A guest Big Finish Friday from M.H. Norris
“Who wants to watch a TV series about me?”
That was the Tenth’s Doctor’s closing line in The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2, which was released today from Big Finish Productions. These audios have been highly anticipated.
Once Big Finish Productions got the rights, one of my first thoughts was “I’m going to get more Ten and Rose audios!” And while it took a couple of years, they finally arrived. And amongst Thanksgiving preparations, I eagerly listened in a fashion not dissimilar to how I binge-watched their original season.
Who wants to watch a television series about the Doctor?
Happy Doctor Who Day!
The set includes three stories: “Infamy of The Zaros,” “The Sword of the Chevalier,” and “Cold Vengeance.”
“Infamy of the Zaros”
by John Dorney
The first episode featured Jackie Tyler. Ever since her voicemail ended the trailer of the set, I’ve been waiting for her appearance.
Jackie, having visited her friend Marge when an invasion breaks out, calls the Doctor and Rose.
In sweeps the Doctor and Rose, having already arrived thanks to a certain time machine. The Doctor and the TARDIS haven’t heard of the Zaros and this launches them into an adventure that feels like it’s somewhere between “Tooth and Claw” and “Love and Monsters.”
The Zaros make an announcement, telling the humans to come to the labor camps, to surrender to their new masters. They aren’t firing much, but there’s drones flying everywhere. The Doctor finds this odd.
Jackie is captured and taken to the labor camp. The Doctor decides to do his research so that he can go in with a plan (trust me, I was surprised as well; but there is a first time for everything). They’re only invading the one town and there’s only three ships.
Things aren’t quite adding up.
I will say this about the first story of the set, it was a fantastic re-introduction to the tenth Doctor and Rose.
“The Sword of the Chevalier”
by Guy Adams
“The Sword of the Chevalier” takes place in the late 1700s and features The Chevalier d’Eon, a real person, making this a semi-historical. The Doctor and Rose land to do a bit of sightseeing but things like that tend to not work out for the duo.
As they’re going to look through a giant telescope that the Doctor is, of course, geeking out over, he sees a space ship. That the ship belongs to the Consortium of Obsidian Asp, a group he’s run into before. Their arrival on Earth can’t be a good thing.
One of my favorite bits of this one were all the witty lines. When talking about buying a touristy t-shirt, Rose asked the Doctor had actually bought one and he admitted he had. Four times, varying chest sizes and all.
The Chevalier d’Eon was a trip. She reminds you of the Doctor. At times, he makes comments about her–how shes a braggart, a name dropper, how half the things she claims to do couldn’t have actually happened.
Who does that?
One of the best bits of this is the moment where the Doctor give Rose his sonic and then, due to various circumstances, the pair are separated for a bit. I’d forgotten how much New Who Doctors use their sonic screwdrivers as a crutch–you really notice that once you watch a bit of Classic since they don’t use it nearly as much.
It turns out the Consortium are here to harvest humans to sell on the Black Market as slaves. After all, what are the lives of “lesser beings” when compared to more advanced life forms in the universe?
Guy Adams is always excellent. This episode shows why he’s one of the best.
“Cold Vengenance”
by Matt Fitton
“Cold Vengeance” brings a blast from the past with the Ice Warriors. Pirates take a “vast freezer satellite” called Coldstar and when thawing out the freezers to get their bounty, they accidentally thaw out the Ice Warriors.
The Ice Warriors are seeking vengeance on Earth. The Doctor won’t stand for that. After all, he knows Ice Warriors and begins to devise a plan to defeat the Ice Warriors and save everyone on Coldstar.
This story, like the others in the collection, seem to not only highlight the Doctor and what he’s capable of but they’ve also done a fun job at highlighting Rose in a way that the television series didn’t do. After all, at this point she’s been with the Doctor for over a year and is quite capable in her own right.
While the two earlier stories tend to have a lighter tone, “Cold Vengeance” has the darkest, most serious tone of the set.
Ten and Rose, as usual, seemed to have a blast. David Tennant, as always, is wonderful as the Doctor and it was an utter delight to hear Billie Piper reprise her role as Rose Tyler.
The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2 make for a fantastic afternoon of listening and was an utter delight to listen to. Thank you Big Finish for giving what I’ve waited ages for. It was worth the wait and I can’t wait for more.
Purchase The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2 from BigFinish.com Here
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