"Doctor Who: The Light at the End" Review

It’s been more or less five months since the last episode of Doctor Who. We all know how The Name of the Doctor ended by now (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it, though)  – the Doctor and Clara end up in the Doctor’s timeline and we encounter all the different past incarnations of the mysterious Time Lord. Then we see the an incarnation – played by John Hurt – unknown from everyone show up. The Doctor seems to be ashamed of this one incarnation that he even refuses to acknowledge this hidden Doctor with the name “the Doctor.”

And that’s what we all know until November 23, 2013. That’s a pretty long wait until The Day of the Doctor.

Thankfully Big Finish decided to give us something to whet our appetite for new Doctor Who stuff by releasing their 50th anniversary special, The Light at the End, a month early. In case you don’t know what it is, The Light at the End is an audio drama starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann. Basically all the surviving Classic Doctors, in an hour of awesomeness. And it is brilliant.

Spoiler alert beyond this point, of course.

Doctors 1-8 get a mysterious flashing light on their console – a light that has never existed there before. And it seems to be leading them all to November 23, 1963. Of course all the Doctors end up at that particular point in time, and of course it turns out to be a trap. And finally, behind this nefarious plan is nobody else but the Master, finding a way to erase the Doctor’s existence in all of time at the same time.

It’s all incredibly cheesy and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The story was actually pretty shallow – and dare I say meh – but I’m listening for the amazing interaction between the Doctors, not for the story. McGann and Tom Baker are wonderful together as 8 and 4, and what I wouldn’t give to see them interact with each other in their own series (“Doctors 4 and 8’s Bromance Through  Space and Time” – you’re welcome, BBC, I expect my royalty checks soon). I’m not really all that familiar with 5, 6, and 7, but I’m pretty glad that a huge part of the plot – and the resolution – depended on them. Some parts – like where Ace blew up a bunch of aliens with Nitro-9 and immediately renounces weapons and violence a couple of minutes later – had me scratching my head. But then who cares, we have all the surviving Doctors in one hour of greatness!

Doctors 1, 2, and 3 were also included, but we had people doing their voices (as, you know, they guys playing them are dead). I wish we had more of them, though. The Second Doctor is my all-time favorite Doctor and I wish we had more of him. And I wish they didn’t use that filter on their voices – I barely understood what they said.

However, The Light At The End was totally worth the listen. It’s fun and it only had the effect of making me want more Doctor Who until November 23, 2013.

Thoughts:

• The Master’s plan – erasing the Doctor from all points in time – was the exact same masterplan The Great Intelligence used in The Name of the Doctor.
• The Master’s portrayal was incredibly cheesy. Two thumbs up.
• The ending, where all eight Doctors visit Bob all in one night, was hilarious. I wish they showed up all at the same time and scratched their heads over it.
• Oh look, an ending where a reset button made sure that nothing in the story ever happened! And I’m fine with it.
• Big Finish is really starting to get ambitious with their paradox-ridden plots and timey wimey solutions.
• I wish Lucie was Eight’s companion in this audio. I really do.
• When they played the original theme at the very end I got goosebumps.
• This is my new favorite version of the Doctor Who theme.

[yasr_overall_rating]

So did you like The Light at the End or was it a pile of crap? I wanna know what you thought of it. Leave a comment!