Fans of Doctor Who and Halloween rejoice!
We can now listen to an anthology of spooky stories set in the world of Doctor Who, all thanks to Big Finish, the official creators of Doctor Who audio dramas.
First introduced last October, these special boxsets feature four creepy tales, each running at about an hour.
I chose to purchase the most recent release, entitled Doctor, Doctor and Other Stories.
The first tale features Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, and is set around Halloween itself.
Four physics students stumble across an old mirror in a facility basement and realise that if they say ‘doctor’ to it three times, they can summon a terrifying image of a man in a panama hat – similar to Bloody Mary.
Of course, it’s not long before one of the students becomes obsessed with the mirror, keeping it in his room, and giving into its demands to be fed…
This opening story is a great beginning to the anthology. The university setting and the use of the Bloody Mary mechanic make it feel like a traditional teen horror movie, whilst the descriptions of the Doctor’s image in the mirror are a little disturbing.
I also liked the inclusion of a wax cylinder phonograph as a plot device.
It immediately made me think of Dr Seward’s diary in Dracula.
The next tale is called The Song of the Reed Man, and stars Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor and Jo Grant, or rather Jo Jones – Big Finish having reunited an older Jo with the Doctor in a previous boxset. Tim Treloar voices the Third Doctor here, whilst Katy Manning reprises her role as Jo.
Set in Essex in the 1500s, it follows the time-travellers as they become acquainted with a community of witches hiding out in the countryside.
This particular coven worships a deity known as the Reed Man, to whom they intend to make offerings on the night of Samhain. The Doctor and Jo soon realise something more insidious is behind the Reed Man though, and that the whole world might be in danger.
As the cover art suggests, this story features one of Doctor Who’s creepiest monsters, the carnivorous plants known as Krynoids.
These really are horror monsters, aliens that infect people and consume them, until the person is a walking plant. Hungry for flesh and world domination, these are an excellent choice for a scary tale.
On to the third story, Office Space, the only one where the Doctor is absent. This episode focuses on UNIT instead, the in-world military organisation that defends against aliens.
Here we follow a cast of original characters, a group of UNIT liaison workers who take emergency calls during the night.
Young Max is the newest member of the team, but his first evening on the job becomes a nightmare when devouring shadows invade the building.
This is perhaps the bleakest story in the boxset. All the characters are basically civilians, hired to screen calls that contain phrases like ‘big blue box’ or ‘moving stone angels’ without knowing what the terms actually refer to.
Completely untrained and unprepared, this is a story of pure survival, and the odds are against our heroes. The voice actors do an incredible job here, instilling a real sense of fear and panic into the characters’ distress.
Meanwhile the ending, well I won’t spoil it, but it’s a dark reminder that without the Doctor, things get grim fast.
Finally there is the last tale, Overworked, which features Peter Davison as the Doctor and Sarah Sutton as his companion Nyssa.
After the TARDIS picks up a message calling for a doctor, it ends up landing in an eerie hospital late at night. The place seems deserted at first, but the Doctor and Nyssa soon discover two cleaners, hordes of mutated patients and a giant slug roaming the wards!
Despite the ominous setting, this story feels more like a regular Doctor Who episode than a Halloween special. It leans towards the emotional rather than the terrifying and, while the ending is dark, it is more about misunderstandings.
It’s possible this was done on purpose to give the listener a bit of a palette cleanser, a hint of dawn at the end of a long night.
That’s not to say the ending is entirely happy, quite the contrary, but the whole thing does end on a rather beautiful, though bittersweet note.
Altogether this boxset offers a great selection of chilling adventures. While both Doctor Who and the horror genre are in the habit of reusing well-worn tropes and scenarios, these stories never felt boring. The original characters are well written and performed.
The Doctor and their companions are enjoyable to listen to, and the plots still managed to keep me guessing. The perfect audio for Who fans this Halloween!
