EU Travels

Just out here talking about the Extended Universe of Doctor Who 🎧📚 Main: someonecalledyes

[eutravels]

Welcome to EU Travels, @someonecalledyes's altblog exploring the Extended Universe of Doctor Who! Here I will share my thoughts on everything I'll be listening to or reading in order to raise interest in specific pieces that I like! I hope you'll like it!

(For now, I'll just copy/paste the reviews from my Big Finish reviews thread on Twitter, I'll let you know when this is over)

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Rani Takes on the World: The Revenge of Mrs Wormwood (2)

I'll shake things up in my usual way of reviewing multi stories boxsets by starting with the story per story review, and then give my overall opinion on it, feels more natural!

Time Schisms!

I won't lie, this one was kind of underwhelming to me, even though it felt way more SJA-ish than the first box set. It definitely lacked the originality, style and emotional implications of the first boxset.

Other than that, the story is pretty solid, great Big Finish stuff as usual, really funny. Involving Napoleon Bonaparte and making him one of the main characters was a really funny idea. I also liked having Luke back even though he had a minor role and of course Rani's relationship with Clyde is as great as always.

The Star-Crossed Diversion

Wow, this was wilder than I expected it to be. It's the first story that's going this far in sci-fi shenanigans, by sending Rani and Clyde in an alternate dimension. Pointing out all the similarities with SJA in the dialogues feel redundant but at the same time it's what I came for in the beginning, so I'm glad to see this much heavy referencing.

The main plot of the boxset is building up and as if the first story hadn't already made you impatient to hear the finale, this one definitely will!

The Ghost of Bannerman Road

Extraordinary! This felt like a proper finale! I now get why everyone was saying this boxset was better than the one coming before. The action never stops, the plot is inventive, the threat is frightening. Go listen to this NOW!

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Overall, I started listening to this pretty worried that it wouldn't live up to the first one which I liked very much, but the stories gradually proved me wrong! It's less experimental and way more ambitious and plucky.

I think the next one still hasn't been announced even though it's been out for a year, it's kind of worrying, I truly hope this is not the end for Miss Chandra and her friends!

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Virgin New Adventures - Timewyrm: Genesys (1)

Alright, I'm done with the first installment of the VNAs. It's a historical but with Sci-Fi incursions, so it felt realy NewWho-y, kind of like McCoy's era does. I feel like the whole vibe of the era was properly retranscribed, even though it felt like The Doctor and Ace were mostly caricatures of themselves.

The whole story is really dynamic and takes you with it. I'm not a great fan of it overall, but as an introduction to the Timewyrm it's doing pretty ok!

There's one major issue I have with the book though, and I think it may be pretty obvious to anyone that has read this book recently. Peel seems to keep wanting to display feminism through Ace's words and interrogations throughout the whole book. The problem is that this version of feminism is not Ace's, it's Peel's, and feminism isn't the strongest point of this British man from the 90's, as expected. The women in this book are constantly sexualised but also criticised for being sexual. On the contrary, Gilgamesh's ways are excused even by the Doctor himself. Honestly, I'm not a great fan of this, even though it's coming from its own time, I'm not fond of seeing 7 telling Ace that she needs to put up with being touched by Gilgamesh, absolutely not.

Apart from this element, it's all really great and you should definitely give it a read. If you're sensitive to such subjects, you should maybe avoid this one, but you'll miss a fun adventure!

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Once Upon a Time Lord

For the record, I read this one in French and the translation was not it. However, I spent a really great time reading this in one go from start to finish.

The story is clever, but still pretty light, and really action packed. Martha doesn't get a lot to do unfortunately, but her presence and truthful characterisation works.

I had a hard time with the fact that there are LOTS of canon errors but honestly I can live with it, I'm mostly thankful that Dan Slott took the time to write a special release for the 60th of Doctor Who.

If you haven't read it yet, you should give it a try, it doesn't require any background and doesn't spoil anything that you wouldn't have watched or read yet!

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Doctor Who Monthly Range : Whispers of Terror (3)

Absolutely chilling!

The Sixth Doctor and Peri are back on their finest game to take us through this amazing story set in an enclosed space out of which all the characters can't go without putting the world at risk.

The tension is very well built and the characters work great with each other, the whole thing is really dynamic and you never get a second of boredom.

You should definitely give it a try, it is an absolutely fantastic listening experience that will take you through a dark meta story!

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Doctor Who Unbound : Sympathy for the Devil (2)

Now where do I start with this. I've got too many things to say but at the same time I don't feel like there's anything to add to such a piece. It's definitely one of my favourite works from Big Finish that I've listened to. Pure quality.

First of all the acting is on point. It is fairly due to the five stars casting supporting this, but it is worth mentioning. David Warner, Nicholas Courtney, David Tennant and "Sam Kisgart" all make a hell of a quatuor that rocks the dynamics between every character.

The story in itself is definitely inspired by the Third Doctor era and does really well with it. The version of the future that is told to us in this is really grim and it works perfectly. Lethbridge-Stewart's character evolution is pretty well thought through and it is also what permits him to take the decision he takes right at the end of this. The mischievous plan of the bad guy and the way all elements come together at some point is brilliant. It definitely keeps you hooked up all the way through.

The realisation, the sound effects, the music, the overall atmosphere all work really great, especially in the last part when the Ke Le Divisions are set free of their mind control. Truly chilling.

All I have to say now is I had an amazing time listening to this and you should do it as well!

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Doctor Who Main Range: Phantasmagoria (2)

Well, I won't lie, I kind of had a hard time getting into this one.

A lot of characters are involved and it's a pretty mysterious plot from the first to the third part. I didn't quite understand a lot of it since it was so complicated and a bit boring at times. In the end I got back on track with the story and enjoyed the last part.

I think keeping that much mystery longer than the first part is not a working formula. The classic one of having a "what's happening?" first part followed by progressive unwrapping of the story for as much parts as needed until the final part in which everything is resolved is a much better storytelling.

I don't have a lot to say about this since I was not a big fan, so I've pretty much said it all.

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Doctor Who 60 Years - Once And Future : The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 (5)

So yeah they are doing good with this range. Yes it's messy (Missy?) but the stories are all great. The degeneration thing seems to be kind of an excuse to bring them all together but it's not better nor worse than the reasons reuniting the five first doctors in The Five Doctors.

This one was good even though I think the character of Jessamy Brown was kind of wasted. Had it been given more time, I think this story would have been a bit better because she appeared to be a central character in the story at first when in fact she was totally forgotten in the latest parts of the story.

I loved the fact it was heavily based on War of the Worlds, which I adore, the references were good, the reason why this was all here was interesting. Honestly, I liked it very much.

Missy is as good as she always is. I was NOT prepared for so much Doctor x Master ship content, it even looked like fanfiction at some point. (She called him "Doccy", I don't know if it's a reference to the trend of calling the show Doccy Who that's been going around for a year but it made me smile!)

And here we go for the more spoily part.

SPOILER BELOW

So we've got more main plot, with this union thing, even though I don't think we will have a lot of this until the one with Eight that's written by Matt Fitton. It kind of makes sense. Apparently the Master is suffering from the same affliction the Doctor is, interesting point!

Also, it was kind of cruel of them to make Tennant say "I do want to go", funny reference considering the situation.

END OF SPOILERS

So, we're five stories down out of eight, the end is near and we can already feel it coming. I hope it'll be good! At least, good stories such as this one were born out of it!

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Doctor Who Main Range: The Sirens of Time (1)

That's it. Here we are. I'm starting to catch up on old Doctor Who extended universe. Starting with this renowned story from the Main Range from Big Finish for Doctor Who.

I was expecting a lot, since I have been waiting for years to listen to this one and I wasn't even disappointed. The story is very well built. Each Doctor having his own trip before reuniting worked really well and served the plot perfectly. I was aware that this was going to be the chosen organisation but I didn't expect it to be that well coordinated. The plot is solid and the twist is not that easy to guess if you're not paying attention to the credits. Otherwise, this and the title to the audio kind of give it all.

Considering the acting, it was great of course. I cannot even begin to imagine how it must have felt for fans to hear Davison, Baker and McCoy back in 1999!

I loved this from start to finish and cannot recommend it enough.

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Doctor Who: Redacted

So, more than a year after the release of this audio series, I've decided to give it a go. I've listened to the trailer and so far it's great! I'll give each episode a review and publish it all when I'll have listened to the whole piece.

If you don't wanna get spoiled, you might want to skip the ep by ep review straight to the end of the post to read my overall opinion on the series.

Episode One: SOS

The episodes are pretty short, so I felt like this one went very quickly. Nothing much happens however there's already so much mystery and interrogations, I'm already hooked! There's also quite an important amount of background development for at least one the main characters. I find it really easy to like them from this first episode only since they are written and acted so naturally. I already love Cleo, whom I guess is the main character. Shawna and Abby are just a lovely little funny duet that works really well, and oh my god, Shawna's clearly in love with Abby, I can't wait to hear more about that.

I liked that L.I.N.D.A. was mentioned since the setting is really similar to this iconic story and it kind of makes it canon that the L.I.N.D.A. organisation survived the Love and Monsters events.

Also, oh my my my, I LOVE Rani I can't wait to hear more of her in the next episodes, I didn't know she was in this!

Episode 2: Hysteria

Oh this one was great as well! Certainly not as good as the first one in terms of character work, but there's a lot happening!

The references to the previous events from the TV show are great but also so frightening because you can really see the consequences of these events on the lives of the direct witnesses. I guess the two characters we met so far are the ones we see in the actual episodes (that journalist girl in Partners in Crime and that doctor who gets interviewed at the end of Smith and Jones). The latter one's story is pretty sad, I wish I could have given him a hug :(

Can't wait to hear the next one!

Episode 3: Lost

Oooooh some answers! But more questions...

It's really getting a lot more mysterious and I'm completely involved in the plot!

I don't have much more to say at this point, let's see what Episode 4 brings!

Episode 4: Angels

Yay! A whole episode referencing Blink! The return of Larry! With clothes hopefully this time!

Apparently he's not married to Sally, as the end of Blink pointed towards a romance between the two characters, but that's fine.

He said the Doctor's turning against them. What does it meeeaaaaan???

It's great to have the girls altogether in one place, even though now they seem to be in a bad position... I'm turning on the next one right away, I need to know what happens next!

Episode 5: Interrogation

I'm glad it was just UNIT because now we got to have Kate again and that is GREAT!

Also, Cleo is such a badass, she slayed this whole episode.

The tension kept going up throughout every interrogation until the climax, and just when you thought the episode couldn't be more interesting than it already was, this enigmatic guy comes in and makes Cleo speak out her bad bitch speech.

Episode 6: Recruits

A lot happens in there! Finally the Doctor appears briefly, the team is arguing, what is going ON???

The soft reveal about Cleo's father means he met the Doctor, maybe he's someone we know from the show, or a victim of one of the events from the show.

Too many questions!

Can't wait for episode 7!

Episode 7: Requiem

Oh the Doctor's finally back.

So much happens but at the same time so little does. There's only three episodes left, we've barely heard the Doctor, we have no answers...

I don't know if it gets me hooked or frustrated but I need more! All I know is that time flies by when I'm listening to this, the dialogues are superb, amazing writing and direction. It kind of makes me want to read Dawson's books!

Episode 8: Ghosts

This one was proper scary! So Requiem was Madam Vastra? I'm kind of sad they couldn't get Neve McIntosh to come back for the part but it helped not spoiling the reveal to me so that's a win I guess.

I know that there's a second series but I kind of hope the story gets wrapped up by the end of this one so that it makes a whole. We'll see!

Episode 9: Rescue

WE KNOW MORE

Actually we don't know a lot but we do know more. It's great!

I was NOT expecting Cleo to be Redacted and it's really an interesting twist that may give the finale a lot of work to do.

I can't wait to here about it!

Episode 10: Salvation

Oh the finale was so good, I didn't expect such a satisfying ending.

Cleo not joining the Tardis makes a lot of sense because she has a lot to deal with at home, she has to reconnect with her mother and learn to forgive her and herself for what they did to each other, it's not an adequate moment to fly off in the universe.

I'm glad I could finally hear 13 a bit more, and she was as great as always.

Abby and Shawna!!!!!!!!! Finally!!!!!! I wasn't sure their relationship was going to end up this way so I'm happy for them!

Great end, I love it!

Fanart by @dykepaldi

How lucky were we to have this last year! And to think I only caught up with this now! It's a wonderful piece of free media from the Whoniverse in a very well known format for the fans, but directed in such a fresh brilliant modern way! It's important to mention how important this piece is to the LGBTQIA+ community, because the main director and producer, the main writer and the members of the main cast are all part of our community. I, as a cis gay man, am not represented (I think) in this play, but it was still so emotional to me to see such bold and open trans and sapphic representation. I love that for our community and in hard times like these, it's great to be reminded that safe spaces exist. And if like for me, your safe space is just anything Doctor Who related, you know that despite the bigotry you may find around you, Doctor Who is there and cares about you.

Storywise, it's clearly written by fans, for fans, and they meddle, they play with the TV show's events, I love it, I absolutely adore it. Some parts of the story feel more hard-hitting than others do, but the overall arc is just brilliant.

It's a timing coincidence that I started listening to this less than a week before the release of the second series but honestly I'm not sure if I'll give it a go considering how Ella Watts was kicked out of the production without a word and being replaced by James Goss (whom I love) who certainly does not have a hard time finding his voice in the Whoniverse. I don't understand this decision and I'm really disappointed. Watts apparently responded with class and dignity but I'll have to say that the BBC are kind of backstabbing her after she created the whole project that was so successful in the end. Just... not cool...

I like Goss' works so maybe I'll listen to it some day, but I think I need to process the info first.

To end on a much more positive note: listen to this. You need no knowledge of any other spin off or eu stuff, and it's free on the BBC app worldwide. You're in for a great time if you haven't listened to it already.

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Rani Takes on the World : Beyond Bannerman Road (1)

After watching the minisode from 2020 called Farewell Sarah Jane, you can't help but think you want to see all these characters back. Lucky for me, when I saw it, this boxset had just come out, and I have to say I was impressed.

Every story is different and better than the last, the characters' evolution is perfectly managed considering the big gap between the TV show and the events from these three stories. It really has the ambition to be a true successor to the Sarah Jane Adventures by putting Rani as the front woman and working on very qualitative scripts.

I honestly cannot wait for the next one to come out and I sincerely hope it catches up on the high expectations this boxset helped build within me.

Here is a story by story review, beware some spoilers here and there, even though I made my best to make it spoiler free.

Here Today

I only have one word for this one: wow. First of all, the time loop is well executed and the urgence of the situation is very well conveyed by the twists, the characters and the music.

I can't not mention the jaw-dropping scene at the end of the first time loop. Absolutely chilling. You have to listen to it to understand how much of a shock it is.

You don't have a second to yourself when listening to this one, the story just takes you and you have to get along.

Destination: Wedding

I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of hard for me to get into this one at first but in the end I loved it so much more than the pilot! You can easily guess the solution to the mystery but never without a doubt.

Gita is just the perfect comic character, every single sentence of her is an instant punchline, and she's also got a lot of heart.

Rani seems to be kind of in a young adult life crisis, because once again she's comparing herself to her same aged peers, even more so in this one with the pressure of her mother onto her. These are themes that resonated with me a lot since I am approximately the same age as Rani is supposed to be in this and I actually am going through all of this.

Also, I wasn't sure I understood it correctly in the first story but now it's clear: Phoenix is a non-binary person! Yay! And they're dating Clyde, a major character!

In the end this one was pretty enjoyable even though it had a lot less action and tension than the one before, but the character work and the mysterious plot make it an absolute banger!

The Withching Tree

Wow, this one was definitely my favourite! So chilling! I started listening to it during a night road trip and it was really frightening!

The plot twist is really surprising and every new happening is a shock.

I really liked that this episode was kind of an episode of Rani's podcast, I hope they do that on the second series as well.

It was very well orchestrated to make the tension build up to the great reveal, which is so satisfying to listen to. Honestly a great piece of drama.

This is the first time I had heard about Tyler Steele because I didn't listen to any of the Torchwood stuff, so at first I was like "Who does he think he is? Why is he so ok with aliens?" but then I looked him up and it made a lot more sense.

I also loved that the Blue Box Files were being mentioned since I'm also currently listening to Doctor Who Redacted so it was a really nice touch from Big Finish to make Rani and Samira talk about them!

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Doctor Who 60 Years - Once And Future : Two's Company (4)

Of course this one was not as good as the previous one, but how could it have been?

I kind of agree with people who say that it fits the usual Big Finish dartboard pattern (putting random characters together) but I felt like they all fit the story perfectly and mostly worked well with each other. Old Harry is kind of the outcast in this story but since he's not that much in contact with the other two companions it's ok. Lady Christina was an interesting choice considering it happens before she meets Ten, but she's already got that lively personality of hers that lightens up the scenes. However the scenes didn't need it that much since Jackie Tyler is honestly being as great as ever. The two of them work out very well together.

Be careful now because we're heading towards some spoilers!

SPOILERS BELOW

So this is my first story featuring The Two (well, The Eleven, but you get it) and I kind of liked him very much. I don't know if this duality of personality is just for him or if it stays on for all his other incarnations. I can't wait to find that out!

The Doctor finally has a clue about his degeneration so I hope September brings us some main arc material!

I also wanted to talk about the fact that Jackie and Lady Christina have been put in contact with each other by River Song, who also probably sent the letter to the Doctor ar the beginning. I hope it means we'll see her later !

END OF SPOILERS

It's definitely not as bad as people pretend it is, the writer was probably given a list of characters to fit in her story and honestly it worked out great. It's lighter than the previous one and that's also what I liked about it. Some fun story was absolutely needed!

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Doctor Who Short Trips Rarities : Intuition (2.3)

Oh what an intriguing story! Honestly the summary of this one really appealed to me and I was not disappointed.

The mystery is clever and so is its resolution! I do love some strange time/mind phenomenon.

Both the Swiss setting and Ur are lovely features from this story, the latter one being actually moving to both us and the Doctor.

I don't have a lot to say about this one since it is not that long and goes straight to the point. Give it a listen if you wish to hear about the Alps, mind control, time shenanigans and death! Rarities are a truly great range, it features some of the best stories from the whole Short Trips collection.

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Doctor Who 60 Years - Once And Future : A Genius for War (3)

Oh this one was great for sure. It's definitely my favourite one from the range yet. We still have no more clues on the degeneration thingy but at this point who cares? The ride is enjoyable enough for me to not care about this!

It is the very first audio that I listen to that features the Seventh Doctor or Davros and they both work very well in this format. Also I really liked the Time War setting as well as the characters attached to it – the general, whom I already knew from the show, and Veklin, who I loved meeting – really made me want to listen to the Time War sets, especially War Room!

The whole cast was really brilliant. Unsurprisingly, McCoy wonderfully embodies the energy that his young televised self had in the eighties. What a brilliant actor! Terry Molloy definitely upgraded his game because Davros is really frightening!

The story in itself was very well paced and didn't let you catch your breath! I'm really enjoying Morris' works so far. I remember he did the opener for the first Rose Tyler boxset which was absolutely brilliant. Listening to this one made me feel like I can't wait to discover more of his work.

The next paragraph is about some details that I want to talk about, so if you don't want to get spoiled maybe you should avoid that.

SPOILERS BELOW

It is quite interesting to hear about the Hybrid again in such a way. It's also pretty fun to witness Seven's guilty pleasure: seeing how Davros always has the next step already planned, as Seven often does as well. However, his enjoyment of the situation may rely on the fact that he actually is one step ahead of Davros.

END OF SPOILERS

I can't wait for the next Once and Future story to drop!

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Doctor Who Meets Scratchman

So my latest read was this novelisation of the original script for the unmade movie Doctor Who Meets Scratchman from the seventies written by Tom Baker and Ian Marter. The story of this lost material was already famous amongst fans because Marter and Baker had both talked about it in interviews, but it's the first time ever that the story is properly published in any kind of way.

The script was rewritten as a novel by Tom Baker himself with the help of James Goss. According to some informational stuff contained in the book, the story was not that good when it was originally dug up from the archives, this is why it needed a lot of work to make this product.

In my opinion it was a great read and it was successfully frightful at times. I'm sure a seventies horror type of movie with this material would have been just great.

The two halves are really different, but also unequal in terms of quality. That kind of makes the second half a bit frustrating to read, when you've witnessed such an amazing first part. In all the first part you can't wait to meet Scratchman, but when you finally do it's when the story goes downhill. I enjoyed the last part as well, but certainly not as much as the first one.

The trial format, which is pretty much the same as the one used in the Colin Baker TV series, is pretty light and does not weigh too much on the story. I liked that part because it helped emphasize the themes that are more discreetly brought up in the story.

It was a risk, but it all looks more like a Tom Baker story than a fourth doctor story but it's also what gives it its charm.

I don't feel like I have anything more to say that's not too spoily so I'll leave it to you to discover this wonderful story whether by reading the book or by watching documentaries about it or reading about it online!

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Doctor Who 60 Years - Once And Future : The Artist at the End of Time (2)

So at first I thought I wouldn't like this one as much as the previous one, because it failed to get me hooked right from the start, but I have got to say that the multiple themes explored in this story past the first fifteen minutes were so interesting.

It talks about grief, legacy, it reflects the aim of art and mostly its value, whether it is financial or not.

I'm in love with the idea of the curator, having the Doctor retire, and it was very well used in this story.

Jenny was true to her TV character and I liked that a lot. I guessed that she's already met Fivey before? Anyway I think this is an ideal pairing for obvious reasons and I liked the depiction of their father/daughter relationship, even though I would have preferred my hero to be a perfect dad but we all know the Doctor is not perfect.

One point I enjoyed a lot is that it happens at the end of the Universe. Usually, when the show goes into that part of time, I'm not that much invested, because how worried can you be that time is ending when you can just go back in your time machine. But in this story, I really felt the gravity of it all and it helped giving the story more urgency.

I still have no interest in the main story arc whatsoever but I guess I have to wait for later stories to get involved in it!

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Doctor Who Short Trips Paul Spragg Memorial Opportunity : The Lychyrwick Abomination (7)

I compleeeeetely forgot to talk about this one that I listened to last month, between Lant Land and the first part to Once and Future I believe.

It was honestly a great piece, very well delivered by a very accurate Jacob Dudman. The scenario was on point, as scary as you could want it and Jacob understood the assignment! The immediate empathy you feel towards Malcolm's traumas, views and emotions in the moment is honestly great and is the prime reason for this audio's greatness.

The mystery is quite ordinary to Doctor Who but twist and the emotional implications tied to it really make it an impactful listen. As per usual with this range, it is completely entirely totally free, so if you're interested please go check it out on the Big Finish website!