Doctor Who review: Ravenous 4 saved the best for last
By James Aggas
With great monsters, multiple Masters and satisfying resolutions, the final volume of Doctor Who audio series Ravenous is easily the best.
Ravenous has been an interesting series. In some ways, it took a while to truly get going. The first volume, which was released back in April last year, was probably the weakest, as it was essentially resolving loose threads from previous Doctor Who audio series Doom Coalition.
The series improved considerably in the second volume, where it found both the right mix of stand-alone and arc stories (with the Ravenous actually appearing in it this time), and the right tone, too. (For example, Better Watch Out/Fairytale of Salzburg is a perfect mix of both fairy tale and horror.)
The third volume featured a lot more focus on the core arc, and placed major ongoing villain the Eleven as a new companion. It also explored the Ravenous a lot more, giving us some interesting history as well as setting things up for the final volume.
Which of course brings me to Ravenous 4. Expectations were definitely high for this box set. Not only did it have to resolve the sixteen-episode story arc, but Big Finish also announced earlier this year that the finale was to feature four Masters. The title of the story? Day of the Master.
I’ve written a great deal about each of the featured stories already, especially the finale. But how well did the box set work as a whole?
Whether it’s with stories as standalone as Whisper or as epic as Day of the Master, Ravenous 4 delivers in big ways.
(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions)
Exploring the end of the Master
Overall, Ravenous 4 gave us the best mix of episodes for the series. While I’ve enjoyed previous volumes, especially the second, the final volume of Ravenous is definitely my favorite.
It’s not just because of the Master’s involvement either, although adding the character certainly gave the arc some major direction. While Day of the Master is the major draw for the box set, preceding episode Planet of Dust is just as important, at least in terms of the Master’s story. Focusing an entire episode on Geoffrey Beevers’s Master specifically was a great lead-in to the finale, especially as it explored such an important time in the Master’s life.
Matt Fitton has always been very good at writing stories for the Master. As a key writer in the earlier Eighth Doctor series Dark Eyes, he wrote some major episodes for the Eighth Doctor and Alex Macqueen’s Master. He also gave us a story that focused on the First Doctor meeting him for the first time since Gallifrey in The Destination Wars. So he’s got a good grasp on both the character and their relationship with the Doctor, and was a natural fit for writing a key story like Planet of Dust.
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Great stories both standalone and major
However, as significant as Planet of Dust is, we definitely shouldn’t ignore Fitton’s other, more standalone episode for the box set. Opening episode Whisper is an absolutely fantastic story. Yes, it’s heavily inspired by A Quiet Place, but the best Doctor Who stories usually have clear influences. The monster of the story is also very effective, and we get some fantastic drama, too. It’s one of Fitton’s very best episodes.
As for John Dorney’s finale? An extremely satisfying conclusion. Dorney had quite the challenge with Day of the Master, having to tell both an epic finale tying the whole arc up and a multi-Master story at the exact same time. But it works wonderfully well, and together with Planet of Dust, fills in a huge gap in the Master’s mythology. Not just a great story on its own, but a fantastic fit for this box set.
Out of all four volumes, Ravenous 4 is definitely my favorite. It’s such a satisfying conclusion as a whole, and is quite possibly up there with Dark Eyes 1, Doom Coalition 4 and Time War 1 as one of the very best Eighth Doctor box sets. It took a while to get to this point, but it was definitely worth the wait.
Next. How Russell T Davies made the Master a Time Lord again. dark
Have you listened to Ravenous 4? Do you think it worked well as a strong conclusion to the arc? Which was your favorite story from the box set? Let us know in the comments below. And if you want more details on each story included in the box set, check out our reviews for Whisper, Planet of Dust and Day of the Master.