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On the backwater planet of Talis Minor, Salus Kade has a decent life; he helps to bring home the food that feeds his people, he has a wife and daughter - and he wants absolutely nothing to do with the war raging between the Earth Alliance and the Dalek Empire. When he finds Earth soldiers holding a recruitment drive in the middle of his home town, he’s not pleased, and he’s not afraid of them until he discovers that the “recruiting” is just for show and it’s actually a forced conscription drive. Even as he rallies his own people around him by denouncing the Earth Alliance’s tyranny, the Daleks themselves arrive - and a catastrophic attack helps to change Kade’s mind. He enlists, along with many other men from his community, and ends up leading a battallion of Earth and allied soldiers in the Alliance’s newest gear: a sealed, self-contained armored spacesuit which is practically its own interstellar vehicle and weapons platform built around one man. Designed specifically to combat the Daleks, these suits are worn only by the Earth Alliance’s elite troopers, code named the Fearless. But Kade’s latest mission into the teeth of the Dalek war machine is enough to strike at least a little fear into his heart…

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Noel Clarke (Salus Kade), Maureen O’Brien (General Agnes Landen), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks), Sarah Mowat (Susan Mendes), John Schwab (Lt. Carlisle), Oliver Mellor (Egan Fisk), David Yip (Kennedy), Ginita Jimenez (Lajitta), Colin Spaul (Colonel Baxter), Ian Brooker (General Croft / Shuttle Pilot), Sean Connolly (Computer / Pilot / Aide), Alex Mallinson (Gaz), Esther Ruth Elliott (Flight Control)

As he is sped toward his trial on Skaro, Davros is locked up in solitary confinement by his Daleks. But he’s not quite alone. He’s appalled to see the Daleks employing slave laborers - especially ones who don’t seem to live petrified in fear by their masters - and then there’s the other voice he hears. A woman, claiming to be a Thal, somehow gets into his cell undetected, using some sort of stealth suit that renders her invisible to the Daleks’ sensors (and therefore to Davros’ as well). She tries to make Davros realize that his “children” no longer need him and consider him not only disposable, but a threat. But even more terrifyingly, she begins talking to Davros about what is necessary for his redemption, giving him a way to destroy the Daleks before they destroy him. But has she just given a loaded weapon to precisely the wrong person?

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by David Darlington

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Miranda Raison (Lareen), Sean Connolly (Alydon / Guz), Gregg Newton (Computer / Raz), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks)

Timeline: shortly after the TV story Revelation Of The Daleks and before the audio story Terror Firma and the TV story Remembrance Of The Daleks

Review: Devised and produced exclusively for the BBC’s Doctor Who: Davros box set of TV and audio stories featurig that character, The Davros Mission is a standalone Big Finish production, with tendrils reaching into both their I, Davros and Dalek Empire series featuring those characters without the Doctor’s presence. There’s no indication that it will be released separately, so it’s exclusive to the DVD of Davros audio stories included with that set. For the second time in Big Finish’s nearly ten years of doing Doctor Who audio drama, we have yet another story trying to fill in the blanks between two TV stories in which Davros miraculously went from being a condemned prisoner to the new Emperor of the Daleks. But does this one make any more sense? (more…)

A Shakespeare premiere goes awry when Peri and Erimem wind up drawing too much attention to themselves, but that’s not as incongruous as the Doctor attempting to drink the Bard himself under the table during a heated argument over historical accuracy, specifically with regards to the fate of the two princes in the Tower of London. The Doctor, after clearing his head, decides to investigate the matter for himself, but the TARDIS is in the hands of an impaired driver - a temporal “hiccup” strands Erimem and Peri in the right place, but two years before the Doctor’s arrival. The Doctor is brought before Richard III, and is disturbed to find himself in the presence of a King who is not only aware of time travel, but of the Doctor himself. Peri and Erimem set out to solve the mystery for themselves in the Doctor’s absence, but they find no princes in the Tower - instead, they become the Tower’s two captives, changing history with nearly everything they say or do…no matter how hard they try not to.

written by Nev Fountain
directed by Gary Russell
music by ERS

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Caroline Morris (Erimem), Arthur Smith (Clarrie), Michael Fenton-Stevens (Mr. Seyton), Stephen Beckett (Richard, Duke of Gloucester), Marcus Hutton (Henry, Duke of Buckingham), John Culshaw (Earl Rivers / voice of the Fourth Doctor), Chris Neill (Sir James Tyrell), Katie Wimpenny (Susan), Linzi Matthews (Judith)

Timeline: between The Council Of Nicaea and The Gathering

Review: I’ll fess up to this: I listened to this entire Big Finish audio play in one sitting late at night, already tired, while working on something else. Which may account for my reaction to The Kingmaker, which can best be summed up as follows: what the…? (more…)

Stranded after the crash of the Cybership she helped to sabotage, Charley is cut off from the Doctor, and sets about building a crude crystal radio set to signal S.O.S. into the ether. She’s relieved when the TARDIS appears, but when she steps through the doors, she’s left speechless when she meets its occupant - the sixth Doctor, not the eighth. She’s very evasive about her origins and how she got to the future, which immediately raises the Doctor’s suspicions. The TARDIS next lands in Ackley House, an apartment block in Manchester in 2008 - in the apartment of a man who appears to have been murdered. Charley goes to find help, but never makes it back to the Doctor; instead, he’s found by the police and charged with murder. Charley has been abducted by a woman who lives in one of the other flats, and is held captive there until she manages to break free. When the body of the murder victim vanishes, the Doctor is off the hook, but he’s found a receptive ear in D.I. Menzies and continues to enlist her help in an investigation that involves aliens, money, and - despite appearances to the contrary - murder. Along the way, however, the Doctor begins to suspect that the girl he rescued from the future isn’t who she claims to be.

written by Eddie Robson
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by David Darlington

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Anna Hope (D.I. Patricia Menzies), Will Ash (Sam), Sara De Freitas (Maxine), Lennox Greaves (Dr. Aldrich), James George (Slater), Diana Morrison (Antonia Bailey / Jane), Sephen Aintree (D.C.I. Turnbull / Goon / Police Officer / Guy in Gym), Steve Hansell (P.C. Blackstock / Police Officer / Guy in Gym)

Timeline: for the sixth Doctor, it is unknown if this takes place before or after his travels with Evelyn; for Charley, this story takes place immediately after The Girl Who Never Was

Review: On its own merits, The Condemned is a murder mystery with an interesting SF twist, putting the Doctor in the middle of something that isn’t likely to be the subject of a TV crime show anytime soon. But that’s not the only mystery the Doctor is trying to unravel here, which makes this one a real dandy - because the listener is in on the secret, and the Time Lord isn’t. (more…)