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 | Great for a first attempt. |
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| What: | The Sirens of Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 May 2015 |
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| Rating: |   6 |
This is a good multi-doctor story but I find the varying locations confusing. The most enjoyable part is when all the doctors meet up. Overall it is an enjoyable story.
| What: | Illegal Alien (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Harry Ross Gorman, Bromborough, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This is a brilliant book with great characters especially for a first novel. It is a terrible shame that this never made it to television as originally intended but the fact that its book only does give it better effects and locations! The only problem is that the cover on my version has the wrong cyberman on it but it isn't described too much in detail in the book so its not that much of a deal.
| What: | Last of the Gaderene (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 9 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Mark Gatiss has homage down pat in this book. "Last of the Gaderene" is pure 3rd Doctor. The story is about alien invasion by stealth. A tiny village becomes the focus of the invasion. The Doctor reluctantly investigates. Then UNIT arrive. There's a monster that is mostly immune to bullets. Jo does the opposite of what she is told. The Doctor gets to play with a new toy, a Spitfire this time. Oh, and the Master is in there as well. I can see why many readers rate this very highly, since it hits all their hotspots. I found it less satisfying for the same reason. Also, there are several bits of clumsy writing. It is fun to sink into the nostalgia, but given the possibilities of the novel format, this reader wanted just a bit more.
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| Doctor Who by the Numbers |
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| What: | The Silver Turk (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 3 May 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"The Silver Turk" gives Mary Shelley her first outing as the Doctor's companion. As such, it is always going to be a bit of a "companion piece," in that much of the narrative is meant to introduce audiences to the new character. This character cannot be overwhelmed by the story, so like other such pieces - Rose, Smith and Jones, for instance - the plot is mostly Doctor Who by the numbers. All the elements of a typical Doctor Who story are in place. We get a historical location, some not overwhelmingly dangerous baddies, enough contrary motivations to move along the plot, the Doctor making self-righteous pronouncements about how much the world is in danger, and the new companion stepping in at the last minute after having second thoughts about this Tardis travel stuff to save the day. It is all entertaining enough and moves along at the right speed. Thankfully, Marc Platt did not go for his usual bizarrely complicated "is this reality" kind of plot.
| What: | Phantoms of the Deep (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Set in the bottom of the Mariana trench, "Phantoms of the Deep" has the Doctor, K9, and Romana picked up by an exploration vehicle deep under water, which in turn is picked up by an alien vessel that has created an artificial environment at the bottom of the ocean and is now sifting through species giving them extra intelligence and waiting for the right sort of intelligence to enhance and thus convert to save a dying (or dead) race. It does have the feel of 1978. Romana is a little bit more active in this one than in the TV series. Still, there are too many bits of plot by convenience, not the least of which is two, count them two, self-sacrifices so that our heroes don't have to die.
"Crime of the Century" was to be part of the 1990 series that got cancelled, introducing the new companion Raine and setting up the departure of Ace. The original writer was likely to be Ben Aaronovitch. The audio version is taken on completely by Andrew Cartmel, who has taken the few kernels of ideas he and Aaronovitch worked on and turned out the script he might like to have done, given the time and money. Thus, "Crime of the Century" has a very large scope, going from England to central Asia and then to Scotland, splitting the Doctor and Ace for 2 1/2 episodes, and including some party-goers, a downtrodden crime boss, some Russian soldiers, a central Asian sword-fighting prince, a race of mercenary beetles, some killer robots, and mysterious alien technology. It's the kind of throw-everything-into-the-bucket-and-shake story that spreads out its ideas too thinly. There are plenty of fun bits, and Ace comes through as a strong character in this one, much more confident than in the TV series. There is a part of the story that is a bit disturbing, at least to me. It is that the Doctor is more manipulative than I have encountered in any other story. This Doctor concocts an elaborate plan but gets other people to act the plan in very dangerous circumstances, while he himself never actually steps in. He simply says, "you do it," and they do it. This is a bit different from the TV series, where the Doctor manipulated Ace to face her fears, in essence to grow up, as in "Ghost Light" and "Curse of Fenric," or when the Doctor tried to manipulate Ace out of danger, as in "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Battlefield." Putting others into dangers that he himself won't face just seems ethically contrary to the Doctor as we know the character. So, credit goes to Cartmel for using the radio medium to its full potential. The story would have broken the budget to produce for TV. However, some problematic areas reduce the overall quality.
| What: | Moonflesh (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"Moonflesh" begins like a closet mystery. There is a pompous upper class jerk who has invited some other pompous upper class jerks for a get-together at his house. In this case, it is to do some sport hunting in 1911, with imported exotic animals as the game. Pompous jerk has a fainthearted daughter. Pompous jerk number 2 is a business owner. He has a wally for a son. Pompous jerk 1 has a Sioux manservant to say the usually vaguely spiritual things. There is also a lesbian feminist determined to do everything a man can do. This seems a fine enough setup for the closet mystery. But that mystery lasts one episode. The "moonflesh" gets released and the story turns into base under siege. All this might be fine, but the way it is dealt with is something else. We have an alien on the run. The alien police arrive to take it away, but they are just trackers, not the actual authorities. This seems placed simply to provide a needless plot twist to keep the otherwise weak story going. Then, there is the "ghost dance" sequence in which the Doctor and the Sioux somehow recreate a ghost dance, which is supposed to induce a meditative state, but here the Doctor and the Sioux go through harrowing encounters with Sioux gods while in the meditative state. It is pretty silly and not at all meditative. To be fair, the actors all give their best efforts and the sound design is very good.
| What: | The Demons of Red Lodge (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 25 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This is another of the anthology series, with four individual stories of one part each. As can be expected with such things, the results are very up and down. First up is "The Demons of Red Lodge" by Jason Arnopp. This is a witches of the 1600s story, except the witches are alien body snatchers. The compression of the story means that things are rather obvious and ideas that should develop do not. Next up is a story from newcomer Rick Briggs, winner of a contest for the opportunity. His story, "The Entropy Composition" is the worst of the bunch. This is a very Paul Magrs kind of story, taking potshots at past pop culture and getting facts wrong to do so (psychedelic rock and progressive rock are not the same thing, and 1968 was just the earliest days of progressive rock, when there was not even such a term). It is also needlessly jokey with large parts of the story designed to be setups for the jokes. "Doing Time" by William Gallagher is the best of the bunch. This story has the Doctor in prison, Nyssa trying to get into prison to rescue him and failing (she just can't be bad no matter how hard she tries), and an intriguing concept of a time barrier to keep the prisoners in. This story is one of the two that feels comfortable at the 20-minute length. The villain, however, is a rather stock character and not very convincing. The last story is "Special Features," which contains the interesting idea of taking place entirely while recording DVD extras commentary. The story also ties back to the first of the four. It is an interesting idea that can work only in the limited time format.
| What: | The Oseidon Adventure (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 16 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This story wraps up the first series of 4th Doctor adventures. As usual, the production team tries to make it feel much bigger than it actually is. The truth is, it feels like a small cast, too small for what the story is intending. The story itself is a classic case of double-bluff. The Master has been working for the Kraals. Or has he? Is he really playing them for suckers to get something else? The script has typical Alan Barnes aspects, such as several impostors and some misplaced jokiness. The performances overall are good, though. Tom Baker has really come back strong. Louise Jameson is thoroughly convincing. And Geoffrey Beevers makes an excellent Master. The story clips along at a great pace. It is entertaining, if nothing else.
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| Perhaps Dicks' Best Novel |
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| What: | Catastrophea (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 5 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
"Catastrophea" starts in a disappointingly routine way, but once the Doctor and Jo are on planet, the plot picks up marvelously and just races through to a generally satisfying end. Of course, pace is one of Dicks' strengths. A reader does not realize just how far along he/she has gotten until the reader looks at the page number and sees the advancement. The story itself presents the Doctor with an insoluble problem. The plot itself raises issues that are central to Dicks' concerns - colonialism, political unrest, environmentalism, and international (or interplanetary in this case) politics. We might think of this novel as a bit like what would happen if Joseph Conrad wrote for Doctor Who. Catastrophea is a planet in trouble. Basically a jungle world, humans have set up a rough colony that runs by more or less enslaving the local population, a species of humanoids that act much like elephants - large, strong, placid, pliable, but occasionally going berserk. The corporation that runs the colony has been overly exploitative, leaving a fractured system of local landlords in control. The planet is also home to the only source of a highly addictive illegal drug. The situation has attracted numerous young do-gooders who have no clue about how to organize and actually get any reforms done. Earth authorities have now sent the military and a representative to clean up the situation, but they are not having much success. And, to top it off, the colony is under blockade by a group of glory-seeking Draconians. This is just the basic situation. Add to this that the People, the natives, are not what they seem, and that a looming catastrophe to them means potential destruction of everyone, and you have a truly complicated problem any solution to which will not benefit everyone equally. There is no one person, not even the Doctor, who could make all of it turn out right. Some of the weaknesses are that the smugglers are fairly clichd, providing a handy plot complication but otherwise inessential; the running joke about Rik's bar gets tiresome; and the Draconians probably should have had a stronger presence in the plot. These problems aside, "Catastrophea" is a good read with the right amount of ethical ambiguity in the right places and a realistic outlook on political problems.
| What: | The Wrath of the Iceni (Fourth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Here is a nice little pure historical, with Doctor 4 in Roman Britain, caught up in the revenge wars of Boudica. The story follows the arc of the Doctor as Leela's educator. What Leela ends up learning is the limitation of her warrior upbringing, though this lesson was not intended. Leela meets what she believes to be an image of herself in Boudica, a strong, warrior woman, capable of command and given a just cause to fight. However, this gets the Doctor tangled up in known history. The Doctor cannot convince Leela of historical fixed points. This puts the two at odds, but not exactly on opposite sides. The story presents some excellent opportunities for Tom Baker to really strut his stuff as an actor, and he comes through marvelously well. The interaction between stubborn Doctor and stubborn Leela is excellent. The major problem of the story is trying to create historical sweep with a small cast. This leads to much shouting, especially between Leela and Boudica in the battle sequence, lots of "I'm tougher than you" with the two working themselves into homicidal frenzy. That aside, the episode is quite enjoyable.
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| Better than Hornets' Nest |
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I have been highly critical of Paul Magrs' writing elsewhere on this site. However, this little adventure I actually like a bit. That is probably because Magrs tones down significantly all the little irrelevant bits that usually make his writing so irksome, and focuses on telling the story. It is a vast improvement over "Hornets' Nest," in which everything seemed to have been written just so he could get in a mildly clever pun or show off his talent for alliteration. The structure of "Demon Quest" seems to be basically the same as in "Hornets' Nest." We start at Nest Cottage, something strange happens, and this forces the Doctor to travel in time to get little bits of the story, presumably to put it all together at the end.
Pt. 1: This particular bit of the story involves the Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey, the apparent cause of his trouble this time, to travel to Roman Britain and negotiate with some Britons so he can find out how a Roman mosaic tile of his likeness ended up there. This adventure has less narrating and more dramatizing than "Hornets' Nest," which is also an improvement. Still, some of the Magrs quirks are still there, such as the Doctor's being left with an elephant that he must take care of in an offhand manner. This is typical of Magrs' inability to take care of the many loose ends he tends to leave untied.
Pt. 2 After a pretty good opening of the "Demon Quest" cycle I had hoped that the whole set would step upward. Sadly, Magrs returns to many of his old tricks in this second story. The tale itself involves Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and the question of whether he is a Jack the Ripper type of killer. This in itself is just a preposterous beginning given the artists' handicap, which is referred to only once in this whole story. The narrator this time is Mrs. Wibbsey, who does not really make much of an interesting narrator, but the choice is typical of Magrs who prefers focusing on his own characters over focusing on Doctor Who characters. The most annoying part is that Magrs writes the Doctor as so unobservant that one would almost think that he's thick in the head. As is typical with Magrs, the Doctor is placed into a famous historical location or mis-en-place, such as a circus, and then made to perform like a puppet in all the clich aspects of the setting. So, we have to have the Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey go to the Moulin Rouge and the Doctor perform cabaret and talk to street girls who drink absinthe, etc. This would not be so bad except for the contortions he puts the plot through to get the Doctor into these situations, making these set pieces more important than the story.
Pt. 3: This is a nice little atmospheric supernatural tale set in the Alps in 1847. The narrator this time is one of the locals, Albert Tiermann (Animal Man), storyteller to the blind King. The Doctor has a bogus book supposedly of Tiermann's stories, and uses this to track down the next clue in this series' paper chase. The Doctor, Mike Yates, Tiermann, and his driver and footman bunk down in the last hotel for miles to weather a snow storm. Tiermann has a deep secret involving visitations from his benefactress, a mysterious ice queen. The hotel gets attacked by a demonic creature. The setting and story work well together, and as with "The Relics of Time" the story works because Magrs greatly turns down the level of superfluity that usually screws up his writing. Magrs' imagination also works best in 19th-century settings, which correspond with his prose style. However, his favorite word - benighted - reappears. Also, the climax and denouement are rather obvious given what we already know. The presence of Mike Yates does not amount to much. He ends up being the damsel in distress, but otherwise contributes little to the story. It was an enjoyable, but not brilliant, listen.
Pt. 4: Part 4 of "Demon Quest" finds Doctor 4, Mike Yates, and Mrs. Wibbsey traveling to New York City 1976. There, they get involved in a comic-book adventure featuring a decaying movie star (Norma Desmond, anyone?), a nebbish pretzel boy, a ghoulish cult of Doctor impersonators, and a mysterious meteorite that gives superpowers to pretzel boy's girlfriend. On top of that, pretzel boy is the narrator. Some good things about this are that at last Mrs. Wibbsey gets to be an active character and really do a proper companion role instead of just complaining about everything, the story is very comic-book like and so maintains the atmosphere that was set, and the plot does not have too many holes in it. However, there are several problems. First, pretzel boy is uninteresting as a narrator. Second, Mike Yates is again pretty useless. Third, is there any surprise at all about who the aging movie star really is?
Pt. 5 "Demon Quest" finally and at long last comes to an end. While decidedly better than "Hornets' Nest," it still has too many of the characteristic flaws of Magrs' writing. As the payout episode, it is kind of low key. The demon has been trying to kidnap the Doctor and get him to Sepulchre. That leads us to believe that this will be an awe-inspiring place. In fact, it is a dull box in space with a bunch of equally dull caves beneath. Magrs still writes so as to downplay older Doctor Who characters and play up his own inventions. Thus, the real villains to this piece should be no surprise. The whole plan is so elaborately overdone compared to what they want to accomplish that it seems hardly worth the wait. And once more Mike Yates is utterly useless, spending half the episode pinned to a rock because of vertigo. It is typical of Magrs to supply stupid ways to resolves problems that his own plot creates. Why does Mike get vertigo? The only reason is so he will not be able to rescue the Doctor, which he otherwise quite easily would have. All in all, it is just disappointing given its start.
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| Dull ending to the series |
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| What: | Demon Quest: Sepulchre (Nest Cottage audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"Demon Quest" finally and at long last comes to an end. While decidedly better than "Hornets' Nest," it still has too many of the characteristic flaws of Magrs' writing. As the payout episode, it is kind of low key. The demon has been trying to kidnap the Doctor and get him to Sepulchre. That leads us to believe that this will be an awe-inspiring place. In fact, it is a dull box in space with a bunch of equally dull caves beneath. Magrs still writes so as to downplay older Doctor Who characters and play up his own inventions. Thus, the real villains to this piece should be no surprise. The whole plan is so elaborately overdone compared to what they want to accomplish that it seems hardly worth the wait. And once more Mike Yates is utterly useless, spending half the episode pinned to a rock because of vertigo. It is typical of Magrs to supply stupid ways to resolves problems that his own plot creates. Why does Mike get vertigo? The only reason is so he will not be able to rescue the Doctor, which he otherwise quite easily would have. All in all, it is just disappointing given its start.
| What: | Demon Quest: Starfall (Nest Cottage audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 April 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Part 4 of "Demon Quest" finds Doctor 4, Mike Yates, and Mrs. Wibbsey traveling to New York City 1976. There, they get involved in a comic-book adventure featuring a decaying movie star (Norma Desmond, anyone?), a nebbish pretzel boy, a ghoulish cult of Doctor impersonators, and a mysterious meteorite that gives superpowers to pretzel boy's girlfriend. On top of that, pretzel boy is the narrator. Some good things about this are that at last Mrs. Wibbsey gets to be an active character and really do a proper companion role instead of just complaining about everything, the story is very comic-book like and so maintains the atmosphere that was set, and the plot does not have too many holes in it. However, there are several problems. First, pretzel boy is uninteresting as a narrator. Second, Mike Yates is again pretty useless. Third, is there any surprise at all about who the aging movie star really is?
| What: | Divided Loyalties (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 29 March 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Blimey this is a marmite book. People seem to either really hate it or really like it, so being a contrary sod I'll say it was an okay sort of book.
I suppose your opinion of this book is coloured by how much you like continuity and refernces to old storys. Me ? Love them, to a degree and this book has enough to satisfy my inner fan wank.
The story it's self is okay. I think Gary Russell captures the 5th Doctor & this particular TARDIS tea very well indeed.
The story it's self has some good ideas, particularly the way the Toymaker plays with the companions in security's.
My biggest dissapointment was after building up to the end it ended very suddenly and unsatisfactory.
All In all an ok sort of book.
| What: | Demon Quest: A Shard Of Ice (Nest Cottage audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 24 March 2015 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"Demon Quest" started well with "The Relics of Time," dropped off quite a bit with "The Demon of Paris," then came back up with "A Shard of Ice." This is a nice little atmospheric supernatural tale set in the Alps in 1847. The narrator this time is one of the locals, Albert Tiermann (Animal Man), storyteller to the blind King. The Doctor has a bogus book supposedly of Tiermann's stories, and uses this to track down the next clue in this series' paper chase. The Doctor, Mike Yates, Tiermann, and his driver and footman bunk down in the last hotel for miles to weather a snow storm. Tiermann has a deep secret involving visitations from his benefactress, a mysterious ice queen. The hotel gets attacked by a demonic creature. The setting and story work well together, and as with "The Relics of Time" the story works because Magrs greatly turns down the level of superfluity that usually screws up his writing. Magrs' imagination also works best in 19th-century settings, which correspond with his prose style. However, his favorite word - benighted - reappears. Also, the climax and denouement are rather obvious given what we already know. The presence of Mike Yates does not amount to much. He ends up being the damsel in distress, but otherwise contributes little to the story. It was an enjoyable, but not brilliant, listen.
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| Magrs Returns to Mediocrity |
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After a pretty good opening of the "Demon Quest" cycle I had hoped that the whole set would step upward. Sadly, Magrs returns to many of his old tricks in this second story. The tale itself involves Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and the question of whether he is a Jack the Ripper type of killer. This in itself is just a preposterous beginning given the artists' handicap, which is referred to only once in this whole story. The narrator this time is Mrs. Wibbsey, who does not really make much of an interesting narrator, but the choice is typical of Magrs who prefers focusing on his own characters over focusing on Doctor Who characters. The most annoying part is that Magrs writes the Doctor as so unobservant that one would almost think that he's thick in the head. As is typical with Magrs, the Doctor is placed into a famous historical location or mis-en-place, such as a circus, and then made to perform like a puppet in all the cliché aspects of the setting. So, we have to have the Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey go to the Moulin Rouge and the Doctor perform cabaret and talk to street girls who drink absinthe, etc. This would not be so bad except for the contortions he puts the plot through to get the Doctor into these situations, making these set pieces more important than the story.
| What: | The Dark Husband (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Matt Saunders, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 17 March 2015 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
It's pretty good and very clever. I like the fact this has been written by a very experienced radio script writer and one who loves Doctor Who. Only problem for me is that one of the characters sounded too MUCH like Brian Blessed when he was in Trial of a Time Lord? Was that intentional? It's so uncanny! Was it him in disguise?! I like all the Hex and Hox stuff too. Oh, and doesn't the cover look like it should have the God's of Ragnarok in it?! :)
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| Decent story, rubbish reading |
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| What: | Blackout (New series audio originals) |
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| By: | Patrick Alexander, Bellevue, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 16 March 2015 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Stuart Milligan is a fine actor. However he really let this story down. I just couldn't hear the characters' personalities coming through.
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| The Art of Raquel Cassidy |
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| What: | The Art of Death (New series audio originals) |
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| By: | Patrick Alexander, Bellevue, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 16 March 2015 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The Art of Death is a very well written story but Raquel Cassidy's reading of it is what pushes this story way over the top. You feel every feeling and emotion that the characters feel. Absolutely excelent.
