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[scarfulwho]

Connor Recommends: All Hands on Deck (Spoiler Free)

All Hands on Deck is the latest in Big Finish’s Short Trips series, which are short stories, often with just one narrator reading all the characters like an audio book.

This specific story follows Susan Campbell (formerly Susan Foreman) and the Eighth Doctor on Earth in the future. If you haven’t kept up with the Eighth Doctor audios, Susan has been revisited since her departure in The Dalek Invasion of Earth back in Season 2 of the Classic Series, and has experienced significant losses in between then and now.

The strength of All Hands on Deck is that it addresses an important question that many fans would have had in regards to the Time War, and that question is ‘did Susan fight in the Time War?’. Up until the events of Day of the Doctor, the Doctor had long claimed that all his people were gone, which surely included his granddaughter too.

This story has Susan returning to Coal Hill School as a much older woman - and bumping into the Eighth Doctor, hell bent on protecting her from the horrors of the Time War, which at this point is raging on. The Doctor fails to intercept a message for Susan from Gallifrey, and she is called to the fight.

The final scenes of the story are heartbreaking, poetic, and oddly appropriate. The words she uses at the end of All Hands on Deck are deliberately chosen, and provide a bookend to the character after all these years. I’m not ashamed to admit that I teared up a little bit with this one.

Eddie Robson pulled off a wonderful script full of emotion, and Carole Ann Ford reprises her role as Susan to play it beautifully. While one minor gripe is that she can’t quite capture the dulcet tones of Paul McGann’s voice in some of her narration, the image of the slight-worse-for-wear Eighth Doctor we see here is vivid in the mind.

For £2.99, you really can’t go wrong with this All Hands on Deck. It bridges an important gap between the Classic Series and the New Series, and provides a bold and moving step forward for one of the most beloved companions of the show’s history.

You can purchase All Hands on Deck from Big Finish’s website.

[scarfulwho]

Connor Recommends: Son of the Dragon (Spoiler Free)

Recently, stories 51 through 100 of Big Finish’s main range were announced to be going out of print, much like the first 50 did last year. As such, the prices have been reduced - and I got myself a couple of stories I was curious about.

Son of the Dragon was one of those stories. Being somewhat of a Dracula enthusiast, I was immediately drawn to the concept of this story. But make no mistake! This isn’t a gothic horror tale of a bloodsucking fiend. More... some warmongering fiends.

Yes, Son of the Dragon is a purely historical adventure, no aliens, no creatures from beyond. Just the monsters within humanity itself. As we are all aware, Bram Stoker based the eponymous count of his novel on the accounts of the cruel Prince of Wallachia himself.

The story features Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown, and Caroline Morris as Big Finish exclusive companion Erimem.

Anyway - this story is number ninety-nine in the main range, and has the Doctor encountering Vlad Tepes, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Dracula, played by James Purefoy. Son of the Dragon also has Radu the Handsome, Vlad’s brother, as a major character played by Douglas Hodge.

Steve Lyons has written an intriguing story that explores the history behind the events of this time period, notably dipping into the relationship between Vlad and Radu. It also acts as somewhat of a character piece for Erimem, as she is roped into becoming Dracula’s bride during this adventure. The scenes with Erimem and Dracula playing off of each other are brilliant, and the highlight of this story.

Five and Peri feel like they don’t necessarily have as much to do, but that’s not to the detriment of the story. For me, the best historical adventures of Doctor Who focus on a specific companion, where they learn about the perils of the past.

Son of the Dragon is to Erimem is what The Aztecs is to Susan, or what The Wrath of the Iceni is to Leela. Granted, it’s less about the effects of time travel on history as it is about Erimem herself.

All in all - this is somewhat of a rambling recommendation, but it is a fantastic story that is most certainly worth a listen.

Son of the Dragon is available on the Big Finish website for £6.00 while stocks last, or £2.99 for a download.

[scarfulwho]

The First Post

Hello!

I’ve decided to create a blog dedicated to the discussion of Doctor Who content, including reviews, lists or perhaps just my thoughts on news and rumours.

Not entirely certain what I’ll do with this just yet, so bear with me and stay tuned.

Also, I couldn’t resist the Scarfulwho pun. It’s too good to pass up.

TTFN!