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The Doctor emerges from his trial a changed man - and a very melancholy one. Seeking a bit of refuge to contemplate recent events, he happens upon Bianca’s, an exclusive nightclub in World War II-era Berlin, but even as he tries to relax, he notices that things may not be as they appear. Worse yet, even as he tries to piece together what’s going on, Iris Wildthyme staggers into Bianca’s as well, shattering any hope the Doctor may have had of discreetly investigating the mystery.

written by Stephen Cole & Paul Magrs
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jason Loborik

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Katy Manning (Iris Wildthyme), Maria McErlane (Bianca), Paul Clayton (Henry), Jane McFarlane (Mickey), James Campbell (Allis / Ballis), Mark Donovan (Corporal Sturmer), Ian Brooker (Barman)

Timeline: not long after The Trial Of A Time Lord

Review: Originally, word had it that The Wormery was only going to be a give-away to subscribers of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio range - not unlike The Maltese Penguin - and though it was later sold to the general public, one can see why The Wormery could be thought of in the same category as Maltese Penguin: one can’t complain about it too much if it’s free. (more…)

The Doctor stumbles upon a plot to revive Davros, thought to be long dead, but this time the Daleks aren’t behind it. This attempt to tap into Davros’ evil genius is a purely commercial concern, funded by a shady Earth corporation whose CEO wants Davros to work for him. Horrified by the implications of this, the Doctor counters with an offer to provide his own services in exchange for keeping Davros under lock and key. The company’s chief executive, realizing that he has two geniuses on his hands, instead strikes a bargain that both parties find even more terrifying - he will hire the Doctor and Davros, and they will share lab and office space. But what the corporation wants is someone who’s not afraid to set ethics aside for the sake of profit - and the Doctor soon becomes ripe for termination. Or, if Davros has his way, extermination.

written by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jane Elphinstone

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Terry Molloy (Davros), Bernard Horsfall (Arnold Baynes), Wendy Padbury (Lorraine Baynes), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Eddie De Oliviera (Willis), Louise Falkner (Kaled Medic), Karl Hansen (Kaled Medic), Katarina Olsson (Shan), Ruth Sillers (Kimberly Todd), Andrew Westfield (Pilot)

Timeline: between The Two Doctors and Timelash

Review: When Big Finish got the rights to use the Daleks in several Doctor Who Audio Adventures, and later launched the metal monsters in their own range of audios, it was decided early on that Davros, their twisted Kaled creator, wouldn’t be coming along for the ride. Without Davros pulling the strings, the Big Finish vision of the Daleks went back to the 60s: cunning, deadly, ruthless, remorseless, and completely apolitical, a return to the Daleks without Davros. (more…)

The Doctor returns to Norway, where he and Evelyn are eager to catch up with Cassie, who they left to fend for herself - away from other humans - after their horrific encounter with Nimrod, the Forge, and Project Twilight. The Doctor believes he has created a cure for the vampire virus that infected Cassie, and he even finds her soon enough - only to discover that she is now in Nimrod’s employ. Nimrod has been waiting close to Cassie, knowing that the Doctor would return to help her. Nimrod has obtained some top secret information regarding the Doctor, including UNIT records of his past regenerations - an ability Nimrod wants to study and harness for himself, even if it means forcing the Doctor to regenerate by torturing him. Evelyn, in the meantime, brings Cassie back to her senses and together they rescue the Doctor from Nimrod’s hideous experiment. As the three of them make a desperate dash to the TARDIS, which Nimrod has also brought to the Forge, Nimrod guns Cassie down…

Years later, in his seventh incarnation, the Doctor returns to the Forge, following telltale signs of dangerous disruption in the time vortex. He finds that the Forge is under attack by an alien race whose technology - and one of their travelers - has been stolen by Nimrod, who promptly dissected both the alien and his vehicle to uncover their secrets. The Doctor discovers something even more horrifying as well - his sixth self is still here, working for Nimrod, but with no sign of his TARDIS or Evelyn. The seventh Doctor is troubled by his inability to remember any of this, but when the aliens return in force, he may be in worse trouble than he thought when his sixth self is the first to die in the attack.

written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
directed by Gary Russell
music by Andy Hardwick

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Stephen Chance (Nimrod), Rosie Cavaliero (Cassie), Emma Collier (Oracle), Adam Woodroffe (Sgt. Frith), Ingrid Evans (Dr. Crumpton), Vidar Magnussen (Professor Harket)

Timeline: after Doctor Who and the Pirates and before Arrangements For War (Sixth Doctor); after The Harvest and before the 1996 TV movie (Seventh Doctor)

Review: An interesting premise, to say the least, but we’ve already done the multiple-Doctors-against-a-common-foe gag (you may remember it; it was called Excelis). It’s interesting to follow up on Cassie, whose fate was left very much in the air at the end of Project Twilight, but to tell her whole story and wrap it up in just two episodes feels a bit rushed. The second half of Project Lazarus picks up the story with the seventh Doctor, and also unexpectedly brings back the sixth as well. It’s a mystery with some very interesting twists, and the seventh Doctor portions of the story do not feel rushed at two episodes. But ya know what? I wish the whole thing had been structured as a sixth Doctor story only, with the seventh Doctor’s arrival in part three coming without warning (as opposed to being announced on the cover artwork; speaking of which, what you see above is a special composite created for marketing purposes by Big Finish; the actual release was available in either a sixth Doctor or a seventh Doctor design only - but the composite was shown several months in advance of the story’s release). (more…)

Evelyn pays a visit to a student of hers named Sally, arriving quite unbidden to tell her the tale of a recent adventure she and the Doctor experienced on the high seas - a tale of pirates, treasure, daring deeds, and terrible tragedies. Indeed, by invading Sally’s home to foist the story upon her, the Doctor and Evelyn are trying to avert another tragedy - but Evelyn worries that even that may be impossible when, during the recounting of their waterlogged adventure, the Doctor decides it would be better to tell the story in song.

written by Jacqueline Rayner
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Timothy Sutton (and Sir Arthur Sullivan)

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Bill Oddie (Red Jasper), Dan Barratt (Jem), Helen Goldwyn (Sally), Nicholas Pegg (Swan), Mark Siney (Mr. Merryweather), Timothy Sutton (Mate / Sailor / Pirate)

Timeline: after Jubilee and before Project Lazarus

Review: So, a Doctor Who musical. Quite honestly a terrifying thought, and I remember thinking that it might even be a bad idea when I first heard of it. After all, hadn’t this concept been worn quite thin already thanks to Buffy and Lexx and Xena (and that’s just the genre stuff that I could name off the top of my head)? Granted, it seems like a shoo-in for the audio medium, but that particular land had already been plowed quite well, thank you very much. What could a musical offer to the Doctor Who universe without imitating these other SF and fantasy shows, and more to the point, what could Doctor Who offer to a musical? (more…)