‘HE KILLS ME, HE KILLS ME NOT’ (TLV)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Eighth Doctor meets Brian the Ood

It’s time for the first Big Finish audio drama featured in the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series! 🙂

‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ is where the Eighth Doctor gets to play his part in ‘Time Lord Victorious’. Technically it began for him in ‘Echoes of Extinction’, but that’s something we’ll get to eventually. This audio tale is the first of a trilogy of Eighth Doctor ‘TLV’ stories starring Paul McGann.

I’m glad Big Finish get to play their part in these audio episodes featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. I would have liked it if Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant got to be involved in the Big Finish audios of the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series, but then again this is a multi-platform adventure. 🙁

It’s important to note that most of the ‘TLV’ audio stories by Big Finish were recorded during the lockdown periods of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Some of ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ was recorded at the Soundhouse studio in London whilst some of it was recorded remotely in March and April 2020.

It was intriguing to hear the cast and crew share their experiences of recording this audio story at home as well as some of it in the studio from the CD interviews. It’s just as well that the three Eighth Doctor ‘TLV’ audio adventures are like single episodes as opposed to standard four-part adventures.

The episode ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ is by Carrie Thompson. I’ve come across Carrie Thompson before as she wrote the Short Trip audio ‘The Second Oldest Question’ featuring Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. I enjoyed listening to that Short Trip audio. I equally enjoyed listening to this Big Finish audio.

This story is interesting as it has Paul McGann’s Doctor meeting up with Brian the Ood who I came across in ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’. This obviously takes place before Brian met up with the Tenth Doctor in that story and Silas Carson gets to play Brian the Ood for the very first time here.

There is a recurrent theme in these ‘TLV’ stories where history has changed and a planet that the Doctor visits isn’t what it was like before when he previously visited it. I wondered what caused that and how the Tenth Doctor’s actions as the Time Lord Victorious changed events within the universe.

As I understand it, this comes from a certain time fracture which features in the live ‘Doctor Who’ experience called ‘Time Fracture’ in London. I can’t comment on ‘Time Fracture’ as I haven’t attended that live experience yet and I’m not reviewing live events from the ‘TLV’ series at this stage.

Anyway, let’s get into what ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ is all about. The story has the Doctor visiting the desert world of Atharna. Although according to the Doctor, Atharna isn’t meant to be a desert world. It’s meant to be a water planet with large oceans and pleasure cruisers. Sounds nice! 🙂

It has a floating city called Moslin which contains the Statue of Kithal, one of the Seven Hundred Wonders of the Universe. Except the Statue Kithal isn’t there when the Doctor visits the planet! It’s also meant to be a populated planet with colonists from across the universe. Not many people here.

As the Doctor tries to uncover the mystery of what’s going on Atharna, he quickly becomes embroiled in a web of deceit involving two lovers – Felicity and Sophie – and an Ood assassin who’s trying to kill one of them. The Doctor doesn’t realise he’ll be meeting Brian the Ood in the future. 😐

At this point, I’m curious as to how the Tenth Doctor doesn’t recall meeting Brian from ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ in ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’. Maybe this is a side effect of the ‘time fracture’. Perhaps it’s something that will be explored in future ‘TLV’ audios and ‘All Flesh is Grass’. 🙂

In ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’, there’s an interlude between the Eighth Doctor and Brian which apparently takes place before they enter the city of Moslin. The Doctor didn’t realise that Brian was dangerous and was threatening the lives of Felicity and Sophie in that particular interlude.

There is an old western town atmosphere about this audio adventure, especially when the Doctor enters the city of Moslin and gets involved in a showdown at a tavern. The setting does put me in mind of ‘The Gunfighters’ since there’s both a tavern and a medical clinic from that in this audio tale.

Paul McGann is excellent as the Eighth Doctor in this audio adventure. This is of course the Eighth Doctor from the Time War era before he regenerated into John Hurt. I’m guessing this is early on with the Eighth Doctor’s exploits in the Time War, despite the War Doctor’s theme music being used.

I like how Paul’s Doctor becomes curious when meeting Brian the Ood and Felicity. He deduces things aren’t what they seem, especially with the changes to Atharna. He asks very good questions, much to Sheriff Katherine’s annoyance and helps out in Felicity and Sophie’s predicament with Brian.

Silas Carson is equally a joy to listen to as Brian the Ood. I like how Silas has maintained that Ood voice in Brian’s character, despite giving him an edge in Brian’s voice compared to how other standard Ood sound. It’s intriguing to hear his voice having read him in ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’.

Brian is quite different in this audio adventure compared to reading him in ‘The Knight, the Food and the Dead’. In that story, Brian was sort-of the Tenth Doctor’s ally. Here, he’s the Eighth Doctor’s opponent, especially when he’s duplicitous and ordered to carry out an assassination on Sophie. 😐

Misha Malcolm stars as Felicity and Melanie Steven stars as Sophie. Both are lovers and are apparently married. I’m reminded of another couple like them in the ‘War Master’ story ‘The Master of Callous’, except things ended tragically for them whereas Felicty and Sophie have a happy ending.

There’s Pauline Eyre as Katherine Steele, the sheriff of the city of Moslin on Atharna. Katherine is a tough cookie and is rather sceptical about the stories the Doctor and Sophie tell about Brian the Ood who has Felicity in his custody when they come into Samson’s bar. Katherine gradually helps out.

Jack DeVos guest stars as Samson, the owner of a tavern in the city of Moslin on the planet Atharna. Samson is rather proud of his establishment and doesn’t like it when trouble is caused. He has a policy of ‘no harbouring fugitives’, but he has no choice in the matter when Brian is out to kill somebody. 😐

Martin McDougall guest stars as Craddock, the medic for the town of Moslin on the planet Atharna. Katherine holds a grudge against Craddock since he saved the life of criminal over her partner who died. Craddock helps out attending to people’s injuries in this story and makes a sacrifice at the end.

Apparently, Brian has been ordered to assassinate Sophie on the instructions of Felicity’s father since he disapproves of them being together and he artificially created Felicity to be his ‘perfect daughter’. The Doctor outwits Brian as he utilises a heat shield which creates holograms of himself. 🙂

Brian mentions ‘Mr. Ball’ in this episode as he mentioned ‘him’ in ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’. The story concludes with the Doctor offering to take Brian off-world in exchange for Brian breaking his contract. Brian reluctantly agrees, but the TARDIS starts going haywire, dematerialising.

The Doctor and Brian jump in the TARDIS before it takes off and leaves everyone behind. Brian ends up dangling outside the TARDIS whilst the Doctor tries to get him in. Brian attempts to kill the Doctor before he ends up falling into the time vortex. The TARDIS ends up somewhere where Daleks await!

Soon, the Doctor is a prisoner of the Daleks, voiced by Nicholas Briggs. I wonder what will happen next and how the Doctor will escape his foes. What do the Daleks want with him? How significantly involved are they in the ‘TLV’ series? Will the Doctor end up being an ally of the Daleks next time? 😐

I greatly enjoyed ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’. It’s a gripping audio adventure featuring Paul McGann’s Doctor who meets Silas Carson as Brian the Ood for the first time. I’m intrigued about where the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series will go next for the Eighth Doctor when in league with Daleks.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew including Paul McGann, Silas Carson, writer Carrie Thompson, director Scott Handcock, producer Alfie Shaw, etc. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy.

‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ (TLV) rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Eighth Doctor was ‘Echoes of Extinction’ (TLV) (Audio) For the Daleks was ‘Defender of the Daleks’ (TLV) (Comic)	The next story For the Eighth Doctor is ‘The Knight, the Fool and the Dead’ (TLV) (Book) For the Daleks is ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ (TLV) (Audio)
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