Doctor Who: ‘You Are The Doctor And Other Stories’ (Audio Review)

The Seventh Doctor and Ace return in not one but four stories from Big Finish.

While there have recently been a few special releases involving Ace, such as a couple of adaptations of the New Adventures novels, and showing up in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield series, it’s nice to see her return with the Seventh Doctor in Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who releases.

It’s been over a year since we saw the Doctor and Ace say goodbye to their fellow companion Hex, and this release represents something of a fresh start for both of them. It’s a rather nice and light-hearted release, too; Instead of being one story told across two hours as is usual for the Classic Who format, here it’s four separate but linked stories at a half-hour each, with different writers for each tale.

The first story, ‘You Are The Doctor,’ is especially interesting, as it’s an audio take on the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks. At certain points in the story, you’re asked to make a choice that will affect the Doctor and Ace by selecting one of two specific tracks. One track leads to death for our heroes, the other leads to the Doctor and Ace surviving until the next choice.

Of course, this being Doctor Who, there’s a lot more to the choices than having interactive fun with the listener, and even listening to it in linear order, it’s a pretty fun story, as the Doctor and Ace start to get the strangest sense of déjà vu.

The next story, ‘Come Die With Me,’ is in the style of a murder mystery. Again, there’s a fun element to this one, as it’s more than a little bit influenced by both Agatha Christie stories and even the board game Cluedo, especially as the mystery is presented effectively as a game. Of course, if someone fails to work out who the killer is (as many, many, many of the previous guests had failed to do), then the participants are next on the killer’s list.

‘The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel’ is part trial drama and part crime story, as the story alternates between Ace on trial for her life and a robbery in which the Doctor and Ace somehow became involved. I enjoyed the robbery part of the story especially, and I liked how the plot managed to squeeze in a clear image of what life in the hotel and in general is like, particularly with one of the characters introduced.

‘Dead to the World’ has the least clear genre piece beyond mystery, although it’s still easily a lot of fun. Set aboard a spaceship where most of the passengers have died from a mysterious infection, the Doctor comes face to face with a race that he genuinely fears. You’d be surprised to learn why he fears them, though.

There were a couple of things I particularly liked about the overall release – first, as great as it is for a jumping-on point for new listeners, it’s nice to see that there’s a natural development from what’s gone before, character-wise, at least.

One of my favourite moments in particular was the Doctor being his usual secretive self and trying to keep his cards close to his chest, while Ace really sticks up for herself and convinces him to open up for once, after all they’ve gone through. I’m a big fan of Seven and Ace’s relationship, and I think it’s always great to hear the Doctor trusting Ace just a little bit more.

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The other thing which appealed to me is that, while the episodes stand-alone easily enough, there’s a nice link between all four, with Ace trying to learn how to pilot the TARDIS and always landing in the wrong place (rather like its owner, really). More than that though, by the end of the last episode, and as fitting for a Seventh Doctor story, there’s the slightest hint of a brand new arc beginning for Seven and Ace. It’s certainly left me eager to hear more from the two later this year.

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Overall, ‘You Are The Doctor and Other Stories’ was an enjoyable collection of short stories, and it was nice to return to the world of the Seventh Doctor and Ace while presenting a brand new start for the pair.