Audio CD/download review
Big Finish
Release date Out now

The Sixth Doctor faces a Cyberinvasion in the Land of Fiction, and discovers the truth behind The Philadelphia Experiment; the Eighth becomes a plaything of the Celestial Toymaker; and two Victorian gentlemen become embroiled with frightful fiends…

The latest Big Finish trilogy comes to an end with Legend of the Cybermen, heralded as Wendy Padbury’s return to acting after a long spell (although I’m sure she was in a Big Finish audio with Colin Baker not that long ago!). It’s certainly the first time she’s reprised the role of Zoë, and there’s a pang of nostalgia to hear her and Frazer Hines acting together in Doctor Who for the first time in 40 years.

It’s a suitably crazy finish for this batch, with Cybermen caught in an unusual reality. Certain “reveals” are actually blindingly obvious, but for the most part, this rockets along.

VERDICT: 7/10

The final Lost Story, The Macros, unfortunately highlights the problems with this range – it’s trying to emulate the stories from the 1980s, with their good and bad points, which include repetition of certain ideas.

References to 2010 jar (as well as make no sense: they would have worked when the contemporary time was 1985) and the use of modern slang just feels wrong. This series has been a mixed bag, but the stories that have succeeded have been those created or reworked by those familiar with the audio medium, which sadly does not include this story’s authors.

VERDICT: 5/10

The Companion Chronicle, Solitaire, is a two-hander between India Fisher as Charley Pollard and David Bailie (or ‘davidbailie’ as he’s usually known as) reprising the role of The Celestial Toymaker from the Lost Story The Nightmare Fair.

With the Eighth Doctor turned into a ventriloquist’s doll for the duration, Fisher has to carry a lot of the play, and she gives a great turn. One of the better stories of the range – and one to avoid spoilers on if possible.

VERDICT: 7/10

The highlight of the month though is the extended Companion Chronicle – Jago & Litefoot Series One. Following their appearance in a Chronicle last year battling evil without the aid of the Doctor, Dr George Litefoot and theatrical impresario Henry Gordon Jago deal with vampires, ghosts and the return of an old enemy among other foes.

Very occasionally the actors’ ages are betrayed by the odd lisp, but on the whole you can believe that this is the series we should have had following the Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng-Chiang, in which they first appeared. Recommended.

VERDICT: 8/10

Peter Quentin