By Chris Heffernan
1) Loups-Garoux (9/10)
This story is scary, well acted and well suited to the audio medium (Rio and the train sequence are two things that could only work on audio unless you had an extremely high budget). Overall the Davison audios have been a bit of a letdown, but this one was not. Stubbe is one of the best villains in any audio so far. Davison's best work so far. Great mood music too.
2) Spare Parts (8/10)
Though I may not have enjoyed this quite as much as most everyone else seemed to, it is still an excellent story. Davison is in fine form and Nyssa is as good a 5th Doc companion as any to be in this story. I usually don't like things to be overly explained (and I'm not a huge fan of Genesis of the Daleks), but this story still worked with its grimness.
3) The Bride of Peladon (8/10)
I may have liked this more because I had recently read Legacy which was set on Peladon, but regardless it was very enjoyable. I liked the mix of the Peladon stories and the Pyramids of Mars.
4) The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (7/10)
This story is not quite as tight as it could have been, and it was a little long, but overall it was pretty enjoyable. Good use of atmosphere and setting and music.
5) The Boy That Time Forgot (7/100
6) Circular Time (7/10)
This one was a little hard to rate since it's really four short stories. Each story was better than the last and the final was really good. The only one I didn't really like was the first one. Oh, and kissing really doesn't work on audio.
7) The Eye of the Scorpion (7/10)
Again a good setting for an audio; take advantage of the medium. Bryant is quite good in this as is Davison. Just having Peri mention that a female is 'topless' automatically gets this an above average rating.
8) Three's a Crowd (7/10)
Everyone's good in this one and the whole portal idea was very well done. I could really picture this adventure. The actress playing Belip sounded like one of the aliens from Galaxy Quest though when she did her "I'm nervous" routine.
9) Nekromanteia (7/10)
A little crazy and I'm not sure I like Erimem as a companion, but it wasn't bad. I think a rating of 7 means I enjoyed it enough to perhaps warrant another listen and that I feel it's a fairly average to slightly above average Doctor Who story.
10) Excelis Dawns (7/10)
I'd still like to hear the rest in this series as I think this is a pretty good start. Again, Davison is smack on, and Katy Manning is great as Iris. Anthony Stewart Head is boring. I still don't see what the appeal is about this guy. I mean he used to do coffee commercials!
11) The Kingmaker (6/10)
Doctor Who written by Monty Python and Douglas Adams. Not bad really, and pretty funny, but I find this kind of story doesn't really suit the 5th Doctor. Unfortunately it doesn't rate higher as it was simply too long. They should have cut a good 5-10 minutes off each episode. Neat mention of the 9th Doctor and use of the 4th Doctor though.
12) Son of the Dragon (6/10)
A near miss. Two reasons this didn't really hit the mark for me. One: the guy playing Dracula wasn't very good. It needed someone who could really command an audience, and this guy just didn't. And two, Erimem... I like her character concept and the actress is good, but she's always acting against the Doctor and always doing things that threaten to have her leave him. It's an annoying habit for a companion.
13) The Roof of the World (6/10)
No real comments.
14) Phantasmagoria (6/10)
I think that Turlough is great in the audios he's been involved in and I enjoy him much more in audio than I ever did on the TV show. Strickson is great. This is a good setting and atmosphere for a Doctor Who story, but unfortunately apart from Strickson and Davison being good, the story is kind of boring.
15) Creatures of Beauty (6/10)
This could have been very grim and scary, but didn't quite hit the mark. The main villain could have been very scary, but didn't quite hit the mark. You see where I'm going with this. Also, Nyssa is terribly overused in Davison's audios. I'd prefer more Peri or Turlough or even Adric. Has Matthew Waterhouse been approached even?
16) The Land of the Dead (6/10)
Another near miss. It's not bad but could have been much, much better. Hey look! More Nyssa!
17) Axis of Insanity (6/10)
I'm still not really sure why the bad guy/girl took the shape of a jester, and it was a little too close to my character "Syndrome", but oh well. It wasn't bad. Haven't really gotten to like Erimem yet, but it took a while for Evelyn to grow on me as well, so we'll see.
18) The Church and the Crown (6/10)
Another near miss (noticing a trend with the Davison audios?). Bryant is great and it's funny but as the Queen she gets to use her natural accent yet it seems fake! I never thought I'd consider that bad American accent she uses to be the real thing.
19) The Game (6/10)
I see what they were getting at here, and this could have been really really good. But it was a little too long (even though each episode was short, there were still 6 episodes). Peter Davison was good but he still seems to get the worst stories of the audio Doctors.
20) Primeval (6/10)
Hmm, don't remember much about this, which is probably a bad sign. Something about hot waters.
21) The Mutant Phase (6/10)
This is probably the weakest BFA to feature the Daleks yet. Too bad too as it had a lot of promise. I like the idea of seeing more of the world during the Dalek Invasion of Earth. But there just seemed to be nothing at stake here.
22) The Gathering (6/10)
A sequel of sorts to "The Reaping". Nice to see Tegan back; too bad this is a bit of a boring jumble.
23) Singularity (6/10)
I love the pairing of Turlough and the Fifth Doctor. Too bad this was really boring. It had a few neat moments, but overall kind of sleep inducing.
24) Exotron (5/10)
Excellent setting and a good idea that was just kind of blah.
25) Omega (5/10)
A pretty big letdown. It wasn't until the 4th episode that it got close to being good. The acting was bad (especially Omega) and the situations were boring. Teaming the Doctor up with a villain is a bad idea, even on video. On audio it's really bad.
26) Red Dawn (5/10)
Don't remember much about this one except two things. After listening to this I decided that Peri is a "visual companion only" (though I admit, she's not bad in some of the audios). The other thing is that I still don't like Ice Warriors.
27) Renaissance of the Daleks (5/10)
Not a bad concept, utterly ruined by horrific American accents. The female Vietnam War pilot is the worst American accent Big Finish has produced yet. Not only is the accent horrendous, but her acting is really, really bad on top of that. It makes this story nearly impossible to listen to.
28) Mind's Eye/Mission of the Viyrans (5/10)
Not bad, but not great and Mission was pretty boring.
29) The Council of Nicaea (4/10)
Really, really boring. Erimem seemed way out of character. Bland and stupid; it's amazing how BF seems to always make the historicals really boring.
30) Winter For the Adept (4/10)
There's really only one good thing to say about this adventure. India Fisher as Peril is super; I love her sexy voice!