The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 2 Episode 1 - Dead London

"Someone's playing with us. Manipulating time and space for their own ends." The TARDIS lands in London. But which one? The Doctor and Lucie find themselves trapped in a maze of interlocking Londons from Roman times to the present day. But they are not alone in this labyrinth: a killer is on their trail.

The long wait is over, series 2 of The Eighth Doctor Adventures is here! Big Finish are going to release 8 new plays, 1 every month, until August. BBC 7 (radio) are going to be broadcasting them as well, although last year, the plays came on the radio first.

Series 2 sees the return of Paul McGann’s 8th Doctor and Sheridan Smith’s Lucie Miller. After a good first series, where my favourite stories where ‘Immortal Beloved’ and ‘No More Lies’, can they hit the ground running with new episode ‘Dead London’?

For obvious reasons, I’m not going to go into the story but it’s a good start to the series. The Doctor and Lucie are caught in a ‘temporal shift’, which transports them to different versions of London but who is behind it and why? The story is well written and 48 minutes fly by! I don’t really have anything negative to say about the story but…we’ve got a new theme! Most of the fans (well those on the net anyhow) don’t like it. The theme is a remix of the original theme but uses a terrible echo. Now I don’t mind it, I still think ‘The Trial of A Timelord’ (or the 6th Doctor’s Big Finish theme, if you prefer) is still the worst theme! The extras include interviews with the cast and a trailer for the next story ‘Max Warp’, which sounds really good!

The acting, as always, is good. Sheridan Smith is growing more as a ‘typical Doctor Who companion’ and Paul McGann is at his usual witty best. Rupert Vansittart, who appeared in the 9th Doctor TV stories ‘Aliens of London’ and ‘World War Three’ and Clare Buckfield, who is most famous for 2point4children and has also appeared in the 6th Doctor audio ‘The One Doctor’ and in series 1 of The Eighth Doctor Adventures story, ‘Horror of Glam Rock’, guest star.

Overall, it’s a great piece of audio, that’s all I can say!

9/10

You can order the CD from Big Finish http://www.bigfinish.com/21-Doctor-Who-Dead-London, however from February they will be offering a, cheaper, download service as well. I’ll be reviewing the next Doctor Who monthly release next, with Peter Davison’s 5th Doctor, along with Peri and Erimem in ‘The Bride of Peladon’. The next release, as mentioned, from the Eighth Doctor series, is ‘Max Warp’, a story apparently about ‘fast spaceship racing’. Should be fun, eh?