Tag: peter-davison

Doctor Who Audio Review: Time Lords And Vampires Still Don’t Mix

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Goth Opera is the latest Doctor Who audio drama adapted from a pretty good novel by Big Finish Productions. Lizbeth Myles is the scriptwriter who adapted this episode from the highly regarded novel written by Paul Cornell. David O’Mahoney serves as director as Peter Davison, Janet Davison, and Sarah Sutton reprise their usual roles as the Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, and Nyssa, respectively. Natalie Gumede, Micah Balfour, Ewan Goddard, and John Schwab are included in the guest cast.

The Doctor is indulging in a game of cricket while another Gallifreyan named Ruath is arranging for the vampires on Earth to encounter their messiah named Yarven. Ruath also has a bone to pick with the Doctor, and Yarven is well aware of the Doctor’s encounters with his species as well. Nyssa is attacked and bitten by a vampire, prompting the Doctor and Tegan to frantically save her from a full transformation. The Doctor finds himself the target of another vendetta for events that reach back to his academy days. Ruath also wants to create a hybrid comprised of Time Lord and Vampire DNA, and the Doctor will have quite a lot to say about that.

The plot is actually kind of interesting because Ruath’s motivations and her resentment of the Doctor’s decision to leave Gallifrey are a bit complicated. The nature of their past relationship is left a little murky, which I liked. The performances from the main cast members are as on par as a long-time listener of this series would expect. Davison still doesn’t sound like he did forty years ago, but it’s still great to listen to him. There is quite a bit of exasperated banter between him and Janet Fielding’s Tegan Jovanka that has yet to get old. Sutton has quite a sizeable part in the story and handles it more than capably.

The story was kind of interesting, but the original novel is a little overrated in my estimation. It took me a bit to warm up to Balfour’s performance as Yarven, but I got there. Schwab plays a Southern evangelist, and his accent is somewhat distracting because of the exaggeration of it.

I am curious of there is a plan for Big Finish to adapt the sequel novel Blood Harvest which would feature Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor. I think that would be a good, if somewhat predictable, decision for the company to make. I would listen to that one too.

I don’t usually comment on the music score on these things, but this release did have a rather distinctive composition which I rather enjoyed throughout the adventure.

The episode is an enjoyable addition to the range but necessarily a standout.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Detective Orion Hood Is On The Case

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Two pretty good stories make up the latest set of Fifth Doctor audio dramas just released by Big Finish Productions. Peter Davison is reunited with his original TARDIS crew portrayed by Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse in a pair of audio dramas written by Tim Foley and Lizzie Hopley. Ken Bentley is in the director’s chair yet again.

The great Agatha Christie is channeled in Tim Foley’s The Merfolk Murders which kicks off this set. The guest cast includes Tom Alexander, Pearl Appleby, and Josie Lawrence. The TARDIS arrives in 1940 Scotland at the dawn of the Second World War. They encounter a little group known as the Merfolk Society, who meet to discuss murder mysteries. They are gathered to discuss The Casebook of Orion Hood, whose protagonist is quite familiar to the Doctor and his friends. It seems that the Doctor spent some time as an amateur detective in his previous incarnation, and those adventures were chronicled by one Sarah Jane Smith, who was using a pseudonym at the time. Anyway, a murder has occurred, and the Doctor has to slip back into the role of Orion Hood.to get to the bottom of the disturbing crime.

This was a pretty fun and interesting story. The red herrings were pretty effective. Apparently, this is a set-up for a future Big Finish project which is likely to star the great Tom Baker. I am a great fan of murder mysteries of this sort, so Doctor Who dipping into this genre is a bit of an extra treat. The main cast continue to display their usual chemistry. I do struggle with ignoring how much Peter Davison’s voice has changed over the years. He was in his early thirties when he first played the Doctor on television. Although he does not really sound bad in these new stories, his voice seems to have changed the most compared to the other Doctors participating in these recordings. His acting is still on par, and I still enjoy dipping into the range of stories regardless. This is still a pretty good addition to the Fifth Doctor catalogue of Big Finish stories.

Dream Team is written by Lizzie Hopley and brings back creatures first introduced in the new series known as the Dream Crabs. The Crabs latch on their victims’ face and puts them into a deep sleep, feeding on their brains as they dream. They’re actually rather effectively chilling. The Doctor and his friends arrive in a place that specializes in corporate bonding and find themselves experiencing some very vivid nightmares. There is no guest cast in this story, and it’s a two-parter. Hopley manages to pack in a lot in this relatively short episode which focuses solely on the main cast. It’s another one of the stronger episodes that Big Finish has been putting out recently.

I will also mention that there is a range included in some of the recent downloaded releases known as Interludes. This release included one of these episodes entitled Meanwhile, Turlough by Jonathan Blum and features the talented Dan Starkey presenting this audio short story. While the Doctor and Tegan Jovanka deal with a crisis on a planet where the TARDIS has recently arrived, Turlough has his own crisis going in that his escape from his exile on Earth has been noticed, and he has to contend with a monitor from his own planet who has recognized him. Starkey is pretty good as a narrator and actor, but his efforts to emulate the Fifth Doctor is not that good. He actually is closer to mimicking Mark Strickson, who plays Turlough in the series. It’s an interesting story, but I am easily intrigued by Turlough. He was definitely one of the Doctor’s more enigmatic and intriguing companions. Blum has a long history of writing Doctor Who stories, and I was reminded why he was one my favorite contributors.

The whole set is quite good. The main cast once again prevails in making any plot holes much less meaningful. Davison is getting older, and one can hear it, however he is still welcome to keep me entertained as I listen to his new recordings with Big Finish. I think the murder mystery at the top of the release is going to be my preference, but the whole collection is worth the time.