#devon pryce

Now this is some refreshing content! Apparently people don't like this boxset very much? Personally I'm totally fond of it, it's a wonderful sequel to the New Earth trilogy from the TV series, Devon and Hame are great at leading the show and the Lux is truly a menacing and interesting villain.

I don't think it will get a Volume 2 but I don't think it needs any anyway, so it works great.

I was a bit startled at the Tenth Doctor bits because of the oddness of how he's inserted through third person narration by Devon while the rest of the characters speak normally. Hodgson's impersonation does the job but it does not hide the absence of Tennant in the cast, especially when his character was not really needed for the whole story to work out. I'd rather have listened to it without the Doctor in it, even though I love him really much.

Each story is really unique so it'll be way more interesting to talk about each individually!

Escape from New New York

This one really hooked me up. It's probably my favourite from this boxset. It sets up a lot of background for Devon as well as for the rest of the story, and it's great to see Hame again.

This whole story is a great pilot, it establishes the Lux really properly and all the events within it demonstrate how and why Devon is about to get so invested in the battle against the Lux.

Death in the New Forest

This is the first one in which the Doctor appears. As expected it's not that great. He takes too much light away from Devon but it still doesn't feel like a Doctor Who story. In the end, both are wasted in this.

The story in itself is really great, there's tension, suspense, you keep wondering who did it until the reveal: just great. It does not really live up to the previous one, but it shows what a casual Tales from New Earth story looks like (since the first establishes the characters and situations). It's a good start, even though it could have done well even without the Doctor.

The Skies of New Earth

This one was a wonderful piece of action and political discourse. What are you supposed to do when the two possibilities you have are as bad as one another? Doing his best, Devon convinces both camps to fight against their common enemy: the Lux.

It's a great start, but it gets messy as soon as the Doctor comes in. Having some Tenth Doctor content once again is great, but the same phenomenon as the one before happens, the Doctor shines way more than the main character, who then becomes an observer of the Doctor's doing. In a sense, he is supposed to be just an observer, he even pretends to be a journalist in this one, but it's a great let down from the first story.

Anyway it does not take away the other qualities of this story. The side characters are lovely, especially Oscar the Solar Bear, and the Lux is as frighteningly mad and powerful as ever.

The Cats of New Cairo

More Hame, less poor man's Tenth Doctor, what's not to love?

I really liked the character of Sister Jara and her rivalry with Hame, which shows how much Hame has learned from the events of the TV series. It's even more obvious during Hame's talk with The Most Exalted High Persian, her dedication to New Earth and to her Senatorial duty is remarkable.

Otherwise, the story was just great, not the boxset's best one, but definitely a great one. It's a good finale, and I liked the senate bits at the beginning and the end of it.

Stethoscopes