Doctor Who Unbound - Sympathy for the Devil - Review

David Warner as the Doctor, Nicholas Courtney as the Brig, Sam Kisgart as the sinister Ke Le and David Tennant cursing himself blind. What more could you ask for?

After kicking off the series with a big thematic story and a grand premise of immediately obvious implication, the second tale in the fascinating Unbound range steps things down to a much subtler tone. It takes a far less grandiose question - What if the Doctor had never joined UNIT?

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.

The Companion Chronicles - The Three Companions - Review

The idea of a serialised story released in ten minute chunks on each monthly release is a pretty smart one from Big Finish. The existing subscribers get a nice little bonus, whilst listeners who pick and choose get an incitement to subscribe. In practise though it hasn't entirely worked out.

Doctor Who Unbound - Auld Mortality - Review

The Unbound series is one of Big Finish's most creative ideas, definitely a worthwhile experiment. It's to their credit they didn't just produce Doctor Who with new actors, and really dug into the 'What if' possibility vibe. So this is really as apt a first episode as could possibly have been produced - Taking a really big, immediately grasped 'What If' - What if the Doctor had never left Gallifrey - and spinning a tale about stories, possibilities, imagination and adventure.

Doctor Who - Survival of the Fittest & Klein's Story - Review

Big Finish's Three-and-One style stories are an interesting idea, and I'm rather fond of them, but they do tend to use the one-parter as a coda to the main story, rather than a wholly standalone piece. Klein's Story, however, is entirely its own thing. Well, sort of.

Doctor Who - A Thousand Tiny Wings - Review

It's surprising just how entertaining this play is, given how little there is to the story. A group of women stuck in a Kenyan farmhouse in the middle of the Mau Mau uprising discover an excessively jointed ape dying a death of a thousand cuts and are beset by a number of tribulations. Oh, and Colditz baddie Klein is among them.

Doctor Who - S05E04, The Time of Angels - Review

So to the long awaited return of the Weeping Angels of old...

I think this episode finally felt like it had the character of the Doctor settled. In all the previous three I've felt he hasn't quite been cemented in yet, but in this one he feels fully solid. Smith has returned to form this week, and puts in a really good show. His portrayal in the earlier part of being pissy because River is taking advantage of him is very good. Suggestion that he's irritated, but also a more deep seated anger stemming from some concern that this state of affairs could develop into something unhealthy. There's also more general 'Doctorishness' about him. We can start to see his mannerisms and character traits coming through. The way he refers to Amy as 'Pond' is fantastic. Recalls his disappointment with the choice of 'Amy' over 'Amelia' and also has a touch of arrogance and detachment. The 'Environment Check' is an old old scene, but it still works well, and I love his way of enjoying museums. Also, Smith making the TARDIS noise is utterly hilarious. (And River gets the 'ping' of materialisation from the classic series. I hope they keep that.) And possibly my favourite little bit of Doctorishness from the whole thing: 'I'll never get done saving you.' This line, and the way he delivers it, with a little joyous grin, is absolutely lovely.

Gillan is better this week as well. Amy feels a bit more like a character and less like a skirt with red hair and long legs, perhaps because she was actually given things to do. She does less of the 'Cool and Sexy' posturing and winking and smouldering that Amy has seemed to consist of for the last three weeks and which really doesn't work for me. Meanwhile, Alex Kingston is pretty good for the first half, and pretty awful for the second. Not sure what's going on there. Perhaps she wasn't able to play off Gillan as well as the others, but I do find their scenes in the maze to be pretty poor, with River exhibiting the exact same 'cool and sexy' insubstance I just noted Gillan as shaking off. Still, like I said, earlier on she was better. I found myself rather enjoying her pre-credits heist, despite expecting myself to find it silly and annoying. Also, some of the earlier interaction of Amy, Doctor and River, as well as her significant comments to the Bishop, have regained some of the initial mystery we found in the character following Silence in the Library. Is she a con artist? A Time Lord? A good guy?

The best scenes involving her are the ones which feed this mystery whilst doing the work of reestablishing that the Doctor and her have some kind of relationship. It's interesting that River can fly the TARDIS but wasn't taught by the Doctor, and the 'blue boringers' rant is funny, but Smith actually seems quite peeved, and we get a sense of how he feels about River showing up again. The 'can you sonic me' moment is the best bit of 'They have a relationship' expositing. It feels very natural and realistic. Some of the other bits felt more hit-you-over-the-head. I wonder if their next encounter will be the 'Byrn Meadows', in the same way that 'Crash of the Byzantium' got referenced last time. (Though it seems they have met in between their two on screen rendezvous.)
As for the supporting cast, Iain Glen is rather good as the Bishop. He gives a feeling of respecting and trusting the Doctor, whilst not *actually* liking him very much. He also sold me on the holy man/soldier crossbreed far moreso than his clerics. He's a bit reminiscent of Colonel Mace, particularly with his 'Quite a lot taken' line. David Atkins is also quite good as Bob, and does a lot to make the walkie-talkie stuff remain hair-prickling in spite of a somewhat 'old-hat' feel that I'll cover below.

The plot is a bit of a pic-n-mix of concepts new and old, some good, some not-so-good. The 'home box' is a nice little bit of speculative sci-fi that makes perfect sense. I'm not sure about this 'church' thing. So far it's irrelevant, but no doubt Moffat has plans for it. If it doesn't figure into the plot then I dislike it, but I will reserve judgement to see if and how it does. I am sensing a connection between the church, the prison they have escaped from, the thing the Doctor will refuse help over if he learns of it and whatever it is they are here to do - note we never find out what their goal actually is. Also, with the crack figuring so prominently next week, I am wondering if they're not escapees from the Atraxi.

It's with the new look at the Angels that I'm really torn. They had such purity of concept in Blink that it feels a shame to embellish it. I'm not sure what I think about this new stuff regarding the image of an angel. Unavoidably, it's quite apparent that this stuff wasn't true during Blink, and has been thought of later. And it doesn't feel like a natural progression of the Angels' aspects. When the Doctor wonders why there are no pictures of Angels in the book, we don't get the thigh slapping 'Oh, of course!' moment Moffat usually delivers with the reveal. Instead, the development seems to come from nowhere. On the other hand, there is, evidently, a lot of story potential in this 'power of the image' idea. I just feel as though it would have been better explored with a new race. Still, I see what Moffat is going for. Once again, he is taking the familiar and twisting it ninety degrees - the image of the angels used to be their weakness, now it is their strength. Particularly evident in next week's trailer when the Doctor tells Amy 'Open your eyes for just a second and you'll die'.

The taped angel is pretty effectively creepy. Even when there's no reason to expect it can get out and hurt 'us', it inherently feels like it can. The sound design in this scene complements it beautifully with a weird-creepy rasping noise as the tape flashes off and on. Regarding that, I thought there was maybe a missed trick, and that the angel could have advanced a little each time the video flashed off, therefore putting a little extra conflict on Amy - her attempts to shut off the video are bringing the angel even closer. When it finally escapes the video, the static angel is another good effect that has quite a 'magical realism' feel to it. It's almost a ghost, and spooky in a different way to the ordinary angels. Unfortunately, the lines of prophecy from the ersatz-Lovecraftian madman book sound really, really hackneyed, and undermined the atmosphere somewhat.

The angels killing people seemed a bit odd. Another bit of plot that erodes the incredible elegance and purity of their original design. The fact that the angels didn't actually kill you, they let you 'live yourself to death,' was a magical touch. Now it's undermined. Also, there seemed to be no reason at all for them to kill three people, when they only needed one for the voice. Of course this may be expanded upon next week. On the same topic, the ability of the angels to possess people for speech really does stretch the original concept thin. I'm left wondering if this was added to make the angels feel more threatening, because ultimately, however creepy they are, what they do to you is arguably much preferable to just being shot at. (And I sort of have to wonder what would stop the Doctor simply going and picking up the timeshifted victims in the TARDIS - there's no casuality issue involved. I'll begrudgingly put it down to some timeline restriction beyond human grasp.)

We're told that the cave Angels are weak and depowered by losing their image, and this is why they haven't lynched the party already, but it's not thoroughly satisfying. The party doesn't really make any effort to keep their eyes in all directions, and the statues show no sign of taking advantage. If we're to believe they're so weak they can barely move at all, they stop being any kind of threat. If we're to believe they're a threat, it's hard to accept that they haven't had the opportunity to attack in all the time they've been surrounding the group. This was one of the larger issues for me, and I suspect one a lot of people will have picked up on.

Amy's gritty eye moment is great, and the most effective bit of imagery in an episode awash with creepy images and ideas. I do sometimes wonder if Moffat is overegging the pudding - coming up with all the spooky ideas he can and throwing them in. After a while a sort of fatigue sets in, and you find the new bites of spookiness feeling very old hat - exactly the wrong reaction. Case in point, Sacred Bob on the walkie talkie. This idea of speaking or listening to someone, only to find out that it's not a person on the other end has been rehashed by Moffat a hell of a lot by now. Come to that, even the silly nickname (Sacred/Scared/Angel Bob) thing is becoming pretty well worn now. I also had a problem with the earlier 'Come and see' aspect of the walkie-talkie stuff, which was completely non-credible. Nobody acts like that over the age of eight, and I didn't buy into it. Then we got the exact same scene all over again. On the other hand, I did think that it ultimately succeeded, on the strength of David Atkins voice, and because the idea of the Angel taking the voice but retaining his persona was pretty bizarre and did add some genuine interest.

The two-head/one-head statue issues is another example of Moffat falling back on tools we've seen time and time again. It's also pretty much immediately evident. I can't imagine most people didn't notice that the statues weren't two headed. It feels like a bit of a cheat, saying something that is blatantly wrong and expecting the audience to rationalise it ('Perhaps they don't all have two heads'), only to reveal it was wrong all along. This double bluff can work, and Moffat usually makes it do so, but here it felt somewhat cheap. I do really love Moffat's vision for the show's atmosphere, but I'm starting to worry that his actual box of tricks is a little limited, and also that he lacks knowledge of when to hold back. (And this is odd, because I felt that both his one-part stories for RTD showed an elegance and restraint. Mind you, Silence in the Library did seem rather bloated in comparison. In that case it worked because everything fed back into everything else. In this series though, there is a rather strong sense of elements added for their own sake.)

The stone hand section was much stronger, and the rapid double twist of 'Amy's hand is stone!' 'No it isn't!' was unexpected and kept me guessing. The solution was one you could see coming, but it didn't matter because this was, I think, one of the best scenes in the whole episode. Gillan is actually pretty good here (though she seems oddly calm - in fact, she never shows extremes of emotion), and Smith is excellent. Unfortunately the following comic relief scene in which Amy complains about being bitten is entirely miscalculated, and drops the tension like a stone. I'm wondering if this one is down to the director - If the scene had instead been shot with them bickering between breaths whilst running to catch up to River and the clerics, it would probably have been fine. After all, 'space teeth' is quite funny.

The climax is pretty thrilling, and also feels quite fresh for being unusual - we are actually seeing the Doctor's solution before the end of the episode. Even in the face of the climactic line being heavily trailed and the godawful Graham Norton banner advert, it manages to raise quite a few chills. The moment when the camera focusses in on Smith as he intones 'There's always a way out' is another nice little 'Freaky Alien Doctor' moment akin to the Doctor-Vision from episode one. I like these little hints at his otherworldly thinking process. One thing I didn't really understand: Why were the Angels trying to make him angry? Did they hope he'd slip up? Did they just want to give him a chance to make the 'Hello Angels' gag? Oh, and Angel Bob asking the Doctor what their mistake was felt like dialogue that had been rather heftily crowbarred in to fit.

A few production comments: The effects work looked good this week; better than it has. The materialisation of the clerics was a nice effect, and in general everything looked quite polished. I mentioned the sound design aiding the atmosphere in the videotape sequence, but I rather feel the opposite is true in the maze. The swush, swush they added over the top of the torch beams panning around was a stylistic mis-step and rather intrusive. I'll stick in a mention of lighting here, too. I'm sure lighting a cave is a lot of trouble, and that's probably the reason for it, but the lighting in this episode seemed rather poor. I judge it this way on the basis that it was noticeable, rather than fading into the scene. In particular, there is a very obvious fade out when they turn their torches off. Perhaps it is simply the amount of time lights are turned on and off throughout the story which gave more chance to notice slips. Not a big thing, anyway.

Ultimately, it's a good exciting episode, and the 'power of the image' concept IS intriguing. But I weigh the dissolution of the elegant Angel concept and the overly-familiar Moffat stylistics a fair bit against it. Also, a lot is going to depend on where the next episode takes things (And it does look they will be exciting places). I'll give it an 8/10, with all the usual provisions for evaluating a first part in isolation.

Postscript: A haylike needle of death in a haystack of statues. Hilarious.

All images property of the BBC.

Doctor Who - An Earthly Child - Review

It has to be said, Big Finish does try to make their subscriber specials special. Unfortunately, it's also true that none of the subscriber special stories are spectacular. So it is with An Earthly Child, which serves up a soup of entertaining chunks in an unfulfilling broth.

The specialness this time around comes courtesy of Susan's return, and Carole Ann Ford does better than I expected in reprising the role. She remains familiar whilst portraying an older Susan living a much different life. Unfortunately, she's somewhat poorly served by the script, which requires her to be rather naive and easily swayed.

The story doesn't reunite Susan with the Doctor until around the halfway mark, choosing instead to build expectation for the encounter with a slow introduction of the situation, and having the Doctor first encounter Alex, the great-grandson he never knew he had.
Unfortunately, these scenes aren't a highlight, because neither McGann is performing too well. Paul is oddly muted and subdued throughout, failing to sound like he's really excited or caring about meeting his family. Possibly this comes from McGann not actually knowing anything of the background to the story before recording.
Jake McGann, meanwhile, fails to impress at all. His inexperience is quite obviously, as he reads every line in a flat monotone. It's quite evident that he's reading from a script, and not reacting to a character; perhaps with rehearsal he might have been better. As it is, he remains inexpressive throughout, which is a shame, because Platt has tried to do some interesting stuff with the xenophobic character of Alex, putting a ninety degree twist on the expected nature of the Doctor's family reunion. A particular example would be the end of the play, when Alex runs out of the TARDIS, rejecting the Doctor and his family. It's the sort of thing which could have a good deal of emotional impact, but the Jake M's bored reading and Paul's detached response serve to deflate it, leaving Carole Ann Ford doing most of the work.

The same is true when the pair first meet again. Whilst I appreciate the choice of a subtle reunion scene - it sneaks up on you before you even know it, rather than arriving in a fanfare - the fact is the Doctor just doesn't seem that excited. The writing seems to fall down too - Susan doesn't ask the Doctor the questions you'd expect of old friends or family catching up after years apart, after a few brief lines about how the Doctor has changed (and these are quite nice, especially Susan's 'That's just throwing them away!' line), they get down to discussing the story with a focus which belies the exceptional circumstances.

Perhaps because there's no such expectations upon her or her character, or perhaps because she's just really good, it is in fact Leslie Ash who really steals the show. Playing two roles, she conjures up a very sympathetic and realistic teacher and a rather creepy alien. Her scene with the Doctor on the beach is quite sad.

The aforementioned rather creepy alien is one of the more intriguing aspects of the story. A 'conceptual' creature, she is supposedly an incarnation of hope. An intriguing premise for a creature come to offer salvation to a dying world. Of course, she isn't all that she seems, but even when the mask falls away, she doesn't become a characterless villain. She seems oddly conflicted, at once aware that she is trying to manipulate the humans whilst simultaneously believing she is offering them genuine charity. Once again, credit goes to Leslie Ash for realising this.
Like everything else in the play, though, the good stuff is balanced by its weaknesses. In this case, it feels like Platt had rather an excess of ideas. Rather than developing the idea of 'the concept of hope as alien', Platt throws it into the mix and jumps to something else - Hope speaks with a strange verbal tic akin to an internet survey, she flits between a flat and impassive tone and one rich in personality, she's not really hope incarnated at all, or she thinks she is and the Doctor doesn't, or- And so on. It's a mish mash of ideas, and whilst it can at times be rather interesting, it raises more questions than it answers and is ultimately unsatisfying.

In odd contrast to this, the actual story is very straightforward. This probably to its credit, given the tight running time (the story already feels like it needed an extra disc to flourish). Also in its favour, it is well chosen to compliment the character drama between Susan and the Doctor, which is of course the real hook. Unfortunately it's very dry and rather dull. The world is rebuilding, but the situation isn't shown in depth - no time - so we're only given enough information to follow the plot, and that means the rebuilding Earth is indistinguishable from all other post-cataclysm societies in SF. The university protest which introduces Alex and Marion is a notable exception, making economic use of a scene to flesh out the world as well as the two characters.
Much of the problem is the xenophobic hate group, Earth United. For the story to really work they needed to be as interesting and entertaining as Hope and the golreesi. Instead they're a fairly shallow rendition of a nationalist group, with no nuance or unexpected facets to their portrayal. On top of this, very little excitement comes of their plot, and most of the scenes revolve around Alex, and are therefore hindered by Jake McGann's performance. Earth United provides much of the story background to the character drama, and so its weakness leaves the plot feeling rather sparse.
Finally, there's the final confrontation, when events come to a head. It's just not satisfying or exciting. Earth United's scheming essentially amounts to nothing, and the Golreesi show of force is too brief and limited (the sound of jets flying overhead) to thrill. Similarly, there's nothing substantial in the Doctor's day-saving gambit, and there's also a fridge-logic moment when you realise that the call for help he originally came to answer is actually no closer to being answered.
I think a lot of these issues could have been solved with a second disc. In fact, it's testament to how interesting certain aspects of the set up are that I think a full length rendition of the play might have been something rather special, with polticking and relationship drama akin to the fantastic I, Davros series. But at one disc too much is curtailed or shallow, leaving only moments of strength against a less compelling background. Still, it was free, and for its moments I was glad to have it, so a 6/10.

One closing note: There were some really nice touches of sound design in here. It's sparse without sounding empty; music is only occaisional but fitting. Pretty much all the work associated with the Golreesi is great and has a very alien feel, the typewriters are evocative of a black-and-white, 1960s rendition of a post-war future, and the use of William Hartnell's themetune was a great little tidbit.

Doctor Who - Plague of the Daleks - Review

Stockbridge preserved in metaphorical formaldehyde on a burned world, zombie cricketers on the green, evil robot crows, a horror in the very rain, and the Doctor witnessing the end of his home-from-home.

There was an incredible story to be had here, but it didn't involve daleks.

That said, whilst I think things would have been better without the daleks, I'm not sure that it would cure everything. Ultimately I think Mark Morris just isn't an audio writer. I'd be willing to bet his novels are much stronger pieces of work; many of the flaws in the writing here seemed like they might come from someone who was at home in prose struggling to work as well in script. A lot of the time characters are describing the action, and in part one Nyssa is mostly relegated to asking the Doctor questions.
I also think there's an issue with pacing. I felt like very little had happened at the end of each of parts 1-3. In particular, part 2 seems mostly to involve Nyssa, Lysette, Alexis and Rinxo having an argument and watching the rain.

Plotwise, the story starts alright, throwing up mysteries which seem to consciously ape the Eternal Summer before swinging sideways into a different explanation. The first part feels Stockbridge-y and maintains the feel of a throughline to the trilogy. Once the rains start, however, the importance of the setting is rather lost, and the story no longer feels like it has any link to the past two in the way Summer felt linked to Castle. An attempt is made to recoup the unity of the three by ending the story on the destruction of Stockbridge, but it's dealt with too fleetingly, and it doesn't really succeed. I'm not sure this is entirely Morris' fault - all of the plays could have emphasises the theme a little more. Castle actually did this well, creating a sense that we were witnessing the origins of the traditions and folk of the village. Eternal Summer mostly succeeded by creating a very believable contemporary rendering of the village, but it could have brought out the threads from Castle a little more, and more could have been set up there to appear in Plague. We get a scene here in which a genealogist examines the graveyard that provides links back, but to really generate the sense of continuity the links should have ran throughout the whole story.

As to the self contained story, I felt that the zombified villagers weren't used properly. They're never really a threat or the crux of any action, just figures milling about outside whilst the characters watch from doorways. This, at least, is probably the daleks' fault, as their arrival at the midpoint of the story puts paid to the more interesting horror premise to give us a dalek runaround.
Much has been said about the overuse of the daleks in the past year of stories, and by now they really are very tired, actively detracting from the story. More than anything the problem here is that they do nothing specifically dalek. They are completely replaceable, and whilst that's never desirable, its particularly wearisome when we're seeing so much of them. If they must appear so frequently, at least make their appearance matter. (Patient Zero achieved this.)

After that the plot unfolds along predictable lines. The Doctor is mind controlled and it plays out exactly as you would expect it to, with nary an interesting angle to be found. A little bit of mileage is gained from the conflict of the human servitors, and this is probably the best element of the story, but its gone in a flash. Similarly, we see the ultimate end of Stockbridge, but it's only given a moment's thought. It's just not very exciting. None of it has any sort of tension or pace. The biggest thrill is the coming of the rains at the end of part one, but it's soon defused by an excessively long time spent cowering in the doorways.

As for the cast, it's a mixed bunch. They haven't got the best characters to work with - some are very plain, and the remainder are over the top. Sarah Sutton is doing well with some poor dialogue, but Davison seems a bit bored, in particular failing to sell his reaction to Stockbridge's end. Keith Barron plays a very standard somerset everyman, which, in fairness, is all the story asks of him. When it finally throws in a little extra conflict at the end, though, he doesn't really live up to it. Richard Cordery isn't bad as Rinxo, but he's essentially just comic relief and fodder, so he never has the chance to shine. Special mention goes to Lisa Tarbuck, who is rather good as Lysette. She prevents the pessimism of the character from turning her into an irritating misery and she's pretty good in her final-part torment.

There's not much to say about the rest of the production work. It's functional, but not notable. A nice piece of music in part four is reminiscent of the great sound work on the previous stories, but ultimately there's none of that vibrance here.

Ultimately, it's a bit of a washout. Needless daleks hurt it a lot, the dialogue is clunky, and it's just very dull. In its defense, it doesn't do anything really clankingly bad, so there are far worse stories. But there's plenty better, too. 5/10

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

Doctor Who - Castle of Fear - Review

Well, I haven't much to say on this one. It's hard to really review a comical story if the humour isn't to your taste, because it has a tendency to overshadow other elements, as is the case here.

The comical voices really detract, I think. Even with the explanations given, they could have been reined in a bit. They did take me out of the story a great deal. Meanwhile Sarah Sutton gave a good performance as Nyssa (playing deadpan rather than acting up to the humour). One of her better performances, though I did think Nyssa had been written with a little more bite than usual. Peter likewise played everything straight, which served him well. He did feel a little bit flat, though. In particular when he yells at the Rutans shortly after the 'very fond' bit quoted above, he didn't really sound convincingly angry to me.

There's quite a good story behind the comedy aspects, I think. The human nature mimicking that of the aliens is a nice touch, and as noted in the extras, I appreciated that even Nyssa isn't all she seems at times. I do like the particular alien on show here, and it did raise my appreciation a bit. (The scenes with the aliens aren't among the more comedic, which helps.)

The sound design is nice too, very rich, it visualises the action well. The sound work on the aliens is great, with the one small hitch that, as others have said, they sound a bit dalek at times. Perhaps the one area I felt things fall down was in setting locations. A bit too often everything just happened in a muddy field in my head.

So, overall I give this a 4/10. Not enjoying the humour it's not really going to be a resounding success with me. I did enjoy some of the other elements, though.

Doctor Who - Blue Forgotten Planet - Review

And so, the end. It's been, on the whole, a succesful season. It created a great deal of anticipation which would probably have been even stronger if I weren't listening after the fact. But I do think it peaked early and slowly weakened. Now I come to the final story, and it has got its flaws.

One of the great things about Patient Zero was the way that all the aspects of the plot had a bearing on each other, and I think this story really needed that coherency, but lacked it. The Blue Forgotten Planet Project strand had very little to do with Charley's departure, either plotwise or thematically. Similarly, Mila's story didn't really feed into the departure in the end. On top of that, some of the interesting aspects set up by the season just disappear. Mila, we are told, has spent so long with the Doctor she's become an ersatz-Charley, rather than the creepy stalker she was in Patient Zero. Far better it would have been to see the transformation, rather than just hear that it happened during off-screen adventures (and indeed, the change does not ring true as presented, her seeming absolution and acceptance at the end feels off as a result). Likewise, Charley's infection has been cleared up by the Viyrans, when more mileage could have been gained from that (why not have THAT be the virus the Viyrans are dealing with on Earth, for instance?).
A prime example of the disparate nature of the plot strands: the Doctor and Mila only run up against Charley and the Viyrans by sheer coincidence, rather than due to any of the various things that link them which could have provided a stronger tie.

There's also a disappointing tendency to set up all sorts of potentially interesting things and then make nothing of them. I already noted that Mila doesn't get much mileage, and there's various other examples in the plot. The humans are suffering from a condition where they regress to a mad savagery if they don't get the drugs they depend of the Viyrans for. But the specifics of the condition aren't really relevant - the degeneration into savages serves to provide a secondary threat for some action sequences, but otherwise doesn't drive the plot at all. It could have been anything really, a wasting disease, a disease that turned you into daleks (Oh, right), a disease that caused incredible pain, and it would have worked pretty much as well in the plot (except for the base siege action sequence, but that was largely ephemeral anyway). Slightly more is made of the dependency of the humans on the Viyrans, but even then it doesn't figure much. There's really rich ground for thematic exploration here; losing your mind is a horrible but morbidly fascinating concept, it could have been a major theme, but instead it's not really discussed. Likewise blind dependency on a higher power. Or the fact that the humans have lost all memory of the planet's past. Plenty of ripe ideas there. Ignoring the human situation, there's Charley and Mila - loads of questions about the nature of identity spring up, but the plot isn't concerned. Perhaps the one that bothered me the most was Charley's relationship to the Viyrans. She's been doing errands for them in between centures in cryofreeze, popped out to do their dirty work then returned to oblivion. And the Viyran's mission is not exactly palatable. Charley is complicit in five genocides. Why doesn't the story explore that at all? It's rushed past, as, similarly, is the Doctor's breaking the web of time at the end of the story. There's a hint that the Doctor is actually repairing the web from damage somehow related to Charley's time-twisting in the first place, but it's gone before you know it. There a big consequences here, with great dramatic potential, but the play does not acknowledge them.

It seems Nick Briggs didn't want to do a story that did 'issues' though, but more of an action romp. Fair play, that worked great guns in Patient Zero, and for the first half of BFP it does here, too. Unfortunately, the second half seems to require a bit too much technobabble and coincidence to dig itself out of it. (Most clonkingly, the fact that time travel just so happens to be the cure for the disease they've stumbled upon. I mean, really, couldn't it have been worked in any better at all?)

I'll quickly mention one last weakness, then I'll get on to the good stuff. The guest cast are pretty good for the most part, but the characters they're playing are not particularly interesting. They're distinct enough people - sometimes I've found supporting casts in stories like this blur together - but largely uncompelling. Part of the problem is that they're just bland. They could be anyone. This is a group of people who've lived every day with only a weak lifeline linking them to their sanity, and surrounded by exemplars of what they could so easily become. But none of this really seems to have shaped them, they're generic 'crisis survivor' types - the specifics of their situation don't come through in their actions and thoughts. They start out promisingly, though, and get some decent interplay early on which gives them a realism, but as the story progresses the disparity between their situation and their flat behaviour grows. In the second half they're mostly relegated to giving one sentence reactions to each plot point as it passes. Even a fairly significant death doesn't register much.

Still, as I said, this is mostly down to writing and direction, not performance. The acting in the play is pretty tight; nobody is letting the side down, and there are a fair few strong moments from multiple characters. What it really lacks, though, is interplay between Colin and India. As they're seperated for much of the story we don't really get to see them sparking off each other, and it feels missing. Their parting is imminent, so it feels like they should be playing off each other, but they're not, and the absence is noticeable. Colin and India are both on good form, but there is a feeling when, say, the Doctor is talking to Ellen and Ed that, no matter how good Colin is being, he'd be even better if it was a scene with Charley.

That said, I felt India was very good here. She plays Charley more muted than we are used to, somewhat less ebullient due to her new existence as a worker for the Viyrans. She comes off as knowing, a bit jaded, but still Charley - not cynical and depressed. And she contrasts it well against Mila, who's still bouncy and happy as ever. The only time it goes out the window is when the pair meet, and again this might be more down to the writing and direction. Unfortunately all the potential of the Charley-Mila scenes is reduced to the tedious 'No, *I'm* the real one' type bickering that's become very much the cliché in such stories.

A nod should also be made to Michael Maloney. The Viyrans are still misappropriating poor Fratalin's voice, so Maloney is back to play them, and he's very good. He makes them sound almost melancholic - they don't want to make any enemies, but they really do need to blow up this planet, and they're faintly sad about it.

Backing up the performances is some great sound design. It's a very rich soundscape that prevents the story ever becoming stagey. The music is superb, although sometimes it seems to swell up during moments when the drama is not similarly coming to a head. The voice modulation on the Viyrans adds to Maloney's already fantastic performance and complements it perfectly.

Ah, the Viyrans! The other real success of the story. They've lost a slight layer of mystery and creepiness in coming to the forefront, but in exchange they've gained the tinge of melancholy mentioned above. Their motivations, now we have a decent grasp of them, are very much alien and interesting to think about. This is one area of the play where the concepts are finally given some examination. They've maintained their intimidating qualities well. Perhaps because they don't gloat or show it off, it's very easy to believe the Viyrans really do possess some pretty phenomenal power. You can totally buy that they would, and do, scan every face of a planets population to locate a disease. Wisely, Briggs has still kept them a step removed from things though - they never have a feel of immediacy - so they still have plenty of mystique to trade on in a potential (and hopefully likely) return.

Finally, the send off itself. First of all: Charley tells the Doctor the truth, at last, and... We get NO reaction at all? The Doctor says nothing as she explains, and then the scene is interrupted by Ed and Ellen. This felt like a resoundingly missed moment. As for the actual departure, I don't know quite what I think of it. I suspect I'll need a relisten to really decide. I do think the understated ending was the way to go, though. It would have been easy to do something really big, but that has all the more chance to fall flat. When I saw the chapter title R101 I wondered if she was ultimately going to die on the airship after all! That would have been quite the twist, but it, or a similar grand exit, could easily have come off feeling overblown. I also like the way it's kept possible that it's actually Mila that has survived, which casts things in a much darker slant. I was hoping that the solution to the tangled timelines would be something clever than a memroy wipe, though, because that was always the obvious and rather predictable way out. My other issue is with the final words between them - I feel they should have been something more personal. As it was, they're something about Mila, who has only just recently become part of the arc, and I would have liked last words which felt like they addressed all of the pair's history. I don't know WHAT I think of the open endedness... It is left very loose.

Ultimately it's a story that feels like too many missed opportunities. It rides on a very strong and exciting build-up, and so it really needs to tie the various strands together satisfactorily, but it doesn't. Instead it adds new and unnecesary aspects which then pull the story apart and leave it feeling under explored. But it's well performed, it sounds great, the Viyrans are undeniably brilliant, and the first two parts are pretty exciting, so it's not a total wash. Provisionally I'd give it around a high 6 or low 7, but I haven't really made my mind up yet.

Doctor Who - Paper Cuts - Review

This is an enjoyable story, but a lightweight one. The sort of thing I can give a lazy replay to when going to bed, quite happily, but not one that's overly gripping or challenging. As has been noted, in really suffers for its placement; it fails to capitalise at all on the arc connecting the previous and the succeeding story. This seems like a huge mistake. Whilst I'm getting that BF wanted to make a distinct, standalone story to prevent the season feeling like one huge plot, they could have developed one with greater thematic links to what was going on. As it is we get a few interesting moments between Mila and Not-Gomori and little else. In addition, the get-out from the previous cliffhanger is fairly underwhelming, and the time explosion seems to have no greater significance beyond spreading the viruses as we already knew.

Still, let's take it on its own terms. First things first: It is a play of beautiful imagery. Paper warriors, walls that echo memories, tombs in space, chess games. There is an almost poetic quality to the setting here. The visuals in my head were as rich as any I've had with a Big Finish play. Better known for clever plotting than sensual flourishes, this was an unexpected pleasure coming from Platt.

On the other hand, the story isn't quite as thoughtful and smart as Platt is known for. It's a fairly ordinary court intrigue story for the most part, with a few unexpected turns mostly in the final part. I felt that the revelations towards the end were a little underexplained, not fully set up or resolved. It didn't really detract from the story, but there was a slight non-sequitur feel. There was a hint of a 'chess game' structure in the final part, with the Sazou figures freezing when it wasn't there turn and such. This could have been developed further. I've always been a sucker for the battle of wits in stories, and would have enjoyed it more if the Sazou game had been ongoing from part three onwards as a backdrop to events. On the whole it's an amiable, unassuming tale. Enjoyable without being standout.

As others have noted, there is a bit of overacting in the performances, most notably that of Sara Crowe, who is probably the weakest link in the story. The other performances are alright, though there is a distinct lack of subtlety. The Captain, played by John Banks, is perhaps the only one exempt from this, and he makes a fairly simple character feel quite real - the Captain is the best of the Draconian lot. The Prince is a bit shouty and loud most of the time, and also has an odd habit of beginning his scenes calmly, even if he was raging last we saw him. India Fisher is a bit underwhelming here. She puts in an OK showing, but doesn't bring anything of anything much to the script than what's already there, and does nothing with the interesting Mila-Charley set up. (Admittedly, based on the interviews, it seems like Briggs might have specifically told her to act exactly like Charley, which would probably left her feeling a bit stifled, one would imagine.) As with Patient Zero, Colin puts in a good showing, but doesn't hit his A game. He does have a few more sparkling lines than the previous tale, though.

Lastly, a good word for the sound design. Whilst it's very spartan, it is quite effectively so. The rustling of paper is the key sound effect of the play, and everything else is neccesarily muted to suit it. It works well, and the smattering of musical accompaniment is quite pleasant too.

My overall impression is that things might have worked better as a three part story. As it is the pace is very slow - an intentional choice, rather than a poorly structured story, but things may have felt tighter in three parts. This would have also opened up a one-part story in order to explore Mila-Charley a little more, perhaps having Gomori accepting his ride home to Mila's chagrin, setting up a little three-hander in which Mila shows a bit more of herself when she's alone with Gomori and not happy.

As such fancies might indicate, I am a little disappointed with what was actually delivered, but as noted, it isn't so much an inherent problem with the story that prompts such, but rather its unfortunate positioning. Taken alone it's a lighthearted bit of fluff, enjoyable and very much listenable, but largely unremarkable save for some striking visual imagery. 6/10

Doctor Who - Patient Zero - Review

So, the Doctor is finally confronting Charley about her secrets. There's no way out now! Unless, of course, she suddenly collapses from a mysterious virus. Thus begins the end for Charlotte Pollard, as the Doctor heads to the mysterious Amethyst Station to try and find a cure...

And it's really rather exciting! It definitely has a bit of a 'series finale' grandeur feel to it. It's not a wholly self-contained story, either, but part one of a mini season that looks as if it will all be one long story, in essence. Everything's scaled up, the stakes feel really high. There's a lot of edge of your seat moments.

The appearance of the daleks isn't one of them. Why, oh why, must Big Finish put them on the front cover of every release they're in? It utterly undermines the work the writer puts into their reveal if BF are going to broadcast them in advance. OK, so they sell discs. But the stories WITHOUT daleks sell well enough that surely you could avoid slapping one on the cover just for once?
The other problem with the daleks is simply that... Well... They're daleks. Again. It's only two stories since the last lot. And that one wasn't very good. Big Finish are seriously grindind them into the ground... And there's more next season, too. Dalek fatigue is setting in.
Partially because of that, it was surprising just how good the daleks are here. They're well integrated into the plot, and their story ties into Charley's departure arc. Plus they're not the lacklustre cut-out daleks that populated Enemy the other month. These are real daleks. They're ruthless, terrifying characters. A scene in which the dalek commander blackmails the Doctor is devastatingly effective.
As well as this, we have actual characters among the daleks now. The dalek commander is the epitomal dalek. Utterly relentless, single minded and destructive. The Time Controller on the other hand reinforces the idea that the daleks are actually phenomenally intelligent creatures. A calm, intellectual dalek, he monitors the web of time to maximise the daleks' devastating potential across the continuum. The story is very succesful in portraying the Time Controller as conscientious, intelligent, unwilling to kill the Doctor whilst blind to the consequences, without making him any less of a dalek. He is just as threatening, just as malevolent, but in a more sinister, more thoughtful way that contrasts the Commander.

The other hook is those mysterious Viyrans. We've known about them for a while now, and yet we really don't know anything about them at all. And we still don't! This isn't really a Viyran story, their part is fairly small and late in the game (although their presence is felt throughout). One gets the feeling that Blue Forgotten Planet will be their story. This is just a reminder, to reinforce their existence, hanging over proceedings. To remind us that something is up, and they will be along to fix it one day. And it won't be pleasant.
They're not quite so creepy here as they were in Mission of the Viyrans, but then that story was a horror, whereas this is more action orientated. They're still pretty unusual though, and they definitely come off as being intimidating foes. Quite the enigma, and still rather unsettling - The notion of having them speak only with other characters' voices is a coup. I'll be looking forward to hearing more of them.

Moving down the scale of alien-ness we have Fratalin. A memorable and well realised character from BF, he's made up of 800-odd seperate little selves which can fuse into larger ones. All of them share his voice and personality, but they're not a hive mind, so they can talk amongst themselves.
Fratalin himself(s) is on the surface quite a nice fellow. He's very calm, pleasant in demeanour, and very patient with people. He's also utterly, unshakably dedicated to his cause, which leads him to put the Doctor in some rather unpleasant situations.
Maloney plays him well, there's a real sense of rock-and-a-hard place when he's forced to do some difficult things in service to his conviction. He seems genuinely saddened and apologetic when he is forced to place Charley's wellbeing below the sanctity of his duty. He also inflects the generally calm and reserved character with a strong sense of desperation during the growing tension of part two, as the Doctor desperately tries to force him to abandon his calling. His reaction to losing some of his 'familiars' similarly does well at fleshing out another emotional side of him. It's not a masterpiece performance of great range, by any means, but a solid showing that backs up a good character concept.

The other non-regular character is Mila, and she's an odd one. As a character there's a lot of potential here: She's deranged by two very different ordeals. Sociopathic yet seemingly quite innocent. Possessed of quite phenomenal power to exact vengeance, but apparently not particularly vengeful. And later on, she begins to slide into a different personality altogether.
Jess Robinson is far from bad in the role, but I felt there was potential for more. There could have been some real depth to the character, the suggestion of counterpoint emotions underlying her surface facade. Instead we get what I am sort of inclined to call the 'easy' option. The chipper-psychopath angle isn't new, and its effectiveness is not guaranteed. Here it works alright - moreso early on, when we are less certain who Mila is - but it's not spectacular. Ultimately, Robinson overplays the cheerfulness a little too much for my taste. I thought there was some potential there to have a little bit of acid underneath the sweetness, and a coldness behind the fake warmth.

As to the regulars, they're pretty good. Have Colin and India ever been anything other than pretty good together? No, I don't think so. That said, they're not at their absolute top showing. Colin is a bit more shouty and blunt than usual, and he doesn't get any really resoundingly memorable moments. The first-part cliffhanger is great, but I thought it could have been even better if Colin had been at the very top of his game.

India's a bit of a mixed bag here. Her anxiety regarding her secret seems to have tapered off somewhat since Raincloud Man. Given that we have reached crunch time, she seems to have become a little more relaxed since the last outing, which isn't exactly fitting. She's also not so good at portraying someone suffering terribly from an illness. 'I feel terrible' she says, but she doesn't sound like she does. She groans and mumbles a bit, but it's not the voice of someone who feels like death warmed up. She just sounds like she has a headache, not some monstrous space lurgy.
She's better later, though. Given reign to act a sort of alternate take on Charley she really takes off, much as she did in the Doomwood Curse. She's quite convincing as being New-Charley rather than normal old Charley. On the other hand, when she has to flick back to being normal old Charley, she seems lacking once again. The situation she's in is pretty dire, but there's no great urgency in her performance. Certainly she has sounded more worried in other stories.

As for the plot itself, it's certainly not high minded, conceptual stuff. It's big bangs and daleks and explosions in corridors. It is very fun, though. Probably the best thing Briggs has done since Creatures of Beauty (which was high concept). Everything ties up quite nicely, which is maybe the main thing. With Charley's departure, her secret revealing, daleks and viyrans in the pot it could be quite a mess. Thankfully all the elements are very much related to one another, so there's a great feeling of coherency. And for a story which is actually mostly shouting in corridors, as someone else described it, it feels quite pacy and action packed. It certainly kicks off in the latter half, and the Viyran-Dalek battles are quite exciting.

The sound design is effective, making it easy to picture what's going on without ever throwing up the confusing wall of sound that occaisionally plagues the more action packed stories. It is perhaps a little sparse, though. Sometimes that's inkeeping - it works to set the scene of this enormous, sparse, desolate clinical facility - but it could have maybe used a bit more of an interesting soundscape. Thinking back now I can't recall anything of the incidental music work. Now, I'd rather have something unobtrusive than something jarring, of course, but the really good audios usually have a few strong, memorable cues that reinforce the action.

So, that's Patient Zero. It's a very entertaining beginning to a compelling arc, that leaves me excited to hear what's next, and indeed a little intrepid. Whilst I never found myself hugely invested in her with the Eighth Doctor, she's really grown on me with the Sixth, and her departure will probably pull a few strings.
It's also a refreshingly good dalek romp, thankfully after the so-recent Enemy, and with Plague just around the corner. An 8/10. Onwards to Paper Cuts.

Doctor Who - S05E02, The Beast Below - Thoughts

Not quite as out and out fun as last week's, but then, it wasn't really a 'fun' episode.

Pacing seemed off, as if it had been heavily editted, especially at the start. Perhaps the episode originally overran quite a bit?

Ending belaboured its point rather too excessively, and there was a bit of anticlimax after Amy forced the queen to press the button.

Mostly another fine episode, though, if not super-memorable.

Liz Ten (I am amazed this wasn't a pun) wasn't the *greatest* performance we've ever had, and Moffat runs the risk of making all his female characters these spunky amazonwarrior types.

Not sold on Gillan yet. She seemed to be overdoing it and pantomiming quite a bit. Actually moreso than last episode.

Smith's performance is a really odd kettle of fish. He varies between genuine and intentional self-parody, occaisionally lapsing into this sort of massively emphasised enunciation, like the language is unfamiliar to him. He needs to watch this - push it too far and the performance will seem like Smith is contriving it. BUT, if he's careful with it, I think it works well. It's like the Doctor's words feel sort of unfamiliar to him even as he says them, and he's conscious that there's a gap between his language and his self. Plus it's counterpointed by quieter, more 'normal' moments. I've noticed that in between the 'weird' dialogue, Smith's Doctor actually has the most urbane. He uses colloquialisms and talks like any normal guy, as if he's not the Doctor at all. It's the exact opposite of the overstated weirdy performance. I think in this episode he sided a bit too much on the weirdly and could have done with a bit more of the super-normal talk. (I like this weird contradiction. It is odd because it is banal.)

Based on last week's episode, and on those threads I picked from this weeks, it's still too early days to judge this performance, because none of that stuff is heavily dramatic/emotional. Seeing how he adapts to performance to the extremes will ultimately decide how good he is. (It wasn't until we saw Tennant try to handle moments of real anger that it became evident there was a big weakness.)

But then there was (quite unexpectedly) the moment in the dungeon. The Doctor, coldly telling Amy she doesn't get to make choices with him, telling her she's going home, then losing his cool and yelling that nobody human has anything to say to him. And then the follow on, in which he says he'll have to get a new name (this moment, this line, really resounded with me - divesting himself of his name, AGAIN, he is truly disgusted with himself). For me this was a moment of more powerful pain and anger than Tennant ever managed. Now I am really hopeful for Smith's Doctor, and it won't take much more for me to be sold.

The story as a whole was patchy, with odd pacing, but quite good. Maybe a 7/10 or just short thereof. Smith's performance rates higher.

A couple of sidenotes: The design work on this series seems to have been stepped up a notch even as the CGI has stepped down. Also, I like the return to the early Hartnell style of having each story end by beginning the next.

Further thoughts: The Smilers pretty much extraneous. Just there to add a creepy visual monster to proceedings. Never really serve a purpose or gain any explanation. Probably would have worked *better* without the half-smilers. Prior to that they are just creepy-humourous alternative to the hackneyed CCTV police state imagery, with the little trick up their sleeve that they're also the enforcement. Adding the half-smiler line suddenly makes more of them than their presentation can live up to.

Also, why the 'You look Time Lord' retread? This was jarringly unneccesary. Smith seemed to have trouble making it fit in, too.

Appreciated the tying into the Ark in Space timeline.

Did I imagine it, or did they boost the bass in the themetune this week?

The Company of Friends - Review

Oh. Dear. To say I didn't have high hopes for this anyway, it managed to disappoint me impressively. A collection of one part stories featuring companions of the Eighth Doctor from various other spin-off ranges. Having not read the books or comics, I had no idea who Izzy or Fitz were, and whilst I'd previously heard some of Benny on audio, my impression of her was less than favourable. I didn't really know what to expect, but I didn't anticipate anything quite this poor.

Benny's Story - I can't stand Bernice Summerfield. The world-weary 'I have an ex-husband, I drink a lot, I flirt with all men, I have a sarcastic answer for everything' characterisation just makes me wince. I don't find the humour in her stories funny. Not remotely. That said, I know she's massively popular, so I can't really fault BF for including her. I remain baffled at her fandom, though.

Aside from Benny, the story isn't *too* bad, at first. Benny being hired to find a TARDIS key is an intriguing hook, as are Venhella's motivations. Nothing really develops though, and the story becomes more of a jumbled mess as it goes on. 4/10

Fitz's story - Not so bad. Matt diAngelo didn't really get enough time to show much of his interpretation of Fitz, but he was ok and I got the impression he might be quite good in a longer story. The plot is basically one joke stretched out, but the gag is a funny one - The Doctor is the new figurehead of a company's infomercials, but they're using his likeness illlegally. Adding a little more interest to what could have been pure comedy, there's a suggestion the company might be up to nefarious deeds. It's a decent set up, but then the plot seems to run out of material, and fills the gaps with some less well-judged humour. The cleaner, in particular, is poor. Mostly a harmless piece of fluff, with a good start if a rather empty finish. 5/10

Izzy's Story - This is the real dealbreaker for me. This is the story that made me regret a purchase for the first time pretty much ever. The plot, such as it is, is the most cliche, worn out, stereotypical parody of comic book fandom you can imagine. The kid's show 'Arthur' did this story some time in the late 90s (and they did it better). In a couple of places it even becomes, if not offensive, then mildly sigh-inducing. The 'geek' character with thick glasses and bad skin is an image most people have moved on from in the last decade (the fact it's not being played straight doesn't make it any less groan-worthy), and, worse, Izzy asserts that the Courtmaster can't be female because s/he has a female lover - and the Doctor explains that Eugenia is a man's name on the writer's planet, seemingly accepting completely the truth of Izzy's assertion. I thought this was going to be a jab at Izzy's childish naivety, but no, apparently girls can't have relationships with other girls. I mean, I'm not going to be writing to the Daily Mail about this any time soon, but it did have me arching my brow for a moment.
Unfortunately, the story isn't helped by Jemima Rooper's performance. Perhaps simply playing to script, she plays Izzy as a 7 year old. In fact, not even that. She plays a character who is loud, excitable and childish in a way NO real person ever has been. Once more, I'm baffled by the love for this character and this performance. I can see what aspects about Benny people go for, even as they put me off. I can't imagine what people see in Izzy here. On the other hand, I could believe that both the character and the actress are being dragged down by the other elements of the production, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt as regards their merits in other work.
For my money, the joint worst story in the audio range, along with 100 Days of the Doctor. 2/10

Mary's Story - The only really redeeming tale on the disc. The idea that the Eighth Doctor travelled with Mary Shelley is quite intriguing; they seem like they'd make quite a pair. Indeed, the Eighth Doctor seems like he'd spend a lot of time hanging around with people from this era generally. The story finally throws off the air of silliness that pervaded the rest of the collection, and has quite a harsh, stressful atmosphere. This works well. In general it's quite a nice character piece, and does a lot with a few allusions dressed on a single point in a much larger plot. There's a couple of weaknesses, but they're not too bad. The lightning ressurection is pretty macguffiny, but with these shorter stories there's not much scope for anything more. Also, the historical characters end up rather undermined (excepting Mary herself). There's so many of them, each only gets a couple of lines, which, coupled with the slightly preposterous actions they take, leaves them seeming a bit hard to credit, which is a shame. Still, quite an enjoyable little tale. 7/10

Unfortunately, it's not enough to save the collection overall. The whole set I'd rate at about a 4/10. The worst of the anthologies.

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

The Doomwood Curse - Review

For those who are reading before buying this, I'll note there are some mild spoilers, and you may be able to piece together the revelations early if you read this, but it's not going to ruin anything.

This is the first audio story I decided to review. Not because it's a standout of the range, but still, it's interesting and quirky enough to merit attention. By no means a high-concept, mindbending story, but a bit unusual.

The story is a psuedo-historical featuring Dick Turpin, who hadn't previously recieved Who treatment, but the quirk is that it's also a 'psuedo-fictional'. That is to say, the Doctor and Charley don't just encounter the historical Turpin, but the fictional Turpin. The plot involves fiction blurring into reality, you see, and Jac Rayner (the ever reliable) had the smart idea of centering it on character who is both historical and fictional (as an acknowledgement of this, there's a nod to Robin Hood, who might equally have worked, but Turpin is a more interesting choice).

The story is fairly distinctly split down the middle - the first half is a bit of a murder mystery with peculiar goings on. The murders and the peculiarities are solved at the end of part two, however, leading into more of an action romp and a playing with the established concepts in the third and fourth parts.

The first disc (parts one and two) is suitably mystifying. It is a bit disappointing that we have the reveal of what's going on by the end of part two; I was enjoying being baffled. India Fisher really gets to stretch her muscles and enjoy herself in this one, and I enjoyed Geraldine Newman as the quasi-villainous aunt. (She seems to be channeling the old woman from Stones of Venice.)

The second disc I felt wasn't quite as good as the first. With both the murder mystery aspect and the weird phenomena aspect solved, some of the hook was gone. Nonetheless, I rather enjoyed the chase to York - it was quite atmospheric. I felt the climax was a bit rushed and not so strong, although the image of the particles making Turpin grow into a giant in the streets of York was delightfully weirdy B-movie. The Doctor and Eleanor dropping into the fiction in order to catch Turpin was a highlight. It had interesting ramifications and it was a logical progression of the plot. One other thing I felt didn't work too well was the explanation for the particles - they're explained as being a biological phenomena that alters your perceptions, but this isn't inkeeping with their reality warping properties. Of course it's all technobabble really, but I felt this particular explanation wasn't satisfying for the effects we were seeing. I also wasn't keen on the Grel, who are far too comical and pantomime for my tastes. The race, and the concepts, could (and have) been explored and developed further - but not every story needs to be high minded speculative fiction

Overall, enjoyable, quirky, and rather satisfying. 7/10