[intial reactions] Doctor Who / Big Finish - Ravenous 4

[grimorie]

“Hello, you.”

I love this boxset.

Ravenous 4 is the last in the series, the season finale, if you will of the Ravenous story arc.

The time of the Eleven is over. It's because unfortunately for the Eleven. The Eleven's demise (this regeneration but I don't think we've seen the last of him) came about because he directly came across the Master.

Three of them.

I don’t care what anyone says I enjoyed Eric Roberts!Master!

Before diving into the Murder of Masters let’s get into the story with the Eleven pretending that he’s ‘cured’ Liv isn’t buying the bull he’s selling and Eleven is trying to enact what would eventually happen between Twelve and Missy.

Eventually, it’s revealed that the Ravenous, the murderous and perennially hungry creatures whose only prey are the Time Lords made a deal with the Eleven. 

The Eleven runs into Beevers!Master, or otherwise called the Crispy!Master, Crispy!Master is so desperate to find any way to prolong their life that he rushes blindly into an agreement with the Eleven.

(And here the boxset proceeds to throw away the concept of subtext’ because everyone and their friend group knows, hell all of Gallifrey knows that the Master only has eyes for the Doctor).

Eleven ends up double-crossing Crispy!Master, Crispy!Master gives Eight a means of escape, his TARDIS. Eight vows to save the Master somehow. But just as Eight and Liv escape, Eight is wracked with pain.

(BTW I love that in Big Finish as well as everywhere else they hint at the Doctor being half-Human. Third Culture Kid Doctor is where I live).

Because the Doctor and the TARDIS are mentally linked the Doctor knows exactly how much pain the TARDIS is in from the Ravenous attacking it. 

Missy kidnaps Helen, much to Liv’s distress - c’mon Big Finish, any day you guys want to do a verbal mutual love reveal we’re ready! -- to assist her in her quest to find a ‘god’.

I suppose Missy’s still in her quest to do something with a Supreme TARDIS/Master!TARDIS and any power source to do so will do but also some part of her remembers to search for Artron. 

Artron turns out to be a Gallifreyan scientist who accidentally created the Ravenous. And just like the other boxsets ties everything together with the Salzburg arc. I love how the boxsets tie everything together! Now that is what I call a series arc! 

Eight stumbles into Artron and Roberts!Master and Liv, unfortunately, is found by Derek Jacobi Master, the War Master.  

Another curious thing how the War Master says ‘how times have changed’ when Liv considers the Eleven the bad guy and not the War Master (of course Liv didn’t know he’s the War Master). I feel like this sentiment ties right back to Missy’s own boxset:

“You know, I used to think things were so straight forward. If you knew me a few years ago when it came to the battle of good against evil, you’d have no doubt about what side I was on. But then came the War, I became a soldier and I was required by good people to do bad things to good _people in the name of truth and decency after that I became more _flexible in my outlook. So the question I ask of myself, am I good or evil? Truth to tell… I don’t really know anymore.” - Missy, Series One - Broken Clock

Now when War Master does anything evil, it feels like apart from enjoying being a mischevious force of chaos, there’s also an air of obligation now too.

It makes me wish we had this on TV because I would love Missy’s unsaid and understated but piercing looks that she’s no doubt throwing to the War Master.

She was him and knows exactly what will happen next, enough to make the Master run from fear of their own people.

I do love that the hallmark of the Masters getting together is that they all get along, and in Missy's case flirt incessantly with her younger selves (no one can't say the Master isn't a narcissist!), and then eventually stab themselves in the back.

And Helen is being entertainingly terrorized Missy, they find the ‘god’ Missy looked for who, to no one's surprise turns out to be Artron. The massive twist, of course, is that Liv gains the ability to regenerate.

Speaking of Liv, this is quite a story for her, she's slowly realizing and becoming resolved to become the one who would eventually do the dirty work for the Doctor because the Doctor refused to do so.

Eight's hope that the Eleven was sincere in wishing to change is in direct conflict to all the pain Liv and Helen endured because of Eleven.

Helen is the one who is really stepping up in a major way and it was fun having her paired up with Missy. It's very fortunate for Helen that this Missy is actually in transition series 9!Missy where all she wants to do is spread chaos. And her larger goal goes beyond what was happening then.

Anyway, the Eleven's death warrant was signed the moment the Masters remembered the Eleven killed an earlier version of the Master and then on top of that Eleven told the three Masters in their own TARDIS that together with the Master he considers himself as one of the Doctor's Greatest Enemy.

And we know in that category, the Master, in whatever form brooks no competition.

Then we come into The War Master, Missy, and Roberts!Master reviving their younger (?) self. I'm not entirely sure but from this audio, it's implied that Crispy!Master is the last in the line of the Master's first regeneration. And the regenerations the Masters were allowed to grant themselves is the start of the new cycle.

I have to give it a re-listen but I adore that it ends with Missy greeting her newly regenerated self with a knowing, fond, "Hello, you."