Signs and Wonders

Main Range #191

Released: 12 September 2014

Listened: 1/16/21

Hector’s decided that he’s had enough, and wants to go home to Liverpool, mid-2020s. Hector’s mobster persona has started to fade, leaving him with...nothing, really, but he still resents being compared to Hex. They’re a couple of years later than “Afterlife,” but Sally has hung around, looking after Hilda, who has finally passed on. Just when she’s ready to leave, strangeness starts happening, the aforementioned signs and wonders, all led by a charismatic named Rufus Stone. There’s an alien race of angels who have it in for a bunch of giant slugs who inhabit the Mersey, but really there’s yet another Elder God at the bottom of it, literally sleeping under northern England. Sally and Ace come to an understanding, and kind of a mutual respect, as they help out the military. Ace still seems pretty brash here, and maybe that makes a good connection to what comes next. Eventually Hex is restored, thanks to a minor god and Sally wishing it really really hard. Which is a bit of a cop-out, but he gets another heroic big ending, which is possibly a bit better than his last, if only because he lives through it. Best of all, the Doctor gets to a detente with the Elder Gods, explaining why he doesn’t spend the rest of his lives tangling with them. And Hex gets a happily-ever-after coda, which I think he probably does deserve at this point. Even Ace and the Doctor get a “Survival” callback, to indicate that this is really the end of an era. The story isn’t exactly the tightest, but that’s not really the point. Really, the storytelling in this whole trilogy has been a bit sloppy, and I’m not completely sure it was necessary, but I’m glad to see Hex get a happy ending, and I’m equally happy whenever Big Finish want to bring him back, because he’s worth it.