A wonderful batch of stories that take place during season one of the hit show. Can't wait to listen to the second set.

I think maybe you need to have watched the show, I just didn’t connect with anyone. Stories were OK but not stellar.
So, 2.5 stars I think, not quite 3 anyway.

Lots to enjoy in these continuing adventures. I had forgotten how much I adore Quill!

Gifted - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who really hates the fantasy genre I was surprised how much I enjoyed this story. It incorporates fantasy elements into the framework of a sci-fi story. Thomas Laneford serves as a great character to tie together the plot threads and lead both Ram and April to the climax of the story. Mab is a great villain mostly due to some great dialogue, very unsettling and predatory. She however, is the part of the climax of the story that does let it down as she is so easily defeated. The final confrontation lasts barely minutes then all is well. The highlight of the story is definitely the chemistry between Ram and April. This story is set before they got together on screen, but this story definitely adds some more meaning to them eventually doing so. Ram is given more witty dialogue, and April continues to be soft but tough, and this just makes them the perfect pairing. I really cannot fault this story in a massive way, the only thing stopping me from giving it five stars is just that I really don’t like the fantasy genre.

Life Experience - ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

This is a story that uses the setting of a sixth form school to tell stories that feel grounded in their background, and that is clever. Ram and Tanya on work experience in a lab with a psycho and an invisible alien, a very fun premise which does deliver on the comedy and the drama, but very much not the plot. Essentially no more than a few chase scenes where the monster does nothing, and a final confrontation with the antagonist, it’s copy and paste stuff really. There’s a good five minutes of the story where they discuss whether or not the alarms are a fire drill, and from there it really drags. The story being driven by Ram and Tanya was the bit that was kept me interested as them being polar opposites makes for great comedy. The witty one-liners and jokey moments keep things interesting and drive the story. What is also nice is the narrative being a metaphor for their work experience being life experience. It’s nice to see a story used to make a message but these elements are aren’t enough to cover the fact that the plot was incredibly thin.

Tell Me You Love Me - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story upon listening not for the first time still stands as a brilliant and beautiful piece of drama. Comedic elements are mixed with really beautiful and tragic character drama, resulting in a story where you really get to see from the eyes of Charlie, Quill, and Matteusz. The isolated feeling is enhanced by the sound design and the dialogue which is all resultantly metaphors for the way they are trapped in different ways, adds to that atmosphere. The performances are superb all round and I simply cannot fault this story. It neither oversteps the mark nor leaves more to be desired, but tells a beautiful tale that can drive you to tears and to laughter alternating every five minutes. If you skip straight to this story in the set I cannot blame you as it is brilliant.

Thrilling!

Overall, this was a pretty good set that did justice to the series and brought more development to the characters who really needed it. Plus it had a better opening theme and the general sound design of this set was very immersive, but then again it's just on par with what I expect from recent Big Finish releases so no surprises there.

Gifted by Roy Gill:

I'd say maybe the weakest in the set for me, but I still really enjoyed it. Centering around Ram and April was an interesting idea that allowed them both to develop their relation further, and the whole fae theme is exactly the kind of things I love.

3/5

Life Experience by Jenny T Colgan:

Giving Ram and Tanya some space to explore their friendships, this an episode that really uses well its set up. It is the more actiony story of the set, but even with quite a lot of characters it manages to have a well written story that shows off the strengths of both Ram and Tanya as characters. Of course this is Class, so there's going to be bloody deaths, but at least they don't feel forced or that they're here just for shock factor.
I'm not very satisfied with the ending however as I felt that Tanya and Ram just accepting that the events in the labs will just be covered up and most likely not reach the governments was a bit off. Especially as it's mentioned multiple times that there's quite a lot of similar labs so what, are they just going to let the others alien dissecting lab get away with it?
Still this was a very enjoyable story with a team up of characters that was desperately lacking in the show.

3.5/5

Tell Me You Love Me by Scott Handcock

Imo, the strongest of the set. It focuses on Charlie and Matteusz and does so in a splendid manor, by literally having a mind parasite that forces one of them to constantly speak. It's really the perfect plot device for an audio drama. I really like what it does with Quill too, and how she's ready to let Matteusz die and just never gives a single fuck about humans lives.
I just find the relationship between Charlie and Matteusz to be one of the most interesting part of Class, and Handcock does a really good job playing around with both of them and their insecurities, but also how they hold on to each others no matter what.
Quill's resolution is really brutal, and Katherine Kelly's does a great job especially in one of the final scenes, when Quill is on the phone with a random stranger to convince him to tell her "I love you" so she can get rid of the parasite and condemn him to a painful death.
I do find that the ending where Quill explains clearly to Charlie what she did could have had a bit more impact, as Charlie's reaction to the news felt a bit weak, but that's basically the only flaws I can see here.

4.5/5

Again this is a really strong set to start of the Class range. I still got to listen to the second volume, but if they are anything as good as those, well I have hope for the future of Class with Big Finish

3.5/5 stars

1.1 Gifted: 3/5

1.2 Life Experience: 3/5

1.3 Tell Me You Love Me: 4/5