115d. The Word Lord

The Doctor, Ace, and Hex land on an Antarctic base where they're captured and accused of murder, but thankfully someone there knows of the Doctor and they cut short in the wrongfully accused moment because the Doctor has forty-five minutes to find an impossible killer.

This story features a clever mystery and then a massive twist that ties together the whole box set. It also has the Doctor to make a surprising yet believable emotional connection while introducing a superb villain. Overall, a smashing conclusion to the set.

Occasionally, you come across a story that uses language or memes as a plot device - that isn't particularly unusual, but they are not usually this good. Released for the forty-fifth anniversary, 'The Word Lord' acts as a kind of sequel to 'A Death in the Family'; it features a diminutive but bravura ensemble cast that includes (but is obviously not limited to) McCoy, Aldred, Oliver and Paul Reynolds as the renegade Word Lord and hitman: Nobody No-one.

The story involves our intrepid trio trying to save delegates from a mysterious, lethal force from another dimension, in a secret military bunker beneath the Antarctic ice. The writer Steven Hall ties together a combination of concepts words having power, non-corporeal beings manipulating language as portals, and temporal grace within the Tardis being more a hindrance than a blessing. We also get to hear Ace's meaningless sounding off for what it really is: ineffectual bravado. Ace's uselessness combined with genuinely precarious predicament the Doctor finds himself in, makes this a tense, neat; well-plotted affair. This is the best Big Finish short story I have heard, yet.

Listen carefully, and you will here the working of the number 45 into this at every stage, in fact it is the one thing that is at the centre of this story, and the rest of these on this release. Quite appropriate being that this is the releases that were put out at the turn of the 45 year anniversary. The idea of a entity being able to move from one temporal area of reality to another by getting people to constantly refer to a set of key words and there expedited use is a theme I have come across before (ISH.....) comes to mind. So this is not a new idea, but what is welcome is that McCoy as scored 4 out of 4 with these release, and finally asserted himself as the quality I have come to almost instantly expect from Colin and Peter, and Tom, although the other two have a long way to go to met the level of Tom in my opinion. Nice little story and running at the correct time in this instance for the material being used. Well worth a listen and overall a great release to celebrate the 45 years of Who.

Wow.....pretty impressive when a story that's maybe half an hour long keeps your attention better than stories more than double that length. Easily one of the best stories out there and at such a cheap price at Big Finish.com, you could do a LOT worse! The setting is fantastic, the cast is fantastic (particularly strong performances from Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, and Paul Reynolds), and the ideas and story are fantastic. *SPOILERS* The idea of a bounty hunter existing purely in language being hired to kill the Doctor is a great one and the performance by Paul Reynolds makes you laugh and yet terrifies you at the same time. This story takes what little time it has and squeezes every last bit out of it. I cannot recommend this story highly enough!