The Death Collectors: The TARDIS materializes in an airlock connecting a human research skystation with a Dar Trader ship, orbiting the quarantined planet Antikon. The planet is off-limits for good reason: a disease called Antikon’s Decay, which consumes all life with which it comes into contact, runs rampant there, and even explorers in full space suits aren’t safe. The Dar Traders, a species capable of reviving the dead just long enough to record their final memories, are there at the request of Professor Mors Alexandryn to assist in his search for a cure to the Decay. Given that Alexandryn has just sent a member of his expedition to his death – quite possibly deliberately – so he can track the growth of the Decay, he’s very wary of any outside observers such as the Doctor. The Doctor, who has a passing familiarity with the havoc that Antikon’s Decay has caused in the past, offers to lend his help, but the sacrifices he will have to make to save the expedition may include another of his precious lives.

Spider’s Shadow: The Doctor arrives on a planet where a quaint tradition is being observed on the eve of battle with an overwhelming enemy force. Has he found the right time and place – a planet worthy of unleashing Antikon’s Decay anew?

written by Stewart Sheargold
directed by Ken Bentley
music by David Darlington

The Death Collectors Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Alastair Cording (Professor Mors Alexandryn), Katherine Parkinson (Danika Meanwhile), Derek Carlyle (Smith Ridley / Dar Traders), Katarina Olsson (Nancy), Kevin McNally (Henry), Rebecca Bottone (Opera singer)

Spider’s Shadow Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Katarina Olsson (Martial Princess Keldafria Alison), Carol Fitzpatrick (Martial Princess Keldafria Louisa), Alastair Cording (Guard), Derek Carlyle (Colonel)

Timeline: between Frozen Time and Kingdom Of Silver

Review: The Death Collectors is an interesting three-parter, and even though the seventh Doctor is once again traveling sans companions – a casting decision necessitated by Sylvester McCoy’s busy theater schedule as well as the actor’s stated desire to explore the loneliness of the Doctor – there is a feel here that is as close to the New Adventures novels as audio Doctor Who has come since The Dark Flame – the Doctor is literally dancing with death once more, and he’s willing to make supreme sacrifices to save an expedition that, by the story’s end, is down to only two people. Meanwhile, dark forces operate in the background on a scale, and for a reason, that nobody – including the Doctor himself – has grasped just yet. (more…)

An expedition to Antarctica in 2012 uncovers an unexpected find: an old fashioned British police box, buried under millions of years worth of permafrost. On the heels of that surprising find comes another discovery: a man frozen more or less intact, probably for millions of years…but wearing machine-woven clothes (or at leas the rotting remnants of them). Even more amazingly, the man awakens when he is thawed out, though with little idea of who he is or what he was doing in the ice. The expedition’s financier, Lord Barset?, surprises the scientists on the expedition by wondering aloud if the man is a reptile. Before long, more figures are found in the ice, large and reptilian. The mystery man’s memory gradually returns, enough that he knows that the scaly figures frozen in the ice are very dangerous, and he himself is known as the Doctor. Despite the Doctor’s warnings, Barset orders the huge creatures thawed out. They too reawaken, but the moment they’re back on their feet, they begin a reign of terror, killing almost the entire expedition. The Doctor’s memory continues to return slowly, the result of a self-induced coma to survive being frozen alive, and he recalls that these creatures are called Ice Warriors – and that the enclave of them that has been discovered represents the most warlike of the lot: exiled war criminals put into deep-freeze on prehistoric Earth. Even though they’re millions of years old, modern man won’t be an obstacle when the Ice Warriors renew their craving for conquest. Only the Doctor can stop them…if he can remember how.

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Anthony Calf (Lord Barset), Maryam d’Abo (Genevieve), Tony Millan (Professor McIntyre), Gwynn Beech (Harman), Gregg Newton (Ben), Nicholas Briggs (Arakssor)

Timeline: between Valhalla and The Death Collectors

Notes: Frozen Time is based on Endurance, another of the 1980s Audio Visuals adventures starring Nicholas Briggs (who wrote both versions of the story) as the Doctor. Some character names are shared between the two versions of the story, but Endurance concerned itself with Silurian renegades frozen in Antarctica, and dialogue in Frozen Time tries to lead the listener in that direction as well. The 1929 expedition led by Lord Barset’s grandfather may well have encountered Silurians, but they’re nowhere to be found in the Big Finish version of the story; pre-release internet speculation frequently pegged Frozen Time as a Silurian story as well. This story and Valhalla both feature the seventh Doctor flying solo; this came about because of Sylvester McCoy’s tight schedule, since his Big Finish recording days had to be scheduled around his stage appearances in King Lear.

Review: One of the better “traditional” Big Finish tales of recent years, Frozen Time starts out in the thick of the action and really doesn’t let up. An excellent cast is on hand to keep the story afloat – a necessity since the Doctor just isn’t himself for over half of the story. His personality and flippancy are intact, but his vital knowledge isn’t – something that proves to be quite dangerous as the Ice Warriors prepare to make another appearance in audio form. (more…)