During my state-sanctioned exercise period and before going to bed, I've been listening to three Big Finish box sets in the last three weeks.They're all spinoffs from audio and tv Doctor Who.
Graceless revisits Abby and Zara, two artificially-created beings dispatched by the enigmatic entities, the Grace, in a quest for the Key to Time back in 2008. Ciara Janson plays naive Abby ( originally Amy, making her debut two years before Amy Pond). Laura Doddington plays the more worldly and cynical Zara.
The cosmically-powered pair are living a hedonistic existence on a Dyson Sphere in this 2010 box set and enter a complex relationship with a chauvinistic gambler. Their misadventures cause the destruction of the gambling resort and they repair to a doomed English village in the early 20th century. Finally, they are held hostage on a space pirate's ship, charged with healing his disfigured daughter
It's all a bit thin and underwritten. The faintly polyamorous relationship with sleazy Marek makes the twins seem dependent and Abby is especially whiny. The middle episode is the best, with its spooky 1972 Dead of Night atmosphere and David Warner steals the show, but again, Abby and Zara have little agency beyond teleporting and destroying planets. While the box itself is sparkly and tactile, I think it's all a bit dull; writer Simon Guerrier is not a favourite of mine. There's also entirely too much incidental music. The "Wicked Sisters" are returning this November but I am dubious whether I'll join them. 1/5 Talmars.
Charlotte Pollard is played by Masterchef's India Fisher and was the first companion created for BF's Eighth Doctor range. India's posh gamine was also one of the first companions to express reciprocated romantic feelings for the Doctor- four years before Rose Tyler. Charley went on to pal about with Old Sixie for a while too. She was so popular with creators and listeners that she made about three false exits from the series.
In the last of those, 2009's Blue Forgotten Planet, she became a fairly unwilling emissary for the Viryans, a childhood creation of Nick Briggs. The 2014 box set picks up the story as she attempts to escape from her new employers with would-be adventurer, Robert Buchan.
Charley's escape through the Viryans space portal, the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity, leads to a Lovecraftian adventure where a group of 1930s female explorers have uncovered the secrets of a lost temple. The third and strongest episode, The Fall of the House of Pollard, reunites Charley with her parents, the superb Anneke Wills and Terence Hardiman. The Viryans pursue and persecute psychic Michael Dee ( David Dobson) in disturbing scenes and the reunion ends on a tragic note for the Pollards
The final episode introduces an unrecognisable Nicholas Briggs as space entrepreneur Bert Buchan, Robert's overbearing father. Listening to a series about the evolution and effects of Space Viruses is perhaps unfortunate timing but I was charmed by Charley and her exploits with her own companion.
(3/5 Tamars)
Counter-Measures is a 2012 spin-off making use of characters who appeared on tv in 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks. A kind of proto-UNIT of the early Sixties ( don't ask about Torchwood, though), CM attempts the flavour of a 60s ITC series but it's more Out of the Unknown than Department S. There are teleportation devices and artificial intelligences in this first box set.
A creepy doll, sinister calculations, a Quatermass II-style New Town and an unnerving use of "The Lincolnshire Poacher" call The Prisoner and real-life Numbers Stations to mind. There are also monsters which recall the very early 70s Pertwee Whos,
State of Emergency, with its military coup to oust Harold Wilson, was a bum note to end on, with a Yarwood-esque PM and so much expository dialogue. Justin Richards is a writer who can take interesting ideas and then make them very dull. At least it wasn't BLOODY Churchill again. Also, I really don't believe men called their daughters "babe" in 1963. However, I would definitely give this range and The New Counter-Measures ( the Seventies "reboot" as it were) another go, The slightly camp and shifty Sir Toby Kinsella is a fascinating creation (4/5 Talmars)
Coming soon: Marvel's Tigra and Steve Ditko at DC
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