Sphere of Freedom [AUDIO/2021.5.13]

★★★☆☆

  Nicholas Briggs brings together a variety of ideas in the hopes that it would make for a good experience for the listener -- and he's right this time! Sphere of Freedom sounds like a mix of The War Games with the sensibilities of early-naughts science-fiction, all wrapped up and trimmed nicely for a 45(ish)-minute runtime. Everything flies by, the details are hardly the most laboured-over elements of the adventure, and the Doctor has a whale of a time stopping evil corporations from exploiting time and committing various heinous acts of crime. Who cares if a story isn't hugely intricate from time to time? All I ever wanted with this Ravagers boxset, the very first Christopher Eccleston outing as the Ninth Doctor in 16 years, was to hear Eccleston have some fun... and it's clear that he has a lot of fun. I know many have criticised the lack of consistency with the Ninth Doctor portrayed here and the incarnation portrayed on telly, but I don't think there's too much of a difference. He may sound more uppity and excitable here, yeah, but I suppose post-regeneration fresh-facedness will do that to a Time Lord, regardless of the kind of traumatic war they went through before the makeover. He has exactly the right kind of energy to bring such a whizzing, fast-paced rollercoaster ride of an adventure to life, a dizzying story about the plight of immersive games made for the rich and their implication on the innocent people plucked from history to aid their cause. For a purely exciting experience, I don't think anyone could have asked for anything else from this boxset opener.