Doctor Who Review: The Eighth Doctor and Charley – Season 2 (Audio)
By James Aggas
Before I move on to reviewing their third season, here’s an overview of the Eighth Doctor’s and Charley’s second season of audio adventures.
Before I start this overview, there’s something I need to say, and I’m going to just come right out and say it. The second season of the Eighth Doctor and Charley is, in this writer’s humble opinion, one of the greatest seasons of Doctor Who, in any format.
It’s a season that gets so much, if not everything, exactly right. It includes a lot of elements that made previous eras of Who so successful. Like the Hinchcliffe era, there are stories with strong horror, such as ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ and ‘Embrace the Darkness’. There are stories with a nice sense of humor like season sixteen had, including ‘Invaders from Mars’ and ‘Seasons of Fear’. There are even a couple of stories with great use of time travel, especially ‘Time of the Daleks’.
But I think, what really makes this season so great, is that it combines all of that while pushing Doctor Who forward. With McGann’s Doctor, this was really crucial to do more than the other audio Doctors. Three years before the series would come back on television, and over a year before the announcement of its return, Big Finish still had free reign to do whatever they liked with the Eighth Doctor’s story.
For example, this second season had much more of a clear arc compared to the first. Or even, for that matter, most of the Classic Series. Back in ‘Storm Warning’, the Doctor saved Charley’s life, despite how important her death was to the Web of Time. Most of the second season’s stories finally dealt with the consequences of that choice. Story by story, more and more of what was happening to Time itself was revealed.
‘The Chimes of Midnight’ in particular has always been seen as a highlight for the Eighth Doctor and Charley era. (Credit: Big Finish)
The development was also helped by how the season was structured. In ‘Invaders from Mars’, we had a humorous romp through New York. There was some foreshadowing with George Orwell not recognising a Shakespeare quote, but it was mostly standalone. A nice, light-hearted opening story.
With ‘The Chimes of Midnight’, while the story was small scale, it was also darker and scarier. In ‘Seasons of Fear’, we had an epic chase across history. ‘Embrace the Darkness’ was a tale that was a mix of horror and exploration. ‘The Time of the Daleks’ was a story that involved complex time travel.
Each of these stories pushed the arc forward in subtle or crucial ways, before leading into the season finale, ‘Neverland’. This epic story had high personal stakes and great, character-based drama.
What’s interesting about this structure is how small it begins, before the stakes get higher with each story. It echoes the series structure of the Russell T. Davies days – start with something silly and light-hearted such as ‘Rose’ or ‘Partners in Crime’. Then slowly ease the audience into stories of horror and darkness, such as ‘Blink’ or ‘Silence in the Library’. Resolve the whole arc in an epic finale, like ‘The Parting of the Ways’ or ‘Doomsday’.
Russell T. Davies has clearly been a fan of Big Finish for a long time. (At least, if his quotes from this Big Finish article are anything to go by.) It’s not hard to see him being influenced by this season’s storytelling, at least in terms of structure.
But where the season really shines is how it combines all of this great, epic science-fiction storytelling, while still having an incredibly strong emotional content. The Eighth Doctor and Charley’s relationship is very much the core of this season. It feels like a guiding hand while never overdoing it.
It says a lot about the confidence of everyone involved that the Doctor finally tells a companion that he loves her. As far as we know, he hasn’t told anyone those words since. (Not even to Rose, I might add. As a massive fan of Charley, that still makes this writer happy.)
Related Story: Doctor Who Review: ‘Neverland’ (Eighth Doctor Audio)
The second season of the Eighth Doctor and Charley’s adventures is one of my all-time favourite seasons. For me, it’s up there with seasons thirteen and fourteen of the Classic Series, and series one and six of the New. It has everything that I look for in a season: humor, horror, an epic scale and great drama. All of this with my favorite Doctor.
Perhaps it was inevitable that what came next was something of a disappointment.