Tag: science-fiction

Doctor Who Audio Review: Someone Still Has To Fight The Monsters

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Doctor Who: The War Doctor Begins: He Who Fights with Monsters continues the saga of the War Doctor, originally portrayed by John Hurt, and leads to a fascinating confrontation with a mysterious adversary known as the Barber-Surgeon. The set has three parts and was written by Robert Valentine and directed by Louise Jameson.

Since Hurt has been deceased for a little while now, Jonathon Carley has taken on the role which has been known in Doctor Who fandom as the War Doctor. This was a once unknown incarnation of the Doctor who had rejected his name since he had to fight in the Time War and use methods that his other selves would abhor. Carley does an increasingly amazing impression of John Hurt’s distinctive voice and puts forth a powerful performance.

The first part is entitled The Mission where the Time War Council enlists the War Doctor to hunt down and assassinate another Gallifreyan renegade known as the Barber-Surgeon. The Barber-Surgeon has been a thorn in the side of both the Time Lords and the Daleks. The War Doctor doesn’t like the nature of this mission, but this incarnation is the one most capable to complete it

The Abyss has the War Doctor on the Barber-Surgeon’s trail through the devastation of the Time War and his own past. The Daleks have also sent a Dalek Hunter-Killer played by Jason Merrells. The War Doctor and the Daleks have another confrontation in which the maniacal robotic conquerors may finally exterminate their most persistent enemy.

Finally, the War Doctor has to escape the Daleks and confront The Horror. Nicholas Le Prevost plays the rogue element in the Time War known as the Barber-Surgeon. He and Carley play beautifully off each other when the Doctor and the Barber-Surgeon finally meet.

Not that much known is known about the War Doctor other than he was the one who ended the Tine War by obliterating both sides. He was rejected by his subsequent incarnations following that event.

This set reveals how the War Doctor may have been influenced into that horrific, if necessary, decision.

It took me a bit to warm up to the first two episodes, but Carley’s performance kept me engaged, and the finale to this set was worth it.

This is probably one of the best sets in this range. Carley may be able to sound a lot like John Hurt, but he also demonstrates excellent instincts as an actor. He mastered how this version of the Doctor carries such determination and weariness in his voice.

The sound effects are excellently executed. There are times when the action sequences seem a little jumbled, and it was hard to picture what was happening in the imagination. Still, the performances of Carley and the guest cast more than make up for it. Louise Jameson even reprises her role of Leela, which was not unexpected but still pretty fun.

Anyway, I think I have resolved any misgivings I had about the creation of the War Doctor. This set is just great.

Doctor Who Audio Review: A Different Kind Of A Trial For A Time Lord

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Trials of a Time Lord is a recent Doctor Who audio drama released by Big Finish Productions and is another effort to celebrate forty years of the Sixth Doctor, portrayed by Colin Baker. It is a six-part saga with writing credits shared by three writers. Bonnie Langford and Nicola Bryant, who play Mel and Peri, respectively, join the Doctor against his battle against a plethora of old adversaries.

The writers, who ended up splitting up the story with two episodes each, are Katharine Armitage, Stewart Pringle, and Rochana Patel, and I have little objection to this slate. Jonathan S Powell directs this saga. The story does hold up pretty well in spite of a premise that sounds on its face, to be somewhat chaotic.

David Banks returns to voice the Cyber-Leader alongside Nicholas Briggs as the rest of the Cybermen. Terry Molloy reprises his role of Davros, the twisted creator of the Daleks. John Culshaw is also a part of the cast and does a passable impression of the late Anthony Ainley as his iteration of the renegade Time Lords known as the Master. Other cast members include Aruhan Galieva, Holly Jackson Waters, Samuel Jones, Rufus Jones, and George Naylor.

The Doctor and Mel arrive in a prison camp known as Cyberia in response to a distress signal and find themselves about to embark on a televised series of challenges which reveals all manners of menaces and allies.

Some themes are revisited such as the idea that the Doctor is being televised as he faces all sorts of threats and obstacles. This was already explored in the television story Vengeance on Varos, however I don’t mind the repetition here. There is enough of a creative effort to have this one come off as a bit more special.

Fans finally have Mel and Peri meet and interact, which was kind of cool to hear. Peri returns after living a life as a warrior king alongside King Yrcanos, who fans met in the original serial, The Trial of a Time Lord. Peri comes with some seasoning as a mother and a fighter. Normally, I would find such a character transformation somewhat implausible, but Bryant sells the performance well enough.

Jon Culshaw filling in for the late Anthony Ainley was kind of a surprise and may count as a spoiler, which I normally try to avoid. He does well enough, but he may need to practice that impression a bit more. It was still fun to imagine that version of the Master cropping up again, and Culshaw doesn’t really miss the mark entirely. It just wasn’t a bullseye impersonation. I will say this about Culshaw himself. I really enjoy his insights and comments during the cast interviews. He knows Doctor Who lore, probably better than most of the actors who portrayed the Doctor. He has such an infectious enthusiasm for the show and just seems like a joy to the rest of the Big Finish cast and crew.

Colin Baker still sounds energetic and credible in his role. The characterization of the Sixth Doctor has been improved greatly under the care of Big Finish writers over the past couple of decades. It was a sweet moment when he realizes that his friend, Peri, has really been reunited with him.

This is a story that feels a little chaotic and self-indulgent at times. I am somewhat leery of stories that just unleash all of the past enemies and story ideas, however this particular release handles this direction better than most. I also tend to sneer at three writers on one story, however the construction here kind of makes sense. The writers did work well together, but they worked on two episodes apiece separately. This division of creative labor would likely only work in a saga like this.

It’s an enjoyable and proper celebration of Colin Baker’s era, and I am glad that we are likely to get more adventures from Big Finish for some time to come.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The War And Fugitive Doctors Clash

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Big Finish Productions brings the Doctor Who: Once and Future audio saga to a close with Coda: The Final Act which stars Jo Martin and Jonathon Carley as the two secret surprising incarnations of the Doctor. Tim Foley wrote the script which was directed by Ken Bentley. Lisa Bowerman reprises her role as Professor Bernice Summerfield. Chase Masterson returns as the glamorous galactic bounty bunter Vienna Salvatori. Nicholas Khan, Richard Reed, and Imogen Stubbs round out the guest cast.

The War Doctor has little time to recover from the effects of a degeneration weapon that had him flitting between prior incarnations when he has to rejoin the fray known as the Time War. A mysterious stranger in a TARDIS attempts to intercept him, but the woman at the helm is a fugitive from a time in the Doctor’s life that he cannot remember. The War Doctor is gathering some unexpected allies, and an old friend is caught in the crossfire as well.

First of all, I am not one of the fans who was overly enthusiastic about the creation of the iteration known as the Fugitive Doctor who first appeared on the television series during Jodie Whittaker’s era. This audio episode hasn’t really changed my mind all that much. Jo Martin in that role is not the problem. I am just one of those old school fans who had no problem accepting that William Hartnell played the First Doctor, and no prior incarnations needed to be invented for the sake of racial diversity or whatever. I know the television producers spin this rather differently, but I believe then to be rather disingenuous.

Saying that, it’s not a bad episode, although it feels somewhat just tacked on. Martin is a talented performer, but I just don’t find her version of the Doctor all that interesting. I have come to enjoy the War Doctor series, although I was a little exasperated with this idea of a sudden secret incarnation of the Doctor which seemed to like just ab excuse to have John Hurt in the role. Carley does a masterful impression of Hurt, and the War Doctor series is actually rather compelling. Maybe I need to give the upcoming Fugitive Doctor a chance before I write her off completely.

Anyway, it was rather interesting when Carley and Martin do get together. There are some amusing moments whenever the pair finally figure out how they are being manipulated by some mysterious opponent.

Even if I am not too keen on some paths the television producers have chosen to take, Big Finish does manage to take the ball, run with it, and come up with a pretty good episode. Any time Bowerman is involved does guarantee a few laughs as well.

Anyway, I am glad that I got to hear the conclusion of this saga despite my reservations, and Foley is a decent and imaginative writer and definitely needs to stay on with Big Finish as a regular contributor. I may even be curious to give the Fugitive Doctor a more serious try when more of her stories are released, but that’s still in up in the air.

This release didn’t really fire me up with unrelenting enthusiasm, but neither did it really bother me as much as I feared.

Doctor Who Audio Review: A Police Box Full Of Hope

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Christopher Eccleston continues his deservedly popular journey as the Ninth Doctor in the audio boxset entitled Travel in Hope from Bog Finish Productions. Helen Goldwyn returns to direct the three episodes that make up this set.

Below There is written by Lauren Mooney and Stuart Pringle and has the Doctor lend a hand to a lonely monitor named Vyx who is assigned to a teleport relay in space. She is having visions, and the teleport system she helps maintain may not be as safe and reliable as billions of galactic citizens would expect.

Kelly Adams, Daniel Cerqueira, and Homer Todiwala make up the guest cast to an effectively spooky episode. The small cast and rather claustrophobic setting are well realized through the sound effects and performances. The writers draw inspiration partly from a short story written by Charles Dickens called The Signal-Man, which has been mentioned before in the television series by this particular Doctor.

This was a pretty good start top the set. The banter between the Doctor and Vyx is quite profound at times. The episode begins with a rather lengthy section where they are communicating through transmitters, which makes the Doctor’s arrival on the station itself seem like a bit of a payoff for the listener.

Anyway, the episode gives this a set a promising start.

The Butler Did It is written by James Moran and is an homage to the classic mysteries written by the likes of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Emma Swan, Andrew French, Paul Thornley, and Louise Fletcher make up the guest cast.

The TARDIS is in need of a tune-up as usual and arrives at a spaceport where he encounters a couple of old friends who also happen to the last of their species. One of his friends is poisoned, and the Doctor has the chance to brush up on some old-fashioned investigative skills. He is aided by a medical tech with a bit of s confidence problem and hampered by a collection of some of the surliest suspects gathered in one place.

Moran was going for something pretty light-hearted here and pulls it off quite nicely. The story does intentionally lean heavily on the some of the tropes of the mystery genre without being overdone. Basically, I got the joke. Also, in spite of the cheeky rip-off, the plot still had a sense of originality and was at times even unexpectedly amusing. Eccleston seems to have a rarely tapped knack for comedy in which this episode brought out.

Run completes this set and is written by Robert Valentine. Jane Goddard is back as the Doctor’s old friend, Alpha Centauri, who from its perspective has yet to meet the Doctor’s earlier incarnation. David Langham, Jane Asher, and Philip Pope make up the guest cast which also includes Nicholas Briggs playing the role of Martian senator Zzargol.

A dangerous demagogue is poised to take control of the Galactic Federation by any means necessary, and the Doctor convinces a very young representative named Alpha Centauri to run against her for the presidency. Politics is often a dirty business, but when the Doctor steps into the ring, it gets deadly.

I sometimes get rather cynical with some of these recurring character bits. Alpha Centauri was first introduced many moons ago during the Jon Pertwee era on television. It is a species of hexapod with one of those most shrill, squeaky vocalizations one could imagine. Goddard actually emulates the original performance and manages to tone down the more grating qualities about the character. I actually don’t dislike Alpha Centauri, but a little of bit goes a long way. The interaction between it and this Doctor were quite well written. It’s pretty obvious what political circumstance inspired this story, but Valentine manages to still present it without any real effort to offend any group of voters. It’s a clever, fun story to close out a highly entertaining collection.

I have enjoyed the Ninth Doctor audio series pretty consistently; however, this particular set brought its A game. All three stories were diverse in all the right ways. Eccleston’s performance was captivating in all three episodes. Even though the inspirations for these stories seemed a little too obvious at times, they still displayed some creativity and wit from all of the writers here.

Travel in Hope gives me hope that Big Finish may still have some great ideas left in the tank.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Goes The Distance

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

All of Time and Space is a pretty compelling trilogy of Doctor Who audio plays that features the Eleventh Doctor. Big Finish Productions has successfully found an actor who can imitate Matt Smith’s distinctive voice and have embarked on a new series of adventures with a new companion. Jacob Dudman continues to portray this version of the Doctor as if Matt Smith was behind the mic. Safiyya Ingar has recently boarded the TARDIS as Valarie Lockwood, a human with some cybernetic enhancements. Nicholas Briggs has returned to the director’s seat.

The first episode of the set is All of Time and Space in which the writer is billed as Ellery Quest. Apparently, Tim Foley is the true author since Ellery Quest is actually featured in the story as a writer pitching a show idea about a mysterious traveler in time and space. However, he finds that the agent he is pitching the idea to has an extraterrestrial history as well. The Doctor and Valarie are trapped in a dimension, and the stories may be their only way to escape.

This is one of those surreal stories that blur the fourth wall a little. It’s confusing and amusing at the same time, but that sort of sums up the whole series.

The Yearn is written by Angus Dunican and has the Doctor meet a group of colonists trapped underground and being hunted by a peculiar entity. People are taken by the Yearn and then reappear. Something appears to be interfering with the Yearn’s efforts to feed, and it may resemble a blue police box.

This second story had a pretty compelling climax. There was a great guest cast. The sudden romance seemed to blossom between Valarie and Mia Tomlinson’s character was a little improbable but handled better than similar moments in the series. Ingar is actually a pretty interesting actor, and Valarie is kind of growing on me.

Finally, James Goss brings this set to a close with Curiosity Shop. Valarie has lost the Doctor and is able to see the TARDIS, which is in the possession of a junkyard proprietor named Mr. Foreman. An alien war is about to break out, and the Doctor has forgotten who he is and what he does.

This actually was a great close. Valarie is losing pieces of herself literally as she hopes that the Doctor remembers her and returns to put things right. There are some great performances, and Dudman’s vocal talents are put to the test. Goss also finds a way to sort honor the legacy of the series as well.

Overall, this set takes the series in some interesting directions. The banter between the Doctor and Valarie is quite compelling. Dudman’s impersonation of Matt Smith seems to improve.

I think the final story is my favorite, but all of the set comes out quite well. I look forward to this particular TARDIS crew continuing their travels.

Book Review: Negotiations Go Awry Over Bajor

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Pliable Truths is the latest title written by Dayton Ward and is a mediocre addition to the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel range.

Ward takes the reader back to the era of the television series just after Captain Jean-Luc Picard endured captivity and torture at the hands of the Cardassians. Also, the Cardassians subsequently withdraw from their occupation of the planet Bajor. Captain Picard is tasked with overseeing the negotiations between the Cardassians and the Bajorans aboard the space station known as Terok Nor. Of course, Terok Nor is on the verge of being redesignated Deep Space Nine. Picard’s mission is complicated by a bombing and assassination. Also, the Cardassian responsible for his recent torture has arrived, which causes some understandable disconcertion. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise have several challenges to meet and a few mysteries to solve.

Dayton Ward has written several Star Trek novels for many years, and he is usually reliable. The problem here is that fans have already been through this era of the canon. We know what happens with Bajor after the Cardassians pulled out. There is no real suspense to be had. There were some interesting moments between characters. The reader gets to revisit the earlier days of Odo, Quark, Kira, and Garak just before Commander Benjamin Sisko arrives as the Starfleet representative. Garak’s scenes were kind of fun. He is, of course, the Cardassian tailor with a mysterious past and is much more dangerous than he first appears.

Ward isn’t a bad writer, but I just wasn’t interested in revisiting this portion of the canon. It also seems to take forever before the bombs started detonating, and characters started getting taken off the board.

Hopefully, the next novel in this series takes us into some uncharted territory.

Next up, I will see what author Max Seeck has waiting for me on Ghost Island.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Even The Doctor’s Memory Could Use Some Repair

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Broken Memories is the title of the latest Doctor Who audio collection from the Classic Doctors New Monsters range, and Big Finish Productions once again releases an intriguing and enjoyable collection of tales featuring numerous incarnations of Time Lord.

The premise of this series, which is directed by Barnaby Edwards, is to have Doctors from the classic era face monsters and adversaries that were introduced in the current run that started in 2005. It’s an ambitious idea that almost always pays off. I tend to enjoy the series, and there are four in this particular set to briefly examine.

Tom Baker is up first as the Fourth Doctor in Invasion of the Body Stealers by Jonathan Morris. He is joined by Sadie Miller, who has taken the role of Sarah Jane Smith. Miller’s mother, Elisabeth Sladen, originated the performance, so Sadie is able to breathe new life into one of the most popular companions to enter the TARDIS. The Doctor and Sarah arrive in time to offer aid to crashed spaceship and encounter the body-swapping criminal organization known as Harmony Shoal. I am not that fond of the title, but the story is actually pretty good. Baker still sounds great, and Sadie Miller does a pretty job emulating her mother. There is a truly chilling moment when one of the supporting characters is about to have his brain ripped out of his skull, and the sound effects and score actually freaked me out a little. Anyway, it’s a promising start to this collection.

The Queen of Clocks by Jacqueline Rayner features Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, and he is accompanied by the always welcome Bonnie Langford as Mel. The Clockwork Droids are invading a kingdom with a peculiar obsession with time. The Doctor and Mel are about to learn of a tragedy that had started well before their intervention. In spite of the absurdity of the plot, there is a clever yet heartbreaking twist on the horizon. Baker and Langford, as usual, perform this one beautifully. There were some moments that were a little picture to pull into imaginary focus, but that’s always a risk when listening to Doctor Who in this manner. Rayner has contributed to the franchise in some form or another for many years, and this contribution affirms that she has earned the repeated invites to write something new. It has one of those revelations that I wasn’t expecting but felt that I should have been. Anyway, Rayner’s offering here is quite engaging, but there is little reason to expect anything less.

David K. Barnes has a two-part story featuring the race known as the Silence. Once someone turns away from a member of this race, they cannot retain the memory of that encounter. The Eighth Doctor arrives in the city of Sunset during the events of The Silent Priest and to find some solace from the Time War. Paul McGann delivers another masterful performance here. Two rival criminal gangs are at war, and a mysterious priest who no one can remember meeting holds the key to bringing peace. Nicholas Briggs voices the Silence with the correct amount of creepy, sibilant whispers and hisses. This was pretty good, and the Silent featured here was much more interesting than I remember from those in the television series. The overdone Eastern American accents were a little off, and that distracted me a bit. Overall, it was an interesting story and sets up the concluding story quite well.

Sylvester McCoy returns as the Seventh Doctor as he arrives sometime after his future self. The Silent City finds the Doctor looking into an unusually successful casino which has come into being after crime has apparently disappeared. The Doctor is facing the outcome of an adventure he has yet to experience. McCoy is back in all of his Scottish glory, and he also delivers his usual enthusiastic, r-rolling vocal talents. It’s great to see him, and this story ties matters up quite effectively.

I liked all of the stories, although the first one stands out a bit more in spite of its questionable title. All of the Doctors featured showed their formidable talents in spite of their advancing years. This is a collection that is worth the time.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Finds The Union

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Big Finish Productions has recently released the conclusion a Doctor Who audio saga entitled Once and Future. Paul McGann and Tom Baker are featured the most as the Eighth and Fourth Doctors, respectively. The conclusion does more to strum the heartstrings of nostalgia than actually aim for any real coherence in the story, but it’s still a pretty fun indulgence for the Whovians.

Ken Bentley returns to the director’s chair to coordinate the realization of the script written by Matt Fitton. Carole Ann Ford reprises her role of Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter and the first companion he really wanted to impress. Alex Kingston also returns as the time travelling archeologist and the supposed wife of the Doctor’s. Maureen O’Brien, who would normally be playing the role of one of the Doctor’s early companions, Vicki, takes on the role of an adversary known as the Union. The Union turns out to be someone else who is quite familiar to the Doctor. Other Doctors also appear sporadically during this adventure since this was a release that celebrated the show’s fiftieth anniversary last year.

I have skipped out on reviewing the earlier episodes in this range, so I will offer a brief recap. The Doctor has been the victim of a weapon that destabilizes his regeneration cycle. As he has been trying to reconstruct what has happened to him, he has been suffering from something known as degeneration. He has been erratically returning to his past and sometimes his future incarnations as he has been chasing the cause of his condition through time and space.

Paul McGann and Tom Baker take on the bulk of this particular adventure. The Fourth Doctor rather amusedly referred to it as co-piloting. It was kind of touching and amusing to see Susan interact with other versions of her grandfather. Big Finish has already had the Eighth Doctor and Susan reunite in earlier episodes; however, it was pretty cool to get a taste of what she would make of the Fourth Doctor and his absurdly long scarf.

I have never been a real fan of multi-Doctor adventures like this because the story often takes a back seat to a quality plot. But I am still a fan and some of those scenes where the Doctor drags his other iterations is pretty funny most of the time.

There were times where I struggled to imagine what was going on based on the sound effects. It wasn’t always that clear as to what I should be conjuring up in my mind’s eye.

As usual, the actual performances were really good. McGann and Baker still portray their respective Doctors very effectively. It was still pretty fun to hear a bit of the other Doctors as well during the climax of the adventure even if the plot is a bit of the mess.

This is another sprawling, nonsensical episode that still manages to be entertaining just because the heartstrings of nostalgia are strummed with enough of the right notes. Multi-Doctor storylines do make less sense than a regular episode, but they are usually pretty fun, especially if Big Finish is on the job.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Who’s Up For A Little Chaos?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Another pretty decent yet familiar sort of Doctor Who audio novel has been released from Big Finish Productions. Colin Brake is the author of The Chaos Cascade. One big twist is that there are three narrators this time as opposed to the usual single performer. Dan Starkey, Beth Chalmers, and Rebecca Root share storytelling duties and are directed by Nigel Fairs.

Reality is about to be destroyed yet again, and the Doctor is aided by one old enemy and a former companion in his quest to unite three pieces of a device known as the Triskelia. If this was an onscreen adventure, Peter Capaldi would be portraying his version of the Doctor. Michelle Gomez would be Missy, the female incarnation of fan favorite villain, the Master. Rebecca Root reprises another Big Finish role, Tania Bell. Tania has previously met the Eighth and Ninth Doctors, and is currently living another former companion, Liv Chenka. They have to contend with other parties searching for the Triskelia, and not everyone has the same altruistic motivations as the Doctor.

Brake is a solid writer and crafts a pretty decent adventure here. The problem is that the audience has seen the Doctor have similar quests. The banter between the Doctor and Missy is amusing, clever, and pretty close to how they would be if viewed on the television set. Brake clearly knows and can replicate the characteristics established onscreen and in previous audio episodes and is able to make it seem pretty fresh.

The narrators also do well, unsurprisingly, and are aided by the sound effects and musical score. I appreciate that Starkey can sound uncannily like Peter Capaldi. Since Capaldi has not shown any interest in revisiting his Doctor, Big Finish has a pretty solid path to representing the Twelfth Doctor without his participation.

Overall, this latest offering in the audio novel range is a solid enough contribution, but the whole galactic quest angle risks being overdone in spite of the new mixture of Doctors and companions.