Echoes of Extinction

Time Lord Victorious audio

Released: 16 April 2021

This is the somewhat odd vinyl release that was part of the Time Lord Victorious storyline, except that for the Eighth Doctor, it’s kind of a prequel, and for the Tenth, it’s more of a coda. Oddly, although the Time Lord Victorious revolves around the Tenth Doctor, because of the multimedia format, this is the only piece in which David Tennant portrays the Tenth Doctor. And boy, does he portray him. The Doctor is extremely Doctory in this story, talking a mile a minute, charming people, judging people, and being very, very sorry. It’s short, even by Big Finish standards, only about a half-hour, so there’s not much time for fakes or misdirection, and yet it feels complete, possibly because of the greater pace of Tenth Doctor stories. It’s also got some impressive guest actors, from Burn Gorman (Owen from Torchwood) playing the monster to Arthur Darvill (Rory) playing a starship trooper to Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra from The Sarah Jane Adventures). This story almost certainly would benefit from listening to both halves in order, but it’s not really a huge deal. The Doctor can’t really remember the first half of the story, so it’s OK if the listener doesn’t either. What’s interesting is that the Doctor makes a compassionate choice. He’s no longer interested in just stopping the monsters, or being “fire and ice and rage.” You can see he learned something from the Time Lord Victorious, and maybe he’s more at peace with himself after “The Day of the Doctor.” This is a Doctor very close to the end of his time, and it’s impressive that Alfie Shaw managed to portray that. This is also the end for David Tennant in this project, at least for the time being.