Doctor Who BF123d - Doctor Who - Mary's Story

"Switzerland, 1816: at the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron's house guests tell each other tales to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart. With a monster on the loose outside, young Mary Shelley isn't short of inspiration."

Finally we get to see some Mary Shelly. At first, I was confused to why the Doctor had turned up at Mary Shelly's place of resident, in the state he was in.

It was nice to be as confused as a companion for once. I genuinely had no idea what the Doctor was talking about as fist. I was so confused at the start, because I had no idea why the Doctor looked the way he did. But I was satisfied with the explanation.

I thought that this was a prequel to the eighth Doctor and Mary Shelly adventures. For both of them. But this is the future eighth doctor, who's already experienced the "Cybermen, and Axons" with Shelly. This was an interesting thing to do, Big Finish. Very clever.

The "Frankenstein" story line was really good. If these events had happened, then I could see how Mary Shelly would base her book off it. Although, Shelly should have included the "Bigger on the inside" thing. Would have made the book tons times better.

When the present version of the Eighth Doctor arrived, I was very excited about it. "But this just means the Doctor becomes a monster, in the future... Destroyed beyond his ability to regenerate." But the TARDIS and the lightning restored him, because he landed there in a previous life.

The Doctor referred to Mary's husband, Percy as an "Idiot." And Mary told us all about her soap opera of a life. I would have thought that Mary Shelly would have had more of a comfortable life. But I guess this is before she wrote her books.

The Doctor reboots the TARDIS with a small green crystal. In my head, this was the same crystal as the one used in the new series adventure "The Rise of the Cybermen." Nothing suggests otherwise, so that's what it is.

The conversation between the two versions of the same Doctor was highly entertaining. The voices seemed different, for some reason. They bickered, and it made me think- there should be a time travel law that states: "If two versions of the same time lord bump into each other, then the older version will take the reigns, and be in charge."

The ending was fantastic. It was brilliant to hear the Doctor say "remember, Frankenstein is the name of the monster. NOT the name of the Doctor." Which in regards to the book, it's the other way round. It's an interesting twist on things.

A great story, worth a listen. Definitely listen to it if you're following the Eighth Doctor 2012 range. It's the start to what I hope will be a trilogy of great adventures. Here's hoping!

8/10

Doctor Who- Shada Audio

"The Doctor has a spot of unfinished business. Reunited with his old friends Romana and K9, he answers a summons from Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord now living the academic life in a Cambridge college."

The best thing about Shada is that it had that "good classic who" feel to it. Some classic episodes are simple, and clear, with no surprises- such as "The Horns Of Nimon" or "The Gunfighters" but occasionally, you'll get a story that mixes several elements. I'm speaking of such stories like "The Face of Evil", or "City of Death." I always go into a classic who episode looking for these qualities, and with Shada- I was not disappointed. I am looking at it from the perspective that it was intended to be a televised episode, not an actual big finish audio drama.

I have been hopping round the idea of listening to this recreation of Shada for a long time, but I only got round to it recently. And going into it, I was shocked to find that professor Chronotis was actually a time lord! Professor Chronotis was highly entertaining, and he reminded me of my neighbour, who has a room full of old books, and every time you visit, he offers you a cup of tea every two minutes. Thinking about it, he only leaves his house to buy milk... Maybe he could be a time lord!

The only trouble I have with the Shada is that it was never finished production wise when it comes to the television story. All of the really good stuff never got made. Instead, we got the padding about tea, and the lack of milk. We want to see The Doctor on Shada! Or traveling through the vortex trying to get to his TARDIS! Or even the doctor trying to convince the ship that he's dead. It's a shame this was all left to the imagination, but it still resulted in a good audio story. I'm just dissapointed that the late, great Douglas Adams' story never made it to television.

Professor Chronotis, Chris Parsons and his beautiful friend Clare Keightley made really good secondary characters, who I enjoyed seeing aid the Doctor. Even if they did mess everything up by stealing that damn book!

I quite like the idea of the eighth Doctor going back to Gallifrey to get Romana and K9, and then going back to the incident at hand. It's just a shame that it was the only big ammendent to the script. It was a few minutes in the beginning, but we needed a scene of Gallifrey towards the end, of the Doctor and Romana discussing how time is back on track.

In conclusion, I haven't got many critisisms for this story, as Douglas Adams is a hero of mine, who's way with words was (thankfully) much better then his way he dealt with deadlines.

Douglas Adams- the Classic Who version of Steven Moffat. Rest in peace, Adams.

9/10