Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures – Audacity from Big Finish Review

Fans of the Eighth Doctor have had a bit of a bumper end to this year with Paul McGann’s Eighth incarnation guest staring in several different ranges and releases but now with the arrival of Audacity, he finally gets a chance to have his own adventures again with a brand new ongoing companion, Lady Montague Audacity, played by Jaye Griffiths.

Things kick off with Lisa McMullin’s The Devouring which sees the Doctor meeting Audacity. No doubt inspired by recent Netflix series like Bridgerton, the Regency period of history plays a large part here, while the setting is largely played for laughs, there are strong themes of entitlement, feminism and class.

Amongst the alien threat of the Devouring, those themes don’t get much time to be explored beyond Audacity being a Regency version of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. She believes in the underdog and instantly makes a great first impression on a story which is a little lacklustre.

Audacity shares several themes with the titular monsters on offer here, both are out looking at the stars, though while Audacity does it to see what life is out there beyond Earth, the Devouring do it because they want to eat all life that is out there.

The problem is that the story is only one episode long running at an hour McMullin doesn’t get much time to explore themes that she sets up at the beginning, even the Doctor’s inclusion feels a little like an afterthought though that does show how good Audacity is as a character. She spends much of the story on her own but has things under control and there is little doubt she could have handled things without the Doctor.

Where the story feels a little lacklustre, the main attraction then is Jaye Griffith’s as Lady Audacity. She proves herself more than a match for the Doctor as she single-handedly explores sexism throughout history. Sometimes though is a little to the character’s detriment as McMullin can only explore this with broad strokes of the pen as opposed to getting to the core of the character. Griffith’s though does a tremendous job with the material here, brave and loyal Audacity feels like a perfect fit for the Doctor and she shares great chemistry with Paul McGann despite the little he gets to do in the opening story.

Events at the end of The Devouring see the Doctor and Audacity going off into space for her first outing in the TARDIS and the pair soon find themselves in the middle of a war with the human race fighting against the threat of the Cybermen. Author Tim Foley borrows heavily from 1975’s Revenge of the Cybermen here, but not to the story’s detriment, instead, it allows both stories, Revenge of the Cybermen and this one, The Great Cyber War to get more exploration of this period in Doctor Who‘s mythology. It also helps that Foley cements Audacity as one of the best audio companions, showing us how resourceful she is when she comes up against the towering Cybermen.

In much the same way as Revenge, the Cybermen don’t feature until the end of the first episode, with Foley instead focusing on the Human and Vogan characters. This does mean, unfortunately, some moments are a little dull as much of the story just feels like us waiting for the Cybermen to make their appearance. However, Foley proves he can handle the Cybermen well and Nicholas Briggs does a great take on the voices from 1975 and Foley gives us some nice exploration of their characters from Revenge, including exploring why the Cyberleader was a lot more emotional, which was a very nice touch.

Again, although it has a longer runtime than The Devouring, Foley’s story suffers from not having time to explore his themes and a great moral dilemma throughout episode 2 doesn’t get much time to be explored thoroughly. Foley is an author who likes to ask listeners tough questions in his writing but the time limits don’t give him enough time to look properly at the questions he is posing. The Great Cyber War is a story that, when it’s good, it’s amazing, but when it’s bad it’s just dull. Tim Foley is a brilliant enough author to stop this story from falling apart and while it’s an entertaining outing, it is far from Foley’s best.

Having said all that, I am looking forward to seeing where Big Finish takes Audacity and the Doctor in the next series out in December, especially with the surprise return of their best original companions joining them for the ride.

Ultimately though, this set really displays the great chemistry between leads Jaye Griffith’s and Paul McGann, though I did feel a little sorry for McGann who, apart from always being excellent, does feel like he doesn’t get much to do here. They feel like a unique Doctor/Companion pairing and it is exciting enough to make you wonder what is coming next.