An Earthly Child [8th Doctor]

An Earthly Child is one of Big Finish's special releases. It's set on Earth. Thirty years have past since the Dalek Invasion and Susan Campbell is calling out to the Universe for help to re-build the Earth. An Earth that is suffering from a global post-traumatic stress disorder. They - we - are afraid of more aliens. Afraid of technology. Earth seems to be marching backwards into the future.

Susan's actions draw the attention of the Guldresi and another mysterious traveller in time and space: The Doctor.

I enjoyed it. It's an interesting postscript to The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's surprisingly realistic. This feels like how Earth might react post-invasion.

That's certainly the case for Alex Campbell. He's Susan and David Campbell's son. He's half-Gallifreyan. On his mother's side. On heart. And he hates aliens. He's caught between the machinations of his mother and of Faisal Jensen of Earth Unity but eventually he tries to find his own way, despite Susan's intentions to send him off to Gallifrey for a proper education. He's played by Jake McGann, who is Paul McGann's son, which is interesting. It's a good performance as Alex struggles to come to terms with what is happening and who it is. We don't know - at this point - how things will end but it seems a fairly realistic take on what might happen.

Susan is played by Carole Ann Ford. Obviously. It's nice to have a Susan story forty years later that gives her something useful to do. This isn't the Susan of the television series. Obviously. She's older. She's a mother. She's stuck on a backwards planet with nowhere to go. It's almost like the Third Doctor's exile but with the additional burden of a family. She's very good. I particularly like the scene when she's first re-united with the Doctor in a police cell in Bristol. It's rather sweetly done.

The Doctor's on his own this time. So I've slotted this review in here assuming he's just left Lucie Miller at the end of Death in Blackpool. I'm not sure if this is correct or not. But it's my blog, my rules etc.

Paul McGann's brilliant as usual and there's something about his performance now that makes it seem like he's more comfortable with it. Happier being the Big Finish Eighth Doctor. Occasionally - back in some of the Divergent Universe stories for example - he did sound a bit like his heart wasn't in it as much. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Also worthy of applause is Leslie Ash as Marion Fleming. Fleming is a teacher at Bristol University. She's teaching Alex Campbell and ends up assisting the Doctor. It's a nice performance.

The story is written by Marc Platt, who seems to have an interest in the Doctor's family life going all the way back to Lungbarrow, and I like the story, which I think is about fitting in under all its science-fiction pretensions. It's not the most action packed of tales. It's about politics and families so there's a lot of talking* but it's all rather enjoyable.

And it is nice for the Doctor to finally pop back to see Susan, even if it has taken him a long time to do so.


*I KNOW it is audio so it is bound to be wordy but there's wordy and there's wordy. Pfft. I know what I mean. Even if you don't.

Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories (6th Doctor + Peri)

Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories features the Sixth Doctor and Peri in a collection of short adventures. They are Breaking Bubbles by L V Myles; Of Chaos Time, The by Mark Ravenhill; An Eye For Murder by Una McCormack and The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time by Nev Fountain. It's a change of structure to the normal Big Finish Main Range.

There isn't really a link between the stories except the presence of the Sixth Doctor and Peri obviously, which in this day and age of story arcs is rather refreshing. None of them is quite what you'd expect either.

Breaking Bubbles is fun because it starts off as one thing and at the moment I started to think it was going to turn out one way, it turned out another. It features a nice performance from Jemma Churchill as Safira Valtris. I'm skating around this a bit because I don't want to spoil it. It's nicely structured and well-performed. Nothing is quite what you think it is.

Of Chaos Time, The is - to borrow a phrase - a timey-wimey twister. The audio equivalent of a tounge-twister. Colin Baker's brilliant here as The Doctor tries to work out what the hell is going on and why. This feels very much like a new Doctor Who story in the Sixth Doctor's clothing.

An Eye For Murder drops the Doctor and Peri into the world of Dorothy L Sayers. It's Doctor Who meets Gaudy Night with a dash of World War Two thriller. This I think was my favourite of the four stories but not for any particularly drastic reasons. It's mainly because I'm a big fan of Dorothy L Sayers work* and this is the one of the four stories where Peri gets the most to do as she plays at being Harriet Vane whilst the Doctor gets to be...well...not Lord Peter Wimsey but placing him in an Oxford women's colleague in the late-1930s changes the Sixth Doctor's vibe a little (and if I was listening correctly the Sixth is out of his usual outfit and into something more tweedily acceptable, which is nice.)

The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time is very different to the previous three stories. It's narrated by Michael (Johnny Gibbon) who is - I think - autistic. I've never read or seen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time so I've no idea how linked to that book this story is so I have to judge it on it's own merits. I'll admit it took me a little getting used to but in the end I loved it. The story itself features The Doctor and Peri looking for a bad thing. A bad thing that for reasons I refuse to reveal here ends up in Michael's hands. To me though this story is about how a person like Michael, with an interesting way of dealing with the world, copes with loss. There's a lovely scene right at the end when the Doctor talks to Michael about the past, which reminded me a little of the scene between The Second Doctor and Victoria in The Tomb of the Cybermen, but that is rather moving in its own right.

So this is well worth a listen. In fact it might be a good gateway into the Sixth Doctor's era on Big Finish. If you like these stories then go back through the Big Finish Sixth Doctor back catalogue. It's like a taster set. I really enjoyed it. Each story contributes something interesting and each story has a different vibe to it. The acting, from all concerned, but particularly from Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. This isn't the time and place for me to launch into an impassioned defence of Colin Baker's Doctor. You'll have to wait for my book on that.**




*I particularly recommend the Edward Petherbridge-Harriet Walter TV Series from the mid-80s if you're interested in televised Dorothy L Sayers. It's a trilogy of Strong Poison-Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night. Petherbridge is a wonderful Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Walter is Harriet Vane. (My first literary crush btw, but you probably don't need to know that.)

**I'm quite serious about the book thing.

Death in Blackpool [8th Doctor + Lucie Miller]

Death in Blackpool is rather brilliant. OK, it isn't the most cheery of Christmas tales but it is genuinely rather moving. It's got that Eastender's Christmas Special vibe about it: Christmas is when all those horrible family secrets leak out with unintended consequences. The final scene between the Doctor and Lucie in particular is rather wonderful both in the writing - applause to Alan Barnes for that - and the performances.

Sheridan Smith's Lucie Miller is - as usual - belligerently brilliant. Lucie Miller is one of those companions that I'd love to have seen in the television series. I think she'd fit right into New Who. And, after Night of the Doctor, she's canon. As if that matters. It seems though that this is the end of the Doctor's travels with Lucie.

The reason for this is that the truth is out about Aunty Pat. The truth that Aunty Pat is actually a Zygon Warlord called Hagoth - a story told in The Zygon Who Fell To Earth - and that the Doctor and Aunty Pat/Hagoth have been keeping it from her for all this time. It pops Lucie's bubble of trust in the Doctor and so she decides to stay on Earth and leave the Doctor.

It's all spelled out in that last scene, which I might harp on again about for a bit. It's a lovely two hander between Sheridan Smith and Paul McGann. There's a bit of it when The Doctor tries to explain that he isn't a superhero which is amongst the best writing I've seen in any Big Finish Doctor Who story. In fact that whole last scene is one of my favourite bits of Big Finish ever. I even got a wee bit tearful, which is a little embarrassing when you're on public transport but I can cope.

Paul McGann's up to his usual high standards. It makes you bang your head against the table in frustration that he never got a proper television run. He's an excellent actor and his Doctor has so much depth. The fact that he seems to work exceptionally well with Sheridan Smith helps to. The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller are one of my favourite Doctor-Companion relationships in all of Doctor Who, which is saying a lot. They're up there with The Fourth Doctor and Romana II and the Seventh Doctor and Ace for me.

The other great performance here is Helen Lederer as Aunty Pat. I know Helen Lederer as a comedian more than an actress but she's a revelation here. She handles the dramatic stuff with aplomb and there's a lovely series of conversations in a cupboard with the Doctor which are well-worth a listen.

Oh and a nod to for Jon Glover as a rather down-at-heel Brummie Father Christmas.

However perhaps the greatest credit should go to Alan Barnes for the script. It manages to tell a good Doctor Who adventure whilst slotting in additional layers about trust, love and loss. And almost right at the end he manages to get in the possibility of a little redemption for one of the characters.

Bravo.

The Fearmonger [Seventh Doctor + Ace]

The Fearmonger, which was released in February 2000, is the Seventh Doctor and Ace's first entry in the world of Big Finish. Sylvester McCoy had already appeared in Sirens of Time but without a proper companion. Now one of my favourite Doctor - Companion teams is back, which is nice.

Written by Jonathan Blum, The Fearmonger is set in a near-contemporary Britain where the right-wing New Britannia party, led by Sherilyn Harper  (Jacqueline Pearce), is on the rise. Praying on the fear and hostility of the British to immigrants she's looking forward to a successful election campaign. If she survives the assassination attempts of course.

Her attempted assassins include Walter Jacobs (Mark McDonnell). It's Walter who will be in and out of the story all the way through. Edgy, frightened and hysterical Walter Jacobs isn't the easiest of people to hang out with.

Later we get to meet another gang of would be assassins headed up by the Antipodean sounding Alexsandr Karadjic (Jack Gallagher). Another spanner in the works as the Doctor attempts to prevent full-scale riots. And worse.

Being Doctor Who, of course, there has to be an additional complication. The Fearmonger itself. A creature of vaguely unknown origins - although the Doctor speculates a little as to where it popped up from - it breeds on strong emotions and helps encourages them. And it appears to have occupied Sherilyn Harper.

A Big Finish story with a nice contemporary resonance.

It isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not bad.

The politicians and their aids are, of course, cynics to a woman and there is a part of me that would like to see a politician - especially the right-wing ones I don't like much - less cynically. However the presence in this story of Roderick Allingham, who is Harper's aid, makes that virtually impossible. Partly because he's written up as the arch-political fixer, a Peter Mandelson manque, but also because he's played by the magnificently oleaginous Hugh Walters.

Hugh Walters has appeared in three Classic Doctor Who stories and each appearance was bigger and better than the first. His best being Vogal in Resurrection of the Daleks. There he is assistant to businesswoman and (sort of) unwilling Davros accomplice Kara (Eleanor Bron). In The Fearmonger he is a less camp version of Vogal: dry, cynical and Machiavellian and it is perfect casting. He could almost be an escapee from the Pertwee era of difficult civil servants and politicians.

In fact there's something a little Pertwee about the whole story now I come to think about it. Allingham and Harper constantly refer to the Doctor's 'United Nations connections'.

Overall then it is the performances that make this story. Jacqueline Pearce - whose voice I could listen to for ever - is great and I've already talked about Hugh Walters. Mark McDonnell makes Walter Jacobs sound so fragile that you'd want to make him a cup of tea and give him a hug in real life. Plus there's Vince Henderson's 'shock jock' Mick Thompson, who has the right level of annoying 'I call a spade a spade' smart arsed hostility to actually make you think you've heard him presenting a genuine radio programme.

But best of all are Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy as Ace and the Seventh Doctor. Sophie's great in this and there's a brilliant scene where she has a go at replicating the Doctor's speech to the snipers in The Happiness Patrol with what can only be described as less than successful results. Lovely.

Then there's Sylvester. He's simply magnificent. The darker and more devious Doctor of the Cartmel 'Master Plan'. He's got a habit of just appearing in scenes to the discomfort of those involved and in this story - naturally - people are afraid of him and his reputation. His best moments though are at the end. His quiet discussion with Harper and then the final tense scenes with Ace. McCoy's always best in those quiet moments - like Matt Smith. Then you get an insight into how scary the Doctor might actually be.

So to get this blog finished so I can start doing some actual work I would say The Fearmonger is definitely worth a listen but it's not a Big Finish Classic. However if you like the Seventh Doctor and Ace you will almost certainly enjoy this.

The Land of the Dead [5th Doctor & Nyssa]

One quibble excepted I really enjoyed The Land of the Dead. I particularly enjoyed the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa partnership. One of the problems with the televised Fifth Doctor is that he is occasionally overloaded with companions and as a result none of them get to 'breath' much. Sarah Sutton's Nyssa in particular gets swamped by the more belligerent Tegan and the needier Adric. So on occasions, such as Kinda, she gets stuck in the TARDIS with a glorified headache.

Which is a shame as I always liked Nyssa and not just for her skirt dropping Terminus but because I always felt there was an interesting story to be told and that she and Davison had a really good chemistry.

So one of the strengths of this is that it is just the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

Also Nyssa's back story informs her responses to what's going on and in particular her scenes with Tulung (Neil Roberts) are made all the stronger for that and there's a rather moving moment - which I'm going to remember inaccurately - when they are talking about tradition and science and looking up at the sky and seeing the whole universe and death. Sarah Sutton plays it beautifully too.

I really like Peter Davison's 'new' take on the Fifth Doctor too. It's interesting that Peter Davison's stint with Big Finish is less often praised than both Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker's. I think that's done to how the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's eras on television are perceived and that their Big Finish careers have taken on an almost a redemptive quality. So that anyone who thinks Colin Baker is a bad Doctor just needs to take a corrective course of Big Finish adventures to recover their senses. Ditto with McCoy. However Davison's take on the Doctor is generally well-received, perhaps with the exception of its own stars*, and as a result Big Finish is seen more as a continuation than a redemption but I think there's more going on here.

I've gone over some of this ground in the review of Phantasmagoria but I think that the Big Finish Fifth Doctor is the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison wishes he could have given us on television. It's pretty well-known that he thought he was too young for the part when he was cast originally and now he's the right age. Perhaps I'm reading too much into all of this but that's my right as a citizen of a post-modern universe.

To sum up all of that: Davison's brilliant.

The Land of the Dead is set in Alaska and would be as bleak as the environment if it wasn't for the dry humour of architect Monica Lewis (played with panache by Lucy Campbell) whose main reaction in a crisis is to abandon her internal monologue in favour of an avalanche of sarcastic verbiage. She and the Doctor spend quite a lot of time together and it's a finely played relationship. In fact Monica makes you think about Tegan and how much better Tegan would have been if she'd been written more like Monica.

There's not really a villain in this story. There's a slightly mad millionaire called Shaun Brett (Christopher Scott) who is really in need of some help to get over his father's death more than anything else and there's an out and out monster (which had this been a Davison television adventure would have been a sorely disappointing man in a terrible costume : see The Arc of Infinity and The Caves of Androzani for examples) which is limited in intelligence but dangerously hungry.

In fact you might argue that a theme in this story is about leaving the past alone. Digging up the rocks brings back a rather unpleasant monster from the past, digging up the past drives Shaun Brett and Tulang almost insane.

Whilst another theme is the clash between tradition (of family, tribe or society) and science. The clash is most obvious in Tulang and Gaborik (Andrew Fettes) who are Native Americans, of the Kuyokon Tribe. The use of Native Americans as a kind representation of lost traditions, a lost connection to the land and a lost wisdom is a bit of a cliché, which is my minor quibble with the story. Perhaps recent discussions with friends about the use of Nazi's in Doctor Who have made me more focused on this line of thinking but there's something a little off with it. If Doctor Who's Nazis come out of the Indiana Jones tradition, then their Native Americans come out of the X-Files.**

But perhaps I'm being overly harsh. In fact I definitely am but I think one needs to be careful to avoid turning a whole complex group of people into a short-cut for an idea. Or just a plain cliché.

That really was my only quibble.

Listen and enjoy.



*There's nothing more depressing than listening to some of the Davison era DVD commentaries as the cast slag off their own work.

**For an interesting introduction to the perceptions of Native American culture I recommend Rich Hall's TV documentary 'Inventing the Indian'

Light At The End (Big Finish's 50th Anniversary Story)

I'll make an initial admission. I've been looking forward to this more than I have The Moff's TV 50th. Why? Because much as I enjoy New Doctor Who, I'm a Classic Who boy* and I'm a fan of Big Finish's work in general so I was convinced it would be good.

And it is.

Fanbloodytastic in fact.

There.

Review done. No spoilers.

In fact I'd say if you were thinking of testing the Big Finish waters this would be the perfect story to begin with. You get all the first Eight Doctors**. Yes, all of them. No, I'm not going to tell you how you can work it out for yourself. Like I did. That's part of the fun.

You also get a lot of familiar companions to join the fun. In fact the only oddity would be the presence of Charlotte Pollard with the Eighth Doctor as she is - so far - a non-television companion but that just provides you with an excuse to go back and listen to Storm Warning and begin the Eight Doctor's adventures with Big Finish.

Seemless.

That's not to say this is uninfluenced by New Doctor Who. I'd suggest that the story might have had a far different ending if the New series hadn't already led the way with...ah...spoilers.

I think the reason this works so well is that there is only one villain. There's no attempt to crowbar in the usual suspects and over-stuff the villainous pudding. We mainly deal with one main villain here and it is The Master, played with oleaginous malevolence by Geoffrey Beevers. (That's not a spoiler btw. He's in the trailer and on the cover of the CD for heaven's sake.) And it allows the Doctor's to shine. It's a lesson in how to do a multi-Doctor story without losing the stories shape.

And this really is all about the Doctor's.

Each gets some time to do his thing. Each gets some juicy lines, although Colin Baker gets the best big speech and Peter Davison gets the spookiest and darkest moments.

In fact at points towards the end of Part One when the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are investigating an 'incident' it is genuinely creepy as hell. There's a dawning realisation about what is to come - or at least I had one - and that just adds to the darkness. It's incredibly powerful and possibly the highlight of the whole thing for me.

But fundamentally it's a wonderful tribute to my favourite television series. There's call backs to old stories with some lines - even Battlefield! There's Tom Baker's voice. There's Sylvester McCoy's rolling rrrrrrrrrrrr's. There's whispers of voices fondly remembered. There's Colin Baker's sparkling indignation and Peter Davison's soft power.***

It's a fine celebration made by people that obviously care. The Moff will have to work bloody hard to make me feel as happy after I've watched The Day of the Doctor and I hope he does.







*42 year old boy but when it comes to Doctor Who still that fascinated, geeky and mildly terrified 7 or 8 year old boy
**Or whatever number they're going to be once The Moff's taken his pet theory out for a run in The Day of the Doctor
***I know what I mean by this even if you don't. If you buy me a pint, I'll explain.

The Eight Truths - World Wide Web

The Eight Truths and Worldwide Web (8TWW) bring the third season of Eighth Doctor to an end. They also mark the end of The Headhunter's (Katarina Olsson) story arc. I have raved about Katarina Olsson's performances before. She's fantastic and The Headhunter is an interesting character, although I found her a little annoying in Orbis but I wonder if that is the story more than the character.

8TWW in fact brings a close to one outstanding thread from Orbis so hopefully I shall never have to mention that story again.

The Doctor and Lucie are on Earth. The Doctor has gone off to help with a dodgy Mercury probe and Lucie is going shopping. It's whilst she's shopping that she bumps into a familiar old face, Karen (Kerry Godliman) associate of the Headhunter or former associate. She's now involved with a organisation helping people to find their true potential. Lucie is entrapped and made to cut herself off from the Doctor.

The scenes around the Eightfold Truth are great. The understanding tone of voice adopted by the people involved, the treacle language of self-help gurus regurgitated and the dash of spiritual frippery all make it rather convincing. I like the fact that the Eightfold Truth is headed by Stephen Moore's Clark Goodman.

Stephen Moore is, of course, best known for being Marvin (The Paranoid Android) in the original Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Series and there's something about his voice that's both mildly melancholic and mildly comforting. To me at least. And he's a very British choice of Cult leader. No Showbiz Messiah complex here. Just a plain old-fashioned conman.

He's being professionally scoffed at by journalist Kelly Westwood (Sophie Winkleman) who is out to debunk the whole Eightfold Truth Cult. Kelly and the Doctor link up.

However Goodman is being manipulated by someone...and that someone is The Headhunter who is in possession of the Stellar Manipulator she palmed all the way back in Orbis and working for some familiar - well, familiar-ish - Doctor Who foes.

All of this is gradually revealed. The Doctor's story gradually pulls itself towards Lucie's. The Mercury probe, looked after by Dr Avishka Sangakkara (Sanjeev Bashkar), has ceased working and the Doctor's help makes him realise that there's Gallifreyan technology at work here. Then there's the crystals...

The cliffhanger is an excellent on with both Lucie and the Doctor facing dangers of their own. How will our heroes escape?

 

When we start Worldwide Web the Doctor's been in a coma for 28 days. Things have moved on. Plans are afoot. Or afeet one should say. On Eight Legs.

 

The villains are the Spiders of Metabelis 3 headed up by their Queen (Beth Chalmers). Applause here for Big Finish getting the Spider voices to sound just right. Sorry, the Eight Legs. They so hate being called Spiders.

 

Lucie has been taken over by the Queen. But lucky for us the baddies think the Doctor is dead, which is rather foolish of them and the strain of the operation - and keeping her minions happy - has allowed Lucie to get out of her own mind. A bit.

 

The scenes between Lucie Lucie and Queen Lucie are great and Sheriden Smith does a wonderful job of make Queen Lucie perceptibly different to Lucie Lucie by flattening her voice and taking all the warmth out of it. It's rather lovely.

 

I also like the fact that the Spiders have their arguments too. They're broken into factions and the Queen can't entirely trust everyone. Then there's Goodman, who has realised what he's let loose, and finally Karen who having been 'spidered up' against her will has something of a grudge against the Headhunter.

 

It's all leading to a rather interesting climax. The Doctor does his thing, Lucie does hers and the Headhunter suprises everyone in a rather brilliant little sequence. The Eighth Doctor's 'I never really understood her' almost being an echo of The Fifth Doctor's 'There should have been another way.' There's some weird stuff inside and around the Stellar Manipulator and some philosophising on what it means to be alive.

 

This is a fun end to the third season of Lucie Miller and Eighth Doctor adventures. The two leads get to have a lot of fun, various story arcs come to their end and they're off to Blackpool for Christmas. What could possibly go wrong?