eve11 | In the Company of Friends, Parts 3 and 4

Part 3: Izzy (I don't know her last name!)
Izzy won me over in her voiceover intro, which is the first time I've met her since I haven't read any of the comics. I loved the climax of her speech: 'and realizing it's all ... pants.' Ha! And did she mention something about psychic space weasels? Anyway, this story was ridiculously silly but also rather kind of fun to listen to. They do take some cracks at fanboys (and fangirls), but it was also refreshing to see Izzy as the quintessential comics geek but also that apparently rarest of breeds, a girl geek. This story was much more about Izzy than about the Doctor, but she carried it well. Bonus points for the off-the-wall craziness; space rearrangers, boy aliens with girl's names (valerie!), and the newspaper man with the cocked scale that always shorts you some sweets (that is evil!).

Part 4: Mary Shelley
Man, I thought the first story had Doctor/TARDIS angst. Yipes. Poor Doctor gets put through a ringer-and-a-half in this one. Infected by corrosive vitrious Time to the point of becoming a Zagreus-like raving homicidal maniac, TARDIS dying, him dying or near, being electrocuted by Crazy Percy Shelley, and so tired in the midst of it that he's ready to give up. There was a discussion on line wondering if this is a glimpse of the Doctor in the midst of the Time War. Big Finish is contractually obligated not to mention anything from New Who but they have been known to skirt the edges before. And it makes a certain kind of sense. the story mentions him being the victim of a Time storm, but we don't know if that was deliberate or not.

I liked the setup of this story. Very gothic, and not at all what I was expecting; I was thinking it would be much less action-oriented. I think they did a good job bringing the characters to life and making Mary Shelley sympathetic and also showing her Companion Caliber. I was thinking early on that this was a Doctor from the Time War and I thought maybe his timelines were converging, and so that's why he was "remembering" Mary traveling with him in the future, so it was a surprise to see the younger version show up in the drawing room. Bonus points for the Doctor liking Byron's style, ha! ("Very... Byronic", *snerk*). I should say that it's rather unbelievable that in all of Time and Space the Doctor's best bet of getting a lightning-sized jolt is to "die" in the drawing room of Byron and Shelley and hope they crazily attempt to re-animate him... *handwaves*.

The scene with the Doctor and Mary in the TARDIS was utterly heart-wrenching. I know it's mean to say it, but omg the writers should totally make Eight suffer more; he's astoundingly good at it. And the conversation between the two Doctors at the end was actually quite funny; a light touch on a dark tale. Of course, the Doctor lives to fight again. And he and Mary Shelley have wondrous adventures. Top marks, Big Finish!