The Inheritance [AUDIO/2022.10.6]

★★★☆☆

  Jacob Dudman's been great as the Eleventh Doctor, not just in terms of impersonation but of interpretation, and it's a shame to see him go. To see him take the reigns one last time in a full series' worth of adventures with an entire story arc and a new companion is exciting, to say the least. This is the kind of thing I would never have dared to believe ten years ago, and it offers a nice moment of reflection on how far Big Finish has come.

  The Inheritance is an entertaining episode that, once again for a Big Finish boxset opener, has fairly noteworthy goals and achieves them with ease. It's a serviceable introduction to new companion Valarie Lockwood (played with natural charm by Safiyya Ingar), and it paints a serviceable look at the future with something of note to say about capitalism. That a story is content on being mildly fun isn't exactly a complaint, but it does start to grate once it seems to have become Big Finish's modus operandi for boxset openers. I was really hoping that Dudman would be given something truly special to go out on, and I won't lie -- it would be a bit disappointing if this twelve/thirteen-story series turns out much the same as had always been. I will say that Alfie Shaw shows the Eleventh Doctor in a very dark and morally grey position towards the climax, and I appreciated that scene quite a lot. Ingar is also very natural, and I hope to hear more from them and Valarie in the years to come.