Doctor Who - Galaxy 4 Review

Doctor Who:
Galaxy 4
By 
William Emms

“Two dawns! Tomorrow is the last day this planet will ever see.”

The TARDIS arrives on what looks like a pretty harmless looking planet when they come across a strange looking robot that seems to have pieces of its body stacked up on itself. Vicki names the robots Chumblies and they appear to be blind or in the most part not interested in The Doctor, Steven and Vicki.  The travelers then meetup with a group of female aliens called the Drahvins who seem to come and rescue them from the Chumblies.  The travelers are soon brought to the Drahvins ship and meet their leader another female named Maaga who explains to the Doctor that their ship along with the Rill ship has crashed landed on will explode in 14 planetary cycles.

The Doctor seems pretty unsure about the Drahvins especially when they told him that they turned down help from the Rills.  So The Doctor does some scientific research of his own and discovers that in fact this planet does not have 14 planetary cycles but only two and that the planet will explode tomorrow.  The Doctor and Vicki convince the Drahvins to let them talk to the Rills if they steal the Rills ship for them.  The Doctor and Vicki encounter the Rills at their ship and tell them what the Drahvins had planned for them and that the planet will explode in two cycles.  The Doctor decides to help the Rills get power to their ship from the TARDIS in exchange for help to free Steven from the Drahvin ship before the planet explodes and everyone is killed.

Details on Doctor Who - The Sontarans

Out Now from The Early Adventures is the first meeting between The Doctor and The Sontarans. This audio adventures stars Peter Purves and Jean Marsh who played Steven and Sarah during the William Hartnell era. You can order this audio adventure from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-sontarans-1083

The TARDIS arrives on a moon-sized asteroid orbiting two gas giants. With an amazing view, it’s a chance for the Doctor, Steven and Sara to unwind after their recent adventures.

But they quickly find themselves in the midst of battle - on one side: a familiar group of space-suited soldiers - members of the Space Security Service. On the other: strange, squat aliens in body armour.

Surviving the initial hostilities, the Doctor and his friends discover that the SSS squad is on a terrifying mission. With many lives at stake, they have to venture deep inside the asteroid in search of a hideous weapon. But who can they trust in the battle against these Sontarans?

Written By: Simon Guerrier
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Peter Purves (Steven/The Doctor/Narrator), Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), Dan Starkey (Corporal Ellis/Slite/Shrok/Stack/Commander), Jemma Churchill (Captain Papas), John Banks (Corporal Gage), Rosanna Miles (Tinder/Human Soldier)

Producer: David Richardson
Script Editor: John Dorney
Executive Producers: Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details on Doctor Who - The Ravelli Conspiracy

Out this month in the Early Adventures is a story that features the TARDIS crew of The Doctor, Vicki and Steven.  This story stars Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien as they star in a story that is a historical set in Italy 1514.  You can order this audio adventure from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-ravelli-conspiracy-1082

When the TARDIS lands in a house in Florence, Italy in 1514, it isn't long before the guards of Guiliano de Medici arrest Steven and Vicki. To rescue them, the Doctor has to employ the help of the house's owner - one Niccolo Machiavelli. But can he be completely trusted?

Guiliano confesses to his brother Pope Leo X that he has angered the wealthy family of Ravelli and believes the newcomers may be part of an assassination plot. But when the Doctor arrives an already tricky situation starts to spiral out of control.

As the city rings with plot and counter-plot, betrayal and lies abound. The Doctor and his friends must use all their ingenuity if they're not to be swept away by history.

This conspiracy is about to get complicated...

Written By: Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman

Cast
Maureen O'Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven Taylor/The Doctor/Narrator), Mark Frost (Niccolo Machiavelli), Jamie Ballard (Guiliano de Medici), Robert Hands (Pope Leo X), Olivia Poulet (Carla), Joe Bor (Guard Captain). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Producer: David Richardson

Script Editor: John Dorney

Executive Producers: Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who - Covers and Details For Early Adventures Series 3

Starting in September the Early Adventures return with four new adventures featuring the First Doctor and his many companions. It all gets going with a story featuring the First Doctor with Ian, Barbara and Susan.  You can order these audio adventures from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/v/doctor-who---the-early-adventures1

Doctor Who - The Age of Endurance

The TARDIS materialises on board a still and eerie spaceship. When a squad of soldiers land, they realise they've found themselves in the middle of a war zone. With one of their crew trapped by the enemy, the Doctor and his friends find themselves locked in a desperate race for survival. Vast warships manoeuvre around each other as both sides try to out-think their opponents, flying into ever more dangerous areas of space.

The stakes could not be higher. But as ever in war, the lines between good and evil are hard to define. Will anyone survive to claim the moral high ground?

Doctor Who - The Fifth Traveller

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Vicki and Jospa land the TARDIS on the homeworld of the Arunde. Emerging into the jungle that covers the planet and encountering the strange wildlife dwelling within, the travellers are unaware that the true rulers live high above them in the trees.

The ape-like members of the tribe are in trouble. The last Matriar's nest has been lost to the surface, and the people are hungry... Maybe these strangers may be responsible. And some believe they may be salvation.

The TARDIS crew are about to find themselves in the middle of somebody else's battle. But there's more at stake than even they can know.

Doctor Who - The Ravelli Conspiracy

When the TARDIS lands in a house in Florence, Italy in 1514, it isn't long before the guards of Guiliano de Medici arrest Steven and Vicki. To rescue them, the Doctor has to employ the help of the house's owner - one Niccolo Machiavelli. But can he be completely trusted?

Guiliano confesses to his brother Pope Leo X that he has angered the wealthy family of Ravelli and believes the newcomers may be part of an assassination plot. But when the Doctor arrives an already tricky situation starts to spiral out of control.

As the city rings with plot and counter-plot, betrayal and lies abound. The Doctor and his friends must use all their ingenuity if they're not to be swept away by history.

This conspiracy is about to get complicated..

Doctor Who - The Sontarans

The TARDIS crew encounter a dangerous race of clones, planning to drag the Solar System into an endless war.

Doctor Who - The Ark Review

Doctor Who:
The Ark
By Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott

“The success of all we stand for, everything aboard this spaceship is suddenly endangered by the strange fever. A fever brought by these strangers in our midst!”

The Doctor and Steven and new companion Dodo arrive in a strange place which doesn’t make much sense with the types of animals living together.  Dodo has a cold and is sneezing all over the place. The problem is its 10 million years into the future and the Earth is falling into the sun.  The ark is the last survivors of earth and they have cured the common cold and have no immunity to fight it off.  So it’s up to the Doctor to make the cure and save the humans and The Monoids.  After saving everyone TARDIS lands them 700 years into the future but on The Ark.  This time things are different as The Monoids have enslaved the humans.  The cold and remedy somehow mutates The Monoids and they have a higher intelligence and a very evil persona at that. As they want nothing more than to have the planet to themselves and wipeout the humans forever.

Doctor Who - The Secret History Review

Doctor Who:
The Secret History
By Eddie Robson
Starring Peter Davison, Maureen O’Brien
and Peter Purves

The Doctor finds himself in a TARDIS control room that he hasn’t used since he was in his first incarnation.   In fact the 5th Doctor is now looking at a couple of companions that he hasn’t seen for a very long time.  He is now facing a startled Vicki and Steven who have no idea where there Doctor has gone and who this younger man standing before them is.   The Doctor is also hesitant to leave the TARDIS because of the ramifications of what would happen but curiosity got the better of him and off they go outside of the TARDIS.   Outside is the Italian city of Ravenna in the year 540 and it is besieged by the highly decorated General Belisarius.

Doctor Who - Synopsis For Big Finish's 200th Main Range Release "The Secret History"

The conclusion to the mini trilogy that leads up to the 200th release for the Main Range.  Release 200 sees the 5th Doctor meeting up with Steven and Vicki in Italy in the year 540.  You can order this special release from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-secret-history-872

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Steven and Vicki to the Italian city of Ravenna in the year 540 – besieged by the army of the celebrated Byzantine general Belisarius. Caught up in the fighting, Steven ends up on a boat bound for Constantinople, the heart of the Roman Empire.

Rescuing Steven, however, is the least of the Doctor's problems – because he shouldn't be mixed up in this particular adventure at all. Someone has sabotaged his own personal timeline, putting him in the place of his First incarnation... but who, and why? The truth is about to be revealed – but at what cost to all of the Doctors, and to the whole future history of the planet Earth?

Written By: Eddie Robson
Directed By: Barnaby Edwards

Cast
Peter Davison (The Doctor), Maureen O'Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven), Lysette Anthony (Sophia), Sarah Woodward (Theodora), Tony Millan (Procopius, Yazid), Giles Watling (Belisarius), Tim Wallers (Justinian)

Doctor Who - An Ordinary Life Review

Doctor Who:
An Ordinary Life
By Matt Fitton
Starring Peter Purves and 
Jean Marsh

While escaping from the Daleks the TARDIS makes an emergency landing in London in the 1950’s. Steven and Sarah rush over to The Doctor who has collapsed.  They go outside as the TARDIS more or less has pushed them out to save them from what is caused it to make the emergency landing.  Out in the cold and snowy streets of London Steven and Sarah find help and shelter from Joe and Audrey. Joe and Audrey are immigrants from the Caribbean and struggling to make a living with a new born and the constant racist harassments.  But despite all that they take the three travelers in and help them out.

Doctor Who - The First Doctor Companion Chronicles Box Set Synopsis

Big Finish has released the details for its upcoming 1st Doctor box set which is a continuation of the popular Companions Chronicles.  It features four companions from the 1st Doctor era and is out in June.  You can preorder this box set from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-first-doctor-companion-chronicles-box-set-1132

A new four-disc release featuring four tales from readers associated with the First Doctor era, and a second actor.

The Sleeping Blood by Martin Day

When the Doctor falls ill, Susan is forced to leave the safety of the TARDIS behind. Exploring a disused research centre in search of medical supplies, she becomes embroiled in the deadly plans of a terrorist holding an entire world to ransom – and the soldier sent to stop him.

The Unwinding World by Ian Potter

Office life is tough, the commute is a grind, nothing works quite as well as you'd like. Vicki seems to remember things being better once, before the little flat. It’s time she put some excitement back in her life. It’s just a shame the Doctor can’t help.

The Founding Fathers by Simon Guerrier

The TARDIS lands in Leicester Square in the summer of 1762. When the Doctor, Steven and Vicki find themselves locked out of the TARDIS, only one man can possibly help them. But the American, Benjamin Franklin, has problems of his own...

The Locked Room by Simon Guerrier

Steven Taylor left the Doctor and the TARDIS to become king of an alien world. But it's now many years since he gave up the throne and went to live in a cell in the mountains, out of sight of his people. He's not escaping his past – quite the opposite, in fact. As his granddaughter, Sida, is about to discover...

Written By: Martin Day, Simon Guerrier, Ian Potter
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman

Cast
Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves, Alix Dunmore, Alice Haig, Darren Strange

Doctor Who - The Bounty of Ceres Review (Mild Spoilers)

Doctor Who:
The Bounty of Ceres
By Ian Potter

The Doctor, Steven and Vicki have landed on the asteroid Ceres which is between Mars and Jupiter. There they have encountered the crew of the Cobalt Corporation and they are anything but friendly as the end up putting Steven and Vicki in a strange type of cell and put The Doctor in suspended animation.  What makes Ceres a weird place to work is that the conditions outside are deadly but now the conditions inside have become deadly also.  It appears that the maintenance robots have turned against the crew and have started eliminated everyone one by one.  It is up to The Doctor to find a way to stop the robots and find the person responsible.

Doctor Who - Synopsis For An Ordinary Life

This month's The Early Adventures is bit of an odd one.  It features Steven and Sara Kingdom.  Yes the companion from The Dalek Masterplan and this story will be taking place during that adventure time frame. An ORdinary Life is a stand alone story that has nothing to do with The Dalek Masterplan storyline and something that could be pretty interesting as we get to know more about Sara Kingdom.  you can order it from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/an-ordinary-life-888

1950s London: newcomers arrive daily on British shores seeking a fresh start, new opportunities, or simply the chance of a different life. However, some are from much further afield than India or Jamaica...

After an emergency landing, the TARDIS crew must make the best of it, and look to their new neighbours for help. But the Newman family has more than the prejudices of the time to contend with. A sinister force grows in strength amid the pubs, docks and backstreets of London...

And without the Doctor, marooned in a time and place as alien as anything they've ever encountered, Steven and Sara may well face their greatest challenge yet. To live an ordinary life.

Written By: Matt Fitton
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Peter Purves (Steven Taylor/Narrator/The Doctor), Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), Ram John Holder (Joseph Roberts), Damian Lynch (Michael Newman), Sara Powell (Audrey Newman), Stephen Critchlow (Billy Flint)

Doctor Who - Synopsis For Big Finish's "The War To End All Wars"

The Companion Chronicles is heading closer to its end but first we have one last adventure from the 1st Doctor era.  This time an adventure with Steven and Dodo and it is a story that has a different twist to it. You can order this story from the Big Finish Website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-war-to-end-all-wars-761

Years after he gave up travelling in the TARDIS, Steven Taylor is the deposed king of a distant world.

From the confines of his cell, he shares his story with a young girl called Sida.

And one story in particular – a visit to a whole world at war, which will mark Steven for life…

Written By: Simon Guerrier
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman 

Cast
Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), Alice Haig (Sida)