The Diary of River Song: My Dinner with Andrew
by John Dorney (Big Finish, 2018)
A diverting timey-wimey story spoilt only by the cod-French maître d’ (British actor Jonathan Coote). Given modern-day cognizance of ethnic and cultural representation, is this casting choice any less offensive than John Bennett’s playing Li H’Sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang?
Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks
by Chris Chibnall (BBC, 2021)
Despite impressive credits elsewhere, Chris Chibnall has always seemed a little at sea when scripting Doctor Who. His writing here is clunky, the emotional moments forced (and overscored). It doesn’t help that the Daleks have outstayed their welcome by half a century.
Doctor Who: Short Trips – Volume II
(Big Finish, 2011)
A collection of Doctor Who short stories—one each for the first eight Doctors—narrated by actors associated with the relevant era. For the most part these are short mood pieces. There’s little of note plot-wise, just a wistful appreciation of life.
Doctor Who: Spider’s Shadow
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2008)
An uncredited one-part coda to Stewart Sheargold’s ‘The Death Collectors’. The in-story repetition is clunky at first (to the point of sounding like a recording error) yet gradually refines itself into a clever little time-trap mystery. Sylvester McCoy rolls with the punches.
Doctor Who: The Death Collectors
by Stewart Sheargold (Big Finish, 2008)
This three-part story sees the Seventh Doctor travelling by himself and in good form. Sheargold brings an original premise to the table but Big Finish have peppered the production with (commendably realistic?) sound effects, distortions and scratchy voices, rendering key points unintelligible.
The Black Archive #39: The Silurians
by Robert Smith? (Obverse Books, 2020)
A wide-ranging, clearly written analysis that recasts The Silurians’ apparent failings as strengths and offers, by considering aspects of the serial from a rational, scientific standpoint and giving them a societal context, something of a reappraisal of the Third Doctor more broadly.
Doctor Who: The Macros
by Ingrid Pitt & Tony Rudlin (Big Finish, 2010)
A well-acted production of a script that offers few surprises. The Doctor becomes embroiled in but unable to change history (the Philadelphia Experiment), the basis of his inability to interfere is glossed over, and a thoroughly one-dimensional tyrant revels in her machinations.
The Sarah Jane Adventures, Series 1
(CBBH, 2007)
A cleverly conceived Doctor Who spinoff, aimed at a younger audience but with sufficiently well-executed SF (both serious and Slitheen-level over-the-top) to keep adults interested. While Elisabeth Sladen is top-billed, her teen co-stars prove equally capable. The half-hour two-parters format works nicely.
Dr. Second
by Adam Hargreaves (Puffin, 2017)
Hargreaves’ mash-up of Doctor Who and Mr. Men remains more of a conceptual than an actual triumph, but on this occasion the characterisation—of Jamie, Victoria and the Doctor—is quite good, as are the illustrations and (to an extent) the storyline.
The Black Archive #38: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords
by James Mortimer (Obverse Books, 2019)
Refreshingly, Mortimer doesn’t attempt to relate Series Three’s two-part finale to any particular body of theory, preferring to assess its dark themes as presented within the context of Russell T Davies’ helmsmanship. A short, accessible read, albeit occasionally gawky in its prose.