The End of the Beginning [AUDIO/2021.3.16]

★★★☆☆

  The final story of the Big Finish monthly range needed something special. Something to work both as a love letter to stories past and a trailblazer for the ambitious and wonderful stories yet to come. One can almost hear Robert Valentine's brain working overtime behind the performances and sound design, laboriously writing away storylines in the hope that everything would come to fruition in an epic fashion.

  Tad bit sad to say, it doesn't exactly work out that way. The End of the Beginning uses its four-part structure to tell three individual stories for each Doctor, with overarching cliffhangers and themes that come to light in the final episode -- and I confess that I found at least two of the four pretty, well... mild. They weren't actively bad or anything, merely rather humdrum for Big Finish both in concept and execution. As a normal adventure -- not even changing perspectives because it's a monumental release -- it's a mildly enjoyable story with the usual world-ending stakes and a final-episode letdown. I suppose these faults become a bit more apparent because of the particular multi-Doctor, multi-adventure structure Valentine has written. Best episode, hands down? The Eighth Doctor and Charley bit with 1999 London and vampires. I've been wanting Eight to meet vampires again since the novel Vampire Science (The Scent of Blood helped in this regard); his romantic Doctor fits so well with the traditionally Gothic nightmares. 

  Very minor flubs here and there aside, I suppose that's all the negative things I have to say about The End of the Beginning. I choose not to count the varying recording quality of the actors due to COVID regulations at the time, but it's also true that it becomes rather apparent in some cases. If one were to shove all these shortcomings aside, this is a solid piece of entertainment with a swooping epic scale and plenty of technobabble. The fourth episode tanks hard in my respect, which is why I cannot give this meaningful release (again, the end of the monthly range!) any higher a score.