure just in time to fight off an alien menace. The historical figure in this case is the Chevalier d’Éon (Nickolas Grace), a French diplomat and spy living in exile in London. D’Éon presented as male and female at different points in a very long life (during this story she presents as female) and her story is fascinating – a person whose gender identity was important in an era when “gender identity” wasn’t even a concept. Grace’s performance in the role is utterly fantastic, mixing bravado and sensitivity in a realistic manner.
In keeping with the show’s generally mature outlook on issues of gender and sexuality, “The Sword of the Chevalier” doesn’t engage with the central “mystery” that surrounded d’Éon at the time. Rose questions it briefly, and the Doctor rightly points out that d’Éon is presenting as female and living her own truth, unbound by the opinions of outsiders. With that out of the way, we embark on a swashbuckling tale of the Doctor and friends battling alien slavers. While there’s a dark, interesting concept at the heart of the slavers – a collective self with one member dead – it’s not explored to any great extent. In fact, the plot is quite thin, and the resolution is the sort of thing that would have seemed audacious at the time but now feels overused, especially after the Moffat era. Adams represents d’Éon as a fascinating character, but she’s the heart of the piece – the remaining supporting cast is thinly sketched. The Doctor and Rose are straight out of the middle of season 2, and Tennant and Piper are clearly doing their best to get back there, but as with “Infamy of the Zaross” they’re very static and we learn nothing about either one. “The Sword of the Chevalier” is an entertaining, fast-paced story with a great guest role, but it’s paper-thin and doesn’t have much of anything else to offer. But it’s good enough that it’s well worth hearing.
7/10
COLD VENGEANCE
I’m not sure there’s a Doctor Who recurring alien race less interesting than the Ice Warriors. Ever since the New Adventures fleshed out their culture into a Klingon analogue, stories featuring the Ice Warriors have almost exclusively involved lots of stomping, wheezing conversations, and last-minute appeals to a deeply-held sense of honor. Such is the case with “Cold Vengeance” by Matt Fitton, a boring story that lets the entire box set down and closes it on an uninspiring note.
Fitton is trying so hard to emulate Russell T. Davies in this story that the cracks start to show. The alien menace isn’t entirely unsympathetic, one of the main guest characters is a young working-class woman, there’s family dynamics at play, social commentary, and comic relief mixed in. It feels weird to be saying this about the “new” era of Doctor Who, but we’ve seen all of this before and none of it feels new. And it doesn’t even attempt to do something different with the Ice Warriors: they’ve been woken up after generations spent in hibernation, and now they’re ready to take revenge on humanity! What, again? As the story progresses, we learn that Lord Hasskor (Nicholas Briggs) has a legitimate reason to be angry with humanity, but as usual with these stories it’s hard to feel any sympathy with someone whose first solution is genocide. And the ending is quite stupid: “Rrrgh! I will destroy all humans!” cries the Ice Lord, but then the working class human woman says “Wait, did you know there are Ice Warriors living on our planet?” and the Ice Lord says “I did not, the attack is off!” The other characters do ask why she waited until the end of a 45-minute episode to reveal this utterly crucial information, and the response is that nobody let her get a word in edgewise, which would be a good answer if it was even remotely true! To allow a character to have story-ending information for the entire running time requires a very capable script, and “Cold Vengeance” is not that.
The set starts strongly, proceeds to an entertaining runaround, and then crashes and burns with this. It’s disappointing, but five out of six good stories for David Tennant is still a good hit rate. Tennant is delightful, diving back into the role and happily devouring the scenery. Billie Piper, on the other hand, starts off sounding distinctly uncomfortable, and she never really manages to recapture Rose’s voice. But her lines are distinctly Rose, and as the stories continue and her confidence increases she ultimately vanishes back into the role. Just be ready for the occasional moment where it sounds like Piper is recording in a completely different location from everyone else and has no idea what she’s doing.
Overall, “Cold Vengeance” isn’t good. Fortunately, the box set is still worth getting, especially if, like me, you’re a fan of the Tennant era.
4/10