Hey Guys,

welcome to the 123rd Big Finish Main Range Adventure ‘The Company of friends’. Here we have four stories with the eighth Doctor and four different companions. The first story is with Benny which takes place around 2609 (Ahistory) and fifty million years before. Ahistory puts the story in the 10th season of Benny. The second story is with Fitz and the third with Izzy. Izzy’s story takes place on 8th April 1988. The fourth story is with Mary Shelley and takes place in June 1816.

Benny’s Story

I think most people know who Bernice Summerfield is. She is an archaeologist and a companion of the seventh Doctor in the books. Later Big Finish made audio dramas around her. Here we get a short summary of her life. Even if you never heart of her you got a good grip of her. I like her. She is fun. In this story she is working for a woman who is searching for something. It turns out it is TARDIS key of the Doctors TARDIS.
The atmosphere is light and fun with a little action in it.

Fitz’s Story

Fitz is also a companion out of the books. He has a complicated story. I myself don’t fully understand because I just read the summary of his story. Ahistory hadn’t placed the story in time and there is no time given just the planet Entusso. This story is about the private Alien Device Incorporated that used the Doctor in their commercial. So the Doctor starts investigating. Like the story before it is a really light and fun atmosphere.

Izzy’s Story

Izzy is a companion from the comics. I never of her before. In this story she seems young, loud and having always something to say. She is kinda a geek. This story is about Izzy wanting to know what happened in the last volume of one of her comics, that just seem to have vanished from every place. The atmosphere is crazy? I think it is actually crazy. It has a lot of aliens in it and really special comic ‘heroes’. This is the story I like the less of all of them.
Also I really dislike the ending and I am totally the Doctor in this one… I really don’t understand her.

Mary’s Story

Mary Shelley is a companion that appears in a book and a few audio dramas. Here in this story we have her and a few of her friends to kill time. It is the first meeting of her and the Doctor. It is also a story about how Mary finds her idea to her book Frankenstein. What I like about the story and why I really want to listen to more stories with her is that she is a companion that really existed. This is the only story that is really dark. Mary is like the only light in this story.

Listing or not

The most stories of the eighth Doctor are dark and sad. This Doctor has so many scars on him…he has always that shadow over him. But in this stories we see a lighter, funnier Doctor. He is with people who are so fully of life and hope and optimism that makes him look not so troubled. So yeah differently go and listen to this.