Also I hate that I can recognise where in Narvin’s timeline it is by how baby faced he is in the cover art 
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Well that was a banger conclusion to the set! I love how we got a good combo of Benny’s smarts and heart, The Doctor’s morals, and Gallifrey politics! And ooooh we got Narvin being evil and amoral!!! What a joy to hear that again after finishing Gallifrey (the series) and hearing his character development! Overall a great finale to a great set! 4.5*
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Listened to Supernature, the first story in The Return of Jo Jones. I was really looking forward to this one because it includes a post-The Green Death and post-Death of the Doctor Jo, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. All the interactions between Three and Jo were lovely, and you can immediately detect the shift in their dynamic - Jo is on a much more equal footing with the Doctor in this one, which was great to hear, given how much she defers to him in a lot of her TV stories (I’m not saying there was anything wrong with their original dynamic, just that it’s nice that you can hear how much she’s grown over the last 50 years). I particularly moved by the scene at the end, when she discusses Cliff’s death - it was very respectfully done, and I was really sad to hear that Stewart Bevan was due to appear in this story before he died, especially given the affection Katy Manning obviously had for him. The lore nerd in me also loved the fact that Jo’s meetings with Eleven were discussed - I always enjoy Classic and New Who colliding.
The core plot was very much in the spirit of Three’s era, and I definitely wasn’t expecting the Forge to be revealed as the antagonists at the end! Hopefully they’ll be back in a future set, because I think it would be very interesting to see them face off against this particular TARDIS duo (and because I just think they’re neat).
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Moving on to the second season of the 9DAs, and Station To Station is exactly the kind of thing to do for a season opener, a smaller stakes warm-up that’s a bit emotional, a bit character-based, but as creepy as you can get it; the tone is a bit similar to Girl, Deconstructed (which should’ve been the S1 opener) so it seems like they’ve taken the note lol. The Doctor is minding his own business observing a strange time phenomenon when a disembodied rhyming voice tells him to take a hike, but he doesn’t know 9 very well, and the TARDIS ends up caught at a phantom railway station that doesn’t exactly exist, populated by ghostly apparitions of people, and one other recent arrival, our one-off companion Saffron, who I definitely warmed to. The atmosphere is turned up to spooky here, and 9’s whimsical, friendly wisdom and steely resolve is well-used. The ending is a little confusing, I get what they’re going for with The Doctor being proved happily wrong, but it was slightly unclear. I didn’t mind the rhyming storybook villain, the performance was pretty great. Really got into this one, 4/5-ish, may settle a little higher or lower with time and the rest of S2!
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A Full Life: hurts. So good. So much pain and so freaking good. I’ve seen this praised a ton so I was a little wary but yeah it is that good. Gonna go cry about Adric now
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John Dorney’s Main Range story The Fourth Wall will give you more context.
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This is one where the music really hits hard. iirc there’s a Music Suite track with the download, and I’ve added that after the story on my copy of it.
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I’m halfway through Rage Of The Time Lords, I really enjoyed the two opening episodes (the first more than the second, a 4 and a 3.5), both establishing the outlines of a larger evil scheme that Reverend Magister (lol) or TS Mereath (lolol) is building towards, and the brutal but playful ends he’ll go to to get it, only very rarely getting his hands dirty. The Survivor is really solid, a kind of Carrie in WW2 situation, with The Master influencing events to his own ends. This might be my favorite spinoff series, we’ll see how it is as I go further, but the scripts and production are such high quality, even in The Coney Island Chameleon, about a sideshow strongman with a shapeshifting alien ward who The Master offers to buy, and when refused, makes his life hell, which I liked a lot in places but didn’t like as much (ah, The American Accent™️ rears its head again). And again The War Master’s theme BANGS. Gonna listen to part 3 now, I know Dreamboat McGann shows up at some point! From the cover haha!
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Oh yes there is! I hadn’t even seen that last night
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Stranded 1.3: Must-See TV
Lisa McMullin is an extraordinary writer. I love her scripts so much and am delighted to report that Must-See TV was no exception. She’s superb at character writing, understands how to write pathos without getting maudlin and is extremely talented at writing stories that showcase the sense of something being off that works so well within the Doctor Who universe.
So, who exactly is Mr Bird and what’s his game? Given how little he actually does, he’s an unsettling presence, a manipulator and a huge enigma.
The quirky behaviour of the TVs in Baker Street rapidly becomes disturbing. The way Mr Bird uses this to turn the other residents against the Doctor is effective.
The Doctor really seems to relish finally having something genuinely weird to investigate. Something that truly requires his extraordinary mind and perspective. Nonetheless, he’s scrabbling in the dark here and there’s a real sense of menace in the long game being played.
Three episodes in and I’m still loving this. Some stellar Eighth Doctor material so far.
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Good to hear you’ve been enjoying it! Episode 4 is where Stranded stopped working for me unfortunately
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I shall listen without preconceptions and see how I feel. I gather it’s a polarising arc. Some seem to love it, whilst others feel differently. So far, so good for me. All could change or I may continue in the “love it” camp. Time, as they say, will tell.
It always does. 
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Was that the Unbound Doctor??
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I’m listening “The Yearn”
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Yep! He travels with Benny in a lot of her sets!
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Does the Unbound Doctor have different incarnations too?
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That I have no clue about, sorry!
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It’s alright! 
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Yeah they do! The original Unbound series was different Doctors in mostly each story, but I assume Warner’s was the most popular hence bringing him back.
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That’s so cool!
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