So, you may notice that I haven't reviewed the 3rd and 4th instalments of Big Finish's Once and Future anniversary series. This is because I haven't bought or listened to them. Release 3, A Genius for War, sees the Doctor shift into his seventh self, played by Sylvester McCoy, to face Davros at the height of the Time War. While that sounds like it might be a strong story, the Seventh Doctor vs. Davros and the Daleks again is just.. old hat. We've seen it before. So it didn't pique my interest.
Still, it sounds an awful lot more interesting than release 4, Two's Company. The Sixth Doctor, the Two (an earlier version of the Eleven), Lady Christina, Harry Sullivan and Jackie Tyler? Why? Whatever led anyone to put that random selection of characters together? Particularly Jackie, who seemed to be in almost every BF release in August. I assume Camille Coduri was at a loose end when these were recorded, and is presumably cheap.
So I may well have missed a couple of important points, but that's where the TARDIS Wiki, for all its eccentricity, is your friend. The important question answered: yes, the Doctor's clothes are regenerating (or degenerating) along with him, and in release 5, The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50, we learn that even his screwdriver is changing with him. This story also reveals that the Doctor's degeneration is able to shift him into future incarnations, which is how Stephen Noonan's teeth-grating impersonation of the First Doctor is able to suddenly turn into David Tennant, as what I assume is the Tenth Doctor (but with all the Tennant Doctors running around, who knows?)
Given that to make the story work the Doctor's memory is shifting backwards and forwards, giving them knowledge seemingly at random, you've got to wonder why they didn't just set this series in the show's "present," instead of the Time War.
Anyway, Planetoid 50 is good fun. The Paternoster Gang are always good value, and it makes sense for them to be running around the invasion from The War of the Worlds, even if this isn't really London (it's not even Woking). I liked Hannah Genesius as the Doctor's one-off companion, the beautifully named Jessamy Moore. But the real draw of this episode is the inclusion of Missy, giving us the opportunity for Michelle Gomez to play against Tennant. They absolutely fizz together, with the gobbiest Doctor up against a version of the Master even more glib and self-obsessed than he is.
It seems that the Master is suffering from the same degeneration issue as the Doctor (presumably they're actually in their Yana incarnation? I'm not sure anymore), and while Missy and the Doctor part company, it's not long before they're reunited in release six, Time Lord Immemorial. This episode sees the Doctor and the Master's unending frenemyship linked to an chaotic event that threatens the entire universe. So, the stakes are getting a lot higher.
The real draw here, though, and the reason I wasn't going to miss this release, is the team-up between Christopher Eccleston and David Warner as the Ninth and Unbound Doctors. The very last appearance of Warner for Big Finish, and, I believe, his last performance before he died last year, it's a significant moment, and having the Manc Doctors together is a treat. Yet, it's actually rather a sad listening experience. Warner is clearly unwell, his voice so altered he's almost unrecognisable at times, making this a very bittersweet experience.
Plus, we get our first chance to see the Ninth Doctor go up against the Master... and they decided they'd degenerate into the Lumiat. This is a bit of a bizarre choice, giving us the good version of the Master rather than the Doctor's archenemy for this historic event, but Gina McKee's incarnation actually works very well against Nine. (Eccleston, McKee and Warner have experience working together, and it comes across.) The Lumiat remains just as obsessed with the Doctor as when she was the Master, and her desperate need to get the mission done before she shifts back to a hostile incarnation adds something new to the story.
Solid as always is Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka, again, rather randomly included but providing a welcome dose of sanity to the proceedings. An odd choice is the hiring of Robert Powell as the eponymous Time Lord Immemorial; he's another acting legend, but his voice is modulated to the point he could be anyone. The cast is uniformly strong though, giving weight to some occasionally shonky dialogue.
All that's left now is for the Doctor to find The Union in the seventh release, where Paul McGann will once more take the lead alongside every Doctor BF can get their hands on, and finally discover what's actually going on in this peculiar series.
Notes: Strax reveals that he is familiar with the Eleventh, Twelft and Thirteenth Doctors ("A cheery 'boy' with yellow hair").
When the Ninth Doctor and Unbound Doctor find themselves face-to-face, they both assume the other is the future incarnation, before very quickly realising that they're from alternative universes. Makes you wonder why the conversation didn't go that way between Thirteen and the Fugutive.
For Liv, this is set before the Ninth Doctor Adventures adventure Hidden Depths: Flatpack, as she doesn't recognise the Doctor in his Eccleston incarnation. For the Paternoster Gang, I couldn't hazard a guess.
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