A chapter in the Eighth Doctor’s life ended a year ago when the sixteen-part epic Doom Coalition reached its conclusion, but the series had been so popular with Big Finish listeners, particularly thanks to the combination of Paul McGann’s Doctor with Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan as companions Liv and Helen, that a follow-up was inevitable.

So now we have the first of four box sets comprising Ravenous, a similar season-style adventure over sixteen episodes. Its opening follows on immediately from Doom Coalition’s cliffhanger, with Helen taken prisoner somewhere in time and space by Time Lord criminal the Eleven. At first, however, Ravenous is less story arc-focused than the later Doom Coalition sets, as the first two stories see the Doctor and Liv get sidetracked during their search for Helen.

Their Finest Hour sees them summoned to England in 1941 by Winston Churchill (via a nice continuity link to The Beast Below), to face an alien presence helping out the Luftwaffe. It’s not the strongest start the series could have, as both the plot and the villains are very generic, though is heightened by Walker’s performance as the practical but compassionate Liv and her partnership with a more hotheaded Polish fighter pilot.

The quality steps up with the more original and energetic How to Make a Killing in Time Travel, set on a space station where a bullish billionaire is funding an experimental time travel device. As our heroes find themselves investigating a murder, John Dorney’s script goes for full-on farce, with heightened characters providing laughs, from an absent-minded security chief to a scheming blackmailer with a poorly translated alien sidekick.

The third and fourth episodes here, World of Damnation and Sweet Salvation, are a two-part story scripted by Matt Fitton and bring Helen and the Eleven back into the fold; when we catch up with them, they’ve both become inmates in a futuristic asylum specialising in patients with psychic powers.

This story also sees the return of a classic TV villain – the Kandyman. Yes, that lumbering pile of sweets that almost got the BBC sued by Bassett’s, though Big Finish has wisely (from a legal and narrative standpoint) returned him to the humanoid appearance originally planned for The Happiness Patrol. Nicholas Rowe’s incarnation of the villain, a scientist who manipulates people through their sense of taste, is surprisingly creepy, and when he teams up with the Eleven, they make a formidable duo.

Despite a bumpy start, this box set soon returns to the usual high standards of Big Finish and stays there. Sweet Salvation hints at what the title Ravenous refers to (no, it’s not the Kandyman), and we can’t wait for the next set to find out more.

DOCTOR WHO: RAVENOUS – VOLUME ONE / WRITERS: JOHN DORNEY, MATT FITTON / DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / STARRING: PAUL MCGANN, NICOLA WALKER, HATTIE MORAHAN, MARK BONNAR / RELEASE DATE: MAY 31ST