The blood of innocents has been spilt a terrible sequence of events has been set in motion. The forces of darkness are on the move.
Deep underground, an army of light prepares itself for the oncoming war.
The Doctor's used to winning. Stumbling in, reading the face of the enemy, and then beating the odds but what if this time he's got it wrong? Charley and C'rizz think he has.
Stripped of all that is familiar, just who is the Doctor? Major Koth thinks he knows.
Lost among the dark caverns of an unknown world, has the Doctor finally met his match?
Will Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors.
You can currently find him every weekday on the radio reading the news headlines, whilst writing crime novels in the afternoon. Will has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics.
His debut novel, The Burning Men, will be published by Hodder.
This is an eighth Doctor story with Charley Pollard and C'Rizz as the companions, and is #55 in the Big Finish main range.
The Doctor and his companions move into the next zone in the Divergent universe to discover a cave complex which houses a group of rebellion fighters against a local political group. The rebellion is led by a Major Koth who is extremely mysterious and seems to have some mind-controlling abilities.
This is much more a traditional Doctor Who story than any of the last few eighth Doctor audios in this series. Still very dark though with some body horror that wouldn't have made it into the television series, but then again, I could say that of most of the Divergent universe stories. I'm being deliberately vague about the story, because it's actually quite a cool idea and I don't want to spoil it.
2023 52 Book Challenge - April Mini Challenge - 2) Title Includes The Letters "E", "G" and "G"
I'm really not enjoying this Divergent Universe plot at all. I find the stories alternatingly boring and confusing, and I can't wait for them to be finished.
A cut above the rest, this probably doesn't deserve 5 full stars but it can have them anyway to distinguish it from its neighbours. Too tired to write anything of substance right now but suffice to say I like-liked it.
3.65 stars Started off well enough but dragged a bit in the middle. Listening to Paul Mcgann is always a treat. C'rizz continues to be interesting and Charley a bit whiny.
Just terrible. This is just a mish-mash of mediocre elements crammed together with a "twist" that you will see from a thousand miles away. Hardly an original idea in the thing. Even poor Michael Keating seems handcuffed by being cast as such an aimless cipher. And what the hell are they doing to poor Charlie?! Where's our smart, sharp-tongued, energetic Edwardian Adventuress?! She's been turned into a love-sick sloth that would seem to be designed to give The Doctor someone to character-build off of... If they were doing any character building with him. I don't know much about the production of this, but it seems not to have been really a "Divergent Universe" story at all and has been manhandled into fitting into the run. So absolutely forgettable. Up to this point I'd say that Scherzo and A Natural History of Fear are truly remarkable and completely unique Doctor Who stories that seem to justify the "DU" plot, but oh boy are the other two terrible. I am glad that Big Finish gives it a rest for a bit right after this.
別の宇宙からこの世界に来ているのがどうやらドクターたちだけでないことが判明。少なくとも前回と今回の冒険が"The Creed of the Kromon"で登場したクロカに導かれたもので、クロカの導きで次の冒険に向かう3人。ターディスも隠されているだけで、この世界のどこかにあるらしい。クロカにここに来た真の目的を問われ、ドクターが答えたのはラシロンを探すこと。どうやら、チャーリーを助けたことからはじまった不思議なタイムラインとドクターの関わりの物語はまだまだ続いているようだ。
Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!
THERE'S A CAVE IN THE JUNGLE!
The Twilight Kingdom is structured closer to a typical Doctor Who adventure, as Eight, Charley, and C’rizz find themselves in a jungle and jumble upon a body, only to be caught by soldiers, with whom they then explore a nearby, mysterious cave. This is a straightforward story that keeps its cards close to the chest for quite a while, and it doesn’t lean very hard into tension or excitement.
While The Natural History of Fear suffered from being very confusing, it had interesting ideas and occasionally tense bits. The Twilight Kingdom is almost so stripped-down that I struggle to maintain interest.
The Doctor, Charley, and C’rizz are pretty boring in this one, and the companions especially don’t manage to stand out. On paper, I like the military characters, but I struggle to distinguish between them.
There are strange alien voices that add nothing to the whole, plenty of sequences in caves with rat-like creatures that don’t come alive, and an eventual reveal in the last episode that lacks the punch it needs to lift this adventure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Yeah I absolutely loved this one. The cave guy liked the cave story; who’s surprised?
Genuinely though there’s a lot of good things going on here: a compelling mystery, a solid cast of secondary characters, a weird cave, and a resistance movement. I really vibed with this.
Excluding Scherzo, the Divergent Universe had been pretty disappointing to me so far. So when I saw that this episode that was outright panned by the reddit nerds, I wasn’t excited.
Luckily for me, this thing quickly set the record straight. This story is intriguing, well acted, and has the strongest secondary characters I’ve seen since we entered this universe. It’s a lot of fun, and also manages to have some genuinely thoughtful things to say on the nature of grief.
This story is stronger than its reputation. This is the first story in the Divergent Universe that feels like a typical episode of Doctor Who, and I mean that in the best way possible. The middle may drag, but generally I think people may find this to be a nice brain reset coming off of Scherzo and the Natural History of Fear.
Much more like a standard Who story, the last one was something I loved for how unique it is in Who how different and bold it is.
This one was just as much a joy to listen to but is something more expected of Who. And that isn’t necessarily a problem but I’m listening to these blind so after something so riveting a return to something a bit more normal has me enjoying it that little bit less.
Still outstandingly engineered and performed though which makes it such a joy to begin with.
I somehow missed the fact that Michael Keating was in this. But anyways, this one was rather boring in the middle. The beginning and ending was great despite this. The Doctor gives a poetic speech, the writers purposefully point out that Charley and him are avoiding their Feelings, and just some really good dialogue. Still impressed despite the slow middle!
Halfway through the Divergent Universe arc, and it feels like there hasn't been enough good stuff yet. The namedrop at the end does leave me curious, but I'll have to see how it's handled.
Not the best of the season, but still an entertaining audio. The main thing I enjoyed about this serial was the setting and the villain, which were both fantastic, but it just was a bit boring at times and lost my attention. Still would recommend for a devoted Doctor Who/Big Finish fan, to at least listen once.
I just didn't really care. After the dystopian soundscape of The Natural History of Fear and the blank void of Scherzo, a cave isn't particularly exciting to listen to. There was some nice bits in Part 4 revolving around a monster trying to get into the Doctor's head and break him, but it was fleeting at best.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm really enjoying the 8th Doctor BF audios and C'rizz as a companion. He and Charlie play off each other well and with the Doctor. The Twilight Kingdom is a good addition to the range, with plenty of thought and a good mix of adventure and drama.
I like this story, though I hated it on my first listen. I found myself really enjoying the on going mystery and actually quite liked the conclusion. This story possibly needs multiple listens, but I feel I might have been a doofus the first time round.
I wonder at what point in the Eighth Doctor audios will his tendency towards memory loss/mind manipulation be less of a recurring thing? All the same, enjoyed this well enough.