Updated June 29, 2004.

SERIES SYNOPSIS Doctor Who is back, and it's about Time. Only this time he's in Audio Adventures. Big Finish, the people who dramatized the Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novels, have been granted permission to make new audio stories for Doctor Who. So far, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, and Paul McGann have been recreating their roles for the series. This page will focus on the Sylv adventures solely. For information about the others, go to Big Finish's Doctor Who site.

SERIES TITLES

The Sirens of Time

The Fearmonger

Dalek Empire: The Genocide Machine

The Fires of Vulcan

The Shadow of the Scourge

Dust Breeding

Colditz

The Rapture

Bang-Bang-A-Boom!

The Dark Flame

Project: Lazarus

Flip-Flop

Master

Zagreus

The Harvest

PRODUCTION INFO Produced by Big Finish in 1999-2004.

AVAILABILITY Currently available.

• Big Finish: £13.99 (UK CD) £15.50 (US/AU/NZ CD)
• WhoNA: $22.50 (US CD)
• MOSV: $25.99 (US CD)

The Sirens of Time
by Nicholas Briggs

SYNOPSIS The Seventh, Fifth, and Sixth Doctors are brought together for the first time to discover the mystery behind the Sirens of Time. The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) arrives on a nearly deserted planet and meets a young lady there who needs his help. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) gets separated from his companions and ends up on a German U-boat during WWI. And the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is on a star cruiser which is under attack. By the final episode, the three are brought together to sort out the mess and save the day.

REVIEW It is wonderful having some new Doctor Who adventures with the past Doctors. And I enjoyed hearing Docs 5, 6, and 7 interact with each other. My favorite bits are when the Doctors are together. He always plays off of himself rather well.

Alas, the plot is rather confusing and Big Finish have a ways to go with their production values here. I continually had to change the volume while listening to understand several of the characters. Future authors of these adventures would do well to listen to a few BBC Radio Dramas to see how to include description of scenes and characters without sounding stilted. This story plays more like the soundtrack to a televised adventure rather than a made-for-radio drama.

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The Fearmonger
by Jonathan Blum

SYNOPSIS The Doctor and Ace team up with a would-be assassin to try and stop the Fearmonger, a creature which stirs up fear in the people around it. But once the Fearmonger catches onto them, will it be too late for them?

REVIEW So far, this is the best Big Finish Who in my opinion. The Doctor and Ace have a witty dialog throughout the course of the story. You can see that the author cares about the characters. And even better, the plot is a good one. I was surprised by the ending. (I know, you'll email me and tell me that you saw it coming from miles away, but honestly, I was surprised.)

I think the production values are improving with each audio story. Like Whispers of Terror, the first Sixth Doctor story, this play makes good use of audio. One of the main characters is a radio shock jock, and that works much better here than a TV personality would. And the Fearmonger itself is "spotted" by the change in someone's voice. The music did a fine job of carrying the mood of the story, as well. Good work, all!

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Dalek Empire: The Genocide Machine
by Mike Tucker

SYNOPSIS The Doctor and Ace arrive on Kar-Charrat, where it's always raining. Their purpose is to visit the Library of Kar-Charrat, but this goes astray when the Daleks decide to rain on their parade. (Sorry, bad pun.)

REVIEW Once again, the dialog between the Doctor and Ace is spot on. Tucker seems to enjoy writing for this pair as much as Blum did. As much as I dislike the Daleks (especially in audio form - it's their voices I despise the most), I found I enjoyed this story. (For some reason I always seem to hate the Daleks, but love the Dalek stories. Go figure.) The concept of a Wetworks facility for storing knowledge is wonderfully Whoish. And the twist to the Wetworks is even more so. With the enjoyment of this story, The Marian Conspiracy, and Red Dawn, I am gaining faith in the Big Finish Doctor Who stories.

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SYNOPSIS Bonnie Langford returns as Melanie Bush. The Doctor and Mel arrive in Pompei not long before a vulcano is about to erupt. The Doctor's become rather meloncholy and Mel can't figure out why. She and the Doctor meet several inhabitants, befriend some, and make enemies with others. (Isn't that always the way?)

REVIEW A wholly historical offering from Steve Lyons. Although I disliked Lyons' portrayal of Mel in his New Adventure story Head Games, he's written a very strong part for Mel in this one. No screaming, no stupid questions, no disappearing for half of the story... Mel actually interacts with other characters and does everything she can to save her new found friends from the upcoming eruption. Bonnie returns to the role of Mel as if she never left it. And Sylv does a very subdued portrayal of a Doctor who's decided he cannot fight destiny any longer. After the first listening, Fires of Vulcan jumped right into the number two spot behind The Fearmonger.

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SYNOPSIS The Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Benny: together again for the first time. The trio arrive at a hotel where three conventions are taking place: knitting, fortune-telling, and time travel experiments. The Doctor immediately takes charge of things and from that point on, the whole place goes to hell.

REVIEW I was thrilled to read that Benny would finally get to join the Seventh Doctor in an audio adventure. Having listened to the Benny audios so far, I'd decided that Lisa Bowerman was perfect for the voice of Benny. (OK, so it took until halfway through Birthright to decide that, but I've decided it.) And as it turns out, Sylv and Lisa have good chemistry when working together. The bits with them together are what make this story work (IMO, of course).

Unfortunately, there are many bits of this story that don't work. After listening to parts 1 and 2, I was a bit disheartened. I decided that maybe Ace was wearing thin on me. Could I finally be tiring of one of my more favorite companions? It could be. (I had a similar problem while reading Independence Day.) But part 3 redeemed the entire story for me. Sure, part 4 gets all preachy, but the Doc7/Benny bits in part 3 make it all worthwhile. (Again, IMO.) I hope to see another pairing of the Seventh Doctor and Benny, and maybe they can give Ace a quarter to get lost. :-)

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SYNOPSIS The Seventh Doctor and Ace meet up with their friend Bev Tarrant (see Genocide Machine) on Duchamp 339, a very dusty world. Why have they gone to such a backwater place? Well, the Doctor wishes to, erm, rescue Edvard Munch's The Scream. It would fit very nicely in his art collection. It's in the safe keeping of an art colony on the planet. And Madame Salvadore is bringing several Art Connoisseurs to see the head of the art colony's greatest work. So what's with the egg guy, then?

REVIEW Another competent story from the folks at Big Finish. Caroline John is back, playing Madame Salvadore. The accent is very put-upon, but it fits her character perfectly. Her hubby, Geoffrey Beevers, even popped in to play Seta, a fellow with a penchant for eggs. Sylv and Sophie have great chemistry once again, and Bev Tarrant (Louise Faulkner) gets a chance to play the Doctor's companion for part of the novel. (I like the idea of Doc7 working with someone else for a change - let's bring back Mel or Benny!) Oh, and Sylv gets the chance to play Possessed/Mad Doctor again. He does well with that (and his accent increases three-fold when he does).

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SYNOPSIS Ace and the Doctor arrive in a courtyard and are soon surrounded by German soldiers. Once again, the TARDIS has deposited them somewhere dangerous - Colditz Castle. While Ace is busy getting chatty with the British prisoners and ticking off a German sargent, the Doctor is taken from the prison by a mysterious German female named Klein.

REVIEW I think I would have enjoyed this story more if the sound editing would have been different. I'm not an expert in audio recordings, but I've now listened for a fair number of them and I found this one hard to hear. Not only that, but the environmental sounds for it seemed odd in places. Still, the story is strong (though it's another Temporal Paradox story, which might be old news to some listeners) and the acting well done. Nicholas Young (John from The Tomorrow People, another favorite series of mine) plays Flying Officer Gower, one of the British prisoners. Tracey Childs does a fine job with Klein.

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The Rapture
by Joseph Lidster

SYNOPSIS The Doctor and Ace go to Ibiza to rest and relax - and let Ace dance away her cares. Of course, being the usual sort of rest and relaxation time, they encounter aliens trying to take over young people and a mysterious stranger that knows more about Ace than she does herself. Oh yeah, and I should probably be calling her McShane now, shouldn't I?

REVIEW Episode 2 is brilliantly mixed. It builds up the intensity as storylines interact in a dream that one of the secondary characters is having while stoned. And Tony Blackburn, famous UK DJ, makes a guest appearance. But disappointingly, the rest of the story doesn't live up to episode 2's potential. The disco-style theme music is interesting and grew on me with repeated listenings. And the acting is good - except for people shouting at the dance floor. "Clear the dance floor!" should be put in Big Finish's Hall of Shame.

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Bang-Bang-A-Boom!
by Gareth Roberts & Clayton Hickman

SYNOPSIS Mel and the Doctor are mistaken for relief members of Dark Space 8, a rather Star Trekish space station which is soon to be home to the Intergalactic Song Contest. What's worse is that they've arrived just when a series of murders is taking place. Will they be able to continue the contest? Will anyone be left alive to perform? It's up to the Doct... er Captain and Pilot Melanie Bush!

REVIEW The One Doctor was released in December of 2001 as a comedy Christmas special. Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Mel, it's one of the funniest Big Finish productions ever. The authors wished to repeat their success with a second Christmas special in 2002, and Bang-Bang-A-Boom! is the result. Based upon the Eurovision Song Contest and the Star Trek franchise, it's a very entertaining murder mystery/comedy. Once again, Bonnie and Sylv really get into their characters and the Doctor gets to play at being a starship captain. Something I'm sure he always wanted to do.

Bang-Bang-A-Boom! isn't quite as funny as The One Doctor was, but it's still an entertaining romp. And the ending is certainly not what I'd expected...

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The Dark Flame
by Trevor Baxendale

SYNOPSIS Bernice Summerfield is somewhere and then the Doctor and Ace get there and then there's a skull and some evil horror from beyond the grave, yada yada yada...

REVIEW Oh dear... Oh dearie dear... I hate to say it, but I felt like this was a waste of Bernice (and the Doctor and Ace or McShane or whatever she wants to be called). I mean, you wait story after story for another chance at the Doctor and Benny to be together, and then a substandard story comes along and everyone puts in a rather pathetic performance. And I wish Big Finish would realize that when they have a guest actor who's a "famous name," like Michael Praed (Robin Hood in the TV series), you don't synthesize his voice to the point of unrecognizability. I can't even sit back and just listen to Sylv's voice and be cheered - his acting in this is some of the worst I've ever heard from him.

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Project: Lazarus
by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

SYNOPSIS The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn return to Norway to pick up Cassie, a new-ish vampire they'd met in Project: Twilight. Once there, they are captured by The Forge and Nimrod (also originally in P:T) where the Doctor is to be the key player in Project: Lazarus. They need to torture him to death - how else could Nimrod learn the secret of regeneration? Will he escape? Can they save Cassie? And what is Evelyn's secret?

Years later, the Seventh Doctor arrives at The Forge and decides to finish what he started in his sixth persona. Imagine his shock when he discovers who the new scientific advisor is...

REVIEW I only have the Sylv-cover on this site, but there was a choice of two covers for this release. One Sylv, one Colin. I was lucky in that the Sylv cover was mailed to me. So if you're in the shops, look more for the title than for the cover, or you might miss this one.

We were promised an interesting take on a Multiple Doctor story with this one. And I think it does a good job of fulfilling that promise. Disc 1 is a Doc6/Evelyn story while Disc 2 is (sorry about the spoiler!) a Doc7/Doc6 story. Sylv and Colin play off of each other very well - much like Jon and Pat many years before.

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Flip-Flop
by Jonathan Morris

SYNOPSIS The Doctor and Mel land on the planet Puxatornee to find they're already wanted - but it's their first time on the planet! Someone's messing about with the time lines, and it's making for some confusing times for our time traveling duo. Is it a time for action? A time for passivity? A time to open Christmas presents? A time to reap? A time to sew? Oh, sorry about that... In an interesting twist, there is no CD1 and CD2 for this adventure. Decide for yourself if you want to listen to the white disc first or the black. Or vice versa.

REVIEW I'll admit, I had a hard time deciding which disc to listen to first. I mean, it was the only time I could listen to the story for the First Time. What if I would have enjoyed it better listening the other way around? Well, after listening to it (if you want to know which disc I listened to first, e-mail me and I'll tell you) I decided that either way, I would have loved this story.

After The Dark Flame, I was beginning to despair that the Seventh Doctor was going to be given the lame scripts. Project: Lazarus gave me hope and Flip-Flop has shown that he is allowed decent scripts. Sylv and Bonnie are once again a treat together. They play off of each other well and both get their fair share of great lines. The secondary characters are interesting and well acted. And best of all, the story logic seems pretty sound. You'll understand why I mention this after you have listened to it. I've heard it through a couple of times now and have yet to spot any holes. (And yes, I've done it both ways now - white then black, black then white, etc.) I so pleased with this story, I'd rate it as high as The Fearmonger and The Fires of Vulcan.

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Master
by Joseph Lidster

SYNOPSIS Ten years ago, Dr. John Smith arrived in the colony world of Perfugia, horribly scarred and with no memory of his past. Now celebrating his "tenth" birthday with his two best friends, he meets a mysterious stranger who knows a lot more than he's telling.

REVIEW Geoffrey Beevers again puts on a masterful (pun intended) performance. Unfortunately, this story just can't decide what point (or points) it's trying to make. Is the Master unredeemably evil? (Sometimes the story says "yes" and other times the story says "no.") Is he a serial killer? (Well, I never thought him as such. Meglomaniac, yes. Serial killer? So beneath him.) Is Evil itself an entity? Is the Doctor just making this all up? (One hopes so.)

I like the interplay with Beevers and McCoy. Even if the story can't seem to make up its mind, hearing the two of them discuss the nature of evil (or is that Evil?) is still fun. The secondary story of the assassin doesn't play out quite as well. And in the end, it looks like the Doctor was responsible for... well, it's a spoiler, really. But if you ask me, it would have worked better if they hadn't included that aspect to the story. (It's been done before, and been done better, in my opinion.)

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Zagreus
by Alan Barnes and Gary Russell

SYNOPSIS The Doctor has been infected with Anti-Time and thinks he's now Zagreus. Charley is lost in the TARDIS and trying to help the Doctor. And hey, it's the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who, so let's stick in as many people from the audios as we can into the mix!

REVIEW I did not like Neverland (the prequel to this story). So I did not expect to like Zagreus. However, I came away somewhat pleased with the final product. Oh, the story's a load of hoo-hah and there's more fanwank in it than in The Five Doctors. But it's a multi-Doctor story told in such a unique way that I really enjoyed the past Doctor sections. (Didn't care as much for the 8th Doctor bits, but they pertained to the overall plot of the story, which is not one of the stories better features.) All of the Doctor's audio companions have cameos, and there are cameos from a few other former companions (and a surprise voice from the grave, even.) For photos of the making of this anniversary special, check out Big Finish's photo section.

For those worried that the unique manner in having the past Doctors present means that they don't meet and bicker, never fear. Apart from the separate bits with the past Doctors, the section where all four get to meet (and bicker) is probably my favorite. Of the separate bits - well, let's just say that I simply adore Uncle Winky and leave it at that.

This audio adventure was indeed a fitting tribute to all things Audio in Doctor Who (well, as long as you don't bother with the plot, that is...) and it cries out "Happy Anniversary, Doctor!"

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The Harvest
by Dan Abnett

SYNOPSIS Emergency room nurse Thomas Hector Schofield (Hex, as played by Philip Olivier) is having a bad 23rd birthday. A good friend arrives at the emergency room greatly injured and then later dies, despite his best efforts. The interesting lady from Human Resources turns out to be a traveler from another time. And then there's this box which looks like a portaloo, but is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. "Oh my god!" is surely an understatement.

REVIEW It has been so long since the Doctor and McShane have had an adventure together. (The Rapture was released in September of 2002!) Considering that I was getting tired of McShane, you'd think I'd've been glad of the wait. But the thing with Ace is, when she's well written, she's one of my most favorite companions. I was wondering if we had in The Harvest well-written Ace (a la The Fearmonger) or badly-written Ace (a la The Dark Flame). Thankfully, it was well-written Ace (er, McShane).

That concern out of the way, what about the new guy? And the story? And the Doctor? Well, I can heartily recommend this adventure. Hex had a good start in this story. Part one is pretty much his tale. And the final scene in part one is one of my most favorite in the audio adventures. He has the Doctor Who World Record for saying "Oh my god!" the most times. And he plays off of McShane and the Doctor very well. (He has the opportunity to work with both of them in this story.)

Sylvester McCoy does a great job as the enigmatic stranger that lives in a portaloo in a parking garage. He's not in much of part one (indeed, I originally missed his first scene - I was shocked when I realized I'd missed him during the second listening. I can usually tell his voice at a thousand paces!) And as for the story itself... Well, in retrospect, it should have been more obvious. So I think that's why I really enjoyed the story - because I didn't figure it out. Unfortunately, there won't be a new Doc7/McShane/Hex story until March of 2005, so this story will have to hold me until then. At least it was a good story to pause on!

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