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 | Another Classy Historical |
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| What: | The Crusade (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 20 June 2011 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
If there is one particular story in Will Hartnell's run that clearly highlights this spectacular actors abilities, then I would overall have to go for The Crusade. William Hartnell positively shines within this story. And so once again it is highly lamentable that this story suffers from being partly lost. It is so irritating that the BBC saw fit to destroy such brilliant serials as The Crusade. If everything else was rubbish in The Crusade and just Will saved it, then it would still be brilliant. But nothing in The Crusade is rubbish, no way.
The Crusade is the perfect mix of comedy and yet horror at times. We have Walter Randall, superbly cast as the sadistic El Akir, and its obvious that he relishes playing the role due to the fact that he's just so flipping good at it. Bernard Kay and Saladin too is perfectly cast, and Bernard gives the role many good and interesting layers, whilst being more subtle than Walter, he is all the more sinister and palpable.
Maureen Obrien really shines with Will Hartnell in this one, there is a level of comraderie between them that outshines even the best scenes Will had with Carole Ann Ford beforehand. Maureen gives by far her best performance here, pretending to be a boy for most of the tale so as not to land in trouble.
Jacqueline Hill delights again as Barbara, and this is perhaps her most involved story of them all, as it really is her story overall, yet still all the other characters dont fade into the background. William Russell too is as reliable as ever as Ian. The opening sword fight sequences are extremely well done for the time.
And then we come to Julian Glover and Jean Marsh. Douglas Camfield definitely picked the cream to play these two parts. Julian delivers a peaked performance as the troubled King Richard, and Jean Marsh as Joanna is an inspiration and joy to watch. All of them just spark off each other so very well indeed and make the script positively glow with life.
There is a gritty realism to the Crusade that was only matched by The Massacre and Marco Polo, it is truly an outstanding historical tale that explores its themes very well indeed and even in the restricted audio medium, this story is just phenomenal.
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| A lot better than most stories... |
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| What: | Death to the Daleks (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 17 June 2011 |
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| Rating: |  9 |
The opening five minutes of this story are probably the most eerie and chilling scenes in the entire history of Doctor Who. The atmosphere is palpable and the Exillons make a distinctly disturbing villain, given their blank skull mask faces. They frightened the living rubbish out of me when I first saw this tale.
This serial seems to be one of the least remembered Dalek stories of all of them, but I just cannot see why. Right OK yeah Ill list the bad bits first, of which there arent that many. The first is the fight between the dalek and the root, one can clearly see that between blows from the root the dalek isnt moving at all, and does look a bit odd for that reason. And its got a very noticeable wire attachment too hasnt it that root?! The other sore point is yes, the score. Those sax bits just dont work at all, and make the drama far less impacting for it. But those scraper bits are brilliant, and that whistling eerie sound too are excellent. And those though are the only bad things I can find in this tale.
Bellal is another in the long line of extremely likeable characters, and is played to perfection by Arnold Yarrow. The Daleks too are brilliantly voiced by Michael Wisher. The acting front is particularly good too. Jill Tarrant and Dan Galloway are brilliant characters, and John Abineri is in this tale for far too short a time. That Dalek getting its head mashed in by the exillons is a brilliant scene!
The plot here too isnt convuluted, and the design of the city is excellent. And those anti body exxilons are quite frankly skanky and horrific looking, one of the best designs from the Jon Pertwee era of the show. Mind you, maybe that episode three cliffhanger is a little bit wierd and totally uneventful, although in its wholly abridged film version its good, as the story just continues on its way very well indeed.
Its good to see the Daleks on the recieving end of some destruction for once, and good idea of making them helpless, at least for a little while. So actually overall (because those bad points dont detract hardly at all from the good points) another very strong dalek story from a very strong writer indeed.
Jon and Elizabeth too are just gelling so very well indeed and they really bounce off each other brilliantly.
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| Absolutely cool release I cant wait for! |
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| What: | Earth Story (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 17 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The Gunfighters has always suffered a lot of flack. And Im here to say that this is totally unwarranted. The Gunfighters for a start is the only western oriented programme ive ever liked. Here there is plenty of comedy, along with plenty of decent drama too though. The character of Doc Holliday is brilliantly over the top, and to see Lawrence Payne in his earliest Doctor Who role is great. Peter purves gives a great performance as Steven and yet for me it is the brilliant Jackie Lane who sparkles here. Her cocking the pistol at Holliday and then nearly fainting from the thought of having to really use it was a great scene for me. William Hartnell of course doesnt need much talk. He clearly relishes this story, and his performance is truly one of the strongest ever. He could have worked so well ina western film. He has all the right attributes. One of the most wrongly maligned tales in the whole of the series. Yeah, okay it might not be wholly true to actual events, but its a ripping great yarn that still pleases this 25 year old after all these years.
The Awakening is possibly the strongest two parter in the original series of Doctor Who, except for maybe Black Orchid. There is so much atmosphere packed into this two parter. The acting standard is very high indeed and the design of the Mauls is highly imaginative and convincing. And for once its actually not a failure in the fact that its only in one place for the whole of the story. Peter Davison is perhaps at his strongest and most confident, and Janet Fielding is always a star. Mark Strickson brings his yet again slightly meagre offering as Turlough still to brilliant life. The character of Will though is a spark of genius. And I would have wished for him to stay on as a regular! He was so funny and yet so well portrayed too. The beheading scene of the soldier, although not shown too graphically is still a shocking horrific moment, and makes this story all the darker and more impacting.
So just to lay it down for you all, Earth Story contains two very very strong stories indeed, One riveting and funny comedy, and one strong sci fi horror story. Very good stuff indeed.
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| One loves oddball stories. |
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Raine Creevy is a brilliant character and Beth Chalmers is the perfect choice to play her. Shes got just the right kind of voice for the safe cracking individual.
The first excellent idea here is having her break into a house to steal jewels from the safe, only to find Doc Who squatting down inside it. This is a very good idea and is pretty funny too.
The plot twists here are also not predictable, which is always such a brilliant thing. One can get tired of the same plot elements all of the time. That it should turn out that the stuff Raine has nicked is her Dad's is a neat little twist for a start.
The Metatraxi too are a brilliant creation. Wonderfully comedic stuff with their broken translator makes for a pitch perfect funny ha ha moment amidst the far more serious elements of the story. John Banks is so wonderfully camp as the leader of the Metatraxi.
Sylvester McCoy is good as the Doctor who thinks he's got a foolproof masterplan, but as usual it goes rather vastly wrong. And the death of the Prince near episode threes ending is very shocking and a real piece of horror in this sci fi gem.
All the characters here are well rounded and get a decent amount of stuff to do all throughout the story. one is lamenting the fact that these stories were never done on the screen when the series got cancelled. Sylv at last gets the chance to return to his brilliantly different persona that he first brought to life so well on the screen all those years ago.
One loves the banter between Ace and Raine towards the end of this story. Sophie Aldred is just as brilliant and dependably strong and mouthy as ever. She always will be a firm favourite of mine amidst the world of companions.
The plot of this story is also not simple either, one has to really listen to keep up with all the happenings along the way up until the exceptionally good climax. Andrew Cartmel really did well with his earlier Winter For The Adept, and to hear his tales originally intended for the screen is brilliant. And its even more good when the story is as good as Crime of the Century.
Im really looking forward to seeing what happens when the next lost sory comes along in the shape of Animal.
This story captures all the spice of the seventh doctors TV era, the Doc is more mysterious and manipulative but at the same time still as moral and excellent of fibre as he ever was. One loves this excellent slant to the character that had long not been all that present in the series. Its gets you thinking wether you really know the Doctor at all.
So this story has it all, comedy, action, plenty of bangs and flashes. Great dialogue and not too long episodes. What could more ask of a Doctor Who story? I hope their are far more like this great tale in the future from big finish. They dont half know how to make brillliant stories these guys. Its great, given the fact that the TV series now is so largely klamentably moronic and dull and uninspiring to say the least. This comes from the period where Doctor Who was the best programme on TV, and this story fits in their like a piece of the jigsaw.
Well done Andrew, a brilliant story.
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| More developement for cool Turlough |
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| What: | Kiss of Death (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 17 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Good to hear Mark Strickson getting another really decent story. Hes being far well better served in this audio series, especially in these last two trilogys. This story is excellent for a whole lot of other reasons too. It has all the companions being strong and getting a very good chunk of the script too. Peter Davison again is brilliant and flawless in this very atmospheric production. Love Janet Fielding as Tegan, and again here she is particularly meaty and fantastically written into the story, what with her escape from those thugs that are seeking to open the Vault. And Sarah Sutton is her typical brilliant self too.
Its nive to hear some more of the back story for Turlough too. Deela is a real manipulative little minx, and the other characters are your typical yet brilliant morons of the highest order. The sound design too once is again is highly effective, you really feel youre in a freezing hole somewhere. The Morass is a particularly effective and interesting alien thing too. All the elements of the script come together very strongly, better than Stephen's earlier The Land of The Dead by far.
And we get the return of the gravity wells too, from his second audio for BFP, from The Apocalypse Element. And here they aree utilised and explained far clearer. But still the best factor of this story is Mark. A great character indeed, and his acting here is particularly good. This continues the high note set by Heroes of Sontar, and One looks forward to whats to come in the next story, Rat Trap...
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| Boring, overlong and course |
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| What: | Iceberg (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 16 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
I was really looking forward to reading this book. I had been searching for it to buy in a multitude of places and finaally resorted to buying it online when I found it on Amazon. Here was me thinking that a Cyberman story by that best ever Cyberleader David Banks would be engaging and brilliant with the Cybermen in from the word go.
Boy, just how wrong can a man be?
I was truly shocked to find that this story is basically a total mess, peppered with nothing but rubbish and idiocy and just plain over the top violence. Its the curse of too many of these virgin new adventures. Theyve turned the Doctor is a psycho, Ace into a pleb, and Benny Summerfield as just a spare part who doesnt really fit in. In this story we get two of the three left out, but this still doesnt save this story.
I was also surprised by the lack of any serious cyber action and the lack of the Seventh Doctor until about more than half way through this dull and tedious and foul mouthed novel. I thought David would have done far better than this, what with being such a brilliant Cyberman in the classic Who series run.
It was a true letdown of the highest order. The cybermen hardly appear, and all the characters are rather bland and soulless. The thing is just so limp and bland its unbelievable. Very very sad shock indeed for me. Doesnt come recommended at all. The plots rediculous, trying to follow on the heels of the Invasion but failing dismally.
Shocking.
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| Good voice acting/weak plot |
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SPOILER WARNING:
The Hornets have to be the most incompetent villains to grace the Who-niverse. After being able to drift from planet to planet on the solar winds, and having supposedly wrecked previous planets, these former world beaters find themselves trapped in a pig, and captured by whiskeified nuns. The nuns, no great shakes themselves are, despite being in a stone fortress, none the less, unable to fend off wild possessed dogs and the hornets escape. The Doctor, sightseeing during this catastrophe brings the now hound encased swarm forward 500 or so years to Venice, but only after they possess him. However, once in Venice they abandon the Time Lord and Tardis and possess a young disfigured midget. Good strategy that! The midget will grow up to be the evil carnival leader in Circus of Doom. After taking hold of him, the would be world conquerors waste the next hundred and change years managing a demented circus and killing the odd local in their games. When confronted in the mid 1800s by the Doctor, the events culminate in them suiciding their new host for reasons that are hard to grasp and going dark for another 70s years, turning up in a pair of mummified feet in a seaside tourist trap in the 1930s. The hornets, who can control minds and change their size and the size of others have contented themselves to hiding in a Curio palace, and somehow take control of a dancer through a pair of shoes previously seen in the Circus episode. After bumbling through the adventure the Doctor saves the dancer and the bugs keep their world beating plans on hold again for unexplained reasons. Finally, as told in the first and last CDs the bugs take over a taxidermist and engage in random mayhem, ending up imprisoned in Nest Cottage with the Doctor as warden. The Doctor finally figures out which stuffed animal houses the Queen and uses one of the ballet slippers to shrink down and trick the queen...the end..Its nice to hear Baker and Franklin, but the villains were overly powerful and weak at the same time. One wonders why the Doctor didn't simply have the house fumigated and solve the problem. Its a mush and a muddle. Hope the Demon series is better done. This series is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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| Great, original, exciting, but the end! |
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| What: | Blood Heat (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 14 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Have to say this is one of my favourites, I have a battered copy on a shelf, which I have read many times over the years.
An action packed, roller coaster, which tests the doctor, putting the brigader and ace in their element.
As with the other reviews, don't want to give anything away, but the build up to the end is great but the very end is a little disappointing.
Despite this I love 99% of it.
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| Strong start, soft middle, cool ending |
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| What: | Kiss of Death (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 14 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Mixing up the plot line for one of the original team, risks sending old fans into a panic - how, what, you can't I cried, as suddenly realised what was happening.
However the fast pace, compelling plot quickly made me set this aside, as I was carried along by a great story. Kiss of Death is a great story, my only negative is the hired hit men, nothing original and they seemed to run out of good lines towards the end. However I loved the ending for the bad guy, very good, sent a shiver down my spine.
Still overall a good enjoyable story, worth listening too.
| What: | Heroes of Sontar (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 14 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Heroes of Sontar, plays up to the classic image of the english army of days gone by. Lots of mad old generals, die hard troops, a little WWI and Blackadder humour thrown in for fun.
Overall a great story, funny, enjoyable, a real feast for the ears.
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| Cheap reprints available on Amazon! |
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| What: | So Vile A Sin (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Jacob Mason, Manchester, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 10 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This is a fantastic book - I barrowed a copy yonks ago and was blown away.
Aaronovitch and Orman are fantastic authors and they don't disappoint in this book. I would reccomend reading a few NAs before starting on this book, as it wraps up some loose ends from other adventures.
As Aaronovitch couldn't finish the manuscript on time for whatever reason, Orman completed the book for him and as a result it was published after 'The Dying Days' - and although I wasn't old enough to remember it at the time, I'm told the book wasn't available for long as Virgin's license was revoked.
As a result, it sells for silly-money on Amazon, but a reprint-on-demand is now available for just under £5. I can't recommend this enough for those who love the NAs and can't obtain a copy themselves.
The link below is Amazon's page for the So Vile a Sin reprint:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Doctor-Who-Adventures-Vile/dp/0753539756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307739048&sr=8-1
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| strong end to a very good trilogy |
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| What: | The Guardian Of The Solar System (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Jean Marsh rocks as Sara Kingdom, cant wait to hear more of her story hopefully not too far in the future! Simon Guerrier has definitely provided three corking good scripts which Jean clearly has enjoyed doing, as its so evident in her pitch perfect delivery and performance. This end to the trilogy is emotinally charged, and has a very strong narrative indeed. The plot too is wonderfully done and very strongly laid out. Lisa Bowerman's direction is totally superb. Niall MacGrger too is excellent in his character of Robert. The end of this trilogy has been long awaited, and it defintely leaves one wanting more. I wonder who will get the chance to write for the brilliant Miss Kingdom next? Whoever they are, they have a very tough act to follow indeed. For Simon Guerrier has produced one of the best trilogies in any genre of stories ever. But I am willing to give any story with the great Jean Marsh a chance. After all, Sara Kingdom is such a brilliant character. The character of Steven and the Doctor is spot on too, and is a fitting tribute to the late great William Hartnell. Its so lovely seeing his face on the cover of new and thoroughly thrilling new adventures. Well done BFP, and well done Jean, and well done Simon.
| What: | Shadow of the Past (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This story has all the staple Simon Guerrier elements. A strong narrative, strong characters and an easily followable pace. Caroline John sinks back effortlessly again into the role of the brilliant Liz Shaw, whilst Lex Shrapnel is excellent as the soldier in this one. It really is so good hearing tales from the first three Doctors again. Its a real decent tribute to the memory of the great William, Patrick and John. These companion tales just get better all the time. Ive not yet heard a real true dissapointment in this brilliant range of audio books. And Shadow of The Past is one of the strongest, its definitely worth a buy.
| What: | The Emperor of Eternity (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
What nostalgia it is to hear Debbie and Frazer again after all these long years. What nostalgia it is to hear them back in as good a historical yarn as this tale from NIgel Robinson is. What nostalgia to see a new historical appear in the Second Doctor's era. This story is one of the most strongly realised and presented in the whole of the sompanion chronicles so far. Its very very strong indeed. There are elements that are truly horrific, such as the beheading scene which would have been considerably toned down for the screen had this of been thought of way back in the sixties. Debbie and Frazer just gel back together as if they have never been apart. I love historicals and thank big finish for having the sense to bring back the history tales to Doctor Who. Humans are the worst monsters, so we dont always need some alien from Aldeberon 3! A great tale.
| What: | The Invasion of Time (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The single weakness of this story is the farewell to Leela. She hardly even knows that bloke Andred. Although there are some clearly set scenes where you can see she is beginning to feel something for this time lord bloke. The rest of the tale is paced very strongly indeed, with the shock reveal of the Sontarans in episode four being for once totally unexpected indeed. Tom Baker gives a towering performance as the for once very shifty but highly clever time lord, and hsi shouting is brilliant! Louise Jameson as ever is strong and dependable. The best scene is where she throws that knife right into the back of the neck of that idiot sontaran in the corridor! The humour in this too is good but not over the top. And I love the character of Rodan. Castellan Kelner is another moron of the highest order too. And those shimmering vardans are rather likeable! Derek Deadman plays an excellent Sontaran too. John Leeson as K9 is particularly good here too, as he too seems to be following highly suspicious orders from the Doctor up until part four. And for the first time in this story we get to see a decent amount of Sontarans for once, not just the solatary one. The scene in the TARDIS with the plant and the sontaran is one of the single funniest moments in Whodom, especially when the Doctor shakes that sontarans hand!!!! This is definetly a tale where the writers got the comedy just right.
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| Hugely maligned, for no reason.. |
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| What: | Destiny of the Daleks (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Genesis of the Daleks is weaker than this story by a long chalk. In the fact that their are far more daleks in this tale, given the fact that its also two episodes shorter. Genesis of the Daleks had a better Davros, one has to admit, but David Gooderson is nowhere near as bad as many seem to think he is.
But still, even Destiny has its inherent weaknesses.
I love the comedy inherent in this script, that was sadly the last to come from Terry Nation's great brain. Lalla Ward and Tom Baker so clearly spark off each other. Lalla Ward makes an instant good impression as Romana too, although Ive always been bewildered by the fact that Mary never got a proper goodbye scene. And obviously Time Ladies have a different kind of regeneration cycle too!!
The Daleks here do look very battle scarred and warpoed, which is a brilliant point actually, considering they have been in a war thanks very much indeed.
And Romana can clearly fool those stupid tin pepperpots, as she says they were once humanoid themselves but earlier under the daleks lie detector she says she knows nothing at all about the daleks, the devious little woman!
The two things I hate about this tale is firstly that woeful Why not try climbing after us scene. Right from The Chase we SEE that daleks can go upstairs, although we're left wondering how until Rememberance of the Daleks. So this scene is just a totallly moronic and cringe worthy scene that spoils this episode no end. Secondly its that dalek threat to the Doctor, that they will exterminate all the slaves in turn til he surrenders. And its a gross character misjudgement to have the Doctor wait til two have been killed before he acts! That is the most lamentable dog mess in the whole of the Tom Baker run of the series.
Thankfully the rest of the story is of a far stronger quality. The Movellans are a very intereseting race of robots. Its brilliant in all the seasons where they flail about after there power packs have been snatched off their belts! And i love it when Romana boots Sharrells arm off! Quite brilliant comedy there which makes up for the earlier rubbish.
So this is nowhere near a perfect tale, but it does on the whole satisfy more than Genesis of the Daleks. That Davros triggers the daleks demise too is another excellent moment too! Ha ha!
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| "RUBBISH? I CALL IT NEARER BRILLIANT" |
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| What: | Time-Flight / Arc of Infinity (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 9 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The thing that seems to happen a lot in Whodom is an overglossing and over praise of stories that are actually pretty weak at heart, Like Pyramids of Mars and The Robots of Death, and a tendancy to lambaste stories like The Monster of Peladon, Timelash, and these two tales presented here in this fine boxed set.
The first story, Time-Flight, admittedly does have its weak points, I agree, but not enough to stop it from being highly enjoyable. The main problems are the design of the Plasmaton and that hand puppet thing, and the Xeraphin arent perhaps the most realistic monster, being just silver suited with a wierd little head piece. But for me as a whole that is where the stories failures end. I for one cant see why this script apparently boasts rediculous lines aplenty, Ive never heard them up until now. What this story also presents is Anthony Ainley doing a different sort of voice in the guise of Kalid, enough so to make it genuinely surprising when its revealed that he's the Master. His inflection is great as the india chinese like figure. For Once I had no clue that it was going to be the Master. Another thing that is really strong in this story in particular is the the wonderful friendship between Nyssa and Tegan, a wonderful amount of scenes here show how good Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding are in their seperate roles. And the first TARDIS scene as they crew lament the loss of Adric is rather well done i feel, a nice overtone that isnt overdone by any of the three TARDIS occupants. And all the supporting actors just truly add to make this story far from the worst in the fifth Doctor's era. Peter Davison too is no less brilliant as the most human of Doctors. So this is a tale only let down by the monsters, and some of the decidedly wooden sounding sets, but Ive never really cared about that.
The Mouth on Legs extra with Janet Fielding is very very nice, only its far too short. Considering she spent three years in the TARDIS, 10 or so minutes is not enough to talk with such a fine actress!
Arc of Infinity has a classic villain return to the series in the guise of Omega, but here his character is more of a puzzle, and more multi layered than in the first story he appeared in. The only major fault in this tale is that Nyssa's line that the creature is formed from Anti matter instantly wille voke fans memories so its easy to guess who the villain will be. But aside from this minor scripting quibble this is overall yet another highly engaging story. Colin Baker marks his first role in Doctor Who as the clearly up himself Commander Maxil, a role that he excels in as much as he did in his time as the Doctor. He works so well with Paul Jerricho's Castellan. Paul Jerricho plays a slightly moronic time lord excellently, as every scene he's in he rather steals. And its really nice to see Michael Gough again as Hedin, although amidttedly he does seem to lack a lot of the power of his original performance as The Toymaker, but even so even here he's great, and really underplays his roll. Janet Fielding makes her immediate comeback as Tegan. I just love her character to bits. And here she is for once allowed a very good amount of script, as she takes it on her own back to investigate where her cousin has got to. The characters of Stewart and Colin are funny too, with particularly Stewart being quite the dunderhead, but a likeable dunderhead. And Ian Collier as Omega has to be mentioned. He's excellent in the role, bringing more subtlety and restrain to his interpretation of Omega, whereas Stephen Thorne was just bluster, here the character has far more depth, and one even feels sorry at the end of the tale when he comes to his apparent end. I just knew here that he wouldnt have been killed. The Doctor's clear pain at having to destroy Omega again is well done indeed by Peter Davison, and one knows he's only really actually expelled him back to anti matter, one can just see it in his eyes! And I dont need to mention the ever reliable Sarah Sutton. I love her too, she was so gentle and such a kind giving character that should have stayed in the series longer. The location work in Amsterdam isnt all that bad either, all though its not as pronounced as Paris in City of Death or Spain in The Two Doctors. But its nice to see a different location entirely for once in the series.
All in all then these stories arent bad at all, on the conterary theres a whole lot of things to mention here in these two tales. They both have far more merits than shortfalls.
A Gateway
| What: | Home Truths (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 4 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Whoever had the thought of bringing Sara Kingdom back to life should be given a million quid.
Jean Marsh is back! After her three oh so excellent performances on screen during Doctor Who's original tenure, she is now back as the second of those characters. the great space agent Sara! One was shocked at her death at the end of the Dalek's Master Plan.
Add to the fact that Simon Guerrier has written this tale and you certainly have the recipe for success. This story is genuinely scary, with the sound and score being totally menacing and this helps gives the story much impact that really hits home every time. That she should come back as the house is in itself a harrowing and yet brilliant idea. This is truly one of the best of the companion chronicles so far.
And another good thing about these tales is they arent over long, so they are easy to follow and yet still dont feel rushed like many of the new series episodes do (although I must say so far series 6 has been far far more than I ever expected it to be).
Welcome Back Sara! Its been too long.
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| The best monsters in the best 2 stories! |
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| What: | Mannequin Mania (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 June 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The Autons have always been my favourite monsters. In my opinion they take the most rudimentary and normal object as a mannequin and turn it into a terrifyingly sinister weapon. Here are there two classic series appearances, one a 'Special Edition' re-release of an early DVD, the other a brand new release.
'Spearhead from Space' is the SE release here. The main thing you notice about it is its stunning appearance - the film already gives it a super quality, and the brilliant restoration just adds to it. The story is reasonably simple but dazzlingly effective - Episode 4's Auton massacre on Tottenham Court Rd is one of Who's most redolent images.
'Terror of the Autons' has become one of my favourite stories since I watched it. It takes all the concepts of 'Spearhead from Space' and turns them up to 11 - where SfS had dummies coming to life, TotA has the same dummies but they can talk, and are armed with new weapons: the 'Nestene Autojets' (plastic daffodils to you and me). Where SfS had the sinister villain Channing, TotA gives us the DW legend that is the Master, played by Roger Delgado.
The whole set is wonderful. Take DW's best monsters in 2 of DW's best stories, plus the best restoration of stories to date, and you get a simply stellar boxset! Bravo, 2|entertain
