Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Over my birthday weekend this year, I revisited my ASDA-exclusive vinyl edition of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’, starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton and enjoyed it very much. I also ventured into hearing the vinyl story ‘Echoes of Extinction’ which is part of the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series. 🙂
This is more or less my first venture into the ‘TLV’ series. I did watch the ‘Road to the Dark Times’ Blu-ray over the Christmas period last year, but that was me revisiting classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories in connection to the significant event. ‘Echoes of Extinction’ is my first original ‘TLV’ story to check out.
I will get around to checking out and reviewing the ‘TLV’ series in full once I get a chance to during the year. I will probably share my reviews on ‘TLV’ for an Easter review season. For now, let me share with you what I think of ‘Echoes of Extinction’ and how it stands on its own as an original vinyl story.
‘Echoes of Extinction’ by Alfie Shaw stars Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. With it being a vinyl, the story is divided into two episodes. ‘Part One’ features the Eighth Doctor and ‘Part Two’ features the Tenth Doctor. I purchased the vinyl from Amazon.co.uk. 🙂
Originally the story was going to be released in November 2020 and sold at ASDA stores. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic – please keep safe – the story’s release got delayed to February 2021 and then to April 2021 where it was released via Big Finish itself and also via Amazon.
I have the story as a download from Big Finish as that contains behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Paul McGann and David Tennant. But I wanted the chance to hear this story on vinyl and find out what it’d be like to hear an original Big Finish audio tale on a vinyl release.
I was disappointed Paul and David’s Doctors didn’t get to meet each other in the story, but then the story is on a single vinyl disc and the two episodes are on each side of the disc. If the story was longer and on two vinyl discs, perhaps the meeting between the two Doctors would be guaranteed!
In ‘Echoes of Extinction’, the two Doctors confront a haunted monster that wants to kill whatever victim it encounters. The Eighth Doctor meets this monster on a space station whilst the Tenth Doctor meets the monster on a planet called Oriv. Will our Doctors defeat this murderous monster?
It was intriguing to hear the two episodes and how they interconnected with each other with the two Doctors sorting out the menace known as the Network. I believe ‘Echoes of Extinction’ is a story that needs to be heard more than once in order to get a firm grasp of what the overall plot is about. 🙂
Paul McGann and David Tennant deliver excellent performances as their Doctors, providing unique energies in how they play their characters. It’s a shame they’re not joined by any companions as they’re travelling alone. Then again, their single episode adventures perhaps couldn’t accommodate for this.
The guest cast of ‘Echoes of Extinction’ is very good. In both episodes featuring the Eighth and Tenth Doctor, Burn Gorman is the voice of the Network. Burn Gorman is well-known for playing Owen Harper in ‘Torchwood’. It was hard to recognise Burn’s voice with it being distorted as the Network.
In the Eighth Doctor episode, Kathryn Drysdale guest stars as Jasmine and Paul Clayton guest stars as the robot butler Edwards. In the Tenth Doctor episode, Inès de Clercq guest stars as Captain Frye, Mina Awnar (well-known for playing Gita Chandra in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’) guest stars as Joshi, and Arthur Darvill (well-known for playing Rory Williams in ‘Doctor Who’) guest stars as Cooke. Stephen Critchlow and Jacob Dudman, who have done Big Finish before, also appear in this adventure.
‘Echoes of Extinction’ is an enjoyable audio adventure to listen to on vinyl. I’m glad to have heard it. I’m looking forward to when I get the chance to check out the entire ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series. Hopefully, I will be clearer on what ‘Echoes of Extinction’ is about in connection to the ‘TLV’ series. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Bit miffed this had no CD release as don’t have record player & don’t do downloads, however great review Tim, you’d think they’d had scenes with the Doctor’s meeting each other wouldn’t you, a missed opportunity i think.
TLV trilogy i enjoyed with the Eghth Doctor as well as Timelord Victorious narrated by Jacob Dudman i look forward to your reviews on those in the near future.
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Hi Simon.
Yeah a shame the two Doctors didn’t get to meet each other in ‘Echoes of Extinction’. I would have liked to have heard David Tennant and Paul McGann’s Doctors meeting each other.
I look forward to checking out the other ‘TLV’ stories soon, including the Eighth Doctor audio trilogy, ‘The Minds of Magnox’ audiobook read by Jacob Dudman, the ‘TLV’ books and the ‘TLV’ comics. I probably won’t share my reviews on the ‘TLV’ series this year, but I’m sure they’ll be shared on my blog in future.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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