Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2: The Gift tenth anniversary

March 3 2026 marks ten years since the release of Doom Coalition 2 from Big Finish.

Featuring the Eighth Doctor.

Doom Coalition 2 consists of four episodes, the penultimate of which is The Gift

Also featuring Liv and Helen.

Written by Marc Platt.

Incidentally The Gift is also the name of The Sarah Jane Adventures season 3 closer in 2009.

Coincidentally sometime before this tenth anniversary I relistened to the similarly named first Class Big Finish episode Gifted.

In tracking down Caleera, the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Liv and Helen to 1906 San Francisco.

For the Eighth Doctor this brings back memories of being born here, albeit 93 years from now in 1999 as seen in the TV Movie.

They soon meet Charles Virgil McLean, an actor-manager who is in desperation to stage his definitive production of King Lear.

Things took a turn when McLean has possession of the said Gift which unleashes a destructive power.

I had thought it enjoyable as the Doctor, Liv and Helen encounters the powers of this gift.

In fact this story provides the Doctor Who explanation of what caused the real life earthquake in San Francisco in 1906.

In the immediate aftermath of this earthquake, Helen says that she had seen a movie about this earthquake starring Clark Gable.

There is indeed such a movie and it is San Francisco (1936).

Thanks to Helen's reference of it I saw the said movie after I first listened to The Gift.

I had found The Gift is not a bad story as a whole but what a surprise the message the Doctor got at the end and I knew who it is from.