I finished “Family Matters” (Paternoster Gang 3x1), 8/10.
A really strong start with an audio focused on Jenny’s family and her relationship with Vastra, which is so far the most interesting plot in Paternoster Gang.
The main alien enemies are a bit boring (and I do not like their voice), but they have an interesting idea by wanting to find a Silurian who will cause the end of times.
Jenny is flawless, she is the one I like the least out of the 3 PG members but here I loved her, Madame Vastra has good moments, and Strax is the weakest of the 3, probably because it is not an audio focused on him and even then he still has good moments.
Jenny’s family I like as characters and the whole thing of the circus people staying with them because it is their best option is a bit sad.
In general a genuinely solid story and my favorite PG story.
I stayed up late and finished all of The Lost Resort, man that is a great script, it’s rare that a story slows all the way down like this to really focus on where every character is at emotionally, let alone one with a highly decent and twisty and atmospheric plot bubbling away at the same time. This story is partly so strong because all of the secondary characters are compelling to some degree, there’s not just the famously stuffed 5th Doctor TARDIS crew, there’s also our cover-spoiled guest star, and seven other main characters, but it doesn’t get confusing, everyone’s very clearly drawn, there are plenty of scenes with just the secondary characters talking and they’re just as compelling without our leads. The setting is very strange and imaginative. And it certainly got a tear going by the end, there’s just some very lovely dialogue about aging and grief throughout, most of it delivered beautifully by Anna Barry as Aether. Davison and Sarah Sutton were also particularly good I thought. This is ace, another absolutely top notch 5th Doc story from the box set era. 4.5/5, might even go higher on a second listen!
First half of The Silver Turk. It’s good so far. I like Mary as a companion, how she’s clearly from her time of the early 19th century, but that isn’t an excuse to make her helpless. She doesn’t seem to get afraid, she can definitely fight back when needed, and it’s interesting seeing her come to terms with the concept of time travel, and doing pretty well for the lack of knowledge as a result of her time. Do I still think it’s incredibly irresponsible for the Doctor to take an important historical figure out of time to go traveling with him? Yes, but I like her so far. And it gives me more ammo to shoot Nightmare in Silver, as they ripped off the Cyberman playing a board game from this (even if it was actually Porridge controlling it from underneath).
Curios - I really enjoyed this one, Billis Manger manages walk the line between the charmingness of the Master whilst never actually seeming too evil. He’s just great. And the protagonist of this story was really great too, and her ending was so well-done!
Forgotten Lives - This one was fine. I’m suprised post-2020 they never thought to do the body-swapped Jack shtick again. I think the first half was quite good, but the second half feels like it loses some of its focus and relies more on emotional hooks than a good plot.
More Than This - I really like how you can tell they were trying to make a proper storyline before The Story Continues of Gwen and Rhys rebuilding Torchwood. I really wish there was more about this brief era of Torchwood. I think this story was really enjoyable and the protagonist (none-Gwen) had a real emotional depth whilst still working with the plot. It was a surprise to hear RTD in it mind!
Relistened to The Office of Never Was today and it was great, but honestly not as good as I remember
I listened to it on a very crowded train in the middle of the afternoon so the atmosphere was definitely off, but it’s still a great story, 7/10
Finished The Doomsday Contract. I can see why this might appeal to people but the ‘Cambridge undergraduate’ humour started to grate after a while and there’s only so many ‘witty’ ideas that can carry a story. The plot ended up being a bit lacklustre and the characters were all a bit underwhelming. Scorpios was a pretty dull villain and the Children of Pixis were quite unintelligible sometimes and just walked slowly around killing people.
Temmosus from War Doctor: Battlegrounds I found pretty engaging, as far as a slightly stodgy, over serious war mission story goes. The Doctor (“names are for gravestones!”) has helped design a spaceship that could turn the tide in the War and plans to give it to a Thal hero, but there are multiple factions, within their alliance, even within the Dalek ranks, who all have their own ideas about how to use the ship. Love some inter-Dalek politics, it’s when they are most interesting to me, when we see they are even a bit conniving with each other, jockeying for favor with the Emperor, especially higher up in command. Carley plays The Doctor really well here, he delivers some great anger and great quiet wise moments too. Good writing for the guest cast, mostly. There is just that sense that we do want these stories to be a little weirder and more special, if the whole series were just perfectly solid one-off action stories like this then I’m not sure if I’d be up for finishing it, but I did like all the double-crossing. 3.5/5
I wasn’t a fan. I dont like how it paints Queen Victoria as a progressive for the time. She wasn’t. Its a falsifying of history that I just think doesn’t make for an intresting plot (having our protagonist support women’s degrees is less intresting than if it reflected the real queen Victoria actual views on women).
I also think its leaves the listener with a false impression of the Queen and I think that’s harmful. We should reflect real history in media when it deals with characters directly based on real people and their political views. By our modern standards she was a misogynist and I dislike this representation of her as more of a (i hate the term but its accurate here) girlboss.
The story itslef was fine. I didn’t hate it as much as the ratings made me think I would, its a solid 3/5. Not good, but not bad. But my opnions on the story’s portrayal of the Queen do downgrade it to a 2.5 (I know that might be an odd view but this kind of thing really gets on my nerves if you cant tell!)
After my three-day Doctor Who mini-break following Dark Eyes, I’m back today to listen to The First Question (as I imagine quite a few other people will be too). After that, I’m catching up on 2026 releases (Return to Marinus, which I might preempt with a rewatch of The Keys of Marinus, and Beware the City of Illusions!), and by the time I’ve done those two it should be time for Betrayal at the House of Sontar on the 2nd of April. I’m going to take another short break for Easter weekend then I’m back to my ongoing quest to get caught up on Eight with the start of Doom Coalition.
Regarding the whole question of how I listen and what series I have going on that’s been discussed further up, I’ve traditionally been like some of the earlier posters and had multiple series/arcs on the go, but I’ve been making an effort to just stick to one at a time recently so I can really get into them. For now, it’s just the Eighth Doctor stuff and then anything I have preordered, but I do have some plans for after I’m caught up with Eight in a few months time.
Listened to the Who Talk commentary for Episode 6 of The Enemy of the World and then started on Mind of the Hodiac. I’m intrigued by this because it seemed to get quite the lukewarm reception for a ‘lost’ RTD story.
Listening to the BBC Radio Torchwood ep ‘The Dead Line’, and Jesus Christ is Ianto’s monologue gutting:
“Nobody in Torchwood lives to take out their pension, do they? Even if by some miracle I survive to see my hair turn grey, or god forbid “fall out”… I don’t kid myself that you’ll still be around to see it.”
