Doctor Who: Why I’m excited about Ravenous 2
By James Aggas
The second volume of the Eighth Doctor audio series Ravenous is out next month. We take a look at what’s to come, and why it should be an exciting Doctor Who release.
Whovians have a lot to look forward to in October. And not just because of the obvious, either. Aside from seeing the Thirteenth Doctor finally in action, we’ve also got the start of the sixth season of Torchwood. Plus, with it being Halloween, we all have one extra reason to cosplay as our favorite Doctor, companion or monster.
However, on top of all of that, we have one more thing to look forward to. At least, if you’re an Eighth Doctor fan. Because the next volume in his own audio series, Ravenous, will be released. And we’re actually really looking forward to it.
Robots of Death sequel?
Now I’ll be honest, Ravenous 1 wasn’t exactly my favorite Eighth Doctor box set. It wasn’t terrible, particularly in the last two episodes, when Eight and Liv were reunited with their friend, Helen.
But I wasn’t too keen on the two stand-alone episodes beforehand. Particularly since they didn’t fit well with either the arc of the box set or from Doom Coalition 4‘s cliffhanger of searching for Helen. The latter had a very strong sense of urgency, but it felt like the following box set was dragging out that search, rather than build up to it.
However, now that the team are reunited, they have more time to themselves, which actually would fit a mixture of standalone and arc episodes better. And these stories do sound fantastic, for a nice variety of reasons.
The opening episode, Escape from Kaldor by Matt Fitton, sounds very much like a spiritual sequel to The Robots of Death. A personal favorite of mine, The Robots of Death is an excellent story, and well worth recommending.
We’ve had a couple of Big Finish stories that have returned to that world. Most notably Robophobia, Liv’s introduction story. Which makes this story all the more interesting, as Liv is from Kaldor, the same world where the original robots are from.
So along with telling a story of creepy robots going on the rampage, it sounds like we’re going to get a story that’s just a little more personal for Liv. And that’s something that I’m already excited about.
The Krampus, the Eleven and the Ravenous
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We also seem to be getting a nice two-parter that focuses on the dark Christmas legend the Krampus. We haven’t had an Eighth Doctor two-parter from Dorney before, so it’ll be great to have a story from him with more room to breathe. I’m excited to see what the Krampus episodes, Better Watch Out and Fairytale of Salzburg, will be like.
The last episode, Seizure by Guy Adams, promises to be an interesting one. For one thing, Mark Bonnar is back as the Eleven. The Time Lord with the personalities of all his previous lives has become a popular villain among fans. It’ll be great to hear from every single one of his personalities once more.
But there’s more for the TARDIS crew to face. Because the Ravenous is hunting them…
What’s “the Ravenous”? No idea. Despite being the title of the series, it’s still something that we don’t really know anything about. Which isn’t really surprising, as it took us a while to find out what the “Doom Coalition” of the last series actually was.
Still, it sounds like, once we reach the halfway point of Ravenous, we’ll get to discover exactly what the title is referring to. And I can’t wait to find out more.
Ravenous 2 is out on CD and download in October directly from Big Finish’s website.
Next. Review: Thin Ice (no, the other one) (Seventh Doctor audio). dark
Have you listened to Ravenous so far? Curious about the series? Do you enjoy the Eighth Doctor’s audios in general? Let us know in the comments below.
