Doctor Who overview: Ravenous – A saga of monsters, maniacs and Masters

Mark Bonnar (the Eleven), Paul McGann (the Eighth Doctor) and Hattie Morahan (Helen Sinclair) all starred in the Ravenous saga.

(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions.)

Next month, a brand new Eighth Doctor saga begins with Stranded 1. But first, we look back on his previous Doctor Who audio series, Ravenous. Overall, was it a strong arc for the Eighth Doctor?

Back in October, Big Finish Productions released Doctor Who: Ravenous 4, the final volume of an Eighth Doctor arc that began back in April 2018. It was an excellent and exciting Doctor Who box set in its own right, especially for Master fans, as the finale featured four different incarnations of the Doctor’s archenemy. But it made me wonder: how well does Ravenous work as a whole?

Earlier this year, I decided to answer that question. Well, eventually. One of Big Finish’s most significant January releases was Dark Universe. A Seventh Doctor story set shortly before the TV movie, Dark Universe revealed some crucial backstory for both Ravenous and, more importantly, its immediate predecessor Doom Coalition. Mainly due to a major antagonist that appears in all three: the Eleven.

A Time Lord with the personalities of all his previous incarnations stuck in his head, the Eleven has been a major villain in Big Finish’s audios for a long time now. In fact, up until the release of Dark Universe, he was a villain exclusive to the Eighth Doctor. Brilliantly played by Mark Bonnar, the character stands out as one of the most exciting of Big Finish’s original villains.

After listening to Dark Universe and enjoying it immensely, I decided to re-listen to both Doom Coalition and Ravenous. My thoughts on how the earlier series worked as a whole can be found here. But what of the sequel series?

Was Ravenous 1 a strong opening for the series?

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

An uncertain beginning

Honestly, Ravenous had a bit of a rough start with its first volume. There were a couple of reasons for this. The first is that it had to resolve a major cliffhanger from Doom Coalition, in which the Eighth Doctor and Liv had to find their friend Helen, who’d gone missing with the Eleven. So while it was supposed to be the start of a new saga, unlike Doom Coalition 1, it doesn’t have the best jumping-on point.

This wouldn’t have been so bad if the box set had focused more on resolving such a cliffhanger. But the first two stories of Ravenous – Their Finest Hour and How to Make a Killing in Time Travel – are both extremely standalone. They’re not necessarily bad stories in their own right, but they do clash badly with the arc that Ravenous 1 needed to tell.

The last story of the volume, World of Damnation/Sweet Salvation, does resolve the box set, at least. It also restores the status quo of Eight, Liv, and Helen traveling together and being ready for more adventures.

Bridging two arcs

But overall, the box set feels less like the beginning of a new saga and more of a bridge between Doom Coalition and Ravenous. The titular monsters don’t even properly appear, they’re just briefly hinted at. While it took Doom Coalition a while to reveal what exactly the title referred to, it did establish different members of the titular coalition with each box set, so it unfolded nicely. The Ravenous, on the other hand…well, we’ll get to them in a bit.

There’s also something else that stands out about this box set that’s only become apparent in retrospect. Overall, the Ravenous saga told stories that fitted two key genres: fairy tales and horror.

However, nothing actually matches either of those genres in the opening volume. We have a war story, a dark comedy, and a two-parter focused on two villains trying to take over an entire world. But we don’t have anything that feels quite like a fairy tale or a horror story.

Looking back on the opening first volume, it’s clear that Ravenous is still very much finding its feet as well as its own sense of identity, especially after the arc-heavy saga of Doom Coalition. However, it’s with volume 2 that the series takes a step in the right direction…

After a rough start, Ravenous 2 gives the series a strong sense of direction.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Establishing the series

With the status quo restored, Ravenous 2 comes across as a very confident release. The stories are noticeably less arc-heavy than Doom Coalition, but they don’t feel as incongruous as the stories in volume 1, either. This is mainly because the box set establishes two key things: monsters and tone.

Across all three stories in Ravenous 2, there’s a strong focus on monsters. In a way, this isn’t exactly surprising. Doctor Who has often been a series with a generally strong focus on having monsters to scare the kids (and, let’s be honest, plenty of the grownups, too).

Indeed, opening story Escape from Kaldor gives us a traditional kind of Doctor Who monster by featuring the return of the Voc Robots from the classic Fourth Doctor story The Robots of Death. Along with featuring plenty of claustrophobic horror, the episode was also a key story for companion Liv, who was reunited with her sister Tula.

This was such a strong episode to begin with, and was a major step in the right direction for the series. It also helped to set up spin-off series The Robots, which takes place entirely in a key gap introduced at the end of the episode.

Exploring myths and fairy tales

But the best story of the box set – and indeed, one of the very best stories of Ravenous as a whole – is the two-part story Better Watch Out/Fairytale of Salzburg. This is a gloriously Christmassy adventure that pays homage to so many of the best stories of the season.

But more than that: it also features a lot of focus on myths, legends, and fairy tales, while throwing in a major monster from mythology in, to boot. In many ways, this story feels like the best representation of Ravenous. Looking back on the saga as a whole, it’s clear that this story helped to define the series, in a big way.

After this epic fairy tale, Ravenous 2 ends with the spooky and claustrophobic story Seizure. This was a rather pivotal story for the saga, as it finally introduced its titular monsters. Were the Ravenous worth the buildup?

Basic monsters

Honestly…no. I’m not saying that they’re not creepy in their own way. Featuring a strong resemblance to clowns, the Ravenous are your classic monsters that would eat almost anything. But they’re especially hungry for Time Lords – particularly their regeneration energy. As a result, all Time Lords are terrified of them – even the Doctor.

So by themselves, they’re a great idea. But I’m not sure they deserve the epic Eighth Doctor saga treatment that they were given. Dark Eyes gave us not one but several major enemies: the Daleks, the Eminence, and the Master. Doom Coalition gave us a complex puzzle box story that rewarded listeners over time.

The Ravenous? Considering this particular series is named after them, you’d expect something a little less basic. Especially as they don’t show up until the halfway point. And Seizure was a strong story to end volume 2 on, but regarding the Ravenous, it didn’t do much to make them feel like a major threat.

Ravenous 3 was very focused on stopping the titular monsters – while also bringing in companions past, present and future, too.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Faithful companions

Fortunately, the third volume of the series made sure to avoid using them too much. While they’re in many ways the central focus of this particular box set – especially as the monsters are hunting not just the TARDIS crew but also the Eleven, too – there are a couple of stories that shift the focus away from them, at least somewhat.

This is especially true of the episode Companion Piece. The Nine – an earlier incarnation of the Eleven introduced back in Doom Coalition 3 – finds himself collecting the Doctor’s companions. All of them. However, it’s Eight’s companions that are particularly important in this episode – past, present, and future.

It’s funny that this episode is the least connected to the Ravenous arc for this volume, as it’s definitely the one that stands out the most. What really works about this episode is how it’s almost entirely a Doctor-lite story. With the Doctor not around to save his friends, it’s up to them to work out how to save themselves. It’s a beautiful tribute to the companions and why they’re so important. It’s also just pure fun to hear Liv and Helen meet Charley, Bliss, and River Song (the last of which was a major character in Doom Coalition).

The other middle story – L.E.G.E.N.D – is a little less satisfying. It’s a story that aims to combine fairy tale with sci-fi, but it doesn’t quite work. It probably doesn’t help that Better Watch Out/Fairytale of Salzburg, which explored similar themes, handled this balance so well. It’s not a huge misstep, and indeed, it’s rather fun to hear what happens when the Brothers Grimm find themselves trapped in one of their own fairy tales. But it’s not quite as great as it should have been.

The Ravenous

Going back to the Ravenous themselves, the opening and closing episodes of the box set use them really well. First, they’re expanded a lot more in Deeptime Frontier, and we’re given plenty of hints of where they came from, while also getting an atmospheric horror story, too. Honestly, this makes them seem like a far greater threat than they were in Seizure, although again, that was a decent horror story in its own right.

Not only do they naturally play a key role in the closing episode of the third volume. But The Odds Against also provides us with a great story of two major villains meeting each other. It takes a while to build up to that point, but once it gets going, it’s a lot of fun. It also nicely sets up the final volume, in a big way…

Ravenous 4 not only featured the titular monsters and the Eleven. But it also gave four distinct incarnations of the Master, too.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Major draw

Ravenous 4 was a volume I was hugely excited to listen to, even before Ravenous 3 came out. It has to be said: it was a bold move of Big Finish to announce that four incarnations of the Master would show up in the final volume of the series – before they had even released the third box set!

Naturally, there was a high amount of expectations regarding this particular box set, particularly with its multi-Master story. Did it live up to them? And more importantly, did it resolve Ravenous in a satisfying manner?

Overall, I’d say yes. Ravenous 4 worked extremely well across all four episodes. In fact, it might even be the best volume in the series. It brings the arc to a close while telling really great stories throughout.

Opening episode Whisper proves how strong this volume is, and indeed, how well Ravenous could work at its best. Not just with its arc episodes, but with its standalone stories, too. Whisper works both as a classic monster story and as a great piece of drama, one that explores what this TARDIS team has gone through and how much they truly trust each other. It’s quite possibly one of the best stories in the series.

Master finale

However, that’s not knocking the other two stories in this set. This is especially true if you’re a Master fan. While Day of the Master gives us an extremely exciting multi-Master story, Planet of Dust is an absolutely crucial prelude to it.

More than that: it reveals an extremely important moment in the Master’s life, and ties up so much of the Master’s mythology. Geoffrey Beevers gets to play his Master at his most vulnerable and desperate, and we get a rather different side to the Doctor’s archenemy as a result.

It all concludes with the two-part epic Day of the Master. It’s actually impressive what writer John Dorney achieved with this one. He had to write a story that heavily focused on three Masters while resolving threads from across the whole of Ravenous and even Doom Coalition. On top of that, he also had to set up the next arc of the series. It’s quite a list, so it’s impressive that he managed to achieve all of that. More than that – Day of the Master is another crucial part of the Master’s long life. For Master fans, it’s enough to make Ravenous 4 an essential listen.

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Summary

But is that true of the whole saga? When looking at Ravenous as a whole, does it work well? Well, that’s difficult to say. The series got off to a rough start with Ravenous 1. In fact, for newcomers, it might be even easier to skip the first volume entirely and jump straight into Ravenous 2. Not only is the status quo fully restored by that point, but the series had a keen sense of its identity with its second volume. The remaining two volumes were also enjoyable, especially 4.

However, I don’t think the Ravenous work as an arc monster. In some stories, they worked much better than others, and honestly, it says a lot when the big draw of the finale is less them and more the four Masters that it features. Not that I’m knocking Day of the Master itself, and I do enjoy a great Master story in general. But it’s surprising to see the villain feature at the end of an arc that they’d previously had nothing to do with. Especially since the finales of both Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition focused on major villains central to both series.

So Ravenous didn’t quite work as strongly as its two previous series, at least as a whole. But that’s not to say it’s easily missable. In fact, it features arguably some of the greatest Eighth Doctor stories out there. I may not be as keen to re-listen to it in full like with Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition, but I’m definitely happy to revisit its best moments.

Have you listened to Ravenous? Do you agree with this overview? What are your favorite stories from the series? Let us know in the comments below.