M040 - Jubilee

We open with a trailer for an upcoming film starring The Doctor vs the Daleks, which begins normal enough until the Doctor is blowing up Daleks left and right and their mechanical voices are shouting, "Scamper! Scamper!" Then, when the announcer tells you that your mandatory ticket will be sent to you, we know we aren't on Earth as we know it.

The TARDIS is shifting in and out of two locations and the Doctor and Evelyn get out just before it disappears. They seem to be in central London, 2003, but in this world victory against a Dalek invasion a century before has led to the modern rule of the tyrannical President of Britain. Contractions are illegal and the Daleks have become a cartoonish villain used to sell anything from baby powder to power tools, but locked in the tower of London is something truly frightening.

The Daleks have, in my opinion, lost some of their power. They are often portrayed like the Nazis in an Indiana Jones film, pure evil without much else. But in this story they recover their complex villainy. A Dalek that has been held captive and tortured must face something no Dalek ever faces: making a decision for itself.

This play managed to swing between manic satire and thrilling suspense on a level closer to Torchwood than to Doctor Who, with a body count to match. It brings up some challenging philosophy and some interesting sci-fi all at the same time.

M034 - Spare Parts

Finally Peter Davison's 5th Doctor gets a good script. And it's a Cyberman story, which is all the better.

Dealing with (one of) the origins of the Cybermen, the play starts slow with the Doctor hinting that he recognizes this Earth-like planet, but then playing it off as if he landed them in England. His concern gives the story some dread going in, so that when the inhuman parts of the story start to emerge they have some proper emotional punch.

The reason Neil Gaiman was asked to write A Nightmare in Silver was because Steven Moffat felt the Doctor's silvery nemesis had lost their scaryness, and I'd say something similar was at risk with the radio plays. Without the visual side of things, the Cybermen could easily appear as Dalek ripoffs; just another weird computer-voiced collective of space Nazis. But seeing the moral dilemmas that lead the people of the planet to turn themeselves into the Cybermen makes them unique and scary again.

M029 - The Chimes of Midnight

I think the reason Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor shines so much in the audio dramas is he was the least bogged down by canon. All the other classic Doctors have established companions and certain characteristics, some of which (like Colin Baker's boisterous nature) are very effective on radio, but can still limit where the stories can go. McGann has none of that, so he and his companion Charley are given to explore entire new storylines, such as the mysterious effects of Charley's existence after the Doctor saved her from the R101.

Its these effects that make their first appearance in this Stephen King meets Downton Abby episode where the TARDIS arrives in the servants section of an Edwardian house that seems to have fallen out of time. That is, until the chime of midnight marks the death of the scullery maid.

Timey-wimey pseudoscience is handled with great style in this episode, and it never feels meaningless. There is an emotional purpose behind the material, and the small cast of characters around Charley and the Doctor all become important players; there are no forgettable walk-on parts in this. Good plot and some good dialogue all add up to a winning episode.

M027 - The One Doctor

Who is Colin Baker's agent? Because he is a far better negotiator than any of the others. His scripts from Big Finish have been a constant surprise to the point that I'd say he is second only to the 8th Doctor for enjoyability. How's that for a switch? One of the least-liked TV Doctors, and the one who only appeared for two hours on American television have found a second life as the best Doctors on radio.

The One Doctor begins with a world in celebration. The Doctor has just stopped a massive invasion with the help of his beautiful sidekick. But when the Doctor steps out to speak, he's no one we've heard before.

It turns out that the Doctor's reputation has given a con man a brilliant idea, and faking an alien invasion to con a planet out of a massive reward seems like a profitable idea. That is, until the real Doctor and companion arrive in the real TARDIS (and not the STARDIS, which resembles a port-a-potty) just before a real alien threat arrives in the solar system.

This episode includes some more Douglas Adams-esqe comedy, which makes sense as it was co-written by Gareth Roberts, a regular writer of the television series and the man who novelized Adam's unproduced Doctor Who script, Shada. The zipping adventure never gets bogged down and it even manages to be a bit surprising along with its comedy. Top notch.

EDA107-108 - Human Resources, Parts 1 and 2

This is the sort of story that Russel T. Davis could have done with David Tennant and Donna to great effect. But McGann and Lucie are just as good in the same roles, and it's possible that the TV budget wouldn't have been able to pull of the massive scale of the second part.

Everything was a dream, it seems, when Lucie wakes up starting her first day at the office she had been applying to work at when she appeared in the Doctor's TARDIS. Disoriented and annoyed, but willing to face reality, Lucie sets about adjusting to the Dilbert world of her new life working for Hulbert Logistics. But when she gets promoted to be an executive secretary, her new boss is the Doctor.

Back together, the Doctor and Lucie set out to discover the secret of Hulbert Logistics, which is that it isn't in Telford at all. War, it turns out, is far more effective when fought by the market research teams and number crunchers of an office environment, but an office environment inside massive walking war machines that are laying waste to an indiginous population to clear land for new settlements.

This finale two-parter takes many great twists and brings back the Doctor's other great villains, the Cybermen. A very clever story with a great mix of adventure and mystery makes this the best of the first series and a great reason to continue listening.

EDA104 - Immortal Beloved

This episode's guest star is Ian MacNeice, best-known as Winston Churchill to Matt Smith's Doctor. He plays Zeus in a pseudo-Ancient Greek culture where a ship of human colonists have been using a combination of cloning and mind transfer to gain immortality.

The Doctor and Lucie land the TARDIS just in time to stop star-crossed lovers from diving off a cliff together. Then they discover the lovers are clones of the colony's leaders, raised until maturity when their minds are swapped with their dying older selves. But the mind transfer machine, which the Doctor says has been outlawed, is breaking down, and Zeus wants the Doctor to fix it.

This is where the EDA really finds its feet. The philisophical implications of cloning are pushed into uncomfortable new territory as the clones are raised like their originators' children, and even develop similar personalities and romantic interests, until they are forced to swap their health and youth for the dying bodies of their so-called parents.

A clever story with several good performances and plenty of conflicting interests makes this the second-best episode of series 1, just behind the two-part finale, Human Resources.

M014 - The Holy Terror

Douglas Adams would be proud of this 6th Doctor tale, which blends absurd commitment to religious tradition with a penguin companion and a genocidal 5-year-old.

We first meet the royal court of a recently-deceased God-king, who, because he died, has proven himself to be a false God. Now the whole religion must be thrown out, statues toppled, and heretics executed unless they sign the dark blue recantation form (remembering to keep the light blue copy in case a replacement receipt is required).

Into this satirical madness lands the Doctor and Frobisher, a shape-changer who has taken the form of a giant penguin. Their arrival gives the crowning of a new God-king a proper miracle and cements his place on the immortal throne. The bureaucratic traditions of this castle are soon upset when the new God's half-brother tries (as is tradition) to steal the throne. But with the Doctor and Frobisher in the mix, the pattern is broken and a dark secret is revealed.

This imaginative story keeps improving with every twist, and the introduction of a super-powered, genocidal 5-year-old results in the creepiest voice I have heard yet. Colin Baker's Doctor is a nice fit for the tale and he, and his Technicolor coat, are the only version of the Doctor that I could imagine partnered with a giant talking penguin.