Tag: tv

Doctor Who Audio Review: The War Doctor Signs Up

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The War Doctor Begins: Forged In Fire is the beginning of what appears to be a promising series of Doctor Who audio dramas released by Big Finish Productions. Jonathon Carley steps into the role created by the late John Hurt of what has become known as the War Doctor. This is when the Doctor as regenerated into an incarnation intending to enter the Time War as a participant. This Doctor has rejected the moniker he has used for centuries because he is about to engage in methods of fighting that none of his other selves would condone. This trilogy is directed by Louise Jameson, who is basically immortalized in the Doctor Who canon as Leela of the Sevateem. Jameson has been indulging her creative talents outside of acting and seems to be doing quite well at it. Nicholas Briggs returns to voice the Daleks. Adele Anderson, John Dorney, Helen Goldwyn, and Tracy Wiles are some members of guest cast making their welcome contributions.

The first of the three episodes is entitled Light the Flame by Matt Fitton. This picks up moments after the Eighth Doctor has regenerated on the planet Karn before the Sisterhood of the Flame. The War Doctor already has to decide what his fight in the Time War will entail, but he first has to save Karn and the Sisterhood from a ruthless plan concocted by his own people.

I am not too sure of the main story, but Carley puts in a wonderful performance. It is almost eerie how much he can make his voice emulate John Hurt’s. As the War Doctor regains his footing after a traumatic regeneration, the audience gets treated to a compelling emotional journey as the differences from his pervious selves becomes more evident. It’s not always easy to follow, but Fitton still provides a strong introduction for this actor and this early version of the War Doctor.

Lion Hearts is the second story provided by Lou Morgan. The Tharils, who were first seen in the television serial, Warriors’ Gate, are now caught up in the Time War. The War Doctor has joined a rescue operation of a captured friend, but that of course becomes even more complicated than he anticipated. Morgan does a really good fake out as she teases the audience with how ruthless the War Doctor may actually become. I really enjoyed the story once I remembered how I first saw the Tharils and could more properly picture them in my head. Yet again, Carley continues to impress with his version of the War Doctor.

It is long-time contributor Andrew Smith who closes this set out with his script, The Shadow Squad. The War Doctor is going after the Dalek Time Strategist, but he learns of an even more devastating weapon. The Daleks has developed a plan to erase the contributions of certain Gallifreyan fighters from all of history in order to turn the Time War into their favor. The War Doctor meets the Temporal Eradicator, and he will find out just how merciless he is willing to be in order to end this terrible threat to the cosmos.

It gets a little confusing discussing this series since the main character has rejected his title and identity at this time. I guess for purposes of clarity, the audience knows this is still the Doctor in spite of his protestations. However he wants to be addressed, Carley seems to be the right actor to carry off the role. I was skeptical when the producers of the television introduced this secret incarnation in the fiftieth anniversary episode, The Day of the Doctor, however I think I will enjoy these releases and exploring this era of the Time Lord’s long life.

Big Finish continues to display a mastery of the sound design and casting of talented actor. The scripts are all interesting at varying degrees. As usual, I have a preference, but all three stories are solid. Even though John Hurt’s death is sad, Carley’s performance is more of a way to honor his legacy than actually replace him.

There are still a lot of other ranges I will be listening to, but it will not be long before my next foray into the era of the War Doctor.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Meets Some Kindred Spirits

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Christopher Eccleston makes another solid return to the microphones of Big Finish Productions as the Ninth Doctor in another set of Doctor Who audio dramas entitled Pioneers. Helen Goldwyn directs this trio of adventures. The guest cast includes Louise Jameson, who is better known as Leela in the series, however she is playing a new character here. Adam Martyn, Harki Bhambra, Ian Conningham, and Andrew James Spooner are some of the other performers lending their vocal talents.

The trilogy of stories begins with Roy Gill’s The Green Gift. The Doctor is accompanied by a bling young man and his talking dog, who were introduced in the previous collection entitled Shades of Fear. Louise Jameson appears as the apparent leader of a colony spacecraft known as the Greenwood. Earth has been all but destroyed, and humanity needs a new home. There is an artificial intelligence aboard which the Doctor may have encountered before.

It is pretty cool when other well-known Doctor Who actors appear as new characters. Jamison is best known as playing the Fourth Doctor’s companion, Leela, but she gets to stretch her range a bit here with Big Finish, and I think it’s a great idea. I can work through the distraction of recognizing her as Leela without much problem. The story is interesting and sort of revisits a very distinctive episode from the classic series. There are some engaging character moments when the Doctor is getting some explanations for the setting. that did quite well with building the intrigue until the revelations of the threat was revealed. Eccleston is unsurprisingly compelling during these more thoughtful scenes. The two new companions of Callen and Doyle, who really aren’t long-term mainstays in the TARDIS, are kind of fun. The dog, played by Harki Bhambra, is able to talk with some fancy, futuristic AI assistance. Anyway, the story is a pretty solid beginning to this particular set.

Next up, Robert Valentine takes the audience to a bit of Norwegian history with his story entitled Northern Lights. The Doctor crashes in the Arctic Circle toward the end of the nineteenth century and encounters Norwegian explorers, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen. There is another presence within the famous Aurora Borealis, and the Doctor discovers that his current location may not be as isolated as it appears.

This story had a few fairly heartwarming moments that were unexpected. I have not heard of these particular explorers before this audio. Doctor Who does have a way of introducing historical figures and events that are not widely known or appreciated. The science fiction element is nice, but it’s pretty cool that Valentine did some research and brought forth some important historical figures that are not known as well as they probably deserve. Valentine has yet to put out a bad script, and this one is quite good. I think I appreciated the historical background that was rather new to me, but the overall drama was pretty good too.

Finally, Katherine Armitage takes the TARDIS to the early days of a football league formed in the United Kingdom with her script entitled The Beautiful Game. An American would recognize this as soccer. Another rather important historical sports figure in the shape of William Sudell, played by Raymond Coulthard, is brought forth. The Doctor attends to attend the meeting which formed the league, but he arrives a week early and finds himself witnessing another important meeting instead which involves the women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century instead. Since it’s Doctor Who, there is an alien presence lurking around that feeds off others’ obsessions and is able to change size in seconds.

The alien threat is hard to really visualize through an audio play. However, there are some great moments between the characters. Once again, I am exposed to some influential figures from the past that I would not have otherwise known if not for a script. The cast does a great job, as is normal for a Big Finish drama. This episode is not bad, but it didn’t quite impress as the first two. It does have an interesting, little-known setting so that helps.

Overall, Eccleston himself makes the set worthwhile. The episodes are solid contributions, but they don’t really stand out other than some interesting touches on little discussed historical events. It’s still something I would recommend for the fans to collect because Eccleston is still worth the effort, and the stories have plenty of points of interest, and the history aficionados will get a pretty good kick.

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.

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.