March 14

DW: Absolution

Hey Guys,

welcome to the 101st adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – Absolution. It takes place on the planet Utebbadon-Tarria with the eighth Doctor, C’rizz and Charley. This story brings the storyline around C’rizz to an end. It is not my favorite story but it focus on C’rizz and his developement. Which is a good thing.

The Hell breaks loose

Charley opens the Medallion of C’rizz and hell breaks loose. The TARDIS has problems and the Doctor doesn’t seems to get it back under control. It happens what had to happen. C’rizz get seperate from the other two.
Charley and the Doctor lands inside a barrier and C’rizz on the outside. So we have two sides. The one inside the barrier that have the barrier to protect themself from the outsider. Than we have the outsider who wants to get inside the barrier.

Dark

The atmosphere of the whole story is dark and cold. There is nothing fun or light in this story. It is just really dark. It is about death, religion, believes, fears… and of course manipulation. The story shows us that there is not always a happy end. That there is not always something you can do to make it better. The story ends and left you to deal with all that grief on your own. There is no light offered at the end of the tunnel.

With all that grief

It is great story. There are no excuses, no step backs, no rewriting history offered. We get just the dark reality of life.  I felt at the end like Charley. I get the Doctor. We all know how he deals grief. He just doesn’t. But after this I still felt like her. All that makes it a great story. I also love C’rizz developement in this story. I love him so much. The story itself is not mine but everything around and atmosphere is just great.

March 7

DW: Scaredy Cat

Hey Guys,
welcome to the 75th adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – Scaredy Cat. The story puts the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz on Endarra around the year 4.000.000. I am not sure were I got this information from – I believe recall that it was on the extras of Absolution. But this is one of the adventures that should have taken place in the Divergent Universe but got changed and now play in our universe.

SCaredy Cat, Scaredy Cat

What is going on here? That is the big question. The Doctor and C’rizz see a young girl and follow her to kind of shrine. This shrine as the girl they saw lying on dead and the app like natives are not happy that they are close to her. So the two of them traveling back in time to find out what happened there.
Charley is on the other hand on the facility that is making experiments on the natives to find the part of the brain that is responsible for being evil.

interesting set up

I like the setting. It has a lot of potential. I like themes like are people born evil or not and it would be a great story about this. But it is kinda gets more in the background the longer the story goes. Then we another interesting theme. The problem with getting involved with the events, with changing time. The interesting part is that C’rizz don’t really understand time and this means he doesn’t understand what the Doctor wants to protect. Which has a lot of potential but it also just got shortly addressed.

Great Team

There is lot I like about the adventure. I like Charley on her own. She is always the most sympathetic on her own. Also to see C’rizz and the Doctor team up is great. C’rizz who tries to understand the Doctor and this believe he has in the Doctor. You could do so much with this. But the story just kinda stays light-minded.

February 28

DW: Terror Firma

Hey Guys,

welcome to the 72nd adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – Terror Firma. This is the first adventure of the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz back in our universe. So that the Doctor really believe he is back he runs into the arms of his biggest enemies the Daleks, which has conquered the earth around 4703. It is a sequel to ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’.

It seems that there is another story ‘War of the Daleks’ that seems to be get ignored by this story. ‘War of the Daleks’ reckons the destruction of Skaro. Since Davros in this story wants revenge for the destruction of Skaro it seems to ignore the book. My source how ever things it is possible since Davros is like losing his mind, the Daleks may control him to believe Skaro is destroyed.

Home sweet Home

Who could welcome the Doctor back in his universe than the Daleks. I actually like this one. The three of them get captured by the Daleks, who has conquered the earth to take everything from the Doctor. What we got is the Doctor talking to Davros about change, about what defines who you are, Davros trying to use the Doctor to die. We got a Davros that doesn’t want to become a Dalek. This is quiet ironic and I love it.

Charlotte or Charley

What I love about the story is that even when Charley and C’rizz don’t have much scenes with each other. The relationship develops. They finally start to becoming friends, to getting closer. C’rizz gets separate from Charley and is more or less alone in a totally different universe. He always gets himself in the darkest situations. Also there is always something about him, what you can’t grasp. He has this dark side in him and sometimes we can see it.

Charley is also on is own but she as always more luck than C’rizz. She finds herself on a party and what a party this is.

Missed it

This story was fun. It has Daleks, the Doctor and his great companions. We got a dark side to C’rizz and so much more. It is fun and dark, it is also deep and sometimes you could just shake your head, but ultimately it is just great fun to listen to this story.

January 31

DW: The Next Life

Hey Guys,

welcome the 64th adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – The Next Life. It is last story that takes place in the Divergent Universe and is obviously with the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz. Since this is the final of the story it has not just four episode but six. Still the story is filled with stuff and totally could have filled another two episodes.

What we’ve got

We finally find out more about C’rizz and his church and we also find out who is behind all this stuff that happens. So yeah it is the big conclusion story. I think must of the question are actually answered. Maybe I just forget them because I tried so much to make sense out of it.

You all know that I am not a big fan of the stories in the Divergent Universe and this one is diffidently one of the worse. The story before Caerdroia was actually good. Sadly this story can not live to it in any way. I am really disappointed in this story.

Splitting up

The Doctor finds himself alone on a beach and of course just stumbles into the danger. He got accused to have murdered a girl and now is involved in a race against the accuser. Charley and C’rizz are in the hands of Kro’ka. He shows them things to manipulated them. The first is not that bad actually. I like for example that we see that Charley is still not over the R101 events (Storm Warning). That she still get haunted by the face of the person, which wanted to kill her, before he fell to his death.

What I don’t like is that in the end it is just again about the jealousy of Charley. I really like her but this part is so annoying.

Mysterious C’rizz

I still try to make sense of all the C’rizz scenes. They are so contradictory. One moment he decides to stay with his friends and the other one he is betraying them. There is no really reason behind. Sometimes it seems like they can control him a little bit but then it looks like C’rizz is doing everything on his own. It is really hard for me to make any sense of his story. What is really sad because I really love him.

Listen or not

This is a hard. I would say no. Don’t listen to it, it is not worth the time but on the hand it concludes the story. It picks up all the clues in the story started from Zagerus. So it is an important part of the whole story and you totally need it make at least a little sense of everything. So yeah you kinda have to listen to it. But I am really excited to listen to Terror Firma.

January 24

DW: Caerdroia

It Hey Guys,
welcome to the 63rd adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – Caerdroia. It is the story with the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz that leads to the final adventure of the Divergent Universe. It is one of the better stories.

Like twins

In this adventure the three of them finally start to put a few things together and are trying to trick Kroka to give them information. They not just land in a maze but also the Doctor is ‘split’ in three versions of himself. All three are kinda annoying. The go in groups. One Doctor on his own, one with Charley and the other with C’rizz. It is kinda fun. How the Doctors are discussing with themself. The way Charley and C’rizz try to deal with them.

The Maze

The maze is kinda crazy – with big talking rabbits. There are clocks when nobody knows time there. It remembered me of the Alice in Wonderland. I actually don’t know if this was ment that way but it certainly did. It is so much fun listing to the Doctor and his friends finally fighting back. This story is full of great ideas and potential sadly I think many of it goes unattached.

Listing or not

It is one of the best stories of the Divergent Universe. It has a good story with a lot of hints for what his actually behind everything that happens around them. The Doctor fighting back, figuring stuff out. It is great to listen to it. The other adventure was more like going through it without really figuring out what Kroka may want. They go on and on and on. This story changes the pace and lifts the power play to another side.
The characters are great and the story is good. So yes go and listen to one of the three stories I like in this Divergent Universe.

January 16

DW: The Last

Hey Guys,

welcome to the 62nd Adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – The Last with the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz. Set again the Divergent Universe. This time they land in a dead world, in an eternal winter, the aftermath of a poisoned war. After this there are two stories left, which is way to little for the little information we get.

The only surviviors

The three arrive in this dead world. They search of shelter when the ceiling is coming down on them. Surprise, surprise! C’rizz is going to find help for Charley, who can’t move and the Doctor. When he comes back with a survivor they are gone. So he goes with the survivor and tries to find out what is going on.
The Doctor and Charley land in a bunker under the earth with the last survivors of this war – the politicians.

The war end all wars

Truth be told I like this scenario. I read a lot of this what happens after an atomic war books and this story is really similar from the setting. The world is dying because of the war. The one final war that ends all wars.They were right. All wars are over because no one survived.
The most different thing are characters. Like we know from Doctor Who there are crazy characters and this story doesn’t disappoint in that. For me she a little to crazy but it kinda works in the story.

Same old

Yeah, I tiered of C’rizz on his own. But I also love that he has an important role in this story. That he finds out what happened, he is brought to challenging situation and I love that one. But it is nothing new. It is a circle, a big red button. Something I always hated about Moffats Era. The no consequences. This story is not that bad. But I it still no that good…

January 9

DW: Faith Stealer

Hey Guys,

welcome to the 61st adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – Faith Stealer with the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz. The three are still in the Divergent Universe. This time they visited the Multihaven.

Multihaven

Multihaven is a place were different churches live together. You have a religion to work around in this town. The Doctor claims that they are Tourist and C’rizz is their god. After five seconds the people already talk about the religion was there forever. It remembered me a little of the movie ‘Franklin’. With the stupid religions.
But Multihaven should be a peaceful place were everyone is respected.

C’rizz pain

The reason they go to Multihaven is that C’rizz is still plagued by nightmares of the day he killed L’da. So the Doctor is trying to find a place where C’rizz can calm down and rest. But of course nothing is going to plan. C’rizz in his bad condition find himself victim to the new church that wants to overtake all relegions.nd
I love it to get to know more about C’rizz but we don’t find out very much about him. Sadly again we have Charley and the Doctor running around and C’rizz left behind and on his own. It seems like almost every episode is built up like this.

Listen or not

The story is not bad. It is an interesting setting. But like also almost all episode from the Divergent Universe there is more potential in it than they used. I am getting tired of Charley and the Doctor and C’rizz always on his own. Just mix them a bit. Also I wish that we would get more than hints about C’rizz and his past. But apart from that the story is good and you can listen to it. It is definitely one of the better one.

December 19

DW: The Twilight Kingdom

Hey Guys,

welcome to the 55th adventure of the Big Finish Main Range – The Twilight Kingdom. It featured the eighth Doctor, Charley and C’rizz. Like the adventures before this is set in the Divergent Universe. It is one of the better stories of this storyline.

What is going on

Like in the stories before the Doctor and his companions stumble through this different zones searching for the TARDIS. It seems that this time they find each other in a kind of war. The soldiers that takes them in are waiting to go to the front line of this war. But the place is different. It changes people. Without a really struggle the people of this base make a soldier kill this officer.

Let’s stay here

Of course the others C’rizz and Charley are also effected. Charley even more than C’rizz – at least at the start. It is about control and Charleys hurt feelings. The story brings up again the pain in Charley. For me it is a little bit annoying. This constantly wishing to be back at the beginning before Zagerus. Before they told each other that they love each other before the Doctor rejected her later.
It also makes it hard for C’rizz to really find his place in this group. Our characters are all put in a situation were they have to accept change. But all three of them kinda fight against it.

Listing or not

For me this is one of the better stories of this storyline. It is emotional and has a good story. So yeah go and listen to it. I love C’rizz and his interaction with the others of the group. The way they all try to deal with the new situations. It kinda shows us more about the characters and their maybe hiding feelings.

December 8

DW: The Natural History of Fear

Hey Guys,

welcome to the next adventures of Charley, C’rizz and the eighth Doctor in the 54th adventure of Big Finishs Main Range – The Natural History of Fear. The story takes place in the Divergent Universe. I really like C’rizz and the new dynamic he brings in between Charley and the Doctor. Like many stories in the Divergent Universe you are totally confused at the start of the story.

Is this still Doctor Who?

Yes of course it is. One thing that Big Finish always does amazingly is creating Doctor Who new. The story start with the three of them doing something they are not so sure about anymore. Following by a replay of the scene between the Doctor and Charley in the story ‘Zagerus‘. Than there is a cut and the voice of Charley is talking about a TV show. It isn’t Charley…or is it? If she is does she remember? C’rizz and the Doctor also speak characters that doesn’t seem to be the usual persons. I was utterly confused but you just have to let go of all this and just listen to it really carefully because it gets more confusing.

A new world

The world that is created here is a very cold and lonely world. Questions are forbidden and it seems like people can be overwritten. There are really strength rules. It remembers me a little bit about Psych Pass. But this story seems to want mainly just to confuse you and that does it brilliantly. We don’t know what happened to the Doctor and his friends, what is the meaning behind the story and how does this world is built. So many questions you are not allowed to ask.

Listen to it or not

The story is part of the Divergence universe. A small part to the big picture they are trying paint here. I was just confused the most of the time and the spark just didn’t sprung over. I still would listen to it because of the bigger picture of this whole storyline. But in the end I didn’t like the story very much.

June 18

DW: Memory Lane

Hey Guys,
welcome to the 88 adventure – Memory Lane – of big finish main range with Charley and C’rizz and of course the eigtht Doctor. The story doesn’t give us a particialar date. When you go after the names and things Kim – one of the astronauts that the Doctor meet in the story – know. She must live somewhere 2010 (that is where the AHistory put it) and the story takes places two hundred twenty-seven years after Kim and her crew are departed from earth. This means it whould be 2237 or something like this. C’rizz is telling about the TARDIS and prisons so it is shortly after ‘Something inside’.

Prison again

The three are finding themself in a prison again. But were the story of ‘Something inside’ was dark and deep. This story is light and funny. The land in the living room of an old lady which doesn’t react in anyway than that they stay in her way to watch tv or the Doctor go of to buy ice cream. At first they think they are on the countryside but than the find out that every house not just looks the same. In every house is living the same old woman.
So the atmosphere is totally different to the adventure before.

Cell changes

The Cell is creating a really little world. At some point the cell is taking Charlies memories and create her childhood home. So we find out a little more about her past life. Which is really lovely to know more about her. She was a sweet kid. The Doctors world is just him and the other two asking about the Doctors victory. Again here is C’rizz the one how saves them again. C’rizz mind is something special and get always shown to us.

There is not much to say about it. The story is nice and as funny scenes. But it is nothing special. It is just another not bad episode of Doctor Who.