Audio And so another quartet of boxed sets ends, another "season" of stories. Was it good? I think it's best say there were some good bits but overall, like so much of this incarnation's era across media (right back to the BBC Books), its foundationally experimental nature leds to a loss of tension overall. The main story arc is diverting, but it's also incredibly similar to 2002's Seasons of Fear which covered much the same ground in fourteen hours less. Plus for all the potential of a whole new era that the opening four episodes suggested, the bottom twelve eventually became absorbed in the kinds of fractured time travel shenanigans which were the hallmark of every series in this "Dark Eyes" era albeit without interventions from the Gallifrey or Skaro.
If I've a prescription for Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures 2022A Title TBA (which I notice from the Big Finish website sees a reduction in the number of discs to three per release for a slightly cheaper price, it's for a series of very stand alone stories punctuated by the odd connection ala the Lucie Miller era. One of the problems is, I suppose, that unlike other corners of the Whoniverse, the Eighth Doctor's adventures lack a particular identity, which is their charm but can also cause it to become somewhat creatively untethered. Too often the creators are trying to force him into stories which they wouldn't do with other Doctors, when actually the more interesting idea is to put him into a more traditional Doctor Who story and see how he responds.
Crossed Lines
All of which said, there are some tremendous stories in this boxed set starting with this script from Matt Fitton in which the Doctor has reached moment in Seasons of Fear when he decides to visit Sebastian Grayle earlier in his timeline in an attempt to steer him in a better, or at least a direction which isn't quite so lethal for the human race. The best moment is clearly when the Doctor and the Curator (sounding like Colin Baker this time) tell the story of K'anpo Rimpoche and the Untempered Schism and how you can't save everybody and that's OK, just do the best you can. There's also a scene somewhat like Avengers: Endgame in which the Doctor realises that on this occasion, everything he thought about time travel, the rules are wrong, at least in that moment.
Get Andy
Taking his story about the hermit to heart, the Doctor decides to use the current fungibility of space time to save one life and essentially do for Andy was he refused to do for Adric. The Sergeant is at his most serious and realistic here as points out that the Doctor has a habit of picking of strays who're effectively trained to make sacrifices when required because as a space-time incident too important to the web of time to actually die he needs a human shield (it's not quite that blunt, I'm paraphrases). Andy asks if the Doctor has some kind of ability to override his companions natural survival instincts, which makes you wonder about the supporting characters in recent TV episodes who literally sacrifice themselves for the benefit of a total stranger.
The Keys of Baker Street
It's TNG's Remember Me or Doctor Who's The Big Bang. What to make of the Curator now? The TARDIS Datacore page is a riot on this subject with the revelation, which surely must have been on the minds of Big Finish that in a spin-off from the Nest Cottage audios, Baker's End, the central figure "Tom Baker" dies and regenerates into "Colin Baker" and that Paul Magrs has since suggested that the character who appears in the Nest Cottage Stories is the Curator anyway (which would make *a lot* of sense of those mad old stories). It's also implied in here that the version who gave Tania the keys to the house is an older version of the Eleventh Doctor and that the Curator is a kind of notional future for the Doctor who almost exists outside established continuity. Absolutely bonkers.
Best Year Ever
Sorry, but no, too soon. Clearly the intention was the capture some of the energy and experiences of the cast and crew during the making of Stranded. But with the trauma still continuing, I'm not sure we're ready for what amounts to an old school historical set during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, oscillating between jokes about toilet roll shortages and well established characters dying from the virus, especially since for story reasons the Doctor is rendered powerless, unable to interfere so as not to further disrupt the timeline. Eventually Best Year Ever becomes so akin to a Radio 4 Afternoon Drama about grief during the pandemic, the Doctor sods off back to the TARDIS for months, effectively absenting himself from the series which has his name on the cover.
Clearly this has been done with the best of intentions but the timing is horrendous. Throughout I kept thinking about fans you've recently lost relatives to COVID or suffering from the disease themselves who might be listening to Stranded as a brief distraction or an escape only to find themselves and finding their favourite franchise going over the broad strokes. I'm not sure how you could introduce a trigger warning without also spoiling the main plot, but perhaps that's the problem. The synopsis for episode simply says "What happens if the world is actually fixed? There are times when even the Doctor cannot help" and although it was cagily mentioned on their website, the socials suggested "You may want to stay off the internet if you'd like to listen to the Stranded climax completely unspoilered."
