In celebration of this week’s release of series 4 of Big Finish Productions’ The Diary of River Song, I figured it was about time I finally listened to the first three series. Starring Alex Kingston (reprising her role as River Song from Doctor Who), The Diary of River Song features the continuing adventures of our favorite archaeologist from the new series of Doctor Who. Each series features four new stories, all tied together by an overarching plotline, with River facing another dangerous threat, often with the help of one of her husband’s many different faces.
Alex Kingston reprises her hugely popular River Song character for Big Finish, starring in a new series of adventures in the Doctor Who universe…
Not to be rude to Dark Eyes, but man I am in love with the premise Doom Coalition. Partially because I just really love anything to do with the Time Lords and Gallifrey, and since the Eleven (Mark Bonar) is a really messed up Time Lord, he’s far more up my alley than the array of Daleks that Dark Eyes featured. Unfortunately, however, the box set really fails to live up to the high expectations its premise (and first episode) set for it. Written by Matt Fitton, John Dorney, Marc Platt, and Edward Collier and directed by Ken Bentley, Doom Coalition 1 follows the Doctor (Paul McGann) and Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) as they track down an escaped Time Lord criminal known as the Eleven, a Time Lord with some kind of genetic defect that causes him to retain the personalities of all eleven of his bodies. Their journey takes them through time and space as they must stop the Eleven from succeeding in his evil plan. (Spoilers follow.) 
I’m definitely fond of the idea of combining Classic Doctors and monsters from the rebooted Doctor Who, and this box set really proves why that’s such a fabulous idea. Even when the monsters aren’t quite the best fit for an audio only story, the writing of the episodes in this box set is some of the strongest writing for a Big Finish adventure I’ve heard yet. All of the episodes are clever and engaging and I absolutely adore this box set. Classic Doctors, New Monsters (Volume 1) is a box set with four stand-alone stories featuring Doctors from the classic run of Doctor Who in adventures with monsters from the rebooted run of Doctor Who as the villains. Featuring stories from the Fifth (Peter Davison), Sixth (Colin Baker), Seventh (Sylvester McCoy), and Eighth (Paul McGann) Doctors, Classic Doctors, New Monsters (Volume 1) is a unique entry in Big Finish’s series of box sets, and one that I really enjoyed. (Spoilers ahead.) 
Thoroughly Modern Reviewer 