‘THE EVOLVING DEAD’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Aboard the Romeo with the Eleventh Doctor
I didn’t expect there would be more ‘Doctor Chronicles’ box sets after the first four. 🙂
I suppose it’s only a matter of time until ‘The Thirteenth Doctor Chronicles’ by Big Finish can be made. Hopefully, the box set will be out by the time you’re reading this review. For now though, let’s check out ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’, featuring new adventures for dear Eleven.
Since ‘The Doctor Chronicles’ became a success, including ‘The Ninth Doctor Chronicles’, ‘The Tenth Doctor Chronicles’, ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’ and ‘The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles’, it’s fair that more of them would be made, including a second volume of ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’. 🙂
Unlike the first four sets of ‘Doctor Chronicles’, I decided to purchase ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ as a download from Big Finish instead of CD. There are a number of reasons for this.
1.) I don’t need to own the second volume on CD after I purchased the first volume on CD. 🙂
2.) I’m trying to get into purchasing Big Finish audio releases more on download as opposed to CD. Unless it’s Sarah Sutton/Nyssa or David Tennant/Tenth Doctor-related, I’m not interested in purchasing a new Big Finish audio release on CD. There might be exceptions, but that’s the new rule.
3.) ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ didn’t seem exciting at first glance. The first ‘Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’ had guest characters like Kazran Sardick and Dorium Maldovar. Amy Pond and Clara Oswald were in a couple of the stories. Here though, dear Eleven seems to be alone.
Apparently, ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ takes place between ‘The Wedding of River Song’ and ‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe’. So, this is during the time the Doctor is trying to erase himself from history because of the Silence, before he reunites with Amy and Rory. 😐
It’s an interesting place to set the second volume of ‘Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’, but I would have preferred each story to feature companions like Amy, Rory and Clara rather than them having the Eleventh Doctor travelling alone. Thankfully, future ‘Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’ wouldn’t be like that. 🙂
Jacob Dudman returns to reprise the role of the Eleventh Doctor in these ‘Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’ audios. I’ve enjoyed Jacob’s interpretation of Matt Smith’s Doctor on audio, so it was good to hear him again. I was looking forward to how he would replay the Eleventh Doctor on audio.
Interestingly, unlike previous ‘Doctor Chronicles’ box sets, the stories in ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ are full-cast audio dramas instead of the audiobook format. This, I’m okay with, since I do prefer the full-cast audio drama format rather than the traditional audiobook format.
The four stories in ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ include ‘The Evolving Dead’ by Doris V Sutherland, ‘The Day Before They Came’ by Daniel Blythe, ‘The Melting Pot’ by Christopher Cooper and ‘A Tragical History’ by Tessa North. All the four stories are directed by Nicholas Briggs. 🙂
Jacob Dudman in ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’.
In the first story called ‘The Evolving Dead’, the Eleventh Doctor finds himself aboard a space station filled with zombies. 😮 I greatly enjoyed this sci-fi take on a traditional zombie story in ‘Doctor Who’.
Apparently, the writer Doris V Sutherland is into horror, since she wrote a book about the 1932 film ‘The Mummy’, as part of the ‘Devil Advocates’ book series. Her love for horror is pretty evident here.
Before this ‘Doctor Who’ episode, Doris V Sutherland wrote the ‘Bernice Summerfield’ short story ‘The Bunny’s Curse’ in the ‘In Time’ anthology. This was part of a 2018 Big Finish writing opportunity.
From the competition, she wrote an episode in ‘The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield’ anthology called ‘Buried Memories’. I quite like how she penned the Eleventh Doctor in this episode.
In ‘The Evolving Dead’, the TARDIS ends up on the research station called Romeo. The Doctor had intended to arrive for Alfred the Great’s coronation in 871 A.D. Mind you, had he done that already?
From my research, the Doctor has met Alfred the Great in previous incarnations. This was when he was Four, according to ‘Babblesphere’, as well as Six, according to ‘The Man Who Wouldn’t Give Up’.
He also met him as Ten, according to ‘Revenge of the Judoon’, and recently as Eleven, according to ‘They Think It’s All Over’. Whether he did attend Alfred’s coronation in those stories is another matter.
Anyway, aboard the Romeo station, the Doctor meets up with Ayesha Antoine as Babs, one of the technicians, who points a gun at him on arrival. The Doctor expected a more friendly welcome here.
As the story unfolds, there are zombies stalking the corridors of the space station. The Doctor must work out how there happens to be zombies aboard the station and what the mystery is with the A.I.
Ayesha Antoine is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’, since she played Dee Dee Blasco in ‘Midnight’. She’s also done several Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’. I heard her recently in the episode called ‘Wink’.
According to the space station’s A.I. called Evo, voiced by Avita Jay, Babs (that’s the name of a ‘Tiny Toons’ character, in case you didn’t know 😀 ) is registered ‘dead’, even though she’s clearly alive. 😐
There’s also her ex-boyfriend Tom Alexander as Maxwell (No, not Maxwell Edison 😀 ), who, from hearing the story, happens to have a new cyborg body. Max is possessive about Babs in this episode.
In fact, it’s one of the reasons why Babs broke up with Max. He wants to get back with her, but Max is rather domineering in his relationship with Babs, which isn’t helped by Evo’s corrupted influence.
I’m sensing this trend in Big Finish audio stories where the boyfriends of girlfriends end up dead or have bad fates. This is worrying, as it occurred in ‘Blood on Santa’s Claw and Other Stories’ with Peri.
Speaking of which, Tom Alexander worked with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant in ‘1963: The Space Race’. He’s also been in ‘The Revolution Game’ audio episode with Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith.
Avita Jay, who voices Evo, also plays Eleanor Pearce, the captain of the space station Romeo, who becomes zombified in this story. Avita Jay has done plenty of Big Finish audios in her acting career. 🙂
This includes playing Zakia Akhtar in the ‘Stranded’ audio series with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. She also played a couple of characters in the ‘Dalek Universe’ episode ‘Cycle of Destruction’.
Apparently, ‘The Evolving Dead’ was recorded on ‘the hottest day’ of 2020 – August the 11th. Jacob Dudman recorded his lines at producer Alfie Shaw’s house. I believe that this was still in lockdown. 😀
Jacob Dudman continues to be excellent as the Eleventh Doctor in these Big Finish audios. It was quite easy to visualise him being Matt Smith’s Doctor whilst hearing him play his character in the story.
It was very interesting to hear him do variations on how Matt Smith’s Doctor would sound from the TV series. Matt Smith’s Doctor can be unpredictable, as you never know what he’s going to say next.
‘The Evolving Dead’ has been a gripping audio episode to listen to. The classic sci-fi take on a zombie story works well here. It helps when Jacob Dudman does wonders with playing the Eleventh Doctor.
The CD extras are as follows. There are behind-the-scenes interviews with Jacob Dudman, Ayesha Antoine, Tom Alexander, Avita Jay, writer Doris V Sutherland, producer Alfie Shaw and director Nicholas Briggs.
‘The Evolving Dead’ rating – 8/10
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