Quantum of Axos [AUDIO/2022.9.14]

★★★☆☆

  The final installment of the Tenth Doctor Classic Companions boxset is a confident landing, although it does mean that it's yet another Big Finish boxset that's mostly just okay to good. I'm glad that Splinters came out of it and showed that the company still had the potential to release something special from time to time, and I wished that the rest of the boxset would carry that spark the first story had. Well, here we are with a pretty competent and enjoyable story that puts David Tennant's Tenth Doctor with his old companion Ace, CEO of A Charitable Earth. I guess I'm being too harsh on it by my attitude, but the fact of the matter is that for the most part, Quantum of Axos never becomes more than an entertaining adventure. Sure, the novelty of a past companion meeting a future Doctor never truly wears off, but when a boxset is tailor-made for such occurrences, it starts to get run-of-the-mill by the end when it should be anything but.

  Thankfully, the big it-factor of Quantum of Axos is that it tells a tale of nostalgia and how it's a double-edged sword (feels more relevant than ever as we come closer to the 60th anniversary of the mythos). There's an emotional undercurrent that sells the idea of the Doctor revisiting his past (in present time) and how emotionally complicated that's bound to be for his grown-up friends. This, I think, is the aspect that the adventure should've focused more on, instead of the Axos schtick. Don't get me wrong, I love Axos and the body horrors that come with, but like many of the Classic series villains returning to Big Finish, they're used to fit a specific standard that doesn't for one moment dare to go outside the box. I like Quantum of Axos, I really do -- but it had the potential to be a lot more outstanding.