Review by Daniel Mansfield

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Spinning off from the popular range of Doctor Who Audio Novels is a new series of shorter narrated tales from the Whoniverse – The Audio Novellas.

This first collection opens with Colin Brake‘s The Time-Splitters, a First Doctor, Steven and Dodo story narrated by Peter Purves. Brake gives us a story that plays around with time in the vein of The Space Museum, the Doctor and Dodo becoming split up from Steven, who finds himself in the same place, but eight years in the future.

As the Doctor and Dodo become involved in experiments with time, Steven joins a platoon of soldiers dealing with the terrible future consequences of these experiments, Brake deliberately withholding information about each time period to keep the listener in suspense as to what might happen, while breadcrumbing clues about what happens with the Doctor and Dodo that will end up affecting Steven.

Purves’s narration is delightful as always, a highlight being his charming interpretation of the First Doctor, though more could have been done with the central idea of the TARDIS trio split up across different times, the script often lingering for too long in one period rather than flitting back and forth between the two, which would have felt more dynamic.

Accompanying The Time-Splitters is Dimension 13, a Third Doctor and Liz story written by David Llewellyn. Set on an abandoned Antarctic base, this story feels a bit like a Troughton-era base under siege brought into the Pertwee years, with a cast of multicultural characters, invading monsters, and a gripping mystery at its heart.

This isn’t just a Troughton redux though; like Brake, Llewellyn leans into the timey-wimey (or maybe spacey-wacey is more accurate), with some quite high-concept ideas at the core of his script. Though it perhaps feels a little overlong, Dimension 13 is an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Overall, this a competent first foray into mid-length narrated stories by Big Finish, giving us a nice middle ground between the bite-sized Short Trips and the epic, sweeping Audio Novels.

The Time-Splitters/Dimension 13 is available as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com