‘THE SIEGE OF BIG BEN’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Jackie Tells Her Story To Beryl

This story is by Joseph Lidster and is read by Camille Coduri. It features Jackie Tyler with the Meta-Crisis Doctor.

I’ve enjoyed listening to ‘The Siege of Big Ben’! It has been a wonderfully written Short Trip audio of ‘Doctor Who’ and it’s the first time I’ve listened to an audio short story by Big Finish where it’s set in new series territory. Beforehand, I have read and heard lots of Short Trips during the classic series run.

This Short Trip audio does an intriguing take in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe as it takes place in…a parallel universe. The Pete’s World universe actually. Yeah, this story takes place in that parallel universe where the Cybus Industries Cybermen were created and it also takes place following ‘Journey’s End’.

The story features the Meta-Crisis Doctor, who is a duplicate of the Tenth Doctor created as a result of the meta-crisis when the Doctor’s decapitated hand in the TARDIS got in contact with Donna Noble touching it. The hand also had the Tenth Doctor’s regenerative energy from that aborted regeneration.

At the end of ‘Journey’s End’, the Meta-Crisis Doctor stayed in the Pete’s World parallel universe with Rose Tyler to spend the rest of his life with her. The Meta-Crisis Doctor is actually part Time Lord-part human and has only one heart. He also has the mix of the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble’s personality in him.

I often wondered what happened to the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose in that parallel universe and hoped they’d have a ‘happily ever after’ following ‘Journey’s End’. This Short Trip audio provides insight on what occurred after ‘Journey’s End’ and whether the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose were truly happy.

However the story doesn’t focus on the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose characters in the story. In fact, Rose doesn’t appear in the story as she’s only referred to. This story focuses on Jackie Tyler, Rose’s mum, as Camille Coduri performs the tale from Jackie’s viewpoint in telling her story to a mate of hers.

I’ve heard Camille Coduri read and perform a number of ‘Doctor Who’ audios over the years, both for the BBC and Big Finish. I’ve enjoyed Camille’s narration of ‘Doctor Who’ and she hasn’t lost her character of Jackie Tyler whenever she performs her. I enjoyed hearing this from Jackie’s perspective.

In the story, Jackie has a friend called Beryl who comes over to her house to chat and gossip. Oh yeah, Jackie lives in that big house belonging to Pete Tyler, not the flat in the Powell Estate anymore. Also Beryl doesn’t get a word in edgeways as Jackie chatters away telling her story, which is pretty amusing.

It was fun to hear how Jackie compares to living in Pete’s World as opposed to living in our normal universe. Jackie finds life good and bad at the same time living in Pete’s World. She shares how much she enjoys living a life with her family. It includes her hubby Pete, her daughter Rose and her son Tony.

She also shares how much she misses her old life in the Powell Estate and shares how much she finds the Doctor changed from when she knew him before. Jackie isn’t really happy with the Meta-Crisis Doctor, since he tends to do things differently compared to the old Doctor and isn’t as compassionate.

I liked it when Jackie tells Beryl what she and her family do in her life. Apparently the President of Great Britan, Harriet Jones, has merged the Preachers and Torchwood with U.N.I.T. Pete Tyler’s now a U.N.I.T. captain, the Doctor’s the scientific advisor and Rose is his assistant. Jackie is U.N.I.T.’s dinner lady. 😀

Still, she’s happy about it. Apparently Jackie’s group in U.N.I.T. are working inside Big Ben where the story takes place. I was disappointed that Rose never got to appear in this story as it’s just Jackie and the Doctor. It was nice to hear references to Rose. I do hope a future tale with Rose will come soon.

It was interesting to hear Jackie’s interaction with the Meta-Crisis Doctor so far in this adventure. He tends to be rough and uncompromising and is apparently building/growing a new TARDIS in U.N.I.T.’s lab. Jackie becomes shocked when the Doctor does something terrible in order to defeat their enemy.

There’s so much I can say about this story, but I think you should check the audio out to discover how good it is. ‘The Siege of Big Ben’ is great to listen to as I enjoyed hearing Jackie’s insight in how she and her family are doing since ‘Journey’s End’ and I like the story on what she thinks of the Meta-Crisis Doctor.

‘The Siege of Big Ben’ rating – 9/10

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The previous story For the Meta-Crisis Doctor was ‘The Turning of the Tide’ (TS)	The next story For the Meta-Crisis Doctor is ‘Flight Into Hull’ (ST/Audio)
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