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Big Finish: Monthly Range #150
Doctor Who: Recorded Time and Other Stories
Recorded Time by Catherine Harvey
The TARDIS travellers find themselves at the court of Henry VIII, where the tragic Anne Boleyn will soon be discarded by her King in favour of the lovely Perpugilliam Brown. Or so it is written…
Paradoxicide by Richard Dinnick
On the legendary lost planet of Sendos, the Doctor and Peri find themselves caught up in the hunt for the cache of galaxy-busting super-weapons stored inside its fabled Armoury.
A Most Excellent Match by Matt Fitton
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of a mind of her own must be in want of a husband. But which of Miss Peri Brown's rival suitors will be the one to win her hand: handsome Mr Darcy, or the mysterious Doctor?
Question Marks by Philip Lawrence
Five survivors of an unknown catastrophe wake to find themselves caught in an inescapable trap. But can the oddly-dressed man in the question-marked collar work out what's really going on before time runs out – for good?
The TARDIS travellers find themselves at the court of Henry VIII, where the tragic Anne Boleyn will soon be discarded by her King in favour of the lovely Perpugilliam Brown. Or so it is written…
Paradoxicide by Richard Dinnick
On the legendary lost planet of Sendos, the Doctor and Peri find themselves caught up in the hunt for the cache of galaxy-busting super-weapons stored inside its fabled Armoury.
A Most Excellent Match by Matt Fitton
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of a mind of her own must be in want of a husband. But which of Miss Peri Brown's rival suitors will be the one to win her hand: handsome Mr Darcy, or the mysterious Doctor?
Question Marks by Philip Lawrence
Five survivors of an unknown catastrophe wake to find themselves caught in an inescapable trap. But can the oddly-dressed man in the question-marked collar work out what's really going on before time runs out – for good?
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First published August 31, 2011
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About the author
Catherine Harvey
34 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 26, 2023
Doctor Who: Recorded Time and Other Stories - 3.25/5 stars
Recorded Time by Catherine Harvey - 3/5 stars
This was a decent story featuring Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, I think it could have been two parts as a lot of the story was rushed.
Paradoxicide by Richard Dinnick - 1/5 stars
This one is a complete mess.
A Most Excellent Match by Matt Fitton - 4/5 stars
I don't love the Jane Austin and classic literature references but the plot is probably the most coherent from the last 2 and makes this a stronger story.
Question Marks by Philip Lawrence - 5/5 stars
Mysterious and emotional. The ending is soul-crushing.
Recorded Time by Catherine Harvey - 3/5 stars
This was a decent story featuring Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, I think it could have been two parts as a lot of the story was rushed.
Paradoxicide by Richard Dinnick - 1/5 stars
This one is a complete mess.
A Most Excellent Match by Matt Fitton - 4/5 stars
I don't love the Jane Austin and classic literature references but the plot is probably the most coherent from the last 2 and makes this a stronger story.
Question Marks by Philip Lawrence - 5/5 stars
Mysterious and emotional. The ending is soul-crushing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 28, 2025
Four short stories featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri. Each one brings its own thing to the table, and while they are all very individual, the first three do have a surprisingly, eye-watering weigh-in on the ending of the last one.
"Recorded Time" features Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and it's nice to see the Tudors in Doctor Who since this is surprisingly a fairly underdone era by the franchise. It's a pretty good story too.
"Paradoxicide" employs an interesting play on gender politics and, well, paradoxes, with a well-acted villain who falls under the 'love to hate' category.
"A Most Excellent Match" is probably the weakest in the set for me. Dragged on for half an hour and I think I even started falling asleep towards the end of it.
"Question Marks" is... Well, it features a classic Big Finish style twist, with a very emotionally compelling climax.
All in all, this is a great release if you're looking for some Six and Peri content. The ending of "Question Marks" ties the whole set of stories together, and you realise it was about the theme of the set rather than a direct story arc - It's about how fast, wild and reckless the travels of a TARDIS team can be, and how those unwillingly affected by them can have their lives changed (or lost) forever.
"Recorded Time" features Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and it's nice to see the Tudors in Doctor Who since this is surprisingly a fairly underdone era by the franchise. It's a pretty good story too.
"Paradoxicide" employs an interesting play on gender politics and, well, paradoxes, with a well-acted villain who falls under the 'love to hate' category.
"A Most Excellent Match" is probably the weakest in the set for me. Dragged on for half an hour and I think I even started falling asleep towards the end of it.
"Question Marks" is... Well, it features a classic Big Finish style twist, with a very emotionally compelling climax.
All in all, this is a great release if you're looking for some Six and Peri content. The ending of "Question Marks" ties the whole set of stories together, and you realise it was about the theme of the set rather than a direct story arc - It's about how fast, wild and reckless the travels of a TARDIS team can be, and how those unwillingly affected by them can have their lives changed (or lost) forever.
June 8, 2020
This was a fun anthology. "Recorded Time" is a Henry VIII tale that touches upon how history is written and rewritten. Amusingly, The Doctor is believed to be a jester because of how he looks. There's emotional music at the end that feels reminiscent of the Tenth Doctor's theme. "Paradoxicide" is my least favorite of the stories, but it's not bad. "A Most Excellent Match" finds Peri and The Doctor in a Jane Austen story, and it's funny how The Doctor is competing for Peri's hand in marriage. "Question Marks" has an abrupt ending, but I thought it was funny how it's taken this long for the Sixth Doctor to notice the question marks on his collar. And in one of the stories, The Doctor makes wonderful puns out of Peri's name.
October 11, 2019
A very fun anthology release, with some very fun adventures with the best defintely being the last story Question Marks!
Recorded Time: 8/10
Paradoxicide: 8/10
A Most Excellent Match: 8/10
Question Marks: 9/10
Recorded Time: 8/10
Paradoxicide: 8/10
A Most Excellent Match: 8/10
Question Marks: 9/10
February 19, 2024
Question Marks is excellent, the rest, much less so
June 27, 2017
An anthology of four 30-minute stories featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri.
* Recorded Time - The Doctor visits the court of King Henry VIII in 1536, shortly before Anne Boleyn's arrest and subsequent execution. Somebody, it seems, is using a magic pen to literally rewrite history, and the result is an implausible tale that doesn't really make too much sense. Add this to some relatively poor acting from the guest actors, especially at the beginning, and this is easily the weakest story of the collection. 2 stars.
* Paradoxicide - Matriarchal aliens come to an abandoned planet in search of powerful weapons rumoured to be buried there. The core of the story, as its title indicates, revolves around a time paradox (although not a particularly strong one), as well as the mystery of what happened to the inhabitants of the planet. This part of it is reasonable enough, but some fairly implausible plot devices, most notably the way that the ship's computer works, bring it down. 3 stars.
* A Most Excellent Match - Peri is trapped inside a Jane Austen novel in a story that later brings in other 19th century English authors who are safely out of copyright. This sort of thing has been done in Doctor Who before, including by Big Finish themselves, although this is a decent example of the type. Despite the appearance of characters from the novels in question, it has little to do with the plot of any of them (and, indeed, isn't supposed to), so detailed knowledge of the genre isn't required. Fortunately, it lacks the implausibility of the first two stories in the anthology, and is a better piece for it. 4 stars.
* Question Marks - The Doctor and Peri wake up in what appears to be a spaceship, with no knowledge of who they are, or how they got there, and are soon joined by an equally amnesiac crew. This is a good mystery piece, as everyone tries to put together what happened, and where they actually are, and the tension mounts as the ship comes under threat. It's well suited to its 30-minute length, and ends the anthology on a high. 5 stars.
On average, that's 3.5 stars, which I feel obliged to round down because of the weakness of the first two stories, even if things get steadily better as it goes along.
* Recorded Time - The Doctor visits the court of King Henry VIII in 1536, shortly before Anne Boleyn's arrest and subsequent execution. Somebody, it seems, is using a magic pen to literally rewrite history, and the result is an implausible tale that doesn't really make too much sense. Add this to some relatively poor acting from the guest actors, especially at the beginning, and this is easily the weakest story of the collection. 2 stars.
* Paradoxicide - Matriarchal aliens come to an abandoned planet in search of powerful weapons rumoured to be buried there. The core of the story, as its title indicates, revolves around a time paradox (although not a particularly strong one), as well as the mystery of what happened to the inhabitants of the planet. This part of it is reasonable enough, but some fairly implausible plot devices, most notably the way that the ship's computer works, bring it down. 3 stars.
* A Most Excellent Match - Peri is trapped inside a Jane Austen novel in a story that later brings in other 19th century English authors who are safely out of copyright. This sort of thing has been done in Doctor Who before, including by Big Finish themselves, although this is a decent example of the type. Despite the appearance of characters from the novels in question, it has little to do with the plot of any of them (and, indeed, isn't supposed to), so detailed knowledge of the genre isn't required. Fortunately, it lacks the implausibility of the first two stories in the anthology, and is a better piece for it. 4 stars.
* Question Marks - The Doctor and Peri wake up in what appears to be a spaceship, with no knowledge of who they are, or how they got there, and are soon joined by an equally amnesiac crew. This is a good mystery piece, as everyone tries to put together what happened, and where they actually are, and the tension mounts as the ship comes under threat. It's well suited to its 30-minute length, and ends the anthology on a high. 5 stars.
On average, that's 3.5 stars, which I feel obliged to round down because of the weakness of the first two stories, even if things get steadily better as it goes along.
January 9, 2012
Big Finish's 150th regular release was a set of four short stories by different writers, all of whom I think are new to Who audios, and all with a common theme of loss of identity for the Sixth Doctor, Peri or both. In Recorded Time by Catherine Harvey, Peri falls into the clutches of Henry VIII who is incidentally trying to rewrite history; Paradoxicide by Richard Dinnick is a more standard space opera tale but with some interesting twists; in A Most Excellent Match by Matt Fitton our heroes find themselves both battling a telepathic parasite and trapped in classic nineteenth-century literature; and in Philip Lawrence's Question Marks, what appears at first to be a case of mass amnesia on an endangered spaceship turns out to be much worse. The four stories are all individually good but become very strong as a group; the whole is even better than the parts. The rotating cast includes Philip Bretherton (again) and Raquel Cassidy who I have been enjoying as the Labour minister in Party Animals.
February 6, 2016
4 Stories with The Doctor and Peri.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews