An excellent set featuring the most popular Doctor of the modern era and River Song in career-best form.
When Big Finish received the call that David Tennant would be free to do some more recording for them, there was a mad scramble to get scripts, casts and production teams ready. The fact that the resulting boxset is such a wonderful achievement is testament to the old belief that the tighter the deadline, the better the work.
This set brings back for the first time the wonderful pairing of Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and River Song, played to perfection by Alex Kingston. Kingston has made an enormous impact on the Big Finish universe with seven seasons of The Diary of River Song (with season 8 dropping next year) along with cameos in a number of other releases. While she has encountered most of the previous Doctors in audio form, this sees her reunited with her original Doctor from TV. Despite the distance, the chemistry between the two actors is phenomenal and they obviously enjoy each other’s performances enormously.
The James Goss penned Expiry Dating is a masterclass in writing. Presented in the form of correspondence between the two main characters, it keeps the audience on their toes and provides some much needed humour. The story almost seems superfluous to the comraderie between the two characters. There are also two wonderful cameos by past Doctors, Peter Davison and Colin Baker, that add to the fun. Glenn McCready plays no less than four roles as well.
Precious Annihilation by Lizzie Hopley is a bit of a letdown after the first story and involves the Doctor and River tracking down a mystery involving a 16th century jeweller and an alien life form and their explosive relationship. The story does get bogged down in padding and some of the action sequences tend to go on a little too long. The two leads are however, on top of their game as always and they are joined in this story by Anjli Mohindra (Omara/Barmaid/Franny) amongst others and she provides some excellent voice work. Mohindra’s three characters are very distinct from one another, which is a true credit to her.
Ghosts by Jonathan Morris rounds out the set and sees our two heroes visit a planet of ghosts that has become a tourist attraction. What neither of them realise is exactly how long they have both been there for and what the secret of the ghosts is. This is quite a tense story that takes a little while to get going but rewards the patient listener with a lovely climax. The supporting cast are great but particular highlights are Mina Anwar (Betty), Timothy Bentinck (Alfie/Computer voice), and Sam Benjamin (Ziggy).
Nicholas Briggs directs the set superbly and keeps the action ebbing and flowing at a nice pace whilst also keeping a tight rein on some of Tennant’s more excessive eccentricities. He is aided by the brilliant sound and music design of Howard Carter. There is an extensive disc of interviews that round out the set.
This is a wonderful set that fans of the Tenth Doctor (and River Song) will delight in. This will undoubtedly sell like hotcakes which is great news for the little company that keeps punching well above its weight. Well worth a listen.
Reviewed by Rodney Hrvatin
Twitter: @Wagnerfan74
Distributed by: Big Finish Productions
Released: November 2020
Approx RRP: $50 CD, $20 Digital Download
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