Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 3

Doom Coalition #3

by John Dorney, Matt Fitton, Paul McGann (Narrator)

3.1 Absent Friends by John Dorney

Earth. The late 20th century. Across the world, the mobile phone is gaining popularity as more and more people decide to join the digital age. But for the residents of a sleepy English town sitting in the shade of a new transmission mast, that ubiquity has a troubling cost.

When the TARDIS veers off-course, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. And sometimes the future does as well.

3.2 The Eighth Piece by Matt Fitton

15th Century Prague: in the castle dungeons, a prisoner raves about the end of the world. Outside, Liv Chenka seeks out the workshop of a strange Clockmaker to see what he is creating.

England, 1538: Lord Thomas Cromwell finds his duties interrupted by otherworldly forces – clockwork soldiers, an unusual nun, and a mysterious scholar calling himself ‘the Doctor’. Perhaps the truth can be extracted in the torture chamber of London’s Bloody Tower?

Rome, 2016: Helen Sinclair has an appointment with an enigmatic Professor, whose greatest work is almost complete. Only the Eighth Piece is missing…

3.3 The Doomsday Chronometer by Matt Fitton

While River Song takes Helen on an archaeological expedition like no other, the Doctor finds himself enlisted by an alien Queen to save her people.

Trapped and alone, Liv stares death in the face as she meets the enemy who’s been dogging the TARDIS travellers’ footsteps throughout Earth’s history.

The Doomsday Chronometer has been protected for five centuries: secret cults and societies jealously guarding its mystery. But what is their real purpose? The Doctor is about to discover the truth…

3.4. The Crucible of Souls by John Dorney

The date has been set.

The trap has been sprung.

A life has been taken and a maniac is on the loose.

With the TARDIS crew separated and in terrible trouble, will today be the day the bad guys win?

Spoilers…

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Time Travel, British Literature

5 pages, Audio CD

First published September 1, 2016

About the author

John Dorney is a British writer and actor best known for stage roles including the National Theatre, the BBC Radio 4 sitcom My First Planet; and his scripts for the Big Finish Doctor Who range. His script 'Solitaire' was rated the most popular Doctor Who Companion Chronicle of 2010 on the Timescales website and was the runner up in Unreality Sci-fi net's poll for Story of the Year 2010-11.

As well as Doctor Who, he has written for Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel series and on radio co-wrote three series of BBC Radio 4's Recorded for Training Purposes. He won the BBC Show Me the Funny 'Sketch Factor' competition, was a finalist in the BBC 'Laughing Stock' competition, and has performed in Mark Watson's Edinburgh Comedy Award winning long shows as 'The Balladeer'. On stage, he has written plays for the Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead and Soho Theatres.

He trained at LAMDA.

Reviews

[Richard Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have given this collection four stars happily. Always enjoyed the Eighth Doctor adventures as they really make use of the massive gap between his first and last appearances and push the boat out. This collection really ups the ongoing saga and manages to include River Song in a way that stretches credulity but doesn't ruin it though the ongoing shtick of meeting previous Doctors but managing to not be noticed is starting to run it's course a little. Love the two Gallifreyan villains, the Clocksmith and the Eleven and loved how they played with regeneration confusion. Solid four to four and a half stars, easy.

But the first story, Absent Friends. Wow. Thanks John Dorney for making me cry on the train. Honestly one of the finest pieces of Doctor Who fiction I've experienced. The heartbreak of having dead loved ones ring up to chat and Helen visiting her brother 30+ years after disappearing and having to pretend to be her own daughter. All beautifully written stuff and utter gold! Five stars by itself, never mind the other three awesome stories!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absent Friends, what a story! The other 3, which were the main continuation of the Doom Coalition narrative, meh, over complicated.

[Taksya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terza parte di quattro della serie Doom coalition, con l'ottavo Dottore, Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair e River Song... meglio Suor Cantica.

River in coppia con il Dottore di McGann fa faville e riesce ad interagire direttamente senza farsi riconoscere. Un trucco facile con gli audio, ma che in video ci priverebbe di Alex Kingston.

La storia sembra prendere un indirizzo diverso rispetto le prime due parti, con The Eleven assente dal gruppo... ma è facile, dopo il primo episodio filler, capire che tutti sono presenti e perfettamente in parte.

3.1 Absent Friends by John Dorney
Storia più incentrata sul passato di Liv e di Helen, che non sulla missione di ricerca del Signore del Tempo dalla personalità multipla.
Ci viene fornito un nuovo pezzo, letteralmente, del puzzle che compone il cuore della vicenda, anche se lo scopriamo solo alla fine della parte.

3.2 The Eighth Piece by Matt Fitton
Una ricerca su vari piani temporali del Doomsday Chronometer, meccanismo in grado di predire quanto manca all'apocalisse.
Recuperato il primo pezzo per caso, il Dottore e le due companion si dividono in tre diverse città emomenti temporali per cercare l'origine e gli altri pezzi del meccanismo.
Ovviamente mettendosi tutti e tre nei guai...

3.3 The Doomsday Chronometer by Matt Fitton
Collegato direttamente al capitolo precedente.
River, nei panni di una suora, riesce a salvare Helen, mentre Liv e il Dottore continuano (separatamente) a impelagarsi sempre di più.
Alla fine i nodi vengono al pettine, ma la matassa si fa sempre più ingarbugliata.
Amici che diventano nemici (nella più classica tradizione gallifreyana) e una rigenerazione imprevista.
L'otto diventa nove... ma non è chi pensiamo sia.

3.4. The Crucible of Souls by John Dorney
Pur non avendo ancora chiara la linea temporale di Eleven, scopriamo i piani dei cattivi e il titolo della serie diventa un po' più chiaro.
Buona interazione tra i vari personaggi e finale in sospeso... la cosa migliore sarebbe stata aspettare di avere tutte le quattro parti a disposizione, prima di iniziare ad ascoltare.

Con un netto miglioramento rispetto alla seconda parte, l'attesa della quarta fino a marzo 2017 sarà lunga.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another brilliant entry in the Doom Coalition series. Another fantastic story by John Dorney to start. Here we had a touching and heartbreaking story where misfunctioning tech made people get phone calls from their dead loved ones. It was a great example about how to make science fiction a very personal story. It built the premise for the three much more interlinked stories which followed.

The rest of the box set followed a much closer plot as the Doctor, Helen and Liv, with the help of a mysterious (sexy) nun tried to put the pieces of some mysterious device back together across many time streams. It was really great, the bits with River and the Doctor together were simply wonderful. It felt like the most equal a Doctor/Companion had been since the Doctor and Romana II. The story was a little convoluted and well worth a 2nd listen. The 11 was definitely at his most interesting here and we were left with a cliff hanger that makes me REALLY want to listen to part 4.

Definitely one I'd recommend.

I listened to it a 2nd time this week after it won the award. A good story, all but the last one passed the Bechdel test (why do the last BF stories keep letting that down) but at least it was gender balanced so that's good.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doom Coalition 3 is what I've wanted from the previous installments in the series. It's a strong set of four interconnected stories that tells an interesting, surprising, and entertaining story from start to finish. It goes a long way towards developing the character of Helen and really gives the Eighth Doctor an interesting challenge. The inclusion of Alex Kingston's River Song in such a prominent role is a welcome one and her interactions with Paul McGann's Doctor are every bit as great as you'd hope they'd be. Doom Coalition 3 has given me a lot of hope and excitement for the final box set of the series and reminded me just why I love these Big Finish Eighth Doctor box sets. The way they're able to create such great imagery without the use of actual visuals is stunning and sometimes it makes me wish this could have actually been a filmed series of the TV show because of how good it is. It's everything Big Finish can do when it's at the top of its game and I can't recommend it enough.

(Full review at my blog)

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm left with a lot of mixed feelings about this box set. There were a lot of fantastic elements throughout each of the stories, but by the second half, it all just fell into a bit of a hot mess that left my by turns out of sorts if not outright furious.

Absent Friends, by John Dorney (5 stars): By far, this was the strongest story of the entire set. Dorney did a fantastic job not only portraying the emotional rollercoaster that both Liv and Helen go through, but also does an amazing job portraying just how far out of his depth the Doctor is when it comes to those very same emotions. The Doctor loves humans, but he'll never quite understand them.

I really felt bad for Helen when she discovered that by visiting her brother, she had locked herself into the bleak life that her family endured with no way of undoing it. Honestly, it amazes me that the Doctor doesn't go over these rules of time travel whenever a new Companion comes onboard. Instead, we see many of the Companions make the same or similar mistakes. Helen goes to visit her brother and discovers that by doing so, that means she can never see him before that date. We see a similar mistake made in Series 1 when Rose saves her father's life when he was supposed to have died, and Nine gets all pissed off about it. The Doctor talks about the responsibilities of abiding by the Rules of Time and whatnot, but he's very lackadaisical in explaining these rules to the people he invites to travel with him. It's not really until the Fifteenth Doctor takes off with Ruby Sunday that he actually makes some kind of effort to let a Companion know ahead of time about the places he can and cannot take him.

Liv's part was also particularly heartbreaking. Like Liv, I too have lost my dad, so the idea of getting to speak to a dead parent one last time (or two, in Liv's case) absolutely drove me to tears. And it was here that we really saw just how out of depth the Doctor was when he's suddenly faced with two emotionally devastated Companions, and he's just... at a complete loss as to what to say or do. It's such a great way of showing the Doctor's limits.

The Eighth Piece, by Matt Fitton (3.5 stars): A decent story! I was very much enjoying seeing Team Eight split up a bit, to the point where they end up in different time periods of all things! Being a bit of a Tudor buff, I quite enjoyed the visit to Tudor England and Eight matching wits with Thomas Cromwell (I got a small chuckle out of Eight's veiled hints at Cromwell's eventual fate). The mystery of Brother Octavian was also quite intriguing! A really great story!

The Doomsday Chronometer, by Matt Fitton (2.5 stars): This one... *sigh* This is where things went downhill for me. Three-quarters of the story was really good. I was enjoying River's return to running about with Helen and Liv, running around with her psychic wimple (which is either hilarious or ridiculous or both), trying to thwart the Clocksmith's efforts to put together the Doomsday Chronometer. The mystery of Brother Octavian is revealed, and it was amazing! Loved the way Fitton added some real dimension to the Eleven (or, the Eight in this case). I actually sympathized for them!

And then, at the Eleventh hour (no pun intended)... it all falls apart. The Doctor decides to continue on the journey of stopping whoever is trying to destroy the Universe with River (who is still in disguise so he doesn't see her true face b/c Spoilers) while leaving Liv and Helen behind. Again, I repeat, he decides to run off with someone he's just met (who he called his stalker not ten minutes before) and leave his Companions behind to think him dead. What. The. Fuck?! Dude doesn't even pause to check to make sure Liv and Helen made it out alive! Again WTF?! This utterly infuriated me. Please let someone punch the Doctor for this before this is all over.

The Crucible of Souls, by John Dorney (3 stars): And we end on a cliffhanger. Everything comes together in a, as a mentioned above, a hot mess. We've got an evil cabal of Time Lords out to destroy everything in the Universe in the hope of preserving Gallifrey and the Time Lords (which, tbf, is a nice way of foreshadowing their eventual actions at the end of the Time War). We've got Padrac turning out to be one of said cabal, so angst! Betrayal! Because of the Doctor's carelessness, Liv and Helen get roped in with the Nine in the aftermath of his regeneration, both under the impression that he is the Doctor. We get to see the Nine treat them both like trash, to the point where he actually leaves Liv behind at the mercy of the Time Lords after stealing a bunch of their stuff, and when he both threatens Helen's life and freezes/stuns her after she tells him off for being a dick. We learn that the Nine is actually interfering with his future self's plans, adding even more temporal chaos.

Then everything and everyone comes together. Liv figures out that the guy disguised as the Clocksmith is actually the Doctor, and she is able to eventually clue Helen in, or at least keep her from giving the game away. Padrac packs them off to the end of the destroyed universe or whatever, leaving River behind. No time to process the emotions of what the Doctor had done. One hopes we'll get to see that in the next boxed set. There needs to be some fallout of the Doctor's decisions.

Honestly, I'm not keen on River being deeply involved with Classic Doctors. Her own meetings with them in the Diary of River Song series were a mixed bag, and while I enjoyed seeing her skirt along the edges of Eight's life but just out of sight, I emphatically did not like her coming in and ousting Liv and Helen from their rightful places. It's only through sheer dumb luck that they *didn't* get left behind in 2016, stranded and believing the Doctor dead. For me, River is best off doing her own thing and not involving herself too closely in whatever the Doctor is getting up to. I suppose, though, since Big Finish adores Alex Kingston that that won't be happening. Lovely.

[Xander Toner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I much prefer standalone stories in comparison to these box sets. By far the best story within this set was Absent Friends, which wasn't really connected to the other three, and it was truly spectacular. I'm gonna be returning to that one many, many times. The other three, not so much.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too much of a noisy sci-fi soap opera alas. Lots of good elements... too many of them. If you are going to have key characters with multiple personalities/regenerations like the Eleven, or River Song trying to avoid spoilers, perhaps the rest should be kept simple.

[Emilija · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Absent Friends by John Dorney

The 50 Prompt Eighth Doctor Reading Challenge - Core Doctor Who Themes - 4) A Time Travel Story With Emotional Consequences

This was a fantastic piece of fiction, possibly one of the best Eighth Doctor story I’ve listened to. Having both Liv and Helen interaction with their family in the ways they do, contrasting them, was so beautiful. In fact, the receiving phone calls from dead family members is a great way to make the story feel more personal and connect to it.

It also tugs on the heartstrings with the Doctor answering the call as the story ends.

There was also a hit and miss River Song reference which has she not been on the cover, would have meant nothing.

Rating - 5* / 5*


2/3. The Eighth Piece / The Doomsday Chronometer by Matt Fitton

The 150 Prompt Doctor Who Reading Challenge - Fourth Doctor’s Companions - 4) Romana I: The Quest For The Key - Read a book structured around a quest, puzzle or hint of powerful artifices.

I’m not normally a fan of all of the main characters split up and on their own, but this story does it quite well. The third with the Doctor and Thomas Cromwell was probably the most interesting, until the rejoin in The Doomsday Chronometer. As these two stories act like a two parter, and are so interlinked, it’s pretty hard to talk about them separately. The two are basically a massive treasure hunt which gets a bit interesting later on. There’s a lot of time travel stuff in this two parter which makes the plot a little difficult to follow, but it’s interesting regardless.

The Doctor is also a massive dick at the end of part 2/episode 3, and if I were Liv or Helen, I’d want to punch him in the face.

I’m also not a fan of River Song, but her running around with a psychic wimple is pretty hilarious. I kinda wish that they weren’t doing the River meeting the Classic Doctors because you spend all this time with her inventing reasons why he won’t recognise her later on, in order to maintain continuity, and then using all of these pseudonyms that are related to her character in the show, and it’s like… I just find it really frustrating. Also, her guessing at Time Lord / Gallifreyian society is frankly annoying and half insulting.

I also found the reveal at the end pretty cool. Obviously it had to be related to the rest of the Doom Coalition boxset somehow, and this explains it, but I did still really like it.

There’s also a lot of shouting and loud groaning, which is kinda annoying when you’re listening with headphones because it’s so loud compared to the talking that my eardrums were aching.

Rating - 3* / 5*


4. The Crucible of Souls by John Dorney

The 150 Prompt Doctor Who Reading Challenge - Seventh Doctor - 1) Chess Master In The Shadows: Read a book featuring a mastermind protagonist or a character who manipulates events from behind the scenes.

This was quite a decent installment in the boxset, and while it ends on a cliffhanger, I would still say that it was better than the previous 2 stories, if only because I found them so confusing and this story was at least more understandable.

I did actually like that this story was set on Gallifrey. I just find Gallifrey really interesting, and to see a evil cabal of Time Lords, foreshadowing their downfall on the TV series, I just thought it was really interesting. I actually appreciated that while River was there, she wasn't that involved in the plot, which it was indicated that she would be, considering that part 3 ended with her and the Doctor running away in a TARDIS together.

Honestly, the three stories together, they're a little bit of a hot mess, and while I did struggle to follow everything, I did quite enjoy being along for the ride.

Rating - 3* / 5*

Overall Rating - 4* / 5*

Honestly I wanted to rate it 3* overall, but Absent Friends was so fantastic that it really pulled up the entire boxset. I need more stories like this in my life, it was amazing.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third volume of this four-volume series is the strongest so far, which is saying something. At first, it appears to have little connection with the overall plot arc, but that gradually changes as it goes along. And it has River Song in it, for those who want that new-series touch.

* Absent Friends - The first story sees the Doctor and companions arriving in 1990s England to encounter a seemingly minor mystery about mobile phones. The mystery itself is well-crafted, with a number of red herrings, but that's not the strength of the episode. Rather, it's a story about family and loss, involving both Helen and Liv in different ways, the sort of bittersweet story that the new series occasionally does but that the original never did. Of course, some prefer it that way and may regret the almost complete lack of action, but there can be few of us who can't at least identify with what Liv's going through. 5 stars.

* The Eighth Piece/The Doomsday Chronometer - A single two-hour story which is more complex than most typical DW tales. At its heart, it's a MacGuffin hunt, with the central characters searching for parts of something in three different periods of Earth's history. The complexities of time travel feature heavily in this, as one might expect, and it's long enough to allow the mystery of what on Earth this has to do with the plot of the previous two volumes (a lot, as it happens) to unfold slowly. Thomas Cromwell is perhaps over-played as villainous, and Helen and Liv make a mistake near the end that's hard to swallow, but these are the only weaknesses. River Song also jumps into the narrative here, this time using a psychic wimple to disguise her appearance and allow her to properly interact with the Doctor for a change... I assume there will be more of this in later releases. 4 stars.

* The Crucible of Souls - Finally, we discover what this was all about, in a story tying together most of what's happened so far. There's an enormous universe-spanning threat, but that's not anything remarkable in DW and this one isn't notably different from all the others. What's more interesting is the villains' motivations, and how they've set everything up to lead to this outcome. While there's also a fair bit of exposition, there's plenty of action, and the story ends on a dramatic cliffhanger that leads into the final volume. 5 stars.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unless Doom Coalition 4 goes completely sideways into Full Potato, I'm just going to go ahead and say that this has been my favorite overall audio series from Big Finish in a long time. All four of the stories in this box set have been top-notch. The first one - Absent Friends - was a little different than the rest, but it provided some wonderful character growth for Helen (which she sorely needed) while also moving the entire DC story along.

The remaining three stories all connect together so wonderfully. The addition of River Song (Professor Malone, Sister Cantica - whatever we're calling her this time) gave the Doctor, Liv, and Helen a chance to separate a bit and have their own little missions, which I quite enjoyed.

Oddly enough, my favorite part of this story came towards the end where everyone (including the Doctor) thinks that the Nine is the Doctor and it kind of turns into a Shakespearean "dramedy" where the entire universe hangs in the balance. Usually, I would find that sort of thing super-irritating. It's like - why can't everyone get their facts straight?? But for some reason, while Liv had been abandoned, and Helen was off with the Not-Doctor, and the Gallifreyans were scrambling to stop "The Doctor" from destroying everything, and The Doctor and River were making good use of the psychic headgear to disguise themselves - I just sat back and enjoyed the seriousness of the farce playing out through my car speakers. I don't really know how to describe it, other than I laughed where I probably shouldn't have done - but I didn't care because I was having a blast with it.

Now, I've already started Doom Coalition 4 and it's turning out to deal with things in a more serious way, which is definitely warranted. But the setup in 3 was just superb and I cannot wait to see how the entire story ends. Top marks to the entire Big Finish crew!

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doom Coalition 3 makes up for much of the disappointment I had with the first and second installments of the series. It starts building a coherent story out the threads begun earlier. Surprisingly, the first part does not seem to have that relationship until we get to part 2. Absent Friends is almost a one-off. Doctor 8, Liv, and Helen arrive in late 1990s England where people are receiving phone calls from dead loved ones through new mobile phones given out to the community to get them on board with a new cell phone tower. It seems a strange and pointlessly cruel plan for a villain. There is a huge surprise when we discover what is really going on. The story allows Liv and Helen to face some personal demons. All in all, it is a very low key story. It does, however, get the Doctor onto a new problem, a clock built in the 1500s that is much more than an ordinary clock. In The Eighth Piece, the TARDIS crew split into three time zones to track down the pieces of this clock. River Song turns up. What has she to do with it? At least she has a psychic wimple to prevent The Doctor from learning who she is. The pace picks up significantly as we are introduced to a new rogue Time Lord villain - The Clocksmith. Part 3, The Doomsday Chronometer, is the best of this box set. It's a direct continuation from The Eighth Piece, and follows through nicely at all that is implied therein. The final part, The Crucible of Souls, is the big reveal, when we find out who is behind all these time shenanigans and what it's all about. The whole set is quite satisfying, with some problematic bits, such as the living puzzle box aliens and that the universe seems filled to the brim with rogue Time Lords. The standout performance of the series is John Hefernan as The Nine.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! The 11 (8,9,12 or whichever one is in charge) continues to be the most creatively designed villain in Doctor Who and the character is used to perfection in this set. At times creepy, heartbreaking, heroic, and downright scary as hell, Doom Coalition 3 raises the bar in an already excellent series.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that was awesome. Loving River and the Doctor in this.

[Anneli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Big Finish!
They and the cast makes AWESOME stuff!
I wish this was a telly one (the whole Doom Coalititon 1-4)

[Steven Shinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Doom Coalition box set so far. The Eight and The Nine are interesting ideas. The "I've won" at the end feels like the antithesis to the Twelfth Doctor saying it's not about winning.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

River song and 8-- it's a stretch but what isn't in doctor who

[Stephen Higham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 01 Absent Friends is wonderful.

Alex Kingston and Paul McGanns Doctor really get to interact and play together in this one.

Liv is still the best.

[Marcel Driel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This boxset was better than DC 1 and 2 together. The second to fourth stories were solid, funny and engaging, but the first one - called Absent Friends - had me teared up.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strongest 8th doctor box set for a while. Regulars in fine form and guest stars are excellent. Stories are great and it ends on a cliffhanger. What more could you ask for? :)

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sitting here at work, crying my eyes out after listening to Absent Friends.

[Maj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that's more like it!

This series of Doom Coalition was just pretty flippin great from start to finish. The first ep, of course, award nominated and all, is exceptional - subversive and moving, and gives Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan a lot to work with, and damn, do they deliver - esp. my beloved Nicola!

But even when the adventure part of the series starts in the second ep, the quality definitely doesn't slump. It somehow manages to mix 15th century Prague (hometown shout-out!) with Thomas Cromwell (alas not Wolf Hall-y!) and modern day Rome, and it all works splendidly.

And then there's River - I just LOVE the way they managed to incorporate River into Eighth Doctor's era! Yes, it kind of hinges on Eight being too busy trying to figure out other stuff & therefore not digging into if River is who she appears to be, but so far it's been working really, really well.

I singled out Absent Friends at the beginning but while the series' last episode - The Crucible of Souls - doesn't feature the intimacy and emotions of the opener, it's nevertheless quite a ride of an episode! Somebody's back, another's a betrayer, very few are who they appear to be and nobody is an imbecile.

Just how will our heroes get out of this one? Can't wait to hear in the 4th instalment!

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor and his companions try to track down pieces to a time clock.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absent Friends:
9/10
Verdict: Recommended

I love this story. Every aspect to this is amazing. Great subversive plot with some incredibly moving moments. Everyone is stellar in this, especially Liv, who really sells the emotion of this story. Helen's storyline is also heartbreaking, and while the ending to her arc is a bit rushed I like the sentiment of it. Highly recommend this.

The Eighth Piece / The Doomsday Chronometer:
7/10
Verdict: Recommended

Fun time hopping with some endearing side characters, if underutilised, and some good forward momentum. The ongoing mystery to the identity of Octavian was very satisfying, even on multiple listens, and while I'm not all that into The Clocksmith, having another Time Lord villain is great. I loved the sound design, it helped keep this admittedly muddled plot comprehensible, and because of it I was able to keep visuals of what was happening. The macguffin of the titular eigth piece and doomsday chronometer were pretty dull in concept but were a pretty good function in the story overall. And that cliff hanger... whew.

The Crucible of Souls:
7/10
Verdict: Recommended

I love the concept behind this one, and avoiding spoilers is gonna be difficult. 'Octavian' was amazing in this, and the tension from the big secret throughout this was thrilling. Liv and Helen were properly great in this, and while the plot did lose itself a little at the end, it was pretty stellar throughout. River and Eight make a great team, even if one of them is walking on eggshells the entire time. Not really a fan of the ending, the 'big bad' sort of comes off a bit dull and his plan isn't fleshed out enough here, though there is a nice parallel to choices the Doctor makes later in his life.

[Joseph S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. One of the best Doctor Who boxsets and stories overall, in DW history.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning more about Liv's family and that River Song had a bigger part in this series. The way they prevented the Doctor from seeing her was quite brilliant, I thought