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After the highs and lows of Doom Coalition (some very good, some kinda bleh), I was very much looking forward to the follow-up, especially as it ended on a cliffhanger - the Doctor's companion is kidnapped by the unstable Time Lord, the Eleven!
That had to wait however, with the unexpected release of the Eighth Doctor Time War boxset (set towards the end of the Eighth Doctor's run - long after the events of these boxsets). Unfortunately, I found Ravenous to be a very mixed bag.
The first story Their Finest Hour attempts to explore a situation seldom covered in British history - the exiled Polish airman who fought in the RAF during the Battle of Britain against the Luftwaffe - less "Tally ho, chap! Chocs away!", and more "Kurwa!".
The alien presence who serve as this story's antagonists seemed to be an interesting idea; a race who are at civil war, who decide the outcome of their war, not by fighting amongst themselves, but finding another species already at war, choose a side, and observe the outcome, with the backers of the winning side "winning" their civil war.
While both are neat story avenues to explore, together they feel very underdeveloped - the Polish pilots are very flat, and hurried, and the aliens lack any real development until the near end, where their reasons for engaging in the war are revealed.
Less interesting was the Churchill cameo. I've always been wary of Who's interpretation of Churchill - just a lovable scamp who wants to get inside the TARDIS - it's never sat comfortable with me, but it is basically a cameo role, and not really the fault of Ian McNeice.
How to Make a Killing in Time Travel is a comedy of errors style murder-farce involving the inventor of a time/portal device killing the abrasive financier of the project and trying to cover it up with increasingly desperate lies, and actions.
While amusing at times, it feels very oddly placed in this boxset. The last few boxsets have been purposefully grim to the Eighth Doctor, so it is nice to have a more light-hearted story (even about murder), but it's the sort of story to tell when there isn't the overlying threat of "what's happened to the missing companion?". Maybe it would have worked better as an opener for the next boxset, when they're reunited with Helen. As it is, it's narratively spinning its wheels and killing time (hah) until the next story.
World of Damnation is where the plot really starts, and IMO, the better half of the boxset. After crash-landing their TARDIS following the events of Doom Coalition's Stop the Clock, the Eleven and Helen find themselves in an asylum, where the inmates are serviced by the (rebuilt) Kandyman, and his unique sweet treats.
Again, the Eleven proves to be a fascinating character (or should that be characters?), with a somewhat ambiguous relationship towards Helen, who is attempting to "heal" him, and allow him to think clearly, as himself, without the minds of his previous incarnations butting in, played again by Mark Bonnar in a very self-assured, but also erratic performance.
So...the Kandyman. I fucking love the Kandyman, equal parts high camp and actually sorta nightmarish, the Bertie Basset clone is brought to live by Nicholas Rowe, who pitches it perfectly between plummy, sultry, campy, and threatening when it needs to be.
I know it's audio, but gone is the Bertie Basset shell (due to allegations of copyright infringement), and in its place is a terrifying...well...this:
The Kandyman has been using his specially prepared desserts to influnce the inmates' biochemistry, to pacify them, or aggravate them, creating the titular Ravenous, from those utterly dependent on his sweets, and the narrative functions from that really. It's probably the best story of this boxset, with a nice exploration of the Eleven, and the return of the fucking Kandyman.
Sweet Salvation carries directly on from the events of the previous story, and while I liked it, it suffers from the usual boxset problems of "oh I guess we'd better wrap this up now then" and hurrying towards a climax. With added sweet puns, and some very campy silliness. The eponymous Ravenous (not to be confused with the ones earlier) are mentioned, and it's yet another legend from the old days of Gallifrey, which is obviously going to come into play in the following boxsets.
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Overall, I feel it's a fairly weak start to the next new arc of the Eighth Doctor - it's sometimes hard to guage without the knowledge of the overall arc - but as an individual boxset, I feel it spends far too long procrastinating before getting to the better parts - and while I did enjoy the latter two stories, there's no stand out equivalent to say, Doom Coalition's Red Lady, or Absent Friends.