What do you think?
Big Finish: Monthly Range #217
Doctor Who: The Memory Bank and Other Stories
Four new adventures featuring the Fifth Doctor and Turlough!
The Memory Bank by Chris Chapman
The Doctor and Turlough arrive on a planet where to be forgotten is to cease to exist. But the Forgotten leave a gap in the world – and that’s where the monsters are hiding.
The Last Fairy Tale by Paul Magrs
Deep in the heart of old Europe, the village of Vadhoc awaits the coming of a mythical teller of magical tales – but not all such stories end happily, the TARDIS travellers discover.
Repeat Offender by Eddie Robson
The Doctor has tracked the deadly Bratanian Shroud to 22nd century Reykjavík – where he’s about to become the victim of a serial criminal. Again.
The Becoming by Ian Potter
A young woman climbs a perilous mountain in search of her destiny. The Doctor and Turlough save her from the monsters on her trail – but what awaits them in the Cavern of Becoming is stranger, even, than the ravening Hungerers outside.
The Memory Bank by Chris Chapman
The Doctor and Turlough arrive on a planet where to be forgotten is to cease to exist. But the Forgotten leave a gap in the world – and that’s where the monsters are hiding.
The Last Fairy Tale by Paul Magrs
Deep in the heart of old Europe, the village of Vadhoc awaits the coming of a mythical teller of magical tales – but not all such stories end happily, the TARDIS travellers discover.
Repeat Offender by Eddie Robson
The Doctor has tracked the deadly Bratanian Shroud to 22nd century Reykjavík – where he’s about to become the victim of a serial criminal. Again.
The Becoming by Ian Potter
A young woman climbs a perilous mountain in search of her destiny. The Doctor and Turlough save her from the monsters on her trail – but what awaits them in the Cavern of Becoming is stranger, even, than the ravening Hungerers outside.
Audio CD
First published October 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 14, 2024
The fifth doctor is one I find surprisingly well suited to 4-part anthology stories its weird but it really works for me. But the biggest takeaway from this release is how much I love hearing the Doctor with just Turlough, they’re a lot of fun together. Since Jamie and Troughton hasn't it been?
Last time two fellas? I don’t think I’ll ever like Tegan, I just kinda detest everything about her.
Tale One: The Memory Bank - 8/10
The Memory Bank was such an interesting concept if you forget someone they die, and its one fella's job to remember everyone.
Tale Two: The Last Fairy Tale - 7.5/10
The Doctor and Turlough land in some village where a prophecy is hanging around. Its about a certain storyteller who would come to the village, a mysterious stranger. I love how Turlough is like yeah that’s the Doctor it's always the Doctor. Sadly, I had to take a leave of absence with this story half way through, doing that for 30-minute stories kinda sucks. But the first half reminded me a lot of the Kingmaker.
Coming back to it I just
Tale Three: Repeat Offender - 10/10
I loved everything about this one. It isn’t really that complicated of a concept but the execution of the story is just wow I’m kinda in awe how good this was. I don’t want to say it’s super experimental but it did remind me a lot of time shenanigans they used to do. All the while it did feel like a very Moffat type of story.
Tale Four: The Becoming – 4/10
This is probably the one dud in the collection, shame it had to come last but it is what it is. I just don’t particularly care about what goes on here.
Last time two fellas? I don’t think I’ll ever like Tegan, I just kinda detest everything about her.
Tale One: The Memory Bank - 8/10
The Memory Bank was such an interesting concept if you forget someone they die, and its one fella's job to remember everyone.
Tale Two: The Last Fairy Tale - 7.5/10
The Doctor and Turlough land in some village where a prophecy is hanging around. Its about a certain storyteller who would come to the village, a mysterious stranger. I love how Turlough is like yeah that’s the Doctor it's always the Doctor. Sadly, I had to take a leave of absence with this story half way through, doing that for 30-minute stories kinda sucks. But the first half reminded me a lot of the Kingmaker.
Coming back to it I just
Tale Three: Repeat Offender - 10/10
I loved everything about this one. It isn’t really that complicated of a concept but the execution of the story is just wow I’m kinda in awe how good this was. I don’t want to say it’s super experimental but it did remind me a lot of time shenanigans they used to do. All the while it did feel like a very Moffat type of story.
Tale Four: The Becoming – 4/10
This is probably the one dud in the collection, shame it had to come last but it is what it is. I just don’t particularly care about what goes on here.
December 21, 2020
Another in the semi-regular anthology releases, wherein four writers spin four 25-minute yarns, frequently with mixed results. The best in this batch is The Last Fairytale, though the eponymous Memory Bank also has its moments, falling at the last hurdle with a monster as silly as the giant spider in Stephen King's It (1990).
December 21, 2019
An anthology of four 30-minute stories, linked by the loose theme of "memory". I found them surprisingly variable in quality.
* The Memory Bank - The title story is set on a world where, for some not-terribly clear reason, remembering people is key to their continued existence. The story is full of little snippets from the lives of the people being remembered, although it's primarily about those who are forgotten. Like some other audio stories of its length, it feels too slight to be anything much; things go wrong, a monster turns up, it gets defeated. Nor does it seem that there's anything much else that could have been done with its theme. It's fair enough, but not, well... memorable. 3 stars.
* The Last Fairy Tale - Set somewhere vaguely in medieval Europe, this sees the Doctor being mistaken for a mythical storyteller. The story really doesn't make any sense, with exaggerated stock characters not having any plausible motive for what they're doing, and the science fiction elements just being plucked out of thin air (it's effectively magic, although the Doctor says it isn't). Yes, this strangeness is lampshaded at the end and there's a vague reason for the stereotyping, but the story is little more than meaningless fluff. 2 stars.
* Repeat Offender - Finally, things improve with a hard SF story set entirely inside a single room in 22nd century Iceland. The Doctor is caught in the middle of apparently committing a crime, and the memory of those involved seems to point to his guilt, but (naturally) their recollections may have been tampered with. There are some themes of the future development of modern technology here, but it's also about time travel and an authoritarian system. It would probably have worked better at twice the length, since there are a few points where things seem to move along rather too quickly, but it would likely also have had to lose the highly contained setting, which might have been a minus. 4 stars.
* The Becoming - An unusual story for DW this, and the sort of thing that probably wouldn't have worked if it was much longer. It's a highly speculative piece, set on a strange and distant planet, with that world's ecology as the main focus, and presenting an alien race for whom memory is particularly important. The Web Planet is probably about the closest we ever got to something like this on TV, although the much shorter length of this prevents it from dragging. It's really quite a delightful story with a sense of the strange and alien, although not the sort of thing you could do too often. 5 stars.
* The Memory Bank - The title story is set on a world where, for some not-terribly clear reason, remembering people is key to their continued existence. The story is full of little snippets from the lives of the people being remembered, although it's primarily about those who are forgotten. Like some other audio stories of its length, it feels too slight to be anything much; things go wrong, a monster turns up, it gets defeated. Nor does it seem that there's anything much else that could have been done with its theme. It's fair enough, but not, well... memorable. 3 stars.
* The Last Fairy Tale - Set somewhere vaguely in medieval Europe, this sees the Doctor being mistaken for a mythical storyteller. The story really doesn't make any sense, with exaggerated stock characters not having any plausible motive for what they're doing, and the science fiction elements just being plucked out of thin air (it's effectively magic, although the Doctor says it isn't). Yes, this strangeness is lampshaded at the end and there's a vague reason for the stereotyping, but the story is little more than meaningless fluff. 2 stars.
* Repeat Offender - Finally, things improve with a hard SF story set entirely inside a single room in 22nd century Iceland. The Doctor is caught in the middle of apparently committing a crime, and the memory of those involved seems to point to his guilt, but (naturally) their recollections may have been tampered with. There are some themes of the future development of modern technology here, but it's also about time travel and an authoritarian system. It would probably have worked better at twice the length, since there are a few points where things seem to move along rather too quickly, but it would likely also have had to lose the highly contained setting, which might have been a minus. 4 stars.
* The Becoming - An unusual story for DW this, and the sort of thing that probably wouldn't have worked if it was much longer. It's a highly speculative piece, set on a strange and distant planet, with that world's ecology as the main focus, and presenting an alien race for whom memory is particularly important. The Web Planet is probably about the closest we ever got to something like this on TV, although the much shorter length of this prevents it from dragging. It's really quite a delightful story with a sense of the strange and alien, although not the sort of thing you could do too often. 5 stars.
February 15, 2021
Rating between 3 & 3.5
THE MEMORY BANK: Intriguing start to the story. The idea that those at the edges of society who are forgotten simply cease to exist is interesting. Additionally the use of the power of memory (or brain usage or whatever it was) to create the energy needed to run the society/colony had a lot of possibilities. The middle section introduced the 'guest star' so to speak and was well done I thought. The final section reveal of the 'big bad' and their defeat was too fast and quite disappointing tbh.
THE LAST FAIRY TALE: Nice story about the power of stories. How people hear them, what they takeaway from and how that impacts on the growth of the society. Well acted with well drawn characters.
REPEAT OFFENDER: A murder mystery (maybe) set in a single location with a small cast of characters. The Doctor is trying to track down a creature composed essentially of thought, which takes over people, uses them to commit a murder and then shifts to another body. There are also unknown victims which in a 'da-da-dum' moment are discovered to be future incarnations of the Doctor himself who arrived in response to a distress call and have been killed. The ending is quite sudden, and why the local police inspector decides to help the Doctor does come out of nowhere (unless i missed something). Another idea with possibilities that doesn't really work due to the time constraints.
THE BECOMING: This story's main thread of child/teenager completing task to become adult is a well used idea. In this case success or failure means physical changes as well as psychological ones. Another interesting idea that really needed more room to breathe - even if it had been 2 parts instead of 1.
Overall this was the most disappointing of the 4 story releases in the main range. All of these had interesting ideas at the core but really needed at least double the length to give them a chance.
THE MEMORY BANK: Intriguing start to the story. The idea that those at the edges of society who are forgotten simply cease to exist is interesting. Additionally the use of the power of memory (or brain usage or whatever it was) to create the energy needed to run the society/colony had a lot of possibilities. The middle section introduced the 'guest star' so to speak and was well done I thought. The final section reveal of the 'big bad' and their defeat was too fast and quite disappointing tbh.
THE LAST FAIRY TALE: Nice story about the power of stories. How people hear them, what they takeaway from and how that impacts on the growth of the society. Well acted with well drawn characters.
REPEAT OFFENDER: A murder mystery (maybe) set in a single location with a small cast of characters. The Doctor is trying to track down a creature composed essentially of thought, which takes over people, uses them to commit a murder and then shifts to another body. There are also unknown victims which in a 'da-da-dum' moment are discovered to be future incarnations of the Doctor himself who arrived in response to a distress call and have been killed. The ending is quite sudden, and why the local police inspector decides to help the Doctor does come out of nowhere (unless i missed something). Another idea with possibilities that doesn't really work due to the time constraints.
THE BECOMING: This story's main thread of child/teenager completing task to become adult is a well used idea. In this case success or failure means physical changes as well as psychological ones. Another interesting idea that really needed more room to breathe - even if it had been 2 parts instead of 1.
Overall this was the most disappointing of the 4 story releases in the main range. All of these had interesting ideas at the core but really needed at least double the length to give them a chance.
December 15, 2025
This set is an anthology of four individual short episodes featuring Doctor 5 and Turlough. The thread tying them together is the theme of memory. In the first story, they arrive in a society where if a person is not remembered, then that person disappears. The next story is The Last Fairytale, taking place in a late medieval setting where everyone is awaiting The Storyteller, but no one knows exactly who that is. What they do know is that all the kinds of people cast as villains are sick and tired of it and want to capture The Storyteller to force him to make them the goodies. The third of the stories is Repeat Offender. This is the playing with time story involving a locked room mystery. The last, and weakest of the stories, is The Becoming, about the rituals of a people who rely upon race memory to continue their existence, and whose evolution has created rites of passage that create metamorphosis. Because these are short, the stories have small casts, one or two guest actors only, and lean very heavily on dialogue rather than action. All have the problem that the concept is too big for the container, which leads to some rushing through details and endings, and quite a bit of exposition.
June 13, 2026
I literally don’t have anything to say about this one, as there was nothing of any value to this whatsoever. I can remember the basic gist of each story, but not what happened in them. This is the very definition of a filler realisation; it’s all the ideas they couldn’t do anything with slapped into one audio because they had a deadline to fill for that month. And if you're asking why I even listened to this in the first place, same reason as always, my Mum got it cheap, thanks, Mum. 👍
Overall, this review is short because my attention span for this audio was short. I just wanted it to be done, as I had no interest in the stories that were being presented to me. If any of the descriptions of the stories sound good to you, then you may want to give this a go. But as it is, you’re best off skipping this one and finding something that actually rewards your interest.
Overall, this review is short because my attention span for this audio was short. I just wanted it to be done, as I had no interest in the stories that were being presented to me. If any of the descriptions of the stories sound good to you, then you may want to give this a go. But as it is, you’re best off skipping this one and finding something that actually rewards your interest.
March 28, 2025
The Memory Bank by Chris Chapman
I zoned out after a while, how did they make a 20 minute story drag out so long?
The Last Fairy Tale by Paul Magrs
They say a slur in this one. But the story was... weird so like classic Paul Magrs.
Repeat Offender by Eddie Robson
A bit silly and a bit pointless. Came off as copaganda tbh.
The Becoming by Ian Potter
Bland story with an obvious twist and disappointing ending.
I zoned out after a while, how did they make a 20 minute story drag out so long?
The Last Fairy Tale by Paul Magrs
They say a slur in this one. But the story was... weird so like classic Paul Magrs.
Repeat Offender by Eddie Robson
A bit silly and a bit pointless. Came off as copaganda tbh.
The Becoming by Ian Potter
Bland story with an obvious twist and disappointing ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2017
Each of the four stories is very different, but enjoyable. I haven't listened to much of just the Doctor and Turlough but I've enjoy the banter and their different approaches to situations. They complement each other well.
October 13, 2019
A great anthology of unique short stories featuring the fifth Doctor and Tolough in some very imaginative, if sometimes magical stories.
The Memory Bank: 9/10
The Last Fairy Tale: 8/10
Repeat Offender: 8.5/10
The Becoming: 9/10
The Memory Bank: 9/10
The Last Fairy Tale: 8/10
Repeat Offender: 8.5/10
The Becoming: 9/10
June 18, 2020
I found The Memory Bank extremely clever and entertaining, and I was SO excited to learn more of Turlough’s backstory. (Turlough is one of my favorite companions.)
All the stories were good, though, and I loved the Doctor’s and Turlough’s interactions! They work really well together.
All the stories were good, though, and I loved the Doctor’s and Turlough’s interactions! They work really well together.
April 7, 2021
The premise for The Memory Bank alone is super interesting, and the story delivers. The Last Fairytale also has a lot to do with storytelling. Repeat Offender has The Doctor on put on trial (again). And The Becoming has really good acting throughout.
May 25, 2025
Peter Davison 👍
big finish rocks
big finish rocks
March 18, 2026
I was surprised by the quality here. underrated stories here.
June 21, 2026
Blink and you'll miss each of these little stories but each one of them has a solidly good idea at the centre of it, and it is Peter Davidson's Doctor so...
April 7, 2017
Four stories with The Doctor and Turlough.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews