Aquitaine

Big Finish Folly, Part 18a – Aquitaine, by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris

Today should be much like every other day for Hargreaves, the computer consciousness that co-ordinates daily life aboard the spaceship Aquitaine, stationed on the outer fringes of a black hole. Water the plants, run the diagnostics, cook the Captain’s breakfast; then tidy the plates away, rotate the ship, clean the windows of the observation deck. When at last the day’s work is done, Hargreaves will dim the lights in the sleeping quarters. But no-one will sleep aboard the Aquitaine tonight. Because the Aquitaine’s crew is missing.

But today will be different. Today, a space/time ship called the TARDIS will materialise in the botanical section, bringing the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan aboard the Aquitaine. Together, they’ll seek to discover the truth of what happened to Hargreaves’ crew…

… if only the ghosts will let them.

Destination Regeneration

That latest trilogy with new companion Constance Clarke leads naturally into the first story in the box set that details the Sixth’s Doctor’s previously unseen regeneration into Sly Seven. I was in two minds about covering this as part of the Folly but, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak. It’s not like the chronology isn’t already complicated beyond comprehension – the Sixth Doctor is splattered all over the vortex like an n-dimensional Jackson Pollock. What I’ve done is try to locate each piece of this particular box set in appropriate parts of the timeline, with varying degrees of success. You can judge my efforts against those, in a more complete fashion, of Craig Brawley in the (somewhat elitist) Big Finish Listeners group on Facecrack.

But, on with the show!

Big Finish Folly, Part 106d – The End of the Line (Last Adventure:1) by Simon Barnard & Paul Morris

The 8.15 is late. As usual. But in an infinite universe, with infinite possibilities, somewhere there’s an 8.15 that made it on time. But that means there’s also an 8.15 lost in deep fog, onboard which the passengers are busy killing each other… Guess which 8.15 the Doctor has just found…