‘BACK TO EARTH’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Grimminy-Grew, Moscow in 1605 and New Years with the Ninth Doctor

Here we make a start on Series 2 of ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish!

It’s interesting how these ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ have turned out. Back in 2020, when it was announced that Christopher Eccleston would be returning to play the Ninth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’, I was hyped. I was looking forward to checking out these ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories with Chris’ Doctor.

To be fair, I have enjoyed Series 1 overall, which includes the anthologies ‘Ravagers’, ‘Respond to All Calls’, ‘Lost Warriors’ and ‘Old Friends’. I was looking forward to checking out more of these audio stories featuring Chris’ Doctor. Mind you, I’m not certain about the direction these audios are going.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that these audios depict the journey of the Ninth Doctor being a lonely traveller before he reaches the point where he meets Rose Tyler in Series 1 of the new TV series. But there isn’t a lot of variety when ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ is restricted to that period.

I know that this is something Christopher Eccleston prefers when it comes to doing these audio adventures and that’s fair enough. But honestly, I would like more variety in these audio stories, including adventures featuring his Doctor and he’s joined by Rose Tyler, taking place during Series 1.

At present, I’m okay with the direction these audio stories are going, but I don’t think I’m going to be rushing to check out every box set of audio adventures featuring the Ninth Doctor. Whilst I have Series 1 and 2 as CD box sets, I pre-ordered Series 3 of ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ as downloads.

Anyway, let’s talk about this particular ‘Doctor Who’ anthology featuring the Ninth Doctor called ‘Back to Earth’. This contains three episodes, including ‘Station to Station’ by Robert Valentine, ‘The False Dimitry’ by Sarah Grochala and ‘Auld Lang Syne’ by Tim Foley. All seem to be standalone episodes.

The ‘Back to Earth’ anthology is directed by Helen Goldwyn, who previously directed ‘Respond to All Calls’ and ‘Old Friends’. I’m not entirely happy with these box sets being released as anthologies, despite a specific theme running through them. For this one, the Doctor is visiting planet Earth a lot.

The three episodes of ‘Back to Earth’ are on the first three discs of the box set whilst the fourth disc is a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the episodes. I was looking forward to what each of the episodes would be like and how they connect as one concerning the anthology’s theme.

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1. ‘STATION TO STATION’

In the first ‘Back to Earth’ episode called ‘Station to Station’ by Robert Valentine, the Ninth Doctor visits a deserted London tube station where a malicious monster tries to ensnare innocent victims. 😐

Robert Valentine is a writer I’ve come across before. He wrote ‘The Lovecraft Invasion’ with the Sixth Doctor and ‘The Lost’ with the Tenth Doctor. I enjoyed his take on the Ninth Doctor in this episode. 🙂

The TARDIS is drawn to the London tube station, which happens to be Underbridge Station. I’m not sure if that’s a real name for a London tube station, but it’s very likely that it’s a fictional name for it.

Chris’ Doctor meets up with Indigo Griffiths as Saffron Windrose. She’s stranded at Underbridge station and was on her way to meet up with her parents to tell them that she’s going to get married.

One of the misleading things about the ‘Back to Earth’ box set for me is that I assumed that Saffron was going to be a one-off companion for the Ninth Doctor. That could have been interesting to hear.

Sadly, she only appears in this episode of ‘Back to Earth’, which is a shame. I enjoyed her character and Indigo Griffiths plays her well. It’s also intriguing how her character is developed in this episode.

Apparently, Saffron is going to get married to someone called Erin, played by Shazia Nicholls. She’s afraid her parents will disapprove when they find out, should she tell them in meeting up with them.

It’s a factor that brought Saffron to the Underbridge station in the first place. I like that scene where Saffron shares her story to the Ninth Doctor. He’s understanding of the anxiety she’s going through.

The being that brought the Ninth Doctor, Saffron and others to this Underbridge Station is called the Grimminy-Grew, played by Ian Bartholomew. Apparently, it’s a kind-of version of the Boogie-Man. 😐

I’m not sure if the Grimminy-Grew is an actual figure in folklore, though it could have been entirely created by Robert Valentine. The Grimminy-Grew is a very malevolent being and it feeds on anxiety.

The Grimminy-Grew tends to speak in rhyme a lot too, especially when it becomes threatening. I wonder if Robert Valentine was inspired by Dr. Seuss when he wrote the Grimminy-Grew’s dialogue.

Other people that have been captured at the Underbridge station are those from different times and places in Earth’s history. There’s Witherow, the Underbridge station master, played by Sean Baker. 🙂

There’s Mrs. Hodkin, played by Patricia England, who happens to serve tea at the Underbridge station. There’s Cate, played by Shazia Nicholas, who was captured at the beginning of this episode.

And there’s Gordon, played by Ian Bartholomew, who’s frustrated that the tube trains are late. Witherow, Mrs. Hodkin, Cate and Gordon are nice when the Ninth Doctor and Saffron meet them. 🙂

There is an attempt made by the Ninth Doctor play the spoons, like when he was the Seventh Doctor in stories like ‘Time and the Rani’. I wonder if Christopher Eccleston can play the spoons in real life. 🙂

In the final confrontation between the Ninth Doctor and the Grimminy-Grew, attempts are made to guess the Doctor’s real name. The guesses include ‘the Oncoming Storm’ and ‘Brother Lungbarrow’.

I haven’t read the ‘Doctor Who’ book ‘Lungbarrow’ myself, but it’s nice a mention of that is made here. There’s also the nickname ‘Theta Sigma’ that Drax said quite a bit in ‘The Armageddon Factor’.

There is an element of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ in this audio episode, especially when the Ninth Doctor reveals the Grimminy-Grew’s true name. There’s also an echo from ‘The Shakespeare Code’ in this. 🙂

I liked the sort-of ‘everybody lives’ moment where the Ninth Doctor discovers that everyone can go back to their own times and place and that nobody has to die. It’s an echo from ‘The Doctor Dances’.

The episode concludes with the Doctor finding his TARDIS after it went missing in the episode. Saffron says goodbye, as she decides to go back to her lover instead of seeing her parents in London.

‘Station to Station’ is a very good opening episode in the ‘Back to Earth’ anthology. I found the performances of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Indigo Griffiths as Saffron very compelling.

‘Station to Station’ rating – 8/10

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2. ‘THE FALSE DIMITRY’

In the second ‘Back to Earth’ episode called ‘The False Dimitry’ by Sarah Grochala, the Ninth Doctor visits Moscow in 1605. An old Tsar is dead, but a new Tsar is to be crowned. But all is not as it seems.

This is the second time I’ve come across Sarah Grochala as a writer in ‘Doctor Who’. The first time was in the audio story ‘God of War’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Adric and the Ice Warriors.

I enjoyed that audio story and I hoped ‘The False Dimitry’ would be another enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ entry by Sarah Grochala. This ended up being a decent pseudo-historical story with Russia and robots.

I’m not sure about the historical accuracy featured in this adventure, since it was a challenge to keep track of the guest characters and their motivations. I know history can often get stretched in fiction.

Maybe it’s because my knowledge of Russia history isn’t as good compared to knowing UK, USA and German history. But I’m not entirely sure how I’m to take something as fact or fiction in this episode.

The Doctor arrives during a commotion, as a woman called Oksana declares that the Tsar Boris Fyodorovich Godunov had been murdered. Curious as to what’s happening, the Doctor investigates.

I should talk about the guest characters a bit. Katy Brittain guest stars as Oksana Vladimirovna Kuznetsova. She seems to be a highly-strung person. I often found her quite over-the-top at times. 😦

Katy Brittain also voices a robot – one of the Smirtniks – who is disguised as a potential bride-to-be of the False Dimitry. I do wish the robots had a more prominent role to play throughout this episode.

They look impressive on the front cover of ‘The False Dimitry’ as well as in the YouTube trailer. They could’ve been brought in more, stirring things up in the rivalry between Russia and Poland in 1605. 😦

Speaking of the False Dimitry, Alexander Arnold guest stars as Dimitry Ivanovich. He claims to be next in line as Tsar of Russia, but he’s actually a pretender and his real name happens to be Grishka.

It was a challenge to understand Grishka/False Dimitry’s character, as he often shifted in wanting to be Tsar to being confused. I’m not sure if he was being influenced by the Smirtnik robots in this story.

Talking about history for a bit, apparently, the real Dimitry Ivanovich died by having a fit whilst playing with his knives. It’s widely believed that he was murdered, and it seems true, according to Oksana. 😐

This is what I mean about finding it a challenge to distinguish between fact and fiction. I’m not so familiar with Russian history, and I wish this episode was more audience-friendly to accommodate it.

If the Ninth Doctor had a companion character like Saffron from ‘Station to Station’, he could explain to her or him as well as to us what’s going on in Moscow in 1605, so that we can take history in account.

Jack Myers guest stars as Aleksander Petrovich Kuznetsov – Sasha to his friends. I believe he’s Oksana’s son. He becomes a sort-of companion to the Ninth Doctor, especially in uncovering a mystery.

Sasha is calmer than Oksana, though he has tendencies to get into emotional outbursts, especially when the False Dimitry commit unusual actions. I think Sasha has feelings for Grishka in the episode.

The episode also features John Banks. It was nice to hear John Banks in this audio episode, having heard him in ‘Doctor Who’ stories like ‘Moonflesh’, ‘Heroes of Sontar’ and ‘Only The Monstrous’.

John Banks plays two characters in this audio episode. He briefly plays Tsar Boris Fyodorovich Godunov in the episode’s beginning, and he plays Captain Mikhail Mikhailovich Zubov in the story. 🙂

I’m surprised that Russian actors weren’t cast to play the Russian characters in this episode. After all, Russian actors were cast in ‘Singularity’, and that story did take place in Moscow in the far future. 😐

The episode concludes with the Ninth Doctor saying goodbye to Oksana and Sasha, after sorting out the False Dimitry business. Oksana and Sasha are surprised to see the TARDIS vanish before them. 🙂

‘The False Dimitry’ is an okay episode to check out in the ‘Back to Earth’ anthology. It’s not awful, but I wish this episode was more audience-friendly for those, like me, who are unfamiliar with Russia’s history.

‘The False Dimitry’ rating – 7/10

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3. ‘AULD LANG SYNE’

The third and final episode of ‘Back to Earth’ is called ‘Auld Lang Syne’ by Tim Foley. This episode has the Ninth Doctor being the caretaker of a house. He meets this young woman every New Year’s Eve.

Tim Foley is no stranger to the Ninth Doctor, as he wrote the episode ‘Fright Motif’ in ‘Respond to All Calls’. I’ve also enjoyed his story for the Fifth Doctor in the ‘Forty’ saga called ‘The Auton Infinity’.

To be honest, I found ‘Auld Lang Syne’ a better episode for the Ninth Doctor than ‘Fright Motif’. Not as good as ‘Station to Station’ in my humble opinion, but this was an enjoyable Ninth Doctor episode. 🙂

The episode’s title ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is a title for the song sung on New Year’s Day. It’s not a song I usually sing around New Year’s time, but it’s certainly a popular song for people to sing at parties. 😀

In this episode, Leah Brotherhead guest stars as Mandy Litherland, a young woman who has gathered her family at Foulds House every December to see the old year out and to welcome the New Year in.

Her family is a challenge to look after, including her Great Aunt Bette, who doesn’t seem to appreciate her efforts on New Year’s Eve. There’s her Auntie Sue, who seems a chirpy sort of person.

Incidentally, the episode takes place over four New Year’s Eves. This includes from 1989 to 1990, from 1990 to 1991, from 1991 to 1992, and from 1992 to 1993. Quite a mindboggling thing, isn’t it? 😀

Whilst having to contend with her family, Mandy meets the caretaker, who happens to be the Ninth Doctor. He’s friendly, although there are times when he’s acting weird, especially about the house. 🙂

It’s intriguing how the episode progressed, particularly in going through each New Year’s Eve. I wasn’t sure where this tale was going, especially with the character scenes featuring Mandy’s family.

But then it starts to get interesting, albeit rather complex, when the Ninth Doctor reveals there are windows into other time zones in the house, whether it’s in the past or future. This astounds Mandy.

There are echoes of ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ in this story, especially as it’s revealed that the house is a timeship. It’s a timeship that barely survived the Last Great Time War, according to the Doctor. 😐

I enjoyed the interaction between the Ninth Doctor and Mandy, especially when they’re getting to know each other. There are two occasions where Mandy kisses the Ninth Doctor, which is intriguing.

This might be considered pre-new TV series kissing before the Ninth Doctor and Rose kissed in ‘The Parting of the Ways’. Then again, the Eighth Doctor kissed Grace in ‘The TV Movie’ before this story.

The episode’s guest cast also includes Wendy Craig as Great Aunt Bette. Wendy Craig is well-known for playing the mother in the TV series ‘Butterflies’, where Geoffrey Palmer also plays her husband. 🙂

She’s also played Barbara Gray in the TV series ‘Nanny’. Her character of Great Aunt Bette does tend to come across as grumpy a lot of the time. It does become sad when she died during the episode. 😦

There is a nice scene where Mandy gets to see her Great Aunt Bette in the past. It’s emotional when Mandy said goodbye to her Great Aunt Bette before she went off on her way to die in the year 1992.

Hayley Tamaddon guest stars as Auntie Sue, who’s a cheery soul at the New Year’s Eve parties run by Mandy. She’s joined by Greig Johnson as Frank, and he happens to be this old flame of Auntie Sue. 😐

It’s interesting how it’s revealed that Frank is the key to everything that’s going on with the time windows in Foulds House. The Ninth Doctor attempts to locate Frank who runs off inside the house.

I must admit, the episode’s climax is quite weak in places, especially when it seems rushed for the Doctor to stop the time distortions and to sort out the Antibodies that are running free in the house.

I think the episode could have benefited with a scene of the Doctor managing to capture Frank whilst Mandy was having her emotional farewell with Great Aunt Bette. That felt absent in the story.

Apart from that, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ was nice to listen to, with the Ninth Doctor as a caretaker and him meeting Mandy. It was compelling for the tale to go through four New Year’s Eves and Days from 1989 to 1993. 🙂

‘Auld Lang Syne’ rating – 8/10

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Disc 4 of ‘Back to Earth’ is a behind-the-scenes making of documentary, which looks into the three episodes of the fifth ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ audio box set by Big Finish. I like how the documentary begins with Christopher Eccleston sharing his enthusiasm on playing the Ninth Doctor.

We go straight into the making of ‘Station to Station’. There are interviews with director Helen Goldwyn, writer Robert Valentine and cast members like Indigo Griffiths, Patricia England, Shazia Nicholls, Ian Bartholomew and Sean Baker. All share their enthusiasm for making this audio episode.

It was interesting to hear from writer Robert Valentine that ‘Station to Station’s episode title was inspired by the studio album and song from David Bowie. It was interesting to hear from Ian Bartholomew that he once auditioned to play the Seventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. That was new to me.

There’s then a look into ‘The False Dimitry’, which features interviews with writer Sarah Grochala and cast members like Katy Brittain, Jack Myers, Alexander Arnold and John Banks. Apparently, according to Sarah Grochala, she had to squash a lot from a year into a few days for her Russia story.

I wish that ‘The False Dimitry’ did take place in a year instead of a few days to make it more historically accurate. 😐 It was intriguing to hear that Katy Brittain worked with Christopher Eccleston before in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ‘Macbeth’. I would have liked to have seen that.

And then there’s a look into ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which features interviews with writer Tim Foley and cast members like Wendy Craig as well as Leah Brotherhead, Hayley Tamaddon and Greig Johnson as a threesome. According to Helen Goldwyn, Wendy Craig has also read ‘Beatrix Potter’ stories on audio. 🙂

It was fascinating to hear the cast and crew’s preferences in terms of celebrating the New Year. Apparently, director Helen Goldwyn is a teetotaller in real-life, so she doesn’t drink alcohol when attending New Year parties. I’ve not met Helen Goldwyn in real-life, but she seems a really nice lady.

The documentary ends with director Helen Goldwyn, Christopher Eccleston and Wendy Craig reflecting on what it’s been like to record in the Big Finish studio instead of recording remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m so glad that Big Finish audios can be recorded in the studio nowadays. 🙂

‘Back to Earth’ has been an enjoyable collection of ‘Doctor Who’ audios, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. I wouldn’t say it’s the best collection I’ve heard, but it’s been interesting how Big Finish have done these stories about the Ninth Doctor visiting his favourite planet. 🙂

Of course, the standout thing for me from these ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ is Christopher Eccleston and his enthusiasm to play the Ninth Doctor. So far, the Big Finish audios featuring his Doctor don’t have Rose in them yet, but I’m pleased that Chris Eccleston continues to enjoy doing these audios. 🙂

‘Back to Earth’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Ninth Doctor was ‘Old Friends’ (Audio)	The next story For the Ninth Doctor is ‘Into the Stars’ (Audio)
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