Jamie Revell

The premise here - a worldwide catastrophe that takes place so rapidly that only speedsters can deal with it - is a good one. It brings in essentially the entire Flash family, teaming up against a new foe that's almost as fast as they are, and has some defences against their abilities. Added to this, there is some decent character material, notably for Evey, although some of the developments early on are sufficiently line-changing that you know some sort of Reset button has to be hit before the end. There are some clever ideas in here, and the broad cast of characters helps. (This is particularly notable in the special issue, which deals with events elsewhere while the main story is going on as well as filling in the villains' backstory). Overall, it's a fun story that, appropriately enough, keeps up the pace all the way through.

I haven't read the last two volumes, but, compared with Vol 1.... well, the art's a lot better, but we're going for something that's more straight-up comedy, which may, or may not, be to your taste. Certainly, there isn't much depth in this, and you have to be in the mood for crazy high-jinks, in what's essentially a spoof of Suicide Squad.

The story sees Harley forced to team up with other semi-reformed supervillains to deal with a menace at the JLA's abandoned moonbase. There's fun with space travel, a hostile alien that keeps making pop culture references and, of course, Harley's general craziness. The more serious side is supposed to be provided by Lucas Fox trying to decide what his legacy as Batwing really means and where he should go next with it... but that part doesn't work all that well, and feels a bit tacked on. But if you don't want any more than a crazy comedy playing with the tropes of Suicide Squad with some cheesy sci-fi elements thrown in, then this delivers what it's aiming to.

The Doctor and Leela are captured by the titular Rocket Men and brought to their secret base. That part is over very quickly, and what the story is really about is their attempt to escape and to scupper the villains' plans in the process. The Rocket Men have appeared twice before, although only in BF's Chronicle format, rather than a full play as this is. Knowledge of the previous two stories is entirely unnecessary for this, and, really, they'll work in any order.

Whereas those two had some significant character moments for the companions who appeared in them, and there's some attempt to something similar with Leela here, it's less effective, and, for all the broader canvas allowed by the larger cast, the story as a whole doesn't work as well as its predecessors. It's mainly a run-around, with more action than characterisation, but it has a number of good points that scrape it to three-and-a-half stars, rounded up.

For one, the Fourth Doctor's depiction is good, with a number of one-liners, and K9 is particularly well-used, both in terms of his abilities, and some the lines he's given. The basic idea that the last thing you want to do is capture the Doctor, because then you're really in trouble is particularly played up. For a story that takes place almost entirely in one location, there are a few twists along the way, one of them relying on a flashback scene that comes out of nowhere and feels a bit odd at first until you realise the point of it.

It's also a while before we really see the Rocket Men flying about with their jetpacks, although, once they do, it's quite dramatic. The story ends on a cliffhanger that leads directly into the next release, but would otherwise be self-contained.

The concluding part of the “Locum Doctors” trilogy and the 200th release in Big Finish's main Doctor Who range, this sees the Fifth Doctor swapping places with the First. As should surprise nobody, given the title, this is set during the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great. With both Belisarius and Procopius featuring as major characters, it initially appears to be a “straight historical” very much in the Hartnell mould, but the science fiction elements become much stronger about a third of the way in.

Even so, a lot of the relevant history is packed in here, and the length of time that the characters spend in Ravenna and Constantinople is also reminiscent of the First Doctor's era. Belisarius comes out of it reasonably well, although Justinian and Theodora are somewhere between the saintly version of Orthodox hagiographies and the (presumably) slanderous one of the play's namesake. To me, at least, the historical era appears well-presented, and it's good to see the inclusion of a chariot race of the sort that might be a little tricky on a BBC TV budget.

The science fiction elements are necessitated by the fact that, this time, the central mystery of the trilogy has to be explained. In fact, it's the solution to the mystery that nudges this into five-star territory for me, in particular, the way that the final 30-minute segment plays out. Needless to say, time travel is a key element here, although I didn't feel it was overly complicated once you accept the central premise of what the villain is up to (which seems no stranger than things many others have tried in the series).

I especially liked the fact that it hinges so closely on the differences between the First and Fifth Doctors, something that really justifies the purpose of doing this story at all. With good use of both Steven and Vicki, and something that really feels like the Fifth Doctor is walking around in a First Doctor story, this is a good conclusion to the trilogy and a commendable 200th release.

The story begins with a present-day ghost tour of an unspecified city in northern England as the tour guide begins to hear ghostly voices for real. It's a story heavy on time travel, visiting no less than four other time periods as we uncover the various events - caused by the Doctor and his companions - that have given rise to the legends. The earlier sections are good with a sense of menace provided by the unseen evil presence that sparks things off and some well-written banter between the leads.

Some of the segments work better than others. Nyssa's visit to the 18th century, for instance, is effective as she encounters small-minded bigotry (amplified, one assumes, by the monster) that places her in real danger while she's being her usual gentle self. Adric's, however, is much less so, partly because he doesn't seem to be taking the threat he's placed in very seriously, undercutting any power it might have. The section set in the 1980s, while relevant to the larger plot, doesn't go anywhere of itself at all.

For me, however, the second half dragged a little as some of those threads were seemingly abandoned and we have more of the monster just gloating about how much damage it's going to cause and characters wandering about in dark catacombs. It comes together towards the end, though, even if the somewhat nebulous nature of the antagonist isn't especially interesting.

Clearly this is intended as a horror story of sorts, and has a number of themes in common with The Awakening, but that wasn't a high point of the Fifth Doctor's run for me. The interweaving of different time periods, while not complicated in the way that, say, some Eleventh Doctor stories were, is ambitious, but, especially when added to the present-day segments, don't quite come together in the way that they might. With such a detailed story, it's surprising how much of the 2-hour length feels like padding.

A young couple take a break in an isolated caravan park deep in the woods... and when has that starting premise ever turned out well for the characters in a movie?

The result isn't a slasher flick, but it is a creepy horror tale about something scary out in the mist. It certainly piles on the cliches (indeed, some might find it overdoes this) with the sinister old caretaker, phones ringing when they should be cut off, and the couple trying to recover from a recent tragedy that plays back into the story. But it does this well, aided by some good characterisation of the guest stars as well as playing into Constance's backstory once it turns out that something odd was going on here during the War.

In fact, the cliches are part of the point, because this is still a Doctor Who story, allowing for a different take on a classic concept in the same way that - to pick just one example - Time Heist is a take on, well... heist movies. And, of course, people being cut off from the outside world and then facing something scary is a good fit for much of the TV series.

The horror elements also give way to something that's more obviously science fiction in the second half as some of the details of what's going on become clearer. Even then, though, the pace keeps up as the viewpoint switches between the 1940s and the “present day” (more precisely, the 1980s). For all the tropes being honoured in the first half, this is, as it turns out, a story you couldn't tell without time travel.

The final resolution is one that's pretty typical for the series but that's entirely forgivable given the strong tale that leads up to it. It's a pity that there was such a long break after this without Flip and Constance as companions - they honestly work far better than any of the pairings Six had on TV.

The Doctor and companions find themselves on a spaceship mysteriously overgrown with vegetation and apparently haunted by the spirits of its missing crew. The first part of the story is quite creepy, as the mystery unfolds, but even once it becomes clear what's going on it remains very engaging. Explaining why would give away too much of the plot, but suffice it to say that there's plenty going on, and it's one of those stories that rewards close listening, due to its complexity.

The key guest character is the ship's computer, Hargreaves, programmed to act and sound like a stereotypical English butler - he is written brilliantly, and is one of the highlights of the story. Aside from the depth of the story, another strength is that Aquitaine manages to avoid many of the cliches that one might expect. Even the episode endings are more story beats that advance the plot than the traditional cliffhangers - and they don't overdo the reprises, which is something that often bugs me on audio.

This is one the best Big Finish stories in the main series for quite some time, an intelligent tale with strong guest characters, good writing of the regulars (Nyssa is perhaps more of the focus than Tegan, but the interplay between all of them is great), and going in some interesting directions that are unusual for the series, but perfectly fitting for it. Technically, it's part of a trilogy of releases, but it's entirely standalone, and recommended for any Who fan.

This is a rather bonkers murder mystery that sees the Doctor and companions visit a luxury space station as a masked man begins bumping off the relatives of a deceased billionaire. It's full of the tropes of such stories, with each death being by inventively different means, a slew of red herrings, and a cast of mostly ghastly suspects with obvious motives. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and if depth is what you're looking for, you won't find it here, but that's not the point.

The Doctor is away from the action for a large portion of the story, while he tries to put together the clues his companions have found to solve the mystery. This leaves Nyssa and Tegan with more to do, with the former in particular, putting her skills to use determining how some of the killings were carried out. Adric is rather less well-used, although he does manage to do some sneaking about through ventilation ducts... in any event, this was the last release to feature him (as of January 2021) and I can't say I'm going to miss him. Even in the audios, where he's better written than he was on TV, he still comes across as a spare wheel in a TARDIS that's a bit too crowded - as Ryan often was in NuWho, to take a more recent example.

But that doesn't really detract here, where the entertainment comes from some good lines of dialogue and a suitably crazy plot. There are comedic elements, and enough science fiction that this is definitely Doctor Who not Agatha Christie, even if there are nods to the latter. It's a good bit of fun, and it's nice to see Nyssa and Tegan playing key parts in the investigation.

This consists of two one-hour stories that are connected only by occurring sequentially and including the new companion who joined at the end of the previous release, Tartarus.

Interstitial - A disastrous time experiment pulls the TARDIS off-course, taking the Doctor and companions to a space station that (from the description) closely resembles the Nerva Space Beacon from season 12. The first half consists largely of them wandering around and trying to figure out what's going on - the sort of leisurely start that works better in a 4-part story than a 2-parter like this. There are timey-wimey elements, but they're relatively minor with the second half of the story mainly dealing with a clash of objectives between the two guest stars.

Arguably, nothing very much happens and the personalities of the guest characters aren't very well drawn - one of them is basically just mad. New companion Marcus feels rather like Katarina from the TV show; too far out of his depth to contribute much and certainly giving us no new insight into his character. The story works well enough but it isn't very memorable, with a few good lines and a decent premise that doesn't, in the end, really go anywhere. 3 stars.

Feast of Fear - The second story is set in 19th century Ireland, probably during the Great Famine of 1845-49 although the year isn't explicitly stated. That's largely incidental, though, with the story instead being about mind control as a monster takes over a travelling circus. Unfortunately, this mainly results in Nyssa and the Doctor being taken out of the bulk of the plot, while the story is too short to do anything particularly interesting with Tegan in the meantime. She does mention the similarity of what's happening with her experiences of the Mara but mentions are all you get, and it isn't really explored. Marcus, on the other hand, is very much a spare wheel who doesn't get to do much beyond being confused as to where America might be.

Nor is the monster a particularly interesting or original one, very much the sort of thing we've often seen before. There's obviously an intent to draw parallels between the monster's situation and the Famine but the latter is too much in the background for that to be any more than superficial. There's some good acting and it's nice to see Ireland as a setting for a change (Northern Ireland, too, judging from the accents of the characters who are supposed to be local) but, as with the first half of this collection it's hard to get too thrilled by it all. 3 stars.

This is the first of a thematic trilogy of stories that sees Seven face different renegade Time Lords. This time, it's Big Finish original character the Eleven, who has mostly appeared in Eighth Doctor stories to date - indeed this appears to be set shortly before his initial appearance in Doom Coalition. The initial setup is promising, with the Eleven joining forces with Ace twenty years after she has left the Doctor and set up the charity mentioned in the Sarah Jane Adventures.

This gives us a different version of Ace than we normally see, older and more experienced, albeit with a lingering mistrust of the Doctor that doesn't seem to fit with the lengthy travels she is portrayed as having in previous audios. But, as a story, it works well, told out of chronological order to slowly reveal pieces of the puzzle. The Doctor has a relatively minor role to play in the first half, leaving Ace and the Eleven to do the heavy lifting - both of which they are good at doing - but he takes a much more central role in the second.

Where, unfortunately, the setup doesn't really pay off. It's easy enough to work out what's going on, and there's a cameo for a pre-Time War Cardinal Ollistra thrown into the mix. But the monsters aren't particularly interesting, being essentially magic with little in the way of justification. And, while it's well acted, the story becomes unengaging and doesn't particularly go anywhere prior to the inevitable denouement. It seems to be setting something up for later, but it doesn't look as if the rest of the ‘trilogy' follows on from this, so when that will be is unclear. So a good start, but it didn't quite follow through for me - although, if you're a particular fan of the Eleven, he is well-used in this, so it's probably worth a listen.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on a planet mere days before it is due to be destroyed by a comet strike, and become caught up in events as the inhabitants try to board the last remaining sublight evacuation ship. Honestly, the science around all this is pretty ropey but that's not often what Doctor Who is about and it feels forgivable here. (And compare with TV story Galaxy 4 where the planet is about to fall apart for no obvious reason at all).

What we get instead is a doomed race against time where even the Doctor is apparently powerless in the face of a natural disaster that also happens to be a fixed point in time (not that that term is used here). The nature of the struggle changes as the story unfolds and more is revealed about how various characters are trying to take advantage of the situation but hanging over it all is the sense that few, if any, of the guest characters are going to make it out alive.

There are some weaknesses here and there, with rather too many captures and escapes and the leads being repeatedly held hostage for various reasons. In this respect, perhaps, it could have been trimmed. And it's really only in the first 30-minute segment that we get much of a sense of the desperation people are under. But there are plot twists along the way that, if not especially surprising when they occur, do at least keep things moving. Some of the villains also turn out to be less two-dimensional than they initially appear, coming up with a bad solution to an intolerable problem but ultimately faced with the same prospects as everyone else.

There are some good guest characters, a suitably quirky Doctor, and Leela gets to punch things a lot. Which for this era of the show, is pretty much what you want.

This particular “season” of Eighth Doctor stories has not been the strongest, not least because the Ravenous are a rather dull enemy. In fairness, much of it has really been about the Eleven and that's something that continues here in a set of three stories the last one of which manages to redeem some of the weaknesses of the earlier collections.

Whisper – In an attempt to find treatment for the Eleven, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on a planet that contains a hospital and literally nothing else. Even before the theme music starts up it's already become clear that the facility is, as such remote bases are wont to be, under siege from an outside threat. The threat in question turns out to hunt solely by sound, hence the story's title. It's a reasonable idea in general, but not so great for audio, since it can sometimes be hard to tell who is whispering to whom. On the plus side, the scenes in which Liv is struggling as to how far she should go to stop the Eleven are strong, and there is some good interaction between her and Helen. The story has connections with the larger plot arc, but essentially, it's standalone and mainly consists of trying to escape from the monster as the guest cast are picked off. In that respect, it works, but it's not especially memorable. 3.5 stars.

Planet of Dust – We're back to something closer to the main plot here, as the Eleven's plan begins to become apparent. Indeed, this episode ends on a cliffhanger so that it's really the first part of the following story. While the Ravenous remain uninteresting villains, they're not in the foreground of this very much, being outshone by the Eleven and – as is apparent from the cover – the Master. I'm less convinced by the nature of the McGuffin that the Master is hunting, although his motivations and methods for doing so seem in character. But still, it's a classic set-up with some good turns from the villains and moves along quite quickly. 4 stars.

Day of the Master – The two-hour finale to this “season” of stories ties the arc together and also resolves some mysteries from earlier episodes. The main characters are separated for over half of the entire story, although each of them manages to encounter the Master in the process. In addition to some timey-wimeyness (the appearances aren't entirely in chronological order) this has the benefit of introducing no less than three versions of the Master into one story. This pays off in a major way once the Doctor and companions reunite and the three Masters meet up – something that's greatly enlivened by one of them being Missy, who is brilliantly written here and constantly flippant about her former selves. It's a great wrap-up to a season that has often been below par. 4.5 stars.

A First Doctor story told from the perspective of Steven. Unlike most later Companion Chronicles this returns to the format of the earlier releases in the series by having a framing narrative that explains why and to whom the narrator is telling the main story. In this case, we see an elderly Steven, deposed from his rule over the world for which he left the Doctor in the TV story The Savages. In the style of many of the better releases in the series, this has direct relevance to the tale that Steven is telling to his visitor, and the two are thematically intertwined.

The main story tells of the arrival of the TARDIS on a world ravaged by a never-ending war that has obvious parallels with World War I, despite a number of key differences (such as women on the front lines). It's a grim tale, dealing with themes not only of the futility of war, but crucially, also of the dehumanising nature of military service. Even the true nature of the enemy remains a secret for the first half, with everyone fighting them simply because they must, rather than out of even a misplaced ideology.

The Doctor is very much in the background here, only appearing at the beginning and the end, so that the focus can be on Steven's attempt to end the ceaseless nightmare, or at least to escape it. It's a polemic against a self-perpetuating system where everyone involved is too blind to question the point of it all, and in some respects, is reminiscent of dystopias such as 1984. That this directly feeds back into the framing narrative, as we uncover what has happened to Steven to place him where he is, is an added bonus.

The main story is self-contained, and has to be, to deliver its moral message and to retrospectively expand on Steven's reasons for leaving the Doctor not long after it is set. The framing narrative, however, ends on a cliffhanger, and forms the first part of a larger arc.

The Doctor and Leela investigate ghostly goings-on at a fictional Oxford college in the 1970s. It's a well-done story, fitting neatly within its one-hour time slot. The setting, much of it in a former medieval nunnery, evokes the Gothic feel of the Hinchcliffe era (as has also been done successfully in other releases of this particular “season” of 4th Doctor audios). Bringing back Emily Shaw from the earlier audio The Last Post is also a nice plus, and some might appreciate the fact that, aside from the Doctor himself, it's an all-female cast.

The opening segments are a sort of creepy ghost story with sinister nuns, which morphs into more traditional science-fiction as the details are uncovered. While the details don't have the complexity that a two-hour story would allow, they aren't needed here, and there are still unexpected reversals as things go on, leading to a dramatic finale. The interplay between Baker and Jameson is as good as ever, with both characters getting to use their strengths. There are also some great lines in the sparkling script, and not all from the Doctor. All of this really brings back the atmosphere of season 14, when the classic show was arguably at its height.

The TARDIS crew arrive on a planet where the inhabitants have all mysteriously disappeared in a story that comes across as more of a “filler” episode than anything else. Having said which, there are still a number of good points to recommend it.

For a start, the characterisation of the leads is good with, for example, some well-written sparring between Tegan and Adric. In fact, Tegan is on her own for much of the story, isolated in a different setting than the others, and she manages to carry her plot thread effectively, coming across as a strong character without exaggerating her usual skills and talents.

There are also a number of call-backs to TV episodes, and some minor foreshadowing of future ones (most surprisingly, perhaps, The Name of the Doctor). In fact, the story is partly written as if it's a sequel to a non-existent story in which the Third Doctor faces an earlier version of the same villain - this, unfortunately, came across as a little confusing, since I wondered if there was some previous audio I hadn't listened to and if, as a result, I was missing some nuance to what was going on.

Other call-backs to the era include a fair amount of running through corridors and the old standby of spending much of an episode crawling through a ventilation duct. Something you wouldn't have seen back then are the LGBT references, although these are reduced to a couple of throw-away lines and the implication that Rebecca Root's character is, like the actor, trans.

Yet, despite all this, the story didn't really grab me. It certainly isn't bad, and it's worth listening to if you're a particular fan of season 19 (it's likely set immediately before Black Orchid) but there wasn't anything special enough about it to grab me.

Set in the immediate aftermath of the TV story Arc of Infinity, the opening scenes take place before the travellers have even had a chance to step back into the TARDIS. That story, of course, is partly about Tegan having left the Doctor for a year, and this audio expands on that ‘missing' period, exploring some of what happened through flashback.

The main story concerns watery aliens (named for the ‘Nix' of Germanic mythology) rising from the canals of Amsterdam and, in all honesty, makes rather better use of the Dutch setting than the TV story did. That's largely because of a lengthy section set in 1658, with the Doctor and companions meeting Rembrandt, and becoming involved with the Dutch East India Company.

There's a lot to like in this story, which has an over-arching theme of loss and the way that different people respond to it. Much of it, of course, is Tegan's story, with some nice insights into her often prickly character, although Nyssa has at least one good scene, reminiscing about the death of her family with Rembrandt. The artist himself also receives an interesting portrayal which, at a couple of points, is explicitly contrasted with that of Van Gogh in Vincent and the Doctor.

Compared with the emotional and character-driven elements, the plot with the aliens is less intriguing, but that's useful here precisely because it doesn't detract from what the story is really about. Even so, it does have some nice touches and a few decent plot twists - although if you think that DW stories should only be about action and high-stakes drama, you might be disappointed with this. I found it a great kick-off to this latest trilogy.

The Doctor and Constance arrive on a pre-technological planet just as it is visited by... well the title's rather a give-away, isn't it?

The Daleks are so frequently used as villains that it's hard to ring any new changes on them. Which makes it all the more impressive that Big Finish have, despite the occasional flop, largely risen to that challenge. However, while the visual of Daleks with casing constructed by medieval artisans using the materials available to them is well-realised on the cover, it obviously has less impact in the audio itself.

Rather, what we have is the ruthless invaders restricted to using spears and armour made only from soft lead, forcing them to be less direct than usual. Perhaps more importantly, these particular Daleks have unusual abilities, the reasons for which aren't revealed until the second half. As a result, they manage to be menacing more by their implication and by the inherently revolting nature of their organic selves (there are, unusually, a few scenes where they're out of their shells).

The story is set in and around a monastery, so almost all the guest characters are men. The sole exception falls into the stereotypical role of ‘competent female assistant to a male buffoon' and doesn't get much more development than that, although to be fair, the buffoon is quite entertaining. For this reason, among others, I think this is really a 3.5 star story that had some room for improvement, but it felt to me an unusual enough way of using Daleks that I'm comfortable with rounding up.

In a temporary departure from the usual format for this series, this release contains two hour-long stories instead of a single two-hour one. That said, the first story ends on a cliffhanger that leads directly into the second and there is some similarity between them.

* Alien Heart - The Doctor and Nyssa arrive at a remote outpost of the Earth Empire from which a mysterious weapon of mass destruction appears to be operating. They soon run into the titular aliens, and from there on it's a decent, but unremarkable, Who story. There's the odd twist here and there, but not many, and the story does fit its 1-hour slot perfectly. The villains' plot is typically over-complicated, but, in fairness, perfectly reminiscent of a number of the classic era episodes. 3 stars.

* Dalek Soul - This is the better story of the two, starting in media res some time after the cliffhanger ending of the first episode (which isn't really resolved until the second half of this one). The focus of it is that, here, Nyssa appears to be willingly helping the Daleks, with the mystery being why she would do such a thing. Indeed, it's largely her story, told almost entirely from her perspective and with the Doctor a key, but supporting, character. This works very well, even once you've worked out what's going on. On the downside, the resolution is telegraphed a long way in advance, leaving one waiting for quite a while before it turns up. 4 stars.

Leela wakes in a research institute in 1978 to be told that she's a scientist who agreed to be a test subject for a technique for giving people false memories. And now, of course, they want her to accept ‘reality' and return to her former life.

This, or something much like it, is a fairly common trope in serialised SF, so one can't credit Llewellyn with having come up with something totally fresh and unique. But I have to confess that it's a trope that I like, if it's not overused. There's also the strength here that this inevitably becomes a Leela story, with the Doctor playing a minor (if admittedly crucial) role. Some might find that a weakness and, indeed, this might have worked as a Companion Chronicle, rather than a 4th Doctor Adventure but I, for one, don't find it a problem.

On the other hand, given that it is a common plot device, this story doesn't ring any changes on the basic idea, beyond the fact that this is Leela we're talking about. It's hard to think of any companion more removed from ‘1970s scientist' than she is, so there's a real clash of cultures that we wouldn't get if it were, say, Liz Shaw. Yet Llewellyn does find some ways to suck her into the fake narrative she's being spun and, at least for the first half, there is at least some question as to what it is that's actually happening.

There is also clever use of the supporting cast and, for that matter, of Tom Baker, who is playing two roles here. It does make references to an earlier story that I haven't listened to, and might have more impact for those who have, but it's clear enough what's going on even without the detail. Yes, the “Cuckoo Nest” trope (according to tvtropes) has been done before, and even on Doctor Who, but this is a good and enjoyable example of the type, especially if you're a Leela fan.

This is the first half of a two-part story. I am reviewing both parts here.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on a planet undergoing an energy crisis that will soon render it uninhabitable... and, while that's relevant to the plot, it isn't even really the focus of what's going on here. In fact, while we're told about it, we don't see much direct evidence of it impacting anyone's day-to-day life (i.e. there's no power cuts or food shortages, or whatever). Instead, we get... well, quite a lot of different science fiction elements.

There's the titular mind-runners, using advanced tech to surf the experiences of other people. There's the Digitals, using similar technology to do something quite different. And there's the seemingly unstoppable villain who appears in the pre-theme music teaser. And even that's not all of it. Granted, it's not hard science fiction - there are quite a few holes in it if you really want to poke - but there's plenty of themes here and more disparate and interesting ideas than we'd normally get in a single Doctor Who story.

This makes good use of the 2-hour length to not only bring in those ideas but to have the story travel in directions that I didn't initially expect. Both Baker and Jameson are on top form, and Leela proves as useful as ever even in a vaguely cyberpunk urban setting. K9 is in this one as well, despite usually sitting out the 4th Doctor adventures, adding to the era's feel. A well-crafted story, even if some of the background isn't as wholly plausible as it might be.

This time paradox story sees the Doctor and Leela visiting a London hotel at the centre of a temporal anomaly. The result is quite complex in places, with the hotel and its guests not only shifting through different time periods, but also through different versions of what the future might hold. An interesting consequence of the latter, though, is that the story is mostly contemporary with the relevant TV season (i.e. 1977) but that we also meet characters from as far ahead as 2018, as if our world is intruding on a Tom Baker episode from the 1970s.

Of course, the classic TV series rarely did an episode quite like this, although there perhaps some parallels with The City of Death and more so with a certain 5th Doctor story that's obliquely referenced in the script. The result includes quite a bit of chopping and changing in terms of the scenery, but the plot itself is relatively straightforward. It takes a while for it to become apparent what the central core of the paradox is, but the plot relies more on how somebody is taking advantage of it, and it's pretty clear from early on who that someone is. (It's not explicitly revealed until well into the second half, but it seems unlikely that Starkey intended it as a real mystery).

Despite this, it feels very much like a 4th Doctor story, and it would also be very different with a companion other than Leela. Compared with, say, some of Moffat's stories, it isn't “timey-wimey”; except for a brief scene with a message from the future that serves as foreshadowing, everything takes place in chronological sequence. The result is an entertaining story that feels right at home in the TV season its emulating, even if it isn't something that Hinchcliffe or Williams ever truly did when they were showrunner.

A special 20th-anniversary release for the Big Finish audios, this is a set of six hour-long stories in which various incarnations of the Doctor encounter the repercussions of a temporal anomaly. Apart from the last one, they are effectively standalone and could be listened to in any order. It's worth noting that it's the BF anniversary that's being recognised here, so it features a lot of characters and references incidents that are exclusive to the audios, and often without much background explanation. So, unlike some similar collections, it's not a good place to start – it's a celebration of what has gone before.

And if you can't do that, and be a bit self-indulgent along the way, in an anniversary special, then when can you?

• Lies in Ruins – Even before the title music starts playing, this story is off to a great start with a concept sufficiently neat that you wonder why Big Finish haven't done it before now (availability, probably) – what if River Song met Benny Summerfield? The two characters are just similar enough that they're going to clash and both have enough snark that the chemistry between them is bound to be fun to listen to – and it is. While the Eighth Doctor soon turns up with a mysterious new companion in tow, it's the two female stars who steal the show, even as it slips from its original comedy into darker territory. A good story about why the Doctor needs companions – and the right sort of companions. Although they're being very vague these days about why the Doctor doesn't remember River when he meets her in Silence in the Library. 4 stars.

• The Split Infinitive – Split infinitives are not something you're supposed to wantonly use. Fortunately, this story doesn't have anything to do with that, although it is about something being split. In large part, that's the story itself, which switches between the 1960s and 1970s versions of the Countermeasures team encountering the Seventh Doctor and Ace. The result is very timey-wimey, jumping back and forth between the same set of characters at different points in their lives and involved in similar yet distinct events. This inevitably makes it hard to follow at times, although it is well worth it, a good action-filled story with time-bending complexity and links to more Big Finish audios than is at first apparent. 4.5 stars.

• The Sacrifice of Jo Grant – This episode features another inspired combination, with the Third Doctor teaming up with the modern-day version of UNIT to investigate time anomalies in Dorset. Arguably, there isn't terribly much happening here, with the odd monster popping up to be dealt with, but no villain or especially detailed plot. But that's all saved by the characterisation, giving time for a proper conversation between the Doctor and Jo, and providing some good moments for Kate and Osgood as well. It's by no means entirely a nostalgia-fest and there's the threat of the episode title hanging over it as well, but it's effective as an anniversary story with some strong emotional beats and a chance for characters to interact in a way they wouldn't normally. 5 stars.

• Relative Time – Now it's the turn of the Fifth Doctor to meet Jenny – more significant because of the real-life connection between the actors than for anything in-universe. As with the first episode, it also brings in a major element from another Big Finish story and, on this occasion, it's one that would likely be a bit more baffling without the context of having listened to at least one of them. This is a base-under-siege storyline, set on an interstellar cruise ship threatened by another temporal anomaly and in many ways, it's quite traditional, with plenty of running about and technological jiggery-pokery. But it's another fun story, enlivened by the interaction between the leads even if the guest stars (other than the villains, who work well) are a little redundant. 4 stars.

• The Avenues of Possibility – Here, the Sixth Doctor and Charlie encounter the anomalies in 18th century London, in what's the most historical episode of this collection. This is largely because it features a couple of historical figures since the story is much larger than the 18th-century elements. In fact, there's quite a lot thrown in here, including a welcome return for DI Menzies and plenty of references to other audio stories - some more significant than others. It's a fun romp that manages to do a lot with time travel without being as timey-wimey as some of the others in this arc. 4.5 stars.

• Collision Course – The final episode ties everything together. To begin with, it's a Fourth Doctor story, jumping back and forth between two different visits to the same planet. Part of the strength of this is contrasting Leela and Romana as companions, but there are some good ideas in here, too. But then it moves into the finale proper, which absolutely throws the kitchen sink at it in true multi-Doctor style. Yes, you couldn't do this sort of thing often, but for an anniversary, it's spot on. 5 stars.

This last instalment is easily the strongest of the “werewolf trilogy” which sees Seven paired up with reluctant lycanthrope Mags. Fortunately, it's entirely standalone and (so long as you're willing to accept that Mags happens to be a companion) there's no requirement to have listened to any of the others to follow it.

It begins with the Doctor and Mags arriving in London in 1990 to meet up with Ace, who wants to rescue an alien being held prisoner in a country mansion. The first half-hour deals with the set-up and attempted rescue, until things suddenly change at the 30-minute mark. From there on, we're in a story that's a mash-up of Gothic horror, science fiction, and the soap opera Neighbours.

The connection to Neighbours and its ilk are not the only late '80s/early '90s references in the story - in fact, it's riddled with them. (And, yes, I know that Neighbours is, as of this writing, still going, but that era was very much the heyday of its popularity). There is also a running gag about architecture and the story certainly can't be accused of taking itself too seriously.

The plot, however, is quite complicated and does require some exposition at times. It does mostly hang together, however, although there is a science gaff when it comes to a key part of the final resolution. Other flaws include incidental music that's a little too intrusive and an overreliance on flashbacks.

On the plus side, the fact that it doesn't rely on Mags repeatedly changing shape is a plus; when she does so it's directly relevant to the plot, but we don't get a lot of growling, running around, and other elements that work poorly without visuals. Which, in fact, allows us to explore here a little more as a character, although it's fair to say that that's not the real focus of the piece.

Which is the enjoyable mash-up of genres, more '90s references than you can shake a stick at, and taking the mick out of daytime soap operas.

Although technically this is the third part of a trilogy, in that the previous two instalments both ended with teasers for the one that followed, this is very different in tone to either of its predecessors. In fact, it's a comedy, something that's not often done with Seven. The comedy elements don't overwhelm the plot, however, and don't fall into the trap of seeming overly silly, which can sometimes happen when you insert a comedy episode into something that's normally serious.

The plot sees the TARDIS captured by the story's main villain, Josiah W. Dogbolter, a character created for the DW comics of the 1980s. That occurs during the teaser at the end of the previous release, and this story is concerned not so much with getting it back as with what Dogbolter plans on doing with it. The usual companions are joined by Narvin, from the Gallifrey audios, whose frustration with what is going on helps him to serve as a comic foil.

Time technology is involved in the story, as one might expect, but it's nothing particularly complex with no paradoxes or out-of-sequence events. In many respects, it's quite serious, with the humour being provided by some of the characters - an obsequious protocol droid, image-conscious alien invaders, etc. - and a number of good one-liners. Despite the larger cast, all of the characters get something to do, and there's a nice piece of implied commentary on the relevant era of the TV show when it becomes clear, early on, what Mel is really doing...