Review by Scott Lopes

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After a year-long hiatus to rejoin some other TARDIS teams, the Eighth Doctor returns alongside Charley and Audacity in their third boxset release, Deadly Strangers.

The opening story, Puccini and the Doctor, marks a very special occasion. For the first time since the Doctor Who TV Movie in 1996, the incredible Matthew Jacobs returns to write his second Eighth Doctor adventure. The story sees a similar situation to stories like Battlefield, just from the other perspective. The Doctor and friends decide to visit Puccini as he knows from their last encounter that was alluded to in the TV movie that he would have to help a younger Puccini in the future. The general plot beyond that isn’t necessarily anything new or groundbreaking, an alien being who through trying to understand humans is accidentally hurting them, but it’s still an enjoyable story. The performances are all very well done as usual from this series, and the dynamic forming between the Doctor, Charley and Audacity which felt particularly well done here only continues to make them one of the best audio TARDIS teams in recent years.

The next story, Women’s Day Off, by Lisa McMullin is admittedly the weakest here. It’s a bit all over the place for quite a bit, with several things still leaving me confused and unanswered by the end. Everything comes somewhat together by the end of the story, but not in a way that I found particularly satisfying. The setting of the story, the 1975 Iceland Women’s Strike, was unfortunate and also very lacking in the story. It’s never really relevant to the plot much at all and doesn’t feel like much more than a backdrop which was a bit disappointing.

The finale of the set is The Gloaming, by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle. Once again it feels maybe a bit underwhelming, especially for a Mara story. There are some good bits and an especially good performance from India Fisher, but while still being enjoyable it did overall feel like it could have explored what it was going for a bit more.

Overall Deadly Strangers, while having some highlights, feels at many times a bit disappointing especially compared to Audacity and In the Bleak Midwinter. I’d still recommend it to fans of this TARDIS team as that’s probably the most enjoyable part here, but I wouldn’t go in expecting that much from the stories.

Deadly Strangers is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com