‘RAVAGERS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Ravagers with the Ninth Doctor, Nova and Audrey

A new chapter of the Ninth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ begins!

In August 2020, when I heard the news that Christopher Eccleston was coming back to play the Ninth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish in their audio stories, I couldn’t help be excited! It was the news I wanted to hear for a long time after David Tennant returned to play the Tenth Doctor in Big Finish.

It came at a good time, especially with most of us stuck at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It cheered ‘Doctor Who’ fans up with all the misery and uncertainty going on in the world. I was looking forward to hearing Chris Eccleston’s return as the Ninth Doctor once I pre-ordered the audios. 🙂

Big Finish have tackled the Ninth Doctor on audio before with ‘The Ninth Doctor Chronicles’ performed by Nicholas Briggs as well as some Short Trip audios. This is the first time where Chris Eccleston actually returns to play the Ninth Doctor after doing one season in the TV series in 2005. 🙂

For me, Chris Eccleston was my first Doctor when I was introduced to ‘Doctor Who’ in 2005 via the episode ‘Dalek’. It was great to have him back in the Big Finish audios, and it’s interesting how Big Finish have tackled Chris Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor on audio by doing stories set before the TV series.

Series 1 of ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ is set before the Ninth Doctor meets up with Rose in the episode called ‘Rose’. I’m sad that Big Finish didn’t do audio adventures with the Ninth Doctor and Rose to start off Chris Eccleston’s return in playing the Ninth Doctor. Maybe that’ll happen in future.

I’m not sure whether Noel Clarke and John Barrowman would able to return to play Mickey and Captain Jack in ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’, considering their reputations have been tarnished lately. It would be nice to hear Camille Coduri back as Jackie along with the Ninth Doctor and Rose. 🙂

To start off ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’, we have a three-part story written and directed by Nicholas Briggs called ‘Ravagers’. This contains the episodes ‘Sphere of Influence’, ‘Cataclysm’ and ‘Food Fight’. ‘Ravagers’ is released as a 4-disc CD set, with Disc 4 being the behind-the-scenes disc. 🙂

I was looking forward to what this epic three-part audio adventure would be like with Chris Eccleston as the Doctor. Would Chris Eccleston’s Doctor be great on audio compared to how he was in the TV series? Would my memories of Chris Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor come back to me here?

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1. ‘SPHERE OF FREEDOM’

In the first episode called ‘Sphere of Freedom’, we find the Ninth Doctor in Freedom Square on the Sphere of Freedom. He communicates with a woman named Nova, who is played by Camilla Beeput.

The Doctor waits for her to escape a series of tunnels. She explains she’s running as fast as possible, as he waits for her outside the TARDIS. The Doctor is attempting to stop a force of time eddies here.

Unfortunately, something goes very, very wrong. Nova did everything she could and the Doctor doesn’t understand what went wrong. Eventually, Nova disappears when the time eddies get to her.

During this, the Doctor has met up with a merchant woman who turns out to be Jayne McKenna as Audrey. She tried to sell the Doctor a gaming headset, but he turned her down once she tried her selling.

Once Nova has been taken by the time eddies, Audrey meets up with the Doctor again and they resume their conversation. The Doctor explains to Audrey about what happened. It started on Earth.

Just to say, Chris Eccleston slips back into the role of the Ninth Doctor effortlessly. It’s like he hasn’t been away. It’s clear Nick Briggs writes well for Chris’ Doctor with the sharp dialogue provided for him. 🙂

We soon flashback to before the Doctor lost Nova. The Doctor ended up on planet Earth in 1959 London. Apparently, eighty Roman centurions were displaced in time to Piccadilly Circus. Very odd! 😐

This is the work of the time eddies the Doctor picked up when travelling in his TARDIS and when receiving a message from himself (I think). Hopefully things will be clearer as we delve into the story.

The Doctor meets up with Jamie Parker as Captain Halloran of the British Army and pretends to be from the War Office. The Doctor takes charge, as he orders Halloran and his men about in the story.

Halloran can’t believe he’s faced with real Romans and suspects this to be the work of the Russians, which gets the Doctor exasperated. We also meet Ben Lee playing Lieutenant Farraday in the story. 🙂

Very soon, the Doctor and the British soldiers try to make contact with one scared Roman – Dan Starkey as Marcus Aurelius Gallius. Of course, Dan Starkey is no stranger to being in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

He’s well-known for playing Sontarans in the TV series and the Big Finish audios. I wonder if Chris Eccleston’s Doctor will get to meet the Sontarans, voiced by Dan Starkey. It’d be pretty fantastic! 😀

The conversation with Marcus the Roman doesn’t go well, despite the TARDIS translation circuits helping everyone to understand each other’s languages. The Romans decide on attacking anyway. 😦

The Doctor soon ends up returning to his TARDIS, where he hopes to find the source of the time eddies and stop them from ever happening. Soon, the Doctor ends up on the Sphere of Freedom. 😀

Meanwhile, one of the time eddies got Farraday, as he finds himself transported to a futuristic battle arena. He’s introduced as a contestant in front of a cheering crowd to battle a large robotic warrior.

With the Doctor, he meets up with Nova, who happens to be a galley chef on the Sphere of Freedom. Nova soon helps the Doctor in trying to get rid of the time eddies present on the Sphere. 🙂

Nova seems to come across as a feisty person and may potentially end up being a companion for the Ninth Doctor. At this point, I don’t think Nova is appearing in more audio stories beyond ‘Ravagers’.

Apparently, the Sphere of Freedom contains immersive reality games. I wonder if this is connected to ‘Bad Wolf’/’The Parting of the Ways’ or any of those immersive games produced for ‘Doctor Who’. 😀

Once the Doctor has told his story to Audrey about what happened to Nova, it turns out Audrey isn’t who she appears to be. She happens to be Audrey Mohinson – the CEO of the Sphere of Freedom. 😐

She’s also responsible for the time eddies occurring. Audrey attempts to take the Doctor as her prisoner by her armed guards, but he manages to escape in the TARDIS. Audrey catches him though.

She catches him in a targeting beam, which interferes with the TARDIS’ flight. The TARDIS ends up in a time eddy and it gets transported to a neutron star. The Doctor does have a lot on his plate to deal with…

‘Sphere of Freedom’ rating – 8/10

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2. ‘CATACLYSM’

In the second episode called ‘Cataclym’, we find out what happened to Nova, as she ended up in a new location. She’s met by some flying drones that attempt to ‘correct’ her of independent thought.

Apparently, there’s an organics factory and Nova is expected to work for the drones. She’s also to be used as biodegradable fuel. Nova runs away from the drones, as she shouts for the Doctor’s name. 😐

We get a glimpse of what’s occurring in 1959 London, as Captain Halloran and his men fight against the time-displaced Roman Centurions. Lt. Farraday continues to fight a big robot in a futuristic arena.

Meanwhile, the Doctor struggles to escape the pull of a neutron star with the TARDIS caught in it. I enjoyed the battle of wits between the Doctor and Audrey Mohinson when he’s inside the TARDIS. 🙂

Thankfully, the Doctor manages to escape; as he flies his TARDIS into one of the time eddies nearby. I’m not sure if the TARDIS was caught in an immersive reality game before heading into a time eddy.

Soon, the TARDIS ends up in the Battle of Waterloo, somewhere in Belgium in June 1815. The Doctor sees the French army about to be attacked by Soviet Union tanks from 1952. This is quite disturbing.

In the episode’s first half, it’s indicated that Audrey has met the Doctor before. This is confirmed as the Doctor manages to find and rescue Nova before they go back in time to meet a young Audrey. 🙂

We also have the reveal of our enemies in this episode called the Ravagers. These aren’t the same Ravagers as featured in ‘Flux’, and the story ‘Ravagers’ was made before the ‘Flux’ season was conceived. 😐

In this story, the Ravagers are a species of creature that number in billions. They have an insatiable hunger to devour everything in the universe. When grouped together, they resemble a neutron star.

It’s also revealed that the Doctor crossed his own timeline and arrived late due to the time eddies’ inference. It explains why the Doctor and Nova weren’t able to stop the time eddies the first time. 😐

When the Doctor and Nova go back in time to fix things and meet a young Audrey, they end on the planet Tarlishia. The Doctor is able to find the young Audrey’s DNA after they acquire a control node.

I enjoyed the interaction between the Doctor and Nova in the episode. The Doctor tries to make out he’s not necessarily nice, but Nova knows he has a good heart, despite the rough exterior he has on.

As well as a young Audrey, there’s also the President of Tarlishia, played by Anjella Mackintosh. Anjella Mackintosh also voiced the AI drones that were chasing Nova in the episode’s opening scene.

She’s also had a fair share of ‘Doctor Who’ Big Finish audios such as ‘Prisoners of Fate’ and ‘Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories’. She’s also been in the ‘Timeslip’ audio story ‘The War That Never Was’. 🙂

It was interesting to hear the Doctor and Nova meeting a young Audrey whilst she doesn’t know them yet. Young Audrey also has a suitcase. This contains a similar control node that the Doctor has.

The Doctor reacts in pain, breathing and groaning heavily as well as losing focus when he’s in close contact with Young Audrey and her suitcase. He’s back to normal once young Audrey is out of reach.

The Doctor and Nova work out what’s going with Audrey, even after they get arrested and their belongings are confiscated. Meanwhile, Audrey has contact from a spectral version of the Doctor. 😐

Soon, the Doctor and Nova are able to escape their prison after distracting the guard before they return to the TARDIS. Nova has an idea. It involves removing strange time particles from her brain. 🙂

Pleased with the idea, the Doctor and Nova attempt to use the AI drones that attacked Nova earlier. They’re to be repurposed to find and destroy the odd time particles if they were released in the past.

Audrey attempts to use the node she has with her to show the proof of her findings to the President of Tarlishia. Apparently, the node is Gallifreyan. The Doctor confirms that to Audrey in spectral form.

In the end, Audrey’s attempt to fire the device doesn’t work. Instead of devolving the Ravagers, they absorb the temporal energy. In spectral form, the Doctor says this is where everything went wrong…

‘Cataclysm’ rating – 8/10

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3. ‘FOOD FIGHT’

Thankfully, the third episode of ‘Ravagers’ called ‘Food Fight’ isn’t like the 2012 animated film of the same name (as far as I know 😀 ). We pick up on where we left off with the Doctor and Nova in the TARDIS.

They’ve reprogrammed the drones in order to wipe out the time particles and reverse what happened with the time eddies appearing and unleashing the Ravagers. Ideally, this should all work.

On the journey back to the Sphere of Freedom, they pick up Lt. Farraday, saving him from the giant robot in the futuristic arena. I liked Farraday’s reaction inside the TARDIS with the Doctor and Nova.

The Doctor also rescues Captain Halloran and Marcus Aurelius Gaillius from their battle in 1959. Hearing the TARDIS crowded with the Doctor, Nova, Farraday, Halloran and Marcus was interesting.

Marcus is more aggressive compared to Halloran and Farraday. At one point, Marcus is left dangling onto the foot of the TARDIS before the Doctor reasons with him in order for them to work together.

Meanwhile, with Audrey, she keeps seeing visions of the Doctor from the future. At this point, it’s been five years since she last saw him. I did wonder how the Doctor was able to do this with Audrey.

Eventually, the TARDIS ends up on the Sphere of Freedom again and the Doctor and Nova put their plan into operation. They nickname the prime drone ‘Cynthia’ before they put all the drones into use. 🙂

Things don’t go according to plan, as the Doctor ends up getting shot and strapped to an interrogation slab whilst Nova, Halloran, Farraday and Marcus have escaped. Has all hope been lost?

At one point, Nova attempts to activate the drones in the TARDIS, as they wouldn’t respond the first time when being summoned. Thankfully, Nova’s name is enough and the drones begin their work. 🙂

The drones make to destroy the bad time particles at the Sphere of Freedom. Audrey soon frees the Doctor from interrogation. He reunites with Nova before the Ravagers and the time eddies escape. 😦

The Doctor also saves Audrey’s life from a time eddy, but he gets caught in it and is teleported away. Thankfully the Doctor isn’t dead. He wakes up in the time eddy and he soon uses the node he’s got.

The scenes where the Doctor was talking to himself in the TARDIS in the story’s first episode and when he’s talking to Audrey as a spectre are made clearer. They happen when he’s in the time eddy.

This might get confusing when you’re listening to the story. You’d have to be on the alert to understand what’s happening. Thankfully, the story’s complexities didn’t put me off from enjoying it.

When the Doctor is inside the time eddy, he talks to one of the Ravagers, voiced by Clare Corbett. I’ve heard Clare Corbett read the audiobook of ‘The Good Doctor’, a story featuring the Thirteenth Doctor. 🙂

Eventually, using the TARDIS key and connecting it to the node he’s got; his sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS himself, the Doctor has the TARDIS materialise around him before he fixes the timelines.

In this story, the Ravagers don’t have a revenge grudge against the Doctor like Swarm and Azure had in ‘Flux’. They’re merely trying to survive when feeding on the matter that exists in their universe. 😐

This is where the title ‘Food Fight’ comes into place in the episode. The Ninth Doctor gets to say “Fantastic!” when he gradually realises the Ravagers’ ‘food’ is fighting back against them in the story. 🙂

In the end, the Doctor reboots the timelines by re-living his first meeting with Nova and not land in 1959 London as he did before. Thus, what went on with Audrey and the Ravagers never happened. 🙂

Once things are resolved with Audrey, the Doctor meets up with Nova again in a café. It was amusing to hear the Doctor being slightly tipsy, as he drinks something and is actually slurping from his cup. 😀

I honestly didn’t expect Chris Eccleston’s Doctor to be the slurping type. 😀 The Doctor explains to Nova about the alternate adventure she had with him. The Doctor also learns that Nova is a ‘NERD’!

Apparently, Nova’s father introduced her to science-fiction videos, including the ‘Professor X’ TV series. 😀 The epic story ‘Ravagers’ concludes with the Ninth Doctor offering one TARDIS trip to Nova.

At the end of Disc 3 of ‘Ravagers’, there’s a suite of incidental music to enjoy!

‘Food Fight’ rating – 8/10

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES

The fourth disc of ‘Ravagers’ is a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, looking into the epic three-part story. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, as it looks into how ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ came about and how Christopher Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor again.

There’s an introduction by producer David Richardson and there are interviews with writer/director Nicholas Briggs, Christopher Eccleston, Camilla Beeput and Jayne McKenna. It was lovely to hear Chris Eccleston be so enthusiastic when talking about playing the Ninth Doctor again for Big Finish. 🙂

There are also interviews with the guest stars of the story, including Anjella Mackintosh, Dan Starkey, Jamie Parker and Ben Lee. It was very nice to hear the experiences of the actors who worked with Christopher Eccleston in ‘Ravagers’, despite some of them having to work from home. 🙂

It was also good to hear Clare Corbett be interviewed in the documentary and share her experience of playing one of the Ravagers in the story. The cast and crew also discuss the story ‘Ravagers’ being often told in a non-linear manner and how it reflects the reality we live in, whether it’s linear or not.

It was interesting to hear the cast and crew talk about the challenges of working during the Covid-19 pandemic and how stories in ‘Doctor Who’ provide escapism for listeners. It was good to hear Nick Briggs talk about Chris Eccleston coming back to play the Ninth Doctor after doing one season on TV.

Chris Eccleston shares his experience of attending conventions and meeting the fans, which was nice to hear. The producer David Richardson also talks about Chris Eccleston and what it’s like to work with him in the Big Finish audios. There’s also talk about the Ninth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ on TV.

It was amusing to hear Chris Eccleston share his experience of working on ‘Dalek’ with Billie Piper and being surprised by Nick Briggs’ Dalek voice. It was also moving to hear Chris share his memories of showing ‘Doctor Who’ (when he was in it) to his dad, though his dad sadly had dementia back then. 😦

I enjoyed ‘Ravagers’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story. As the first in ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ by Big Finish, it’s pretty solid. I’m glad Christopher Eccleston has returned to do the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’. He’s clearly into the role he’s playing and hasn’t lost that energy and determination. 🙂

I’m looking forward to checking out more ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ by Big Finish. It’s very exciting to check out these audio adventures at this time. ‘Ravagers’ does have a lot of complexities to it, but it’s always good to hear Chris Eccleston continuing to be enthusiastic when playing the Ninth Doctor.

‘Ravagers’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Ninth Doctor was ‘I Was Churchill’s Double’ (TCY) (Audio)	The next story For the Ninth Doctor is ‘Respond to All Calls’ (Audio)
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