Doctor Who: Dark Universe

This is the first of a thematic trilogy of stories that sees Seven face different renegade Time Lords. This time, it's Big Finish original character the Eleven, who has mostly appeared in Eighth Doctor stories to date - indeed this appears to be set shortly before his initial appearance in Doom Coalition. The initial setup is promising, with the Eleven joining forces with Ace twenty years after she has left the Doctor and set up the charity mentioned in the Sarah Jane Adventures.

This gives us a different version of Ace than we normally see, older and more experienced, albeit with a lingering mistrust of the Doctor that doesn't seem to fit with the lengthy travels she is portrayed as having in previous audios. But, as a story, it works well, told out of chronological order to slowly reveal pieces of the puzzle. The Doctor has a relatively minor role to play in the first half, leaving Ace and the Eleven to do the heavy lifting - both of which they are good at doing - but he takes a much more central role in the second.

Where, unfortunately, the setup doesn't really pay off. It's easy enough to work out what's going on, and there's a cameo for a pre-Time War Cardinal Ollistra thrown into the mix. But the monsters aren't particularly interesting, being essentially magic with little in the way of justification. And, while it's well acted, the story becomes unengaging and doesn't particularly go anywhere prior to the inevitable denouement. It seems to be setting something up for later, but it doesn't look as if the rest of the ‘trilogy' follows on from this, so when that will be is unclear. So a good start, but it didn't quite follow through for me - although, if you're a particular fan of the Eleven, he is well-used in this, so it's probably worth a listen.