Doctor Who overview: Doom Coalition (Eighth Doctor series)

Over a year after the ambitious Doctor Who audio series finished, we take a look at Doom Coalition as a whole. Was it able to match the high level of quality set by previous Eighth Doctor series Dark Eyes?

When Doom Coalition was announced, for fans of Doctor Who on audio, it had a lot to live up to. The Eighth Doctor’s stories had been consistently strong for a long time. The Eighth Doctor Adventures with Lucie Miller had been very successful. Dark Eyes arguably even more so. So expectations for the series were high.

What was even more interesting about Doom Coalition was that it had been announced as four box sets in advance. In some ways, this followed the format of Dark Eyes.

But at the same time, it was noticeably different, too. As I’ve pointed out before, Dark Eyes began as just a single box set, with no direct sequels initially planned. When it was announced that the story would continue, it was confirmed that it wasn’t just getting one sequel box set, but three.

But as naturally as Dark Eyes 2 followed from the previous instalment, it was always clear that Dark Eyes had been planned to be told in just four episodes. This didn’t mean that the following sequels suffered as a result. In fact, it’s very surprising just how well Dark Eyes worked as an extended series.

Still, after essentially working on a twelve-episode extension to a series meant to last just four episodes, it’s hardly surprising that the same production team wanted to do a series of the same length. But this time, with a lot more planned out from the very beginning.

Enter Doom Coalition.

An epic arc

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Listening to the behind the scenes interviews on each of the box sets, it becomes clear that Doom Coalition was the brainchild of producer David Richardson and script editor Ken Bentley.

While many writers naturally contributed to the series – particularly John Dorney and Matt Fitton, who wrote the entire second half – Richardson and Bentley planned out a lot of the major details together.

And that’s very clear when you listen to Doom Coalition a second time. In fact, I can’t think of any series that benefits from a second listen as much as Doom Coalition does. During the first volume, you think you know what’s going on. The Eleven, one of the most dangerous and insane criminals in Time Lord history, has escaped. He wants to cause chaos and destruction.

But as the series goes on, you begin to see the other threads. And when you come to a particularly major turning point in the series, the entire story changes.

When you listen to the first four episodes again, there are a huge number of clues to the true overall arc that were easy to miss the first time. This is due to the wonderful amount of misdirection that goes on throughout the series.

The Eighth Doctor meets Helen while encountering a terrifying enemy in The Red Lady.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Build up

This doesn’t make Doom Coalition a perfect listen, however. One problem the first half of the series has is that, with the focus on foreshadowing and build-up, it can come across as a little slow at times.

Still, the first half of Doom Coalition isn’t without its gems. Far from it, in fact. Opening episode The Eleven gets the series off to an absolutely cracking start. It not only introduces a brilliant new villain. The episode also does a great job of telling a thrilling story in its own right.

At the same time, however, it also sets up the rest of the series in several major ways. Many of which you won’t even pick up on the first listen.

Scenes from her Life from the second box set is a particularly great puzzle box story from John Dorney. It also pushes the arc forward in a big way. At the same time, it’s also an interesting character piece, too.

The Red Lady

But it’s The Red Lady that really stands out. The second episode of the series, it not only introduced new companion Helen Sinclair, brilliantly played by Hattie Morahan.

It’s also a fantastic stand-alone horror episode. John Dorney said he wanted to write a horror story for Eight, which hadn’t really been done since The Chimes of Midnight.

Considering that story is considered by many to be not just one of the greatest Eighth Doctor stories, but perhaps one of the greatest Doctor Who stories in any format, that’s actually really surprising.

So I don’t say this lightly when I say that The Red Lady is equally good. In fact, it’s essentially the audio equivalent of Blink. It’s a wonderfully chilling episode that works on perception, and makes you very glad that for once, you can’t see what’s happening. For this single episode alone, Doom Coalition 1 is easily worth the purchase.

However, while the first half of episodes is good, it’s with the second half that things really start to pick up.

In an ordinary English town in the 1990s, people are receiving some rather upsetting telephone calls…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Absent Friends

Doom Coalition 3 begins with an episode of pure drama, Absent Friends by John Dorney. Something of a breather episode that moves just a little bit away from the main arc, it’s a wonderful piece of drama that quite rightly won an award.

While very different from The Red Lady, it’s still one of the very best Eighth Doctor stories ever made. It was also the starting point for when Doom Coalition as a whole really started to come together.

After Absent Friends, the pace started to really pick up, and the core arc of the series became much more intricate. The series also started to significantly improve.

Bolder storytelling

It wasn’t just the fact that we started to get a lot more answers. There’s also the fact that the series started to take more risks with the third volume, and it paid off a lot more as a result.

For example, while Doom Coalition does aim to tell one huge story across sixteen-episodes, each of those episodes would still stand out in their own way. However, with The Eighth Piece and The Doomsday Chronometer, we have the first genuine two-parter for the Eighth Doctor since Lucie Miller/To The Death, over five years beforehand.

While it was the only two-part story of the arc, it was a wonderfully refreshing change of pace, and allowed Doom Coalition to tell a particular story with a much larger scale. It also ensured that the story had room to breathe.

So The Eighth Piece/The Doomsday Chronometer was heavily focused on a puzzle box mystery. But it also explored major parts of history, and focused on many major characters. Including someone very important to the Doctor, even if he doesn’t know her yet…

River Song first shows up in Doom Coalition during its second volume. But that’s only the beginning…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

River Song

One of the biggest risks that Doom Coalition took was bringing in River Song. River very briefly meeting other Doctors before erasing their memory in her own series was one thing. But having an extended role in a Classic Doctor’s own series was another.

Especially when it takes place for River. For her, it’s very clearly meant to be set after The Husbands of River Song and before Silence in the Library. Considering how great an ending Husbands was for River’s character, was Doom Coalition going to ruin that?

Not one bit. What really helps is that, for most of the story, River never fully reveals herself to the Doctor. Either she keeps her distance, particularly in her first episode of Doom Coalition, The Sonomancer. Or she uses an excellent disguise when talking to the Doctor directly.

This allows us a rather unique glimpse at River’s and the Doctor’s relationship. While she’s used to knowing more than the Doctor, this time, she can’t tease him or simply say, “Spoilers”. She really can’t let him have any idea that she’s from his future, not this time. It’s a really interesting take on their relationship.

It’s also something else that improves in the second half of the series. While her first appearance in this series, The Sonomancer, was an interesting way of finishing off the second volume, her role becomes much larger in the third. She enlists the help of Helen, and even gets to interact a lot more with the Doctor due to her disguise.

River’s role in Doom Coalition ends with the episode Songs of Love.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

A River Song ending

When her story is resolved in Songs of Love, it’s incredibly satisfying. First, we have River visit Gallifrey before the Time War, a major event for her and the audience. After all, she’s used to just the one Time Lord, so it’s wonderful that she finally gets to visit the home planet in its prime.

It’s also fantastic that her story is finished two episodes before the actual finale. With so much build-up, there was a great deal going on in the final episode. So resolving River’s story during the final episode would’ve been a little too much.

It’s satisfying that she’s able to have an episode that resolves her part in the story just a little earlier than that, at least.

Lastly, there’s a lovely little goodbye scene between her and Eight. It’s quite an emotional moment, especially as River knows that she really doesn’t have long left. So her story is rounded off perfectly, in more ways than one.

In the fourth volume of the series, the Doom Coalition is finally revealed in full.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Coalition

Lastly, we can’t discuss Doom Coalition without referring to the titular coalition itself. Which is kind of funny: when the series began, it wasn’t made clear what the coalition actually was. It perhaps could have been referring to all the personalities of the Eleven trying to work with each other. But even in the first box set, that seemed unlikely.

It was actually very satisfying listening to each episode and beginning to realize more and more why it’s a “coalition”. Because it’s not just the Eleven, as the first box set seemed to suggest. It’s actually several Time Lords, working together.

This is something else that’s satisfying about the series: original enemies. As cool as Dark Eyes was for having so many major enemies collide together, it was wonderful that the next Eighth Doctor series created several brand-new ones. Even when the Weeping Angels and the Monk showed up in the fourth and final volume, they were never the main threat of the series.

We first encounter Doom Coalition’s greatest villain in the first episode of the series, The Eleven.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Strong original villains

And they were very strong villains, too. While he showed his true colors very late in the series, the leader of the coalition came across as perhaps one of the most dangerous enemies the Doctor’s ever faced. Calm, thoughtful, and a brilliant manipulator, he was definitely a perfect opponent for the final volume of the series.

The Sonomancer was also an interesting character. Especially with her parallels with Helen, and how the two really related to each other. She was a very powerful, but at the same time, very emotionally vulnerable character. Emma Cunniffe portrayed the character brilliantly.

But of course, the best of the bunch was definitely the Eleven. A lot of Doom Coalition’s success has to go to Mark Bonnar for his portrayal of the character. For his many portrayals, in fact.

From the very first episode, he helped to give each previous incarnation its own unique voice. He also ensured that we had a Time Lord villain unlike any other.

If there’s one single villain from the audios that I would just love to see in the TV series, it’s definitely the Eleven. (Or any subsequent incarnations, of course. Especially as we have the Twelve showing up in The Time War.)

Doom Coalition reaches its epic conclusion in Stop the Clock. (Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions. Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

An ambitious epic

Doom Coalition was an incredibly ambitious story for Big Finish to try. An original story spread across sixteen episodes and with original characters as the main villains. That’s quite a difficult thing to achieve.

But, despite being slow to begin with, Doom Coalition was ultimately a success. When you reach those final episodes, you feel like you’ve gone on an epic journey, filled with so many twists and turns. Not to mention a huge rollercoaster of emotion along the way.

And by the time the story ends, there are no major unanswered questions. Nothing feels like it’s been rushed through. And that’s an incredible achievement.

It’s especially impressive when you consider how Steven Moffat often tried to tell intricate, season length storylines across his seasons. But often, as ambitious as he was, he didn’t quite manage it.

Finales would be rushed. Major questions would be left unanswered, or only barely acknowledged. While I enjoyed a great deal of his era, and particularly respected his ambition, his writing could often be heavily flawed or rushed.

The epic story arc done right

Doom Coalition is that rare series that shows how it’s done. It’s a series that, as much as it uses some established characters along the way, is far more keen to create its own mythology.

And it succeeded brilliantly. There’s a lot in Doom Coalition that I’d like to see explored further, particularly with previous Doctors. But it’s still wonderful that Doom Coalition was able to resolve its own story in a very satisfying way.

I think the biggest success with Big Finish’s various Eighth Doctor series is that everyone will have their preference. For example, some people will enjoy Dark Eyes more for the fact that each box set tells a more or less complete story of its own.

Others will prefer Doom Coalition for telling an epic story spread across four box sets. And, while Ravenous has only just begun, I suspect that, in time, people will have a preference for that series, too.

Regardless, Doom Coalition is an incredible series in its own right, and one that I’d recommend to all Doctor Who fans, regardless if they’ve listened to the audios before or not.

Next: Retro review: The Stolen Earth

Have you listened to Doom Coalition? Did you enjoy the epic? Are you more curious to try it after reading this article? Let us know in the comments below.

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