Stunning, and I use the word carefully. The Time War at Big Finish has become a multi-stranded affair with dozens of characters and ongoing storylines, almost its own franchise, so entering a one-off story set within it isn't without some trepidation. Unlike some stories, however, it keeps the focus on an ordinary man in extraordinary times. He serves as our viewpoint character as elements of the wider mythology are delivered to us. I do tend to enjoy war stories that show the effects such conflicts have on the victims rather than generals and politicians vying for power. Although the Eighth Doctor's intervention is rather more complicated than Clarence's in the original text, it still keeps George's—sorry, Galen's—sacrifices in focus. There's also a brilliant twist that causes you to rethink everything you've heard and makes you want to listen again.
Placement: He's in his leathers so perhaps just before Time Lord Victorious just after discovering The Truth About Peladon?
Placement: What's the perspective the Doctor suggests has caused him to forgive or at least understand what MacFarlane did in the previous story and the suggestion he's going to have to choose a side? I think that put this squarely in the close to Night of the Doctor territory, just after The Silent Priest.
Placement: The cover has the same photo of Paul McGann as the second, in a smaller circle, but it still feels like there's been a gap between the two. So, let's place this just after the Titan Comics, when his sense of humour is still intact.
The first episode, Jonathan Morris's Sunlight follows a similar path to parts of the Alien franchise, which it might well do given that they're both about eggs of sorts. One of the Krynoid seed pods is found during the maintenance of the satellites that keep the lamps on at the otherwise dark and cold colony planet of Sunlight. The local representative of this story's equivalent of Weyland-Yutani wants to keep the thing intact in case there's anything they can take advantage of, even though the Governor of the colony says (rightly!) it should be destroyed immediately, with Reece Shearsmith giving this otherwise cowardly individual his most officious voice acting.
Structured like a disaster film, we're introduced to citizens who are affected at all levels. Which means that when the Eighth Doctor arrives in the second instalment, Sunset by Jonathan S Powell, via unconventional means, it's into an already established group of characters. Although he absolutely fulfils the obligations that might usually be expected of him during a colony-under-siege story—explaining who the monsters are, suggesting how the people in charge have fucked things up, and outlining what could potentially be done to save the day—the various families at the heart of the story remain central. Although for most of them, things still don't end well.
During VHS clipshow The Tom Baker Years, the actor behind the teeth and curls infamously misnames The Seeds of Doom as Invasion of the Krynoids or The Krynoid Invasion, which always conjured in my mind seed pods bombarding a planet, with the sentient vegetable biomass overwhelming the population. That is exactly what the final episode, the fittingly titled Darkness by Chris Chapman, gives us, with scenes straight out of John Wyndham. It's during one particular scene here that I needed to take a break. There are Threads levels of hopelessness on display—or rather, on speaker—and although it does end on the potential for hope, a sequel boxset is incoming. Like I said, Jeeeesus.
Placement: The Eighth Doctor was apparently travelling with Liv when his end of the story kicked off. Given that he's wearing his leathers on the cover, and assuming that Helen isn't chilling somewhere, this intriguingly puts it between Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition. They both appear in the next Planet of the Krynoids boxset, so I'll also see what we learn there and move it if necessary.
Placement: See above.
The Eighth Doctor's participation is complex and not completely explained by the closing moments. Taking the mantle of the "Oracle", he seems to spend decades, even centuries, on the planet at stake, Morning, nudging events and people in a way which would make his Scottish-accented prrrredecessor prrrrroud. The eye patch might suggest that he's some sinister refugee from an alternate reality, but the injury occurred during a nasty encounter, and, even though he says the Fifth Doctor wouldn't approve of who he's become, this is the real Eighth Doctor. Knowing us completists will have PayPaled our fifty quid for this, they do at least also toss in references to Charley, C'rizz, and Audacity, with a hint that her storyline won't end well either, this Eighth Doctor having already experienced their adventures together. Speaking of which, are we to get future stories featuring him and Davlin Crux (an obvious parody of Captain Jack in the mould of Becky Lee Kowalchik?).
Placement: Given the references to who the Time Lords are at this point by Eighth, this feels like Hooklight from his perspective happens during the Time War era, and late on when he's in the thick of things.
The Only Girl in the World
Hello there, Doctor. Literally. This is a rare example of the Time Lord breaking the fourth wall and acting as the storyteller, but not—as is sometimes the case—with a later explanation that they're being interrogated or having a fireside chat. He's talking to us. Which is lucky, because writer John Dorney is deploying a similar narrative structure to (500) Days of Summer and 21 Grams, without the benefit of captions that the visual medium provides. There's also the audio equivalent of those occasions when the appearance of a particular race is treated as a complete surprise despite their name being in the title of the adventure. One of the first characters to appear is played by Nicholas Briggs and is called Karl.
False Dawn
Welcome back, Daphne Ashbrook. The Grace actress has been buzzing around Big Finish for a few years, mostly as Capt. Ruth Matheson of UNIT, but beginning as Perfection in The Next Life, the story which ended the Divergent Universe saga. Now here she is in a similarly weird set of stories. She's the latest actor to lend a voice to Hieronyma Friend, who I now realise is taking on the appearance of some of the Eighth Doctor's deep-cut companions, which is why Lizzie Hopley was in for Niky Wardley last time—they were swapping Gemma of all people for Tamsin (also of all people). Anyway, it's a way for Grace to make an appearance without any rights issues (even if the way the character is written doesn't reflect the outer shell).
The Council of Susan
Suddenly Susan. The title might suggest that, like The Council of Wells in the Arrowverse, Carole Ann Ford would be playing dozens of different versions of the Doctor's granddaughter from across the multiverse. Instead, and perhaps more understandably, we find a group of women all calling themselves Susan as a sort of title adopted when joining an order which worships the original. Of course, Jane Asher who plays Mother Susan also appeared in Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman? (the Radio 4 series catching up with fictional characters) as an alternative Susan Foreman, which can't be a coincidence, surely? Similarly, at what point in the scriptwriting did it occur to someone that the twist was very similar to a TV story, necessitating the insertion of a reference to that same TV story?
All Over
A couple of years ago, Reddit user MetalPoo complained, on the occasion of these further Time War stories being announced, that when the original Time War boxset was announced, it seemed it was going to be "Four stories that would lead up to The Night of the Doctor," and "if Big Finish love stories so much they should really know how important endings are," with another user, The Omnivirgin, suggesting that "big finish should start doing some definitive endings" because there's nothing to stop them filling in the gaps later. Neither realises that The Night of the Doctor is the definitive ending, and that these stories are filling in the gaps, albeit much closer to that terminal moment. I might complain about the cost, but on the strength of these four stories, long may they continue.
Spoils of War
There are shades of Alien Bodies here, as Alex and Cass become wrapped up in an auction between alien foes over a mystery artifact. Said MacGuffin is rather more abstract than the Doctor's mortal remains, and it is arguable that if this had been a straightforward Doctor Who story, it would have been slightly less interesting. Instead, we have the Doctor's—not exactly great—grandson trying to do things differently than his "old man," even though he inevitably falls into the same patterns. The story does much the same to Cass; she has essentially been kidnapped and should be quite cross about it, but because of the needs of the narrative, she is somewhat forced to fulfill the companion role. Honestly, I found the sniping between the Doctor and Hieronyma—as they try to hold her ship together while pursuing Alex—to be more my cup of tea.
The Tale of Alex
This serves as a complicated synecdoche for the whole conflict, as the Doctor and Alex move backward and forward in time trying to fix an original sin. They remain suspicious of each other's motives, causing a colony to become temporally unstuck as competing causalities fight for supremacy. Finally, the two meet, and it is clear that their irreconcilable difference is down to the betrayal of the Doctor wanting his great-grandson back in the universe, yet keeping Alex's true origins from him. Meanwhile, the Doctor covertly makes Cass aware of her own origins and how her death is in flux. This also presents the intriguing idea that when she and the Eighth Doctor met "for the first time" in The Night of the Doctor, she might have been well aware of what was about to happen—and what needed to happen—which explains why she refused to fly away with him in the TARDIS.
See-Saw
This is superficially similar to Head Over Heels, the 1980s computer game by Ocean Software (or at least the opening part of it), with the competing TARDIS teams on different time tracks solving the same mystery and helping one another. How have they managed to land on Earth, a time-locked world which no one should be able to visit during the war, and what is the significance of the nursery rhymes? This inevitably leads to the same discoveries being made by both groups, which is tricky to do on audio without becoming repetitious, but it mostly happens simultaneously for various reasons; cross-cutting between groups of characters largely prevents annoyance from setting in. Something I only noticed on a second listen (don't ask) is that Hieronyma is recast in this installment, with Lizzie Hopley filling in for Niky Wardley, who plays the character across the other three episodes. Was it a scheduling issue, perhaps, or an illness?
The First Forest
After two stories that hinge on two realities occupying the same space and time, here is a tale about a place where numerous time zones are occurring in the same area—Ã la Voyager's brilliant "Shattered"—featuring a Tom Bombadil-type character who spends his life trying to avoid bumping into himself (rather like the Doctor). Caught in the middle of all this is Sharon, one of the Time Lord Sontarans, who has found himself lost in the forest; goddamn if Dan Starkey doesn't once again manage to give us yet another very individual example of the clone race, using the same voice as the others but remaining perfectly distinct. I particularly love how, when the Eighth Doctor and Alex finally do (sort of) reconcile, it is like many family members after an argument: calmly saying the things they may have said when bawling at each other, but previously lacked the ability to listen to.
The Silent Priest/The Silent City
This David K. Barnes two-parter doesn't offer much levity either. We meet the Eighth Doctor at a point in this incarnation, in the midst of the Time War, in which he is done. As the Time Lord describes, he thinks he's saved the day, then finds that everything he did has been reversed or worse that the planet on which it happened disappears from existence. It's got the point where he's visiting a priest on the regular, looking for some kind of mental clarity but as the cover art reveals, said holy person is a member of The Silence, so he doesn't just forget he's met the man; that's why he keeps coming back. This is the version of the wanderer who's working towards his regeneration, perhaps around the time of Lies in Ruins. He's a professional actor, of course, and it's his job to know, but I remain impressed by the way that Paul McGann keeps track of which version of this Doctor he's playing, at the beginning, middle, and end of his journey.
The same guest cast continues into the final story with the Seventh Doctor, who's left to cope with his later incarnation's actions in trying to unite the warring factions which are breaking the city apart. Barnes is very keen to show the different approaches of the two Doctors, the mastermind and the universally challenged, notably by putting Seventh also late in his timeline in the TARDIS, in the days or weeks before San Francisco. There's a chilling moment when he says off-handedly that he'll shut down a casino he's surveying on behalf of the local constabulary "in the morning" as though it would be nothing for him, the kind of action that the Eighth Doctor has been trying to run away from since The Dying Days. But like Eighth, he makes a number of catastrophic mistakes and like Eighth, he doesn't remember any of them by the end of the episode.
Hellbound
Then, some way into the third episode, the Axon Doctor finally turns up with Paul offering his monotone take on the best Doctor before the best Doctor himself turns up and this boxset elevates itself from Alternative Eighth Doctors section of the timeline to somewhere before (see below). As he and the TARDIS are released from the Axon's grip, the Eight Doctor immediately steals the flow of the story from Vienna and the titular character, defeating the monsters and saving the day. Quite honestly its brilliant and elevates a story which until that point is pretty grim and nasty in a way which isn't to my tastes. If only Vienna had stayed with him at the end. They could have some wild adventures together.
Placement: The cover art suggests he's wearing his Time War clothes and he makes a reference to there being much to do, so I'm putting this between All Hands on Deck and Mr. Eighth.
