8.1 The Sinestran Kill by Andrew Smith
When the Doctor decides to trace an anomalous energy signature on twentieth century Earth, he stumbles into an assassination attempt.
Gangland thugs are trying to murder a seemingly innocent shopkeeper, and it’s only the intervention of the Doctor and Ann Kelso – a WPC who happens to be on the scene – that prevents a tragedy.
But why do the gangsters want the shopkeeper dead? And what does this have to do with alien technology?
The first stages of a grand conspiracy are about to be revealed. And finding the answers will take Ann Kelso on a journey like no other.
8.2 Planet of the Drashigs by Phil Mulryne
When the TARDIS lands on an alien planet, the Doctor’s intentions to show Ann Kelso an advanced future society are thrown into disarray. Because they have arrived on DrashigWorld – a park where every known species of the terrifying predators has been gathered together to entertain and thrill the public. The familiar wetland Drashigs, the albino burrowing Drashigs of the desert, and deadliest of all, the tiny Emerald Drashigs of the rain forests.
And it’s not the best day to have arrived. The park has been shut down due to a visitor fatality. A Galactic Attractions inspector is on site meaning everyone is extremely tense and under pressure.
It’s exactly the right circumstances in which someone might make a mistake. And on Drashigworld, mistakes are deadly.
8.3 The Enchantress of Numbers by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris
The TARDIS lands in the grounds of Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, in 1850. Mistaken for a medic and his maid, the Doctor and Ann are brought to meet Ada Lovelace – the mother of computing and daughter of Lord Byron – who has recently fallen ill.
But the travellers are not here by chance. Something odd is happening on Earth, and they’ve determined that this place is the centre of it.
Strange figures are walking the land. Strange figures wearing bird-like masks. What do they want with Ada? And how will it change the future of humanity?
8.4 The False Guardian by Guy Adams
Ann Kelso doesn’t like mysteries. Keen to investigate the trail of the Sinestrans, she sets the TARDIS on a new course… but flies into danger.
Arriving on a desolate world that the Doctor finds somehow familiar, the TARDIS crew discover that something is wrong with time. The inhabitants of an unusual complex are experimenting at the command of their enigmatic director… somebody who has quite a strong grudge against the Doctor.
Facing an old foe who was presumed dead, the travellers are soon trapped in a diabolical scheme. But is it just the tip of the iceberg?
THE FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE SINESTRAN KILL
We’re into the eighth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, the range that has produced one truly excellent story in over 50 tries, and we’re finally trying something new: Tom Baker gets a new companion. It’s an exciting future, full of potential, until you listen to “The Sinestran Kill” by Andrew Smith and realize they’re making this move as risk-free as possible.
The new companion is played by Jane Slavin, a friend of Tom Baker who’s been in what seems like every one of his audio stories. She’s WPC Ann Kelso, a police officer who encounters the Doctor in a gangland incident. And that’s all we know about her. She’s nice, she’s patient, she’s inquisitive – she’s an excellent police officer, in other words, but that’s about the extent of what we learn. I’m sure they’ll reveal more about this character as the series continues, but this is her introductory story – we need more than “occupation.” Again, it might be 1979 in the story, but it’s 2019 in the real world – think of every companion introduction we’ve had in the modern series and realize just how underdeveloped Kelso is after these two episodes. It’s disappointing but entirely in keeping with Big Finish’s approach to this range. Still, Tom Baker is quite pleased with having Slavin as his companion, and as long as the actors are having a jolly old time that’s all that matters, right?
The format is a bit interesting, if only because the fourth Doctor is wildly out of place in any sort of formal setting, police investigations included. I love Frank Skinner as DCI Neilson, someone who knows the Doctor from UNIT and just wants him to leave the police alone and let them get on with their work. I also love the central concept of a man in witness protection turning out to be an alien already in witness protection on Earth. But Smith doesn’t do anything interesting beyond that: the story is rote, unimaginative Doctor Who, complete with unnecessarily over the top villain and implausible conclusion. As with so many other releases in this range, most of my review boils down to “That was indeed a Doctor Who story,” which doesn’t bode well for the future. Still, there’s plenty of time and room for improvement, and at least the Doctor/companion dynamic is friendly and appealing, so we’ll see where this goes.
5/10
THE FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES: PLANET OF THE DRASHIGS
If you dig deep enough into Doctor Who, you can find an homage to practically anything, and this time around we’re checking the Jurassic Park box with Phil Mulryne’s “Planet of the Drashigs.” The Doctor and Ann land on DrashigWorld, a place where an entrepreneur (Jeremy Clyde) has brought together every known species of Drashig to entertain the visiting public. Keeping a bunch of Drashigs in captivity is stupid enough, and there has already been a fatality – but the park is also experimenting on the Drashigs, trying to get inside their minds and learn how they think. This story really is Jurassic Park in microcosm, and most of it is spent running around the park trying to control a Drashig outbreak before everyone is eaten. It’s silly, it’s action-packed, and everyone takes it deeply seriously, which makes the whole thing feel vaguely ridiculous. That said, the pace never flags, making the story a very easy, entertaining listen. I’m surprised it took Big Finish this long to get around to a story featuring the popular creatures from “Carnival of Monsters,” but I’m thankful they didn’t try to blow this up into a four-part story: it’s thin enough as it is and doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s not much to say about “Planet of the Drashigs,” so if you want to see Doctor Who do Jurassic Park for 45 minutes in fairly entertaining fashion, take a listen, but it’s certainly not required.
6/10
THE FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS
“The Enchantress of Numbers,” by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris, is a unique, fascinating story that actually puts a modern spin on a Tom Baker story, and as such I have no idea how the script made it past the editing stage. It’s a “celebrity historical” like we see on TV, but it features a lesser-known historical celebrity: Ada Lovelace, a mathematical prodigy influential in the early development of computers and the only legitimate child of Lord Byron to boot. That she isn’t better-known is a commentary on how society ignored the achievements of women; sadly, the extent of her influence is unknown but many regard her as the first computer programmer. Finty Williams gives a great performance as a woman who sadly doesn’t recognize her own importance, but the Doctor’s clear admiration of her talents is all we need to understand. The plot is almost too ridiculous for words, but it works incredibly well: an alien virus, based on block transfer computation, has time traveled back from the future in an attempt to change the course of history, intending to take Ada’s notes on computing and translate them into physical reality, starting the computer age early with Ada as its greatest pioneer. Naturally, this will completely alter the course of human history and thus the Doctor is compelled to stop it, but it’s also a wonderful metaphor about Ada herself: if only we’d listened properly to her, the story appears to argue, we could be so much further along. Incidentally, I haven’t talked about Ann much in these last two stories, as she hasn’t had anything to do except act a bit rude and perform the usual companion tasks. She’s such a non-factor that they’re probably keeping some grand revelation in store for us – otherwise, this is the worst new companion rollout Big Finish has ever done. But that doesn’t really take away from “The Enchantress of Numbers,” which is quite good.
8/10
THE FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE FALSE GUARDIAN
The first half of this series of Fourth Doctor Adventures ends with “The False Guardian” by Guy Adams, the first half of a two-part story that is spread over two box sets because profit. It’s obvious from the first minute that something is going on with new companion Ann Kelso – suddenly, she’s obsessed with tracking down the Sinestrans from the first story and she’s growing increasingly irritable and impatient with the Doctor. She also exhibits a subtle (but not as subtle as they think) familiarity with future technology, meaning that at this point I’m just waiting for the grand revelation that she’s actually not a 1970s police officer after all. This isn’t in keeping with her portrayal in the previous two stories, but at least they’re (apparently) trying something different. All this happens in a story that appears to be… a bizarre sequel to “The Daleks’ Master Plan!” It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it’s also incredibly entertaining. Adams slowly parcels out story developments – Varga plants, the planet Kembel, someone who thinks he’s Mavic Chen – but never provides a direct link until the final, inexplicably entertaining cliffhanger. I’m curious about how this ends – will the darkly comedic tone continue? Will the sense of looming disaster pay off? Will we find out what, exactly, is going on with Ann? I’m actually eager to find out, which is a rare feeling in this range.
7/10