The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Ravenous 4 Review

Here we are at the end of yet another era for the Eighth Doctor.

First a battle against the Monk and the Daleks and now a battle against the Eleven, the Master and the Ravenous.

This final set is really the accumulation of all of that as it ties up loose ends left since Dark Eyes, something I was glad to see answered even if it just acted as a little Easter Egg for fans of the classic series.

Along with this we see the ending for the Eleven along with the main antagonists for this set, the Ravenous.

For the first time in a while this felt like an example of a set where all four episodes were utilised for a single story rather than donating an episode or two for filler.

That made this entire entry really feel like one cohesive story and something I can truly appreciate.

Paul McGann is still in his prime here so I don’t really have too much to add in terms of his performance other than it’s what you’ve come to expect. I kind of wish this story would’ve ended on a slightly more personal note as we haven’t really gotten a raw emotional moment from the Eighth Doctor since Dark Eyes.

Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan are still excellent companions as Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair. It truly feels like the pair could run off into their own series and I’d still be interested to follow them at this point and, to be completely honest, I think that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Whilst these characters are certainly not impossible girls like Clara Oswald it’s certainly starting to bug me how often their lives are driven to the edge just to be magically brought back to their factory settings. They feel too safe is what I guess I’m trying to say.

The tension is sort of gone when one of them became god for a bit and very recently de-aged decades of years just so she can be where she is now. Without spoiling anything that sort of thing happens again here but with Liv instead of Helen and whilst it needed to be done to show off the Ravenous’s and Eleven’s grand plan is still feel kind of cheap having these characters defy death yet again.

Go off on a high note I say! This is a battle against the biggest renegade Time Lord the Doctor’s faced so to feel no personal stakes in it feels like such a missed opportunity.

The finale is something that still had plenty of things for me to be excited about, I mean a story doing justice to the Eric Roberts and Michelle Gomez Master and Missy is something I didn’t think to be possible and yet here we are.

My only disappointment is that John Simm couldn’t be included, supposedly for plot reasons, and the classic Masters were separated from the newer ones.

At the end of the day the Ravenous were an interesting villain with plenty of fun Gallifrayan lore thrown in around them to make this a fun eye opener for many lingering Who fans such as I.

As the end of an era I’ll say I had my fun but I’m definitely ready for what’s next. As ever the Big Finish team end this on a perfect note to continue things in the future without dragging too much of the past with them.

8/10