Right, so far we’ve done a sixth, a seventh, another two sixes, and a Fourth Doctor story for these reviews of Big Finish audios. How about we go for a tenth, and do it right by bringing back my lover… Wilfred Mott. Ok, yes it is a shorter story at just one episode which is an hour-long, and yes it might be rude of me to jump to volume 3 of the Tenth Doctor Adventures. However, to quote the eleventh Doctor, “I thought ‘what the hell!’“

It begins with Mr. and Mrs. Noble (maybe it is Mr. and Mrs. Doctor-Smith?) and a semi/anti-Most Haunted knock-off with an Extreme Home Makeover twist, you know the Derek Acorah type. If I could get a concrete answer on whether you could or couldn’t libel the dead and we didn’t have a prohibition on swearing, I’d probably give you a full rundown on the type of person I’m talking about. Better yet, put two fingers from your right hand on your temple (side of your forehead), close your eyes for a second, open them and point to the middle distance, and slowly say, “I’m getting a Suzanne, or a Suzy?” You know, those types of people.

Then come open questions, a night vision camera, and a thing that goes bump just before it disappears as the camera quickly pans around. However, it is Doctor Who, so of course, it is the type of story I tend to dislike and the type of thing The Spectre of Lanyon Moor was before sci-fi happened. There are a lot of jump-scare bumps to highlight the supernatural, and a few explanations of drippy cupboards and rusty pans to bring unease. All while the lovely Joel Fry plays Justin, the kind of skeptical/anti-Derek Acorah type, somewhat. It is hard to pin him down, he’s skeptical of any real ghostly goings-on, but has a little twinkle of a believer.

It is a strange story overall, one I think is best compared to “Blink;” What if “Blink” was a typical Doctor Who episode that had him prancing about all over the place. I’m not trying to take away anything from James Goss, but there is the essence of the big house from “Blink” but in place of moving statues, it is all bit… supernatural. Yeah, well done Mr. Obvious! I’m trying not to give too much away as the story was only released in 2019. With that said, it is also quite hard as it’s a rather short adventure at just under an hour. That makes it a little hard to balance a spoiler-free review and describe things to give you an idea.

The cast, of course, is the band of series 4 back together. Some of them are ones I love and others aren’t as loveable, such as Sylvia. As usual, it is a small collection. However, this time it is one that is dominated by people we not only know but know very well. Give me a reference to the bees disappearing, a junkyard in 1963, and talking about The Wombles while Bernard Cribbins is in the room, and I’m going to love moments of the story either way. That’s everything I love, Who new and old and a bit of The Wombles Wombling free, who doesn’t love it?

That said, the shrieking and sudden jump-scares are a bit, meh. Anyone who’s gone through series 4 will enjoy the jabs of the Temple-Noble-Smith “marriage”. I’ll say it is a bit different to have them play House while we know the history. That’s also part of me torn on the time: One part says it might be too short to give a full entrenchment that I go on about often, the other part thinks it didn’t really have enough to properly fill the hour. It is not the worst episode and Peri isn’t in it, but it isn’t blowing your socks off either. I think that is partly the point, No Place isn’t a grand space adventure, it is just a personal story in a slightly long audio version of Doctor Who.

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Big Finish Doctor Who "No Place"

$8.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• A wonderful cast, with Joel Fry as a guest.
• I love Wilfred with every bit of my being!

Cons

• The time could have been used better.
• Did we need jump-scares in an audio?