The BBC have announced that Sylvester McCoy’s first season as the Seventh Doctor, featuring a full season of Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, is the next release to come to Blu-ray with Season 24 as part of their ‘The Collection‘ range.
Doctor Who
Big Finish Return of the Cybermen trailer released
One of Doctor Who’s most famous unmade stories will finally see the light of day courtesy of audio drama producers Big Finish.
As part of their Lost Stories range, Big Finish is adapting Return of the Cybermen – an unused script by the monsters’ co-creator Gerry Davis.
Review: Doctor Who – Colony of Fear
Review by Jacob Licklider
As we move into the final three months of Big Finish’s oldest Doctor Who range, we begin to see releases which were essentially reactions to the current situation. Whatever original plans were made to end the Monthly Range had to quickly be scrapped due to the pandemic as recording moved to remote sessions in home studios and a specific Fifth Doctor release delayed indefinitely. There are only 3 releases planned for 2021, one Sixth Doctor for release 273, one Fifth Doctor for 274, and one final multi-Doctor extravaganza to say goodbye to the range at release 275. Release number 273 has now been released, the day this review is being written, and with it comes a Big Finish story that feels like it’s taken a page from Chris Chibnall’s book, but then improved it greatly. Colony of Fear is a story which relies on its twist which decontextualised what the audience knows about the Doctor in a lot of ways, and as such reviewing this story will contain spoilers concerning the twist. If you are simply wishing to know if Colony of Fear is worth your money, this review will end with the line: Colony of Fear may not be the absolute best story from Roland Moore or Big Finish Productions, it is a fascinating time that begs to have a sequel if only to get these characters back to listeners, giving this final trilogy a great start. Right now that that’s out of the way on to the review with full spoilers in effect.
Doctor Who ‘Missy’ comic series announced
Titan Comics are announcing the launch of a brand-new Doctor Who Comics series and the comic debut of one of the Doctor’s darkest nemeses this April with Missy #1.
Upcoming Doctor Who Target book range includes Thirteenth Doctor adventure
Seven Doctors in seven unforgettable adventures join the Doctor Who Target book range, all publishing on 11th March 2021, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
These latest novelisations, almost all written by the original writers of the TV episodes, will help Target fans finally complete their classic-era collection, and take the Target range into its next incarnation.
Review: Bernice Summerfield – The Big Hunt
Review by Jacob Licklider
Over the past two years, Big Finish Productions have been rereleasing their out of print Bernice Summerfield books as audiobook readings for the low price of $10 a book with the first five full length novels already being released (interestingly they haven’t done any of the anthologies or novella collections yet). A surprise December 2020 announcement gave listeners the opportunity to add three new Benny books to their audiobook collections: The Big Hunt, The Tree of Life, and The Two Jasons, all set for release in 2021 and 2022. The Big Hunt by Lance Parkin leads these audiobooks, released this month and available for download right now. Now, it is important to note that this is not a new release, nothing has been changed from the text of the 2005 book release, just put into an audiobook reading with Benny herself, Lisa Bowerman. Perhaps listeners were spoiled by Terror of the Master in Masterful, but going from that right into The Big Hunt, the lack of music and sound effects in the audiobook may detract. Potential listeners shouldn’t go in expecting them in any way as this is a release. The Big Finish website shows this as being recorded completely remotely in November and December which is confirmed by the included Q&A. Bowerman, as always, is an excellent narrator using her impressive range to bring to life several characters, only one of which actually appeared previously (that being Benny).
Ninth Doctor Adventures details revealed for Big Finish
Cover artwork and story titles for the first volume of Big Finish Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures starring Christopher Eccleston has been unveiled today.
Due for release in May 2021, Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is a full-cast audio drama box set comprising three fantastic stories all written by Big Finish’s Creative Director, Nicholas Briggs.
Review: Terror of the Master (from Masterful limited edition)
Review by Jacob Licklider
Terror of the Master is a bonus audiobook included in the limited edition of Masterful written by Trevor Baxendale and narrated by Jon Culshaw. Unlike other releases from Big Finish Productions, this is not an audio drama, but an audiobook with the occasional sound effects and as such it can only rely on the actual prose of the storytelling and the narration. Culshaw is an excellent narrator, using his impressive vocal range and variety of impressions to bring to life the Jon Pertwee era. While Masterful was a celebration of the Master, the incarnation played by Roger Delgado was not included due to Delgado’s tragic passing in 1973, so for the limited edition only Trevor Baxendale was commissioned to write a three and a half hour story featuring the Third Doctor, UNIT, and the Master; set right after The Green Death. Like many of the Pertwee serials, ‘Terror of the Master’ has a political bent, once again tackling pollution and the increasing global temperatures with a kindly scientist promising to fix Earth’s problems with a revolutionary new process that only he can know the exact details of and behind him is the Master. The Master has plans to take over the world using an alien creature in a story that most closely resembles that of The Claws of Axos with Dr. Drake in place of Axos and the Axons, without the Tory MP. On that front Terror of the Master is a fairly standard affair from Baxendale, with a prose style (and runtime) that intentionally feels like that of a Target Novel of a standard serial that would have been released during that time period.
Actress Barbara Shelley (Hammer horror, Doctor Who, Blake’s 7) passes away aged 88
We are sad to report that British actress Barbara Shelley has passed away aged 88. She had recently spent time in hospital with Covid-19 and appeared to have recovered, however she seems to have succumbed to related complications.
Review: Masterful (Celebrating 50 years of ‘The Master’)
Review by Jacob Licklider
“I am usually referred to as the Master…universally.”
This immortal line, first aired 50 years ago, introduced Doctor Who fans to Roger Delgado and the Doctor’s arch enemy the Master. And now, to celebrate this momentous occasion, Big Finish Productions has brought together all surviving TV incarnations of the Master and a host of others for a three hour audio drama, ‘Masterful’. Released 50 years to the day of Episode One of ‘Terror of the Autons‘, there are two editions of this release; the standard three disc edition and the limited eight disc edition which contains a disc of bonus features, an original audiobook by Trevor Baxendale, and two previously released Short Trips. This review is only looking at Masterful the story (see our Terror of the Master review here) So, should you buy Masterful? Short answer, yes, of course you should, James Goss provides three hours with a brilliant cast pitting Master against Master, playing to each incarnation’s strengths and giving listeners a real treat to see how dysfunctional each incarnation can be when forced to cooperate. Continue reading
