Review by Jacob Licklider

I ask, dear reader, to indulge me a moment before we get into this review proper for just a moment with a few pieces of context for this review.  First and foremost, I am of the firm belief that the first series of Ninth Doctor Adventures should have ended as subtly implied with the Ninth Doctor going into the events of the television story Rose and the beginning of those adventures.  Second, I am also of the belief that the Ninth Doctor especially is a character who works best when there is a companion or companion figure to be attached too.  Finally, the third story of this set deals with the historical establishment of football leagues and I am an American, so take any of my takes on the history of that third episode with the largest pinch of salt you possibly can.  Pioneers opens the third series of Ninth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish Productions and marks the first set in this range to not be released on vinyl as well as CD and download.  This marks a very important shift for the style of these three episodes, mainly because they are not bound by the vinyl format of strictly being 45 minutes in total due to technical limitations, so these three episodes are expanded to an hour.  While I personally prefer my Doctor Who stories to be generally longer than that, this jump in runtime really helps this set feel like each episode is expanded just enough to provide greater depth than previous releases had allowed.

The Green Gift opens and closes the loop from the previous box set, Shades of Fear, bringing back Adam Martyn as Callen Lennox and Harki Bhambra as Doyle.  Giving the Ninth Doctor a pair of unique companions outside of those seen in Series 1 was always going to be a gamble, the Ninth Doctor’s character arc is a very tightly plotted arc about overcoming trauma and learning to reconnect with others after a period of self-imposed isolation.  Of course, getting Callen and Doyle to a potential new home was always going to go awry with the fact that the TARDIS can’t steer, but this is the story that sadly writes the characters out, just after it gives them time to prove themselves as companions.  Now, Roy Gill’s script is excellent at showing the Ninth Doctor intentionally pushing them away and pushing them towards living on this planet, promising them that he will come back if they need him in the end which feels like something that a future series will be doing (or at least something that I’d hope).  Adam Martyn as Callum is especially good at feeling out of place and discovering his own sense of belonging in a community that doesn’t see his disability as an issue which makes for a refreshing change.  The plot of The Green Gift is perhaps its weakest element below some amazing character work, mainly because it’s a sequel to The Green Death.  Gill does attempt to explore the idea of genetic modification making the maggots a useful tool of society and the idea of the BOSS, played here by Louise Jameson in a brilliant double role, building itself up as an artificial intelligence, but really this could have been an amazing two part episode.  Eccleston, Martin, Jameson, and Bhambra all play off each other great while the rest of the colony is represented with Maddison Bulleyment’s Tay Lothlor who is more an exposition character while the four other cast members really pull this one off wonderfully.  8/10.

Robert Valentine continues the set’s idea of pioneering by taking the Doctor away from space and to the ends of the Earth in Northern Lights.  Okay not the end of the Earth, the Arctic circle, at the time of pioneer Fridtjof Nansen attempting to get home, but something is going wrong.  History is being changed and it’s up to the Doctor to save the expedition.  Valentine’s script is great on the whole and plays to Eccleston’s strengths as an actor, the Doctor rediscovering the wonders of explorers and that adventuring spirit, separate from the usual British colonialism.  Then it’s a bit odd for me to say that this was honestly a story that took me a bit too long to actually get into and I’m not entirely sure why.  As said above, the script is great as are every time Eccleston gets to play the Doctor as a fanboy against Ian Conningham and Gerard Kearns as Nansen and Johansen respectively.  The idea of the aurora borealis being an alien is also a fascinating one, brought to life with an ethereal performance by Ginnia Cheng, given some extra depth as this is an episode that ends with the Doctor willing to sacrifice himself for history and an antagonist that really isn’t an antagonist.  It’s perhaps these tropes, good tropes but used in quite a few Ninth Doctor stories, that are what brings this story down, at least for me (this is an episode whose response on social media has been very positive) as it stands it’s a good time but there’s something holding it back that I can’t quite place.  7/10.

Insert football/soccer debate here.  Katharine Armitage’s third story for Big Finish, The Beautiful Game, brings this set to a great conclusion by doing almost too much for a story that’s told in an hour and actually pulling it off.  There are actually two major through lines to the episode.  The setting is 1888, a week before the establishment of the Football League at a meeting attended by one William Sudell played by Raymond Coulthard, who will be integral in the league’s establishment.  The hotel meant to host the meeting is under siege by aliens who have bonded themselves to the idea of football that they must control and consume, Armitage playing off the idea of utterly rabid fans destroying the very thing they love.  This episode has a sequence where the characters aren’t even allowed to use the term football, lest they be attacked and consumed.  Armitage also pairs the narrative around the establishment of the League and various clubs thematically with the emergence of women’s suffrage and how causes to be taken seriously often have a job of convincing those to join who have been convinced by the system that it’s not possible to overcome their situation.  Daphne, played by Rachel Fenwick, is a hotel maid who has to be convinced to join the suffrage movement by the end as well as learn to appreciate football as a sport.  Armitage is intelligent enough in her script to not act as if the creation of the League is some championing of the oppressed, Sudell is portrayed as a misogynist and a man of his time, though this is undercut by the Doctor giving a speech near the end about how sports brings everyone together which feels hollow in the political climate of 2023.  Despite being a completely uneducated outsider, The Beautiful Game was a story that grabbed me in a lot of ways for the sheer passion it has.  8/10.

Overall, Pioneers once again shows how bringing three episodes under a theme can work, even with two of the episodes following fairly similar pseudo-historical formats though different types of pioneers.  Helen Goldwyn is again in the director’s chair for this set and her direction is as always a wonderful touch, giving each of the episodes the feel of pushing into new territory in the context of the settings.  Eccleston is great, and while we are still solo with the Ninth Doctor for this third series we do have a great start.  7.5/10.

Review: Ninth Doctor Adventures – Shades of Fear

Review: The Ninth Doctor Adventures – Hidden Depths

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