Terror Firma is mad. It's not one of those plays that messes with the established format, yet it manages to be one of the strangest plays Big Finish have put out. It's also jam packed with stuff. It has a real sprawling epic feel, with 101 things happening at once. Each individual idea is bizarre and compelling enough to support a story in its own right.
Showing posts with label 9/10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9/10. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Doctor Who - Terror Firma - Review
Terror Firma is mad. It's not one of those plays that messes with the established format, yet it manages to be one of the strangest plays Big Finish have put out. It's also jam packed with stuff. It has a real sprawling epic feel, with 101 things happening at once. Each individual idea is bizarre and compelling enough to support a story in its own right.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Doctor Who - The Eternal Summer - Review
Crikey, that was a bit good. I heartily enjoyed Colin's preceding season, but this took things up to an even higher level. I think it's my favourite since the Angel of Scutari, which I consider a classic. Jonny Morris really does have a great range of styles; I look forward to his Jago and Litefoot story immensely. This is another of his more time-bending scripts, in the vein of Flip-Flop and Brewster, and it hangs together very well, only becoming a bit tongue-tied in explaining the fourth-part resolution. It also succesfully avoids becoming an excercise in style-over-substance, providing some really juicy themes of nostalgia, the richness of a lifetime, and the afterlife. Plus there's some rather amusing witticisms to round things off.
Morris's ability to write characters has grown to rival his ability to weave innovative structures now, and Eternal Summer is populated with a great cast of very realistic villagers. The insights into moments of their lives, and the way they relate to one another has the ring of truth and creates a strong empathy. In particular I found Dudley to be quite tragic, and I loved how we were shown the flashback distorting depending on how he felt.
The villainous characters are a little less well drawn, and their secret quite easily predicted, but still a good pair. They veer between a fairly standard moustache-twirling and something a bit more creepy, and when they fall into the latter half they're very effective.
Morris doesn't feel the need to rush the early parts, and this pacing really helps the story. The steady build up and introduction of the villagers and the situation is a real strength of the play. The second half pacing is a bit more rushed, but ultimately quite effective - the gathering pace of the plot echoes the dilemma in the story. As I mentioned above, things do get somewhat garbled in part four, leading to a bit of a headache at the end, and this is the only major flaw in the story. That said, I do actually think it's coherent, just not too well explained. It may also be that there's a bit more exposition to come in Plague of the Daleks.
On the production side, Barnaby Edwards has done a fantastic job of directing the story. His cast is perfectly chosen and they excel in their roles. Mark Williams is very likable as Max, giving me an urge to read the Stars Fell on Stockbridge (I've never followed the comics). Nick Brimble's performance matches the excellent writing of Dudley, and, in fact, every performance is really at the same level. This is possibly the best cast and performed audio I've heard. Davison and Sarah Sutton are absolutely on their A game throughout, and it's a great story for them. If I had to nitpick, I'd say there were some weaker moments when they played their other characters, but it's nothing that detracts.
The sound design is absolutely glorious, too. I've been quite complementary of it in a lot of plays of late, but this is really as good as it gets. Some beautiful and fitting music that I'd actually rather like to get seperately lifts the scenes, and a really rich soundscape not only renders the action with clarity, but creates an utterly pervasive atmosphere. The eternal, glorious summer is nicely evoked, and indeed, nicely evocative of personal nostalgia.
It's a beautiful play, a new classic for Davison, and a fantastic ensemble cast. It has a bit of a sci-fi 'Archers' feel at times, which is perfect for Stockbridge, I think. 9/10
Morris's ability to write characters has grown to rival his ability to weave innovative structures now, and Eternal Summer is populated with a great cast of very realistic villagers. The insights into moments of their lives, and the way they relate to one another has the ring of truth and creates a strong empathy. In particular I found Dudley to be quite tragic, and I loved how we were shown the flashback distorting depending on how he felt.
The villainous characters are a little less well drawn, and their secret quite easily predicted, but still a good pair. They veer between a fairly standard moustache-twirling and something a bit more creepy, and when they fall into the latter half they're very effective.
Morris doesn't feel the need to rush the early parts, and this pacing really helps the story. The steady build up and introduction of the villagers and the situation is a real strength of the play. The second half pacing is a bit more rushed, but ultimately quite effective - the gathering pace of the plot echoes the dilemma in the story. As I mentioned above, things do get somewhat garbled in part four, leading to a bit of a headache at the end, and this is the only major flaw in the story. That said, I do actually think it's coherent, just not too well explained. It may also be that there's a bit more exposition to come in Plague of the Daleks.
On the production side, Barnaby Edwards has done a fantastic job of directing the story. His cast is perfectly chosen and they excel in their roles. Mark Williams is very likable as Max, giving me an urge to read the Stars Fell on Stockbridge (I've never followed the comics). Nick Brimble's performance matches the excellent writing of Dudley, and, in fact, every performance is really at the same level. This is possibly the best cast and performed audio I've heard. Davison and Sarah Sutton are absolutely on their A game throughout, and it's a great story for them. If I had to nitpick, I'd say there were some weaker moments when they played their other characters, but it's nothing that detracts.
The sound design is absolutely glorious, too. I've been quite complementary of it in a lot of plays of late, but this is really as good as it gets. Some beautiful and fitting music that I'd actually rather like to get seperately lifts the scenes, and a really rich soundscape not only renders the action with clarity, but creates an utterly pervasive atmosphere. The eternal, glorious summer is nicely evoked, and indeed, nicely evocative of personal nostalgia.
It's a beautiful play, a new classic for Davison, and a fantastic ensemble cast. It has a bit of a sci-fi 'Archers' feel at times, which is perfect for Stockbridge, I think. 9/10
Sunday, 4 April 2010
The Angel of Scutari - Review
When this trilogy format showed up for Big Finish I wasn't sure what to make of it. I thought we might be losing out on good standalone stories and getting only serials like Key 2 Time. But I've sampled my first one (I skipped K2T based on reviews), and if they're all like this, I consider myself corrected. Not a trilogy at all, but a genuine mini-season, it really feels like a little season of episodes.
Spanning the Magic Mousetrap, Enemy of the Daleks, and the Angel of Scutari, it delivers the whole range of stories.
The Magic Mousetrap is a 'season opener' that reintroduces us to Ace, Hex and the Doctor, and gives a definite sense of a shifting equilibrium. It's also the weirdy mind-bending episode of the series, and the human sci-fi story. I had been avoiding getting my hopes up, after hearing Forty-Five hailed as a classic and being disappointed, I was worried the same would happen here. After the first part I was still bracing myself for a disappointment. But, no, this genuinely is a minor classic, one that shows the McCoy team are at the best they've ever been and gives them loads to play with. A great opener that sets the 'revamped' tone of these mini-season.
Enemy of the Daleks is less exciting fayre. It's popular with some but I found it really rather poor. It's a future-set, alien world, base-under-siege story. It's also a subpar dalek runaround. With the surfeit of daleks coming around lately they really need to be far more even than a trad runaround. This isn't even that. Noisy and boring. The first episode has some promise but it's never met. The one highlight is Hex. The season is very much an arc for his character, and his scenes are fantastic. They lead us nicely on to...
The Angel of Scutari. Rounding out the series, with a definite sense of 'finale', a pure historical character drama, featuring Florence Nightingale (and, for rather less reason or effect, Lev Tolstoy).
I listened to this one last night and really enjoyed it. Big Finish seem to do some of their best work on pure historicals, and McCoy in particular gets great ones. The Settling, No Man's Land, and now the Angel of Scutari.
I've really become quite interested in Hex since the Settling, and his arc in this mini-season is one of its biggest selling points for me. I didn't much care for Enemy of the Daleks, but I did love Hex's scenes. This is really Hex's play, though, and I found it at its best when we followed his adventures in the hospital. Philip Olivier is a fantastic actor, one of Big Finish's best bits of casting.
The non-Hex stuff wasn't quite so thrilling. It seemed a bit of an empty aside. Ace and Tolstoy felt quite similar to some of Ace's stuff in Colditz, and the Doctor just seemed to be ferrying between his cell and various diplomatic meetings to no real ends. That said, they didn't drag, I enjoyed the scenes, they just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders like Hex's story.
As for the historical content, I just happened to have read Flashman at the Charge recently, so it was more engaging than it might otherwise have been. I can see how, if you weren't aware of the details, it might be a story that left you a bit cold. However, having been filled in on the details (and even introduced to Willy Russell) by the inimitable Flashy, the setting was a delightful surprise. (I confess I'd thought Scutari was going to be an alien planet or something - my geography is terrible - so a Crimean pure historical was a most unexpected pleasure.)
A great story, BF's run on historicals continues without wavering, and a fantastic story for Hex that ends a fantastic season for Hex. And it really did feel like a season. Now I'm dying to hear the next one, and I only have six months to wait. I feel sorry for those chaps who've already been waiting for eight!
The Magic Mousetrap - 8/10
Enemy of the Daleks - 5/10
The Angel of Scutari - 9/10
Spanning the Magic Mousetrap, Enemy of the Daleks, and the Angel of Scutari, it delivers the whole range of stories.
The Magic Mousetrap is a 'season opener' that reintroduces us to Ace, Hex and the Doctor, and gives a definite sense of a shifting equilibrium. It's also the weirdy mind-bending episode of the series, and the human sci-fi story. I had been avoiding getting my hopes up, after hearing Forty-Five hailed as a classic and being disappointed, I was worried the same would happen here. After the first part I was still bracing myself for a disappointment. But, no, this genuinely is a minor classic, one that shows the McCoy team are at the best they've ever been and gives them loads to play with. A great opener that sets the 'revamped' tone of these mini-season.
Enemy of the Daleks is less exciting fayre. It's popular with some but I found it really rather poor. It's a future-set, alien world, base-under-siege story. It's also a subpar dalek runaround. With the surfeit of daleks coming around lately they really need to be far more even than a trad runaround. This isn't even that. Noisy and boring. The first episode has some promise but it's never met. The one highlight is Hex. The season is very much an arc for his character, and his scenes are fantastic. They lead us nicely on to...
The Angel of Scutari. Rounding out the series, with a definite sense of 'finale', a pure historical character drama, featuring Florence Nightingale (and, for rather less reason or effect, Lev Tolstoy).
I listened to this one last night and really enjoyed it. Big Finish seem to do some of their best work on pure historicals, and McCoy in particular gets great ones. The Settling, No Man's Land, and now the Angel of Scutari.
I've really become quite interested in Hex since the Settling, and his arc in this mini-season is one of its biggest selling points for me. I didn't much care for Enemy of the Daleks, but I did love Hex's scenes. This is really Hex's play, though, and I found it at its best when we followed his adventures in the hospital. Philip Olivier is a fantastic actor, one of Big Finish's best bits of casting.
The non-Hex stuff wasn't quite so thrilling. It seemed a bit of an empty aside. Ace and Tolstoy felt quite similar to some of Ace's stuff in Colditz, and the Doctor just seemed to be ferrying between his cell and various diplomatic meetings to no real ends. That said, they didn't drag, I enjoyed the scenes, they just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders like Hex's story.
As for the historical content, I just happened to have read Flashman at the Charge recently, so it was more engaging than it might otherwise have been. I can see how, if you weren't aware of the details, it might be a story that left you a bit cold. However, having been filled in on the details (and even introduced to Willy Russell) by the inimitable Flashy, the setting was a delightful surprise. (I confess I'd thought Scutari was going to be an alien planet or something - my geography is terrible - so a Crimean pure historical was a most unexpected pleasure.)
A great story, BF's run on historicals continues without wavering, and a fantastic story for Hex that ends a fantastic season for Hex. And it really did feel like a season. Now I'm dying to hear the next one, and I only have six months to wait. I feel sorry for those chaps who've already been waiting for eight!
The Magic Mousetrap - 8/10
Enemy of the Daleks - 5/10
The Angel of Scutari - 9/10
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