Stranded 4 and upcoming 8th Doctor box sets

Liv & Helen, great as they are, have been around for quite a while now and I would guess some kind of shake-up in the TARDIS crew is probably coming sooner rather than later

I think Paul has given some amazing performances in 8s darkest moments, I feel he is perhaps the most tragic Doctor, his split from Charlie and then losing Lucie and Alex makes me wonder how much more loss he can take. I hope when Liv and Helen eventually leave it isn't another tradegy for the Doctor, especially with the horrors of the Time War in his future.

I think the 8DAs, across the board, are due for a shake-up companion-wise. Liv and Helen are great, but I think it's time for one of them to move on. I think I'd prefer to keep Helen a bit longer, though, as they really haven't done as with her as they have with Liv (even ignoring the Robots range). 

And on the other side, we have Bliss in the 8DTW range, which I expect/hope will continue. I do like Bliss, but I think her presence is a bit of a problem for the range--her presence on the TARDIS creates a familiar status quo, and the Time zwar is not a setting where you should really have familiar status quos IMO.

Anyway, I think Stranded has been amazing so far, so I'm confident that whatever comes next arc-wise will be good.

As for what I'd like to see... I dunno. I've been surprised too often to have any confidence in what would make for a good or bad direction to take. It's all down to the execution. One of my favorite stories from last year arose out of what I'd thought one of the dullest possible premises, after all. I can at least say that I'd welcome some solo stories for the 8th Doctor. McGann really hasn't had many of those, has he? I generally find solo stories tend to be pretty interesting, so I'd like to see more with 8 -- especially exploring the darker periods of his life post-DE.


Have you had a chance to listen to Peladon yet? It's amazing. The 8th Doctor story, The Truth of Peladon easily ranks among McGann's best, I think.

  You ‘discarded’ audio sets that have your favourite Doctor as the Curator from your collection?

But do we know those November and December sets are a continuation on from Stranded?

I am expecting them to be Time War related, but that is just a guess on my behalf, as TW4 was left on a cliffhanger and I would expect the next era for the Eighth Doctor to be bigger than six hours.

You know, I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing the Eighth Doctor travel alone for a bit after the events of Stranded. With there being subtle hints that this is all building up to the calm before the storm that is the Time War.

Liv is one of my favorite companions. Like, ever. But I was already okay with her leaving at the end of Ravenous 4 and I really thought that was going to happen. I'm more than ready te see her go by the end of Stranded. Nicola Walker is a truly fantastic actress and I'm glad we've got two more Robots sets coming. But she's been around the Doctor for almost ten years now, I won't be sad if she leaves in the last Stranded box set. I think it's time to move on as well.

As for Helen, however, I too have really enjoyed her dynamic with Eight in the Stranded saga and I'd love her to stick around for a little bit longer. Maybe just have Eight and Helen travelling together for a while, without Andy, Liv or Tania ? Not that I disliked Helen before, in fact Liv and Helen are probably my favorite TARDIS team along with Zoe and Jamie. But she's really grown on me in the Stranded saga, probably because it's the first time this team has had the chance to breathe and spend time together without the universe ending every episode, like it was the case in Doom Coalition and Stranded. Helen is probably the one who's felt the most like the Doctor's companion in Stranded, given Liv's been spending her free time with Tania, while Helen's been the one helping the Doctor the most.

So yeah, I think it's time for Liv to go as well, but I'd rather she just left to spend the rest of her days with Tania. At this point, every companion of this incarnation has had a tragic death or departure, I think Liv dying would break his heart. However, Helen can stick around if you ask me.

Also worth noting that Big Finish doesn't have to say goodbye to Liv forever if she leaves now - she and the Doctor travelled together between Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition and we've been getting "Further Adventures(s)" lately - whereas Helen has no such gap.

Helen and the Dr could have adventures together while Liv is on sabbatical in The Robots