Doctor Who: Mind of the Hodiac
by Russell T Davies & Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2022)
This two-parter is rather too long for what it offers, though the female-centric plot is welcome and Colin Baker is once again a delight. Davies and Handcock capture the Sixth Doctor’s personality, yet (as usual) have him largely superfluous to the resolution.
Doctor Who: The Vanity Trap
by Stuart Manning; dir Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2020)
![Audio CD cover: "The Sixth Doctor and Peri, Volume One" (Big Finish, 2020) [review of “Doctor Who: The Vanity Trap” by Stuart Manning; dir Scott Handcock]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Sixth-Doctor-and-Peri-Volume-One-2020.jpeg)
A decent concept that foregrounds character and plays out in longer scenes than is usual for Big Finish. That said, the story still manages to rush and muddle itself at the conclusion. The disharmony between Peri and the Doctor feels rather tacked-on.
Doctor Who: The Headless Ones
by James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown; dir. Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2020)
A fairly bland offering whose only real point of difference is an unhappy ending (which the players don’t lose much sleep over). Parsons and Stirling-Brown have a go at female empowerment only to make Amanda and Siyanda hapless figureheads rather than exemplars.
Doctor Who: Conflict Theory
by Nev Fountain; dir. Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2020)
A fun, frivolous story that, beneath clever execution, explores the more serious question of the Doctor’s culpability in exposing his companions to danger. Fountain’s script is spot-on. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant revel in a character dynamic rarely done justice on television.
Doctor Who: Empire of the Racnoss
by Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2017)
Peter Davison is in fine form and clearly relishing his freedom from petulant, dialogue deadweight companions. Unfortunately the Racnoss are equally hard to stomach, here proving themselves to be one of Doctor Who’s most incessantly shrill, one-dimensional and irrationally motivated alien races.
Doctor Who: The Rising Night
by Scott Handcock (BBC Audio, 2009)
A village in perpetual darkness; a devourer that makes the (companionless Tenth) Doctor retreat into his own mind: The Rising Night begins with great promise but doesn’t deliver, undermining its threat with a deus ex machina solution and an irksome moral quandary.