Thoughts on National Character
An Article on the lost episode reconstructions
Audio Adventures
Who Knew? New Who!
I like Doctor Who and I LOVE vintage radio dramas: and so for me the combination of the two is like chocolate. Before now I never bought into any of the Doctor Who "spin-offs" -- see Canon or Cannot for my reasons why -- but the new official Audio / Radio Dramas from Big Finish are another matter entirely. With the original cast in place and a concerted effort to produce real dramas -- not just recitals of prose stories -- I'm firmly in the camp that says "Doctor Who is Back!"
How does Doctor Who translate to audio? Very well, thank you. The budgetary constrictions are minimal: the special effects, settings and costumes are as good as your Mind's Eye (and the sound crew) can make them... the plotting (always a WHO weakness as stories are padded out over four or more episodes) compares more than favorably to other SF radio shows -- especially ALIEN WORLDS which could sometimes get through an entire first episode without offering the slightest indication of a plot; and having the old cast back insures that the original series charm is intact.
The biggest drawback I see is that with no narration and no taglines -- as had both The Shadow and Superman in the golden age of radio -- these dramas are unlikely to generate new fans. In "The Genocide Machine," a small "salvage" crew is massacred by the Daleks (who were actually living inside the salvager's objective); then without a word the action shifts to the TARDIS interior -- all very much in keeping with the show and easily understood by its fans: but to non-fans it won't make a lick of sense.
Never mind. I'll take it.
Following are mini-reviews of the Doctor Who audio dramas I've listened to so far. More will follow soon! One star is not so good: four is tops. Professor? (Updated September 4 2001)
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The Paradise of Death (BBC Radio) 5 episodes. We love it when Doctor Who's roots show, and this one turns out to be pure Soylent Green. Pertwee, Slayden and Courtney are in fine voice, and in all but the tone (which is a good deal nastier than Perwtee-era WHO), "Paradise" perfectly recaptures the Letts / Pertwee days of the show. The effect is quite wonderful: better than any other "TV reunion" I'm familiar with. Only some padding in the middle episodes, an overabundance of characters and lackluster work from the sound crew keep this from being a four star venture. * * * |
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The Ghosts of N-Space (BBC Radio) 6 episodes. A good, straightforward story about a Mad Monk transcending time is made needlessly complicated by a degree of doubletalk that's high even by the standards of the Pertwee era. In the first episode we have the Doctor explaining all the secrets of life and death as if he'd invented them: I like the Doctor to be super-humanly knowledgeable, but some mysteries should baffle even a Time Lord. Worse, his explanation is pure gibberish, especially in the light of a more elegant one offered during the Tom Baker era: that ghostly manifestations are nothing more than rips in the fabric of time. The production is further undermined by three really horrible performances from the guest cast: in the end, only the grace of Pertwee, Sladen and Courtney combined with a good technical production save this one. Pertwee's final turn as The Doctor could -- and should -- have been much happier. * * |
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The Sirens of Time (Big Finish) 4 episodes. Well conceived and managing to balance tradition with invention, Sirens has taken an undeserved drubbing in the fan press for daring to be different. Far from a conventional team-up, Sirens places three Doctors in three separate and distinct adventures linked by a danger that strikes from an unexpected angle (less so if one reads the acting credits beforehand) and brings the Doctors together only in the final episode. It's ambitious, but executed admirably and nicely positioned as a "pilot" for the series to follow. McCoy, Davison and Baker all reprise the part with conviction and style (though McCoy has the best "radio voice"), and the supporting cast is uniformly fine. In particular, Maggie Stables as Ruthley is a delight. Sound effects and design by Briggs are outstanding. * * * * |
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Phantasmagoria (Big Finish) 4 episodes. If it isn't the best Doctor Who ever, nor the most imaginative, it's still entertaining and structurally sound. Writer Mark Gatiss has assembled a sort of "master plot" -- about a criminal from the future tapping the life-force of victims from the past -- and populated it with some fun characters -- and it's the characters, not the ideas, that carry this story. Peter Davison plays the Doctor just as if Time had indeed been put on hold from the 1980's until now: only Mark Strickson disappoints; he seems to be rather walking through this job, as though unimpressed with what he was given to do. Alaistair Lock does a fine job at realizing the sound -- only going overboard a bit in one scene (just how many people are in that restaurant, Mr. Lock?) Nothing earth-shattering here, but quite fun. * * * |
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Whispers of Terror (Big Finish) 4 episodes. Despite a cracking performance from Colin Baker that sees him playing the traditional Doctor as against the psychopathic one he was forced, for a while, to portray on television, this is the weakest Big Finish audiodrama to date thanks to an amateurish script. The dullish plot is full of "surprizes" that aren't; it isn't helped by Justin Richards's hackneyed dialogue and the kind of botched storytelling that makes it difficult to tell which characters are standing in the same room together and who is doing what to whom. Peter Miles makes a fun appearance, cast against type in a sympathetic role, but Mathew Brenner is an absolute disaster in a key role as "the greatest actor of his age." The stakes are extremely low, and the political dialogue is at best trite and uninvolving. On the whole, I'd rather be skydiving. * |
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The Land of The Dead (Big Finish) 4 episodes. In its early episodes this one has the feeling of being a good one -- despite a couple of rather dowdy performances in the supporting cast. It was only in the final episodes that I realized it wasn't going to live up to my expectations of it -- and that may be more my fault than the author's. The monsters are very good (and this is nothing more than a classic WHO Monster Story) -- but I was hoping for a glimpse of a guiding intelligence behind the monsters that I never got. Even so, it's a good solid claustrophobic chiller, realized very well by the audio team and most of the actors. Sarah Sutton comes off as much older -- as of course she is -- than she did on the television show, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. She and Peter Davison really give the script their all. There's rather too much of the actors telling each other what they, presumably, can see for themselves, though that's a minor quibble. Good monsters, well realized, and Davison at his most congenial. I shan't complain. * * * |
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The Fearmonger (Big Finish) 4 episodes. A very sound story that fits comfortably within the framework of Sylvester McCoy's tenure on the show, The Fearmonger could nonetheless have been better with just a little bit of nudging from a script editor. What it needs is an extra flourish (I really dislike the name of the monster and its lack of a personality) and a little more philosophical weight: as it is, what we have here is nothing more profound than President Roosevelt's "Fear Itself" speech, which said the same things in a fraction of the time. Episode one just crackles but the story flags somewhat from there, despite a riot and assorted bombings and shootings. After strong initial scenes, McCoy begins to seem somewhat distracted, rather under-performing some very good dialogue; meanwhile Sophie Aldred takes the driver's seat as Ace. But it's the fine supporting cast and some of Alastair Lock's best sound production that makes this one finally pull together. Good but not great. * * * |
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The Genocide Machine (Big Finish) 4 episodes. Good solid plotting, a high standard of sound dramatization and top-notch performances from McCoy and Aldred make this one a must-have item. It lacks the gleeful anarchism of McCoy's tenure on the show, and the dialogue is not so fine as we sometimes saw during that era ("I hate bus terminals...") but it's unfair to criticise a drama for being traditional. The Daleks come off much more effectively than could reasonably have been expected in an audio drama, and the guest cast are all well up to snuff. This is archetypal WHO. * * * * |