Browse the WBW Podcast
Browse the WBW Podcast
Browse Audio Who reviews
Browse Audio Who reviews

The Doc and Lucie interrupt suicidal star-crossed lovers and get entangled with divine pervs who communicate via walkie-talkie

The Doc and Lucie arrive on a mountain top, only to interrupt suicidal star-crossed lovers, Sararti and Prince Kalkin shortly after they’ve gotten hitched. Weird.

Anyway, it transpires their “parents” are Zeus and Hera, two of a bunch of rather mythically named characters, who are self-proclaimed Gods on this planet. Again, weird. But hang on, that’s not all. They travel about in chariots (helicopters), communicate via ether trumpet (walkie-talkie) and kill each other with magic staffs (rifles, presumably). So, yeah, it just got weirder.

Doctor Who Ian McNeice Churchill
Ian McNeice previously appearing on Doctor Who as Winston Churchill

*spoilers below*

Zeus – majestically portrayed by Doctor Who veteran Ian McNeice – & Co have set themselves up as immortals, in that they clone themselves, raise the clones as their offspring and then mind-wipe them and transfer their own consciousnesses into their young, nubile bodies once they’ve grown too weak and decrepit themselves. Again, weird. But what a marvellous premise!

The Ratings-and-Reviews Section of the this podcast episode kicks off at:
50 Minutes 38 Seconds

Doctor Who Big Finish audiobook Immortal Beloved

Here's what we think of A003 Immortal Beloved

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

4.0

jD | @mariuskane

4.1

Here's what we think of A003 Immortal Beloved

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

4.0

jD | @mariuskane

4.1

Here's what you think 4 Responses to “A003 Immortal Beloved”
  1. Hera was having a heart attack. She is rushed to the chamber and the swap is started, but Hera dies just before the transfer is done. No one knows that the transfer did not work (except the doctor). Sarati pretends to be Hera and everyone thinks it worked. Sarati asks Airies for a knife to kill off Hera’s old body. She has the knife and stabs Zeus several times. Airies is not hurt. Zeus is rushed to be operated. Kalkin is summed to the room Zeus is recovering and makes a deal with Kalkin. Zeus promises not to hurt (clone Lucie) if Kalkin and swaps bodies now (Zeus needs to transfer soon because of the injuries of the attack).

    If you are going to do a review get the plot especially the ending right. You had plot inconsistencies in the last review.

    • Hey Juan,

      Thanks for listening. First off, take it easy. Deep breaths. ;) You ok there? Feeling better? Cool. No need to take this so seriously, after all.

      You’re absolutely right about Sarati stabbing Zeus, not Ares. Well-spotted, dude.

      However, everything else that you point out in your comment, I’m pretty sure, is what we say in our review as well. (Fast-forward about 40min in.)

      Hope you enjoy the show.

      Ciao

      Ponken

  2. Peter Zunitch

    Immortal Beloved grips you from the very first 15 seconds and doesn’t let go until it ends. The characters were all enjoyable, fully rounded and at the least sympathetic. There’s something you like and dislike about every character in the script. You feel for them one way or the other, and care what happens to them. It provides the emotional turmoil that was lacking from Blood of the Daleks, and only fails the same story in scope. I could picture every scene perfectly in my mind. I’d say this would make a great TV episode of Dr Who, but there’s no need. I’ve already seen it.
    Save the one line of “Why is she putting it on his head…” there really was nothing that took me out of the story. That line, I’m sorry to say just felt like forced exposition. Still, it’s such a trivial issue that I only mention it because I’m at a loss to find too many other criticisms. Sure it was an incredibly simple idea wrapped in a very small scale story, but that’s okay. the level of detail made it seem like it was part of a larger world that we’ve just glimpsed at, and the sophistication of the writing kept the pace strong and made it feel like this little story was the culmination of something so much bigger. Indeed I think the podcast nailed it. The only thing missing was more exploration of the rest of the world. Again, it isn’t really necessary, it’s fine the way it is. I just wish we could have stayed here longer and examined this culture a little deeper. Perhaps with the ambiguous ending, and all the themes left open for contemplation we’ll be able to revisit this world in the future, or the past. Either way I’ll be listening to this story again, and thinking about it often. So unless someone changes my mind…or my body, I’m giving this episode a 4.5

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

If you haven't already... Subscribe now!

Subscribe to us on iTunes now! We're dropping a new episode every week (pretty much), reviewing Classic Who, New Who and all kinds of bonus stuff from spin-offs and conventions to Doctor Who comic books.