After a glimmer of hope with the last boxset’s The Green Life, it’s back to the status quo for the Ninth Doctor Adventures, the latest instalment of which, Travel in Hope, gives us yet another trio of standalone adventures for Christopher Eccleston‘s incarnation of the Time Lord. But there’s no point grumbling any longer about something that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change… so, what are the stories like?
Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle open the boxset with Below There, a kind of futuristic homage to The Signalman. It’s a serious, somewhat unsettling tale with some major focus on Kelly Adams‘ Vyx Leeson, the latest in a long line of one-off companions for the Ninth Doctor. Adams is very effective in the role- scared, secretive and ultimately filled with hope- and shares a great rapport with Eccleston, though she’s not quite as developed as some of the other pseudo-companions in the series.
Eccleston himself is on top form, and is particularly effective at the start of the story, where he’s little more than a voice calling out to Vyx from across the stars. It’s nice to hear him in a story where there’s no real enemy too, forced to grapple with more of a philosophical quandary than an alien force. Overall, this is an enjoyably spooky listen with some strong performances and chilling sound design from Iain Meadows.
If Below There was a futuristic take on a Dickensian ghost story, then The Butler Did It is like a futuristic Agatha Christie murder mystery… except without any of the clever plotting, interesting characters or, well, anything that makes that kind of story work. This episode is honestly one of the least compelling things released by Big Finish this year, with absolutely no sense of urgency, creativity or excitement at any point. When the best part of the story is the pre-titles sequence, which is unrelated to the main plot and features two characters we never hear from again, you know something is very wrong…
None of the characters here have any intriguing backstories, quirks or motivations- essential parts of a mystery story- nor are they particularly well-performed, with some acting being shockingly flat. The only real highlight here is some sparkling dialogue, which writer James Moran always seems to excel at. Apart from that, this is completely disposable.
Closing the set is Run by Rob Valentine, which fulfils the now-traditional role of the one story per Ninth Doctor boxset where he meets an element from Doctor Who‘s past. This time it’s the turn of the Ice Warriors and Alpha Centauri to make a return, which is certainly more exciting than the maggots from The Green Death (though, I’ll admit, I did very much enjoy the story they featured in).
I’m happy to report that this is the best story in the set, and one of the best Ninth Doctor Adventures we’ve had in quite a while. This is the kind of tale that could easily have been stretched to fill an entire boxset, I think, with the Doctor becoming Alpha Centauri’s political advisor as they attempt to take down heinous demagogue Bellatrix Vega (Jane Asher), who is plotting to become President of the Galactic Federation. There’s some great worldbuilding here and some really compelling side characters, with some particularly great material for Jane Goddard‘s Alpha, though Nicholas Briggs‘ Ice Warrior Lord Zzargol is unfortunately a little underused.
Despite a lacklustre middle story, then, Travel in Hope is the best set of Ninth Doctor Adventures we’ve had since last year’s Into the Stars (review here). Nevertheless, while the opening and closing stories show there’s still some mileage in the current format for the series, I really do hope next time we get something a little more groundbreaking. Recommended.
Travel in Hope is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com
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