The trustee of the Golden Haggis Lucky Dip commands a lactating Loch Ness Monster in a bid to destroy the environment
Lucie Miller pays yet another visit to the not-quite-afterlife in her sort-of-but-also-not-quite-farewell audiobook
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On their way to celebrate Christmas 2009 with Lucie Miller’s family, Lucie and The Eighth Doctor encounter Auntie Pat, of Horror of Glam Rock and The Zygon Who Fell To Earth fame, as well as a suicidal alcoholic compulsive singer claiming to be Father Christmas. So all is right in the world. That is, until Lucie gets plopped in a coma in a hit-and-run by an inconspicuous canary-yellow hotrod that she never saw coming.
But she’s not quite ready to give up her ghost just yet. That will take some convincing. Enter stage left, Billy the Porter, Zynog ass-hat and body-squatting psychopath, whose current mission involves scraping clean Lucie’s mind-hole so that he may take her body for a spin.
Listen to this review of Lucie Miller’s sort-of-but-not-quite farewell Doctor Who Audio Drama now!
Now that I’m caught up with Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor Adventures, I thought I’d join you guys on the final leg of the EDAs. What a story to start off the final series, Death in Blackpool.
This story was to serve as the ending for Lucie Miller’s story. It ties up all the loose ends from her era, including Aunty Pat. I was sad to see Lucie go as she’s definitely become one of my favorite companions.
It even added a new layer to the mythology of the Zygons with the Zynog. Think about it. A Zygon who can’t change their form anymore because they tried to turn into another Zygon. That’s a pretty severe punishment for a Zygon.
Over the course of listening to not only his Main Range appearances but the EDAs as well, Paul McGann has become one of my favorite Doctors. He hasn’t dethroned the almighty Troughton as my favorite, but he’s definitely in my top 4 Doctors next to Hartnell, Capaldi and Troughton. He’s more than the romantic that he was in the TV Movie (oh, we’ll get to that!). Big Finish did him justice, and he’s fantastic all the way through.
Overall, I’d give Death in Blackpool the Trenton Bless Seal of Approval. Definitely one of the best companion exits we’ve had in a long time. 3.8/5
For Lucie Miller, this isn’t goodbye. It’s more of a… “see you later”.
Hello Ponken and Drew,
Since it’s been a while I thought I would remind you a bit about Aunty Pat. Lucy’s been obsessed with Aunty Pat throughout the EDAs and ran into her twice before. Horror at Glam Rock and The Zygon Who Fell To Earth we’re both god-awful. Basically Aunty Pat was nothing like Lucy remembered her in either story and we learn that this is because she died in The Zygon who fell to earth and was replaced by the titular Zygon. The doctor knows this, but Lucy doesn’t…or didn’t.
As for this episode. I almost don’t know how to begin. It’s the final episode of the Aunty Pat arc, the start of the arc of the docs travels without Lucy, and has a tear jerker ending. Aunty Pat is finally likable & then dies. Lucy dies, kind of. It would have been more dramatic if she hadn’t been trapped in the afterlife in the last episode. The baddy is foiled and dies, but becomes likable in the near death existential crisis. And has a Father Christmas, whose had a bit too many Christmas Spirits, and has my vote for the best one-off character this episode. I wouldn’t give it the 5 out of 5 JD talked about back in the day, but close enough 4.7.
One last thing to note, the next EDA is Situation Vacant, but later episodes this season will all-but-require you to listen to the An Earthly Child. It was a bonus episode available to Big Finish Subscribers and features Carol Ann Ford.
Thanks for getting back into the audios,
Chris Zerella
As you can see I rated this at 4.8 in the end. Very close to your 4.7 :) but the best is yet to come.