Now we come to not only my second favourite Doctor, but the one with the strongest persona out of all the Doctors. Much like his predeseccor, the Seventh Doctor got off to a rough start with the dreadful Season 24 (still the worst series in the show’s history), but then his second year came and a noticable change in his character began to take shape. Now the Doctor became a man on a mission, meticulously planning and manipulating events and people for what he felt was the greater good, more focused on the bigger picture than the little people, he treaded the line between moral and amoral. The futher avenues to his character onscreen were cut short by the show’s cancellation, but the expanded universe made great strides with exploring this side to his persona.
Remembrance of the Daleks - The best episode of Classic Who since The Caves of Androzani, and the Daleks get quite the explosive final appearance in the old show, literally from all the stunning practical effects. Ace quickly cements herself as a badass companion with her attacks on Daleks with a rocket launcher and basebell bat. We see the Doctor carry out his first of many grand plans in manipulating the Daleks into committing genocide on each other.
The Happiness Patrol - On the surface, this seems like a story that would’ve been right at home in Season 24, with it’s garish looking production design. But The Happiness Patrol shows a lot more intelligence in being a sattire on Thatcher’s politics, with a wonderfully insane creation in the Kandyman.
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - One of the cleverest Doctor Who episodes I’ve ever come across, it’s beauty is all in its subtext with the Doctor and Ace arriving at a circus that was one known as “the greatest show in the galaxy”, but has now become a shell of what it used to be. Endlessly performing for a dwindling audience, snatching up what little talent it can find then discarding them quickly and having those who’ve been involved with the show for years desperate to get away while others have become content. It’s a very clear parallel to where Doctor Who was at this point with the audience and shows so much self awareness and humility.
Battlefield - The weak link to an otherwise strong final season for the show, yeah the cruel irony of Classic Who’s cancellation is that it’s last season is up there with Season 7 and the Hinchcliffe years as one of Doctor Who’s best years in terms of story quality. We get the final appearance of the Brigadier in the main show as him and the Doctor jump into Bessie and charge into danger one last time against the armies of darkness who seek Excalibur, the legendry sword of King Arthur himself.
Ghost Light - If you the behind the scenes story, you’d know that this was originally meant to take place in the Doctor’s childhood home on Gallifrey, Marc Platt would later get the opportunity to tell this story in Lungbarrow, a book In desperately praying Big Finish put forward for their Novel Adaptations, considering I’d need a pay rise to be able to afford a copy online. Instead Ghost Light explores a traumatic event in Ace’s life and how it’s affected her, which I think works better. I’m all for exploring the Doctor’s mysterious past (to a degree) but given the choice, I’dalways take the companion, it just gives them so much depth.
The Curse of Fenric - If this was any indication as to where the show was heading in had it not been cancelled then Doctor Who could’ve been on track for a new golden age, one that would’ve seen it evolve into a much maturer show. Ace meets the mother she hates as a baby she loves, the Doctor’s faced with a contest against an ancient evil, and it all revolves around a viking’ curse that has passed down from generation to generation. We see the Doctor attain a new level of amoral where he’s forced to break Ace’s faith in him in order to defeat the villain.
Survival - The end of the line and much like Greatest Show in the Galaxy, there’s a lot of that subtext reflected in this story, you have the Doctor and Master engaged in one final battle on a world on the brink of destruction where everything around them is dead and gone and they’re the only ones left, now resorting to a more hysical battle than intellectual. I’ve seen this story a number of times, but the only times where I’ve teared up at the final scene is when I’ve watched Classic Who all the way through from beginning to end, there’s just something about that final scene with that speech from the Doctor and the beautiful music that really hits harder when you’ve gone through the entire 26 seasons to reach this point.
The Fearmonger - The A Team returns in The Fearmonger, a great political thriller where a non corporeal entity has latched on to the leader of a far right movement in an effort to spread fear through the population. One of Big Finish’s early classics.
Colditz - This one’s so unintentionally funny and awkward to listen to today given the guest appearance of David Tennant as a german officer who shoots the Seventh Doctor and tries to get Ace to strip for him, it just sounds so wrong hearing David Tennant in a role like this for Doctor Who! But Colditz is still a great story that sets up one of my favourite story arcs in Big Finish.
Master - My favourite Master story that really dives into the tragedy of the Master’s character and offers the best origin story he’s had, certainly better than the stupid drums nonsense from RTD. Geoffrey Beevers puts in his finest work as the kindly Dr John Smith, celebrating his tenth anniversary finding himself in Perfujium with no memory of his former identity. But on a dark stormy night, amidst a wave of murders, a evil presence stalks the corridors and strange man stumbles from the storm who looks to fill his end of a terrible deal.
The Harvest - Our first appearance of Seven’s first Big Finish companion Hex, it’s so bizarre that when this story came out it was set in the distant future, now it’s set in the distant past! Hex finds himself caught up in a secret operation the Doctor and the pretty young lady in HR Ms McShane (yeah this was a thing for a couple stories) investigating a hosptial with unusual technology. What follows is a great Cyberman story in which they attempt to turn themselves back into human form!
LIVE 34 - One of the most ingenious ideas Big Finish has ever come up with, the whole story is presented as a new broadcast on a colony world where the Doctor and friends appear in the background every so often as they try to organise a revolution to bring down the oppressive dictatorship.
Night Thoughts - A story that goes for basic horror and works effectively, the fact that this was actually a planned script for the show further demonstrates the mature direction the show was heading in when it was cancelled as a lot of what we get in this story would never have flown for the family friendly audience.
The Settling - A pure historical where the Doctor, Ace and Hex are seperated during the invasion of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, it’s an unrelenting story as we meet Oliver Cromwell in all his horrific glory and Hex is put through a brutal ordeal that shows the true dangers of travelling to the past.
The Word Lord - You can actually download this for free on Big Finish’s website, easily the greatest freebie you’ll ever get your hands on as the Doctor, Ace and Hex, in this short but intense story, do battle against the single most powerful being in the Doctor Who universe, the titular Word Lord, Nobody No-One.
The Magic Mousetrap - The beginning of the Elder Gods story arc and also the beginning of Seven’s hot streak in Big Finish. Between here and 2013 the Seventh Doctor becomes a standard bearer for top quality Big Finish stories. This first one taking place in the Swiss Alps at a sanatorium where the Seventh Doctor is caught up in a trap of his own making but this time he has no memory of what that trap is or who the intended prey is. It;s a wonderfully demented story onvolving the first of several god-like beings the Seventh Doctor would do battle with.
The Angel of Scutari - Hex meets his inspiration into nursing, Florence Nightingale, and as feared it all goes horribly wrong for him. It’s a clever pure historical that takes the approach of being told out of order with Hex seperated from the Doctor and Ace in two different oints in time during the Crimean War.
A Thousand Tiny Wings - Taking a break from the travels with Ace and Hex, we get one of Big Finish’s strongest trilogies and one of my favourite story arcs. Featuring the return of Elizabeth Klein from Colditz, a nazi from an alternate future where the Germans won WWII, a world that has now been erased, stranding her in a world unlike her own. A Thousand Tiny Wings sees Klein come face to face with the Doctor again, but their differences are forced to be put to one side as they fight for their very survival in a thrilling base under seige.
Survival of the Fittest - This is mainly for the bonus Klein’s Story that properly fleshes out the alternate future Klein came from and how she was manipulated by an alternate Doctor into erasing her world. Survivial of the Fittest is also great but easily the weakest in the trilogy, it’s main purpose is setting up the finale, and speaking of which.
The Architects of History - This story’s awesome! That’s all I’ve got to say, this is a fantastic conclusion to the Klein storyline. 2010 was McCoy at his absolute peak! It was just banger after banger, and featuring more from 2010…
Project Destiny - The third story in the Forge trilogy, echoing back to 2001 and the Sixth Doctor’s travels with Evelyn, meeting Cassie who would later be revealed to be Hex’s mother, watching her killed at the hands of the Forge and now a whole lifetime later, the Doctor finds himself within the confines of the Forge face to face with Cassie’s murderer while Hex has yet to realise the truth of his long lost mother. Hex’s story from a chronological perspective is theoretically possible to do in the show, but it would require years of planning, forethought and a commitment between actor and showrunners. The emotional stakes have never been higher as Hex finds out the truth in the worst possible way and is brought to his breaking point with his mistrust of the Doctor.
A Death in the Family - My second favoruite Doctor Who story of all time, I think Seven’s magnum opus is the best way to describe this story. Best suited going in with little knowledge although it does require a lot of context going in so do at least listen to the Six and Evelyn audios (particularly Project Twilight/Lazarus, Arrangements for War and Thicker Than Water) and listen to some of the Hex stories to properly set yourself up for this. This was the same writer we had for The Word Lord and it’s such a shame we never got that third story he planned to write, look it up on TARDIS Wiki (Fifty-Fifty) I’d have much rather had that than the disjointed mess that was The Last Day!
Robophobia - Calming things down a bit, we get Robophobia, a direct sequel to Robots of Death and the Doctor’s first meeting with a future companion, but one who will join him in his next life. This appears on the surface to be another robots go mad and kill the humans-type story, but then we come to find that that’s the whole point and the real twist is much more horrifying.
Protect and Survive - The first half of this is a full on horror story, we have Ace and Hex seperated from the Doctor and forced to live out a nuclear holocaust, learning the true futility of trying to survive such an apocalyptic nightmare. The second half goes a bit off the rails as more and more of what’s really going on is revealed, but it features Seven carry out one of his greatest masterplans to date.
Gods and Monsters - This would’ve been a lot better without Alan Barnes’s usual attempts at humour, there’s a time and a place for your characters to put on silly voices, act goofy and throw out pop culture refrences and this wasn’t it. Barnes remind of Taika Watiti in a lot of ways, he has a lot of talent and he can be funny, he’s just not as funny as he thinks he is. Thankfully we’ve got a co written effort from Mike Maddox to help balance things out and Gods and Monsters makes for an epic finale to the Elder Gods storyline where Seven’s years of schemes and manipulation have finally gone too far and he pays the ultimate price for it.
UNIT Dominion - To think, there used to be a time where single story four hour box sets was rare! UNIT Dominion introduces us to Alex MacQueen in a role I probably shouldn’t give away though I imagine you can work it out very quickly (it takes the Doctor three hours to work it out though). All I’ll say is MacQueen is amazing and really puts the hell in “hello you”
Love and War - Big Finish’s first in the Novel Adaptations and one fans had been hoping to listen to, the famous novel where Ace has finally reached her breaking point and leaves the Doctor while also introducing us to Bernice Summerfield. The audio is mostly great outside of the fact that Ace falls in love way too quickly with Jan, and I do mean quickly, like she wants to get married after knowing him for a day! Poor Hex! The guy spends years having a crush on Ace that’s never reciprocated and meanwhile she instantly falls in love with a guy cos…he’s got a horse!
Afterlife - An epilogue to the tragic events of Gods and Monsters, Ace finally puts the Doctor in his place and has him face up to the consequences of his actions. The first part alone earns this a spot among my favourites, just dealing with the grief of a companion dying makes for some great writing. But the rest of the story is also outstanding with the Seventh Doctor delivering his most powerful speech.
The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Volume 1 - The relaunch of the Bernice Summerfield series would truly hit it’s stride when she teams up with the Unbound Doctor voiced by the late David Warner who I seriously considered writing up a similar list for I loved his work that much. But this first volume was a lot of fun with Bernice encountering the Seventh Doctor searching for Ace who’s gone AWOL from Gallifrey and Benny’s journey will take her right into the heart of the planet filled with the very creatures who took her parent’s lives.
Damaged Goods - Another standout novel adaptation, this time adapting Russel T. Davies’s first official written work for Doctor Who. You can really see some of the early hallmarks of his writing that would go one to become regular tropes of his.
We Are the Daleks - This feels like the kind of episode the Daleks would’ve had if they’d appeared in a show like the Sarah-Jane Adventures. The Daleks create a videogame and manipulate children into playing it when in reality the game’s linked to their ongoing space battles. Doesn’t that just sound like the kind of plot you’d get in a Sarah-Jane Adventures story! Well much like a Sarah-Jane Adventures episode, this one was a fun listen, an early taste to the Doctor the Daleks would come to deal with later on his his life much to their horror.
All-Consuming Fire - I love how matter of factly the story just makes Sherlock Holmes real in the Doctor Who universe! They don’t even attempt to explain how he’s even here when even in Doctor Who he’s meant to be fictional. But that’s not at all distracting, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who is a match made in heaven, especially with one of the most devious Doctors to play off Sherlock Holmes’ towering intellect.
Theatre of War - Another novel adaptation featuring the appearance of regular Big Finish character Irving Braxiatel. The audios always tease but never outright say it but Irving is basically the Doctor’s brother! It acts as his first meeting with Bernice Summerfield which is a whole other can of worms from Big Finish’s vast catalogue. One of the reasons I’m hoping for Big Finish to revive the Novel Adaptations is just how much the Seventh Doctor hogs the original run! It’d be nice for some other Doctors to get a chance to have their best written works put to audio.
You Are the Doctor - A very fun and creative idea for a story story where the story stops you at regular intervals and has you choose which track to go along with to progress the story. It’s one drawback is that it’s very clear only one of each option is the correct one to go with to eep the story going. It’d be great if this idea were revisited but it was a proper choose your own path story with different outcomes.
Nightshade - Yet another novel adaptation and another great entry, I’m not really a big fan of Mark Gattiss as a Doctor Who writer, but this is probably his best written work in Doctor Who, it has this really nice charm to it and some colourful and well written characters.
The Two Masters - Just one year ahead of the show beating them to the punch, Big Finish delivers the first ever multi-Master story. While multi-Doctor stories are always fun to listen to, you know that multiple versions of the Master meeting one another would be more intense and entertaining! What we get is Doctor Who does the Good, the Bad and the Ugly as the Doctor is caught up in a war the Master is waging on his deadliest opponent, himself!
Forever Fallen - The winner of 2017’s Paul Spragg Memorial Competition, like a lot of these fan written short stories, they’re a lot more personal. But Joshua Wanisko really nails Seven’s master chess player mentality as it deals with the idea of the Doctor actually succeeding in convincing a villain to give up his evil plans and turn his skills towards doing good
The Quantum Possibility Engine - The last in a storyline where Mel rejoins the Doctor and Ace, one that I was sure would end with her departure given the ramnifications of this story and her actions, but surprisingly that wasn’t the case. This storyline has had no proper conclusion to date and given the show’s retconning of Mel’s story I think it’s safe to say we’ll never know. This was also the point where the Seventh Doctor audios became a bit directionless. Like they would give us a couple stories set in a new line of continuity with new companions, then just drop it and move somewhere else with no conclusion to the previous storyline.
The New Adventures Volume 1 - Another very poorly titled box set as nearly seven years later there’s been no volume 2. To put it in perspective, Jodie Whittaker was at the tail end of her first series when this box set was released! Which is a shame cos I do like this TARDIS team and taking influence from the New Adventures novels, it features a great conclusion in The Dread of Night.
Muse of Fire - The Doctor, Ace and Hex land in Paris at the height of many of history’s greatest artists creating their finest work, only to discover many of them have been discouraged from pursuing their artistic dreams thanks to a series of scathing reviews orchestrated by trans-temproal adventuress Iris Wildthyme and her companion, the soft toy Panda named Panda (unusually less horny compared to how he normally is in Iris’s audio series). This is very enjoyable as most of Iris’s stories usually are.
Far From Home - Moving over to a rather unusual line of canon where the Seventh Doctor travels with two former companions of his from his Fourth incarnation, Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross, which in turn is a line of canon we wouldn’t even get to hear until the following year! But this is a great couple of stories including a surprise return of the Vastha Nerada.
The Doctor and Carnacki - I really needed a release like this to help wash the bitter taste left from The Last Day. This release sees the Doctor team up with fictional detective Thomas Carnacki in a trio of haunting stories suited to the skills of Carnacki and the Seventh Doctor
And that’s my list, feel free to share your own recommendations and anything you agree or disagree on, and I’ll see you all tomorrow for the Eighth Doctor, take care folks!
do tell