Doctor Who Overview: ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures’ (Season Two)

Towards the end of last year, I re-listened to and reviewed the second season of the Eighth Doctor Adventures. Before we move on to season three, let’s take a look at how well season two worked as a whole.

Season two of the Eighth Doctor Adventures took a rather different approach to season 1. There was less of an arc, for one thing. Particularly in the first half of the season. Apparently, Dead London wasn’t meant to be the opening episode originally. Considering how completely stand alone the following three episodes were, I wasn’t surprised by this.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? I’d say not. While I enjoyed the first season for how much it developed the characters and their relationship, by this point, the Doctor and Lucie work absolutely brilliantly. There’s a lot of banter between them and a lot of chemistry.

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Stand alone stories wouldn’t have worked as well if Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith hadn’t been so brilliant to listen to. But their relationship and dialogue work so well that it really pays off. In my opinion, it’s a relationship as enjoyable as Two and Jamie; Four and Sarah; Ten and Donna. It was great of Big Finish to fully use that success to tell some great standalone stories.

The stories were very light, but they were also very enjoyable. Dead London was a rather clever way of mixing several different time periods together. Max Warp was a great pastiche of Agatha Christie stories. Brave New Town had a fresh take on an old enemy. And The Skull of Sobek was bonkers, but also entertaining. All of the episodes had great use of humor and drama. They also matched the tone of the New Series very well. Particularly the Russell T. Davies era. Overall, these stand alone episodes worked well.

From standalone episodes to major developments

In the second half, things changed gear rather significantly. While there was no “arc” as such, all of these stories developed from events in the first season, or pushed things forward in a big way.

Grand Theft Cosmos, while still retaining the light-hearted feel of the first four episodes, was significant in bringing back Karen and the Headhunter. It’s also my personal favourite of the season. A great mix of heist story, historical and comedy, it’s an absolutely brilliant episode.

It also helps that the Headhunter and Karen were such a wonderful pairing. And of course, while not playing the legend that is Henry Gordon Jago, Christopher Benjamin is always a welcome presence in a Doctor Who story.

However, it’s with The Zygon Who Fell to Earth that things change significantly in tone, too. While beginning as light-hearted as any other episode, there’s a beautifully tragic ending to this story. It also sets the Eighth Doctor for a major fall in later episodes.

This shift in tone sets things ups nicely for the season finale. Sisters of the Flame/The Vengeance of Morbius is a really epic story to end things on. While not exactly perfect, it gets the emotional content just right, and has an absolutely brilliant cliffhanger.

It also makes you appreciate the earlier stand alone episodes more. You realize how great a team Eight and Lucie are at this point. When the ending comes along, it’s clear that for season three, nothing will be the same.

Summary

It’s funny how much your opinion can change, sometimes. Initially, I preferred season one more because I liked the overall arc that was threaded throughout. That felt closer to the New Series for me. Nothing too heavy, but nothing too standalone. I wasn’t too keen on the initial standalone approach taken with the first half of season two.

However, after listening to it again, I must admit, I do think that season two is stronger overall. There’s admittedly less development for Eight and Lucie’s relationship, but it’s still greatly enjoyable. The stories are overall stronger, and there’s a strong emotional content in each of the final three episodes. A very enjoyable season for the Eighth Doctor.

Next: Big Finish News: new Eighth Doctor series ‘Ravenous’ announced!

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