The Mind’s Eye is the second story written by Colin Brake. His previous story also featured the Fifth Doctor, Peri & Erimem. The story is also the fourth story to feature the three part and one part story that has been used on I.D, Exotron & The Wishing Beast. The story is set on a planet that apparently has no name, this seems ridiculous to me as all planets have names and as soon as the name has been revealed then it is mentioned all the time. That is really my only problem with the whole story and as you can probably tell that’s just nit-picking. The story is a really fast paced one and there isn’t one point throughout this adventure that drags. The sequences where Peri and Erimem are living their own lives or believe that they gives a really good impression of what their lives would be like after they travelled with the Doctor. Recently there has been a lot of emphasis on the departures of companions. With the recent departure of C’Rizz and the future exit of Charley it seems that Erimem might be leaving. This is what I was thinking because of the way that she was in Son of the Dragon where it seemed really likely that she was going to be leaving but didn’t and at several points in this story it seemed like this would be leaving. Out of the pair, it seems that Erimem would be more suited without the Doctor as her role in the colony was what we would expect of the character. Peri’s alternative life seemed very much what you would think her life would be. Even though Peri’s life takes a turn for the worst towards the end it seems that both of them would get on fine without the Doctor. Which is quite reassuring because it shows that they don’t see the Doctor as some sort of father figure who they require attention and would be totally emotional drained without him. The single part story was something that I wasn’t expecting a lot from. Previous single part stories have proven to be poor. The only on that has been any good was Urban Myths which accompanied with Exotron. I have to admit that whilst it wasn’t as good as Urban Myths it was still a very good effort. The idea of the Viyrans was very good as they sounded human like but didn’t sound ridiculous. The picture of them does make them sound like Cylons out of Battlestar Gallactica. The fact they aren’t set on total domination was a nice change but ultimately might result in there downfall when or if they return in future adventures. I put the fact that this single story was ok due to the fact that it was penned by Nicholas Briggs who can be trusted to put together a strong story. Again I think that like most of the single stories that have fallen short of my expectations this story could do with being a three or even four part story.
The plot point that there are plants that are slowly consuming both Peri and Erimem was quite creepy and it served the purpose of moving the story along. There was enough to keep you interested and at no time did I look at how much was left of each episode. The characters in this story are written well and are used in a sensible way and are effective. Owen Teale, who had appeared in Torchwood and had appeared in Doctor Who back in 1984 was brilliant as Hayton. From the way that he was talking to the Doctor and to Major Takol it started giving me the feel that he was up to something then that feeling went away, it soon became obvious that he has alterative motives. Teale voice works very well in this story and it is by far the best voice in this story. I think even with a bland script Teale would manage to make the character seem menacing. If you ever watch Torchwood then you would know what I mean. Peter Davison seems to be on a roll. This is his fifth story of 2007 and he has now done three great performances and one mediocre and one poor performance. I think that because of the scripts sometimes Davison’s Doctor came seem to be taking a bit of a back seat in action. What I liked in this story about Davison’s performance in this story is that there didn’t seem as much of the humorous side of his character as there normally would be, it was straight into the action and as soon as he discovered what was happening he went straight into helping Erimem and then helping Peri. Caroline Morris was on fine form again as Erimem, like in Son of the Dragon she was very strong against people she was placed with. Like Kharto who was considered an enemy to the colony just because he had different views was treated as someone who could be spoken to in a respective way. Owen Teale wasn’t the only person who has appeared in Doctor Who on TV as well as on audio. Thomas Brodie-Sangster who was in the Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter played Kyle in Peri’s life. He was very much the awkward step-son but didn’t overplay it and didn’t try to steal the scenes. His voice is quite distinctive and it the moment he first comes into the story you can tell its him.
This story was well written by Colin Brake and was suited as a three-parter and I think that had it been stretched to four then it would have lost a lot of the pace. The setting was just right and the plot was well thought of and executed in a fine way. Barnaby Edwards has done a good job with the directing of this story. Nothing really out of the ordinary for Edwards but what managed to do was to keep the different shifts in scenes to a reasonable level and by that I mean it wasn’t to complicated.
Rating for The Mind’s Eye was 4/5 and also Mission of the Viyrans got a 3/5. Theres not really a great deal that I could say about this story except that it was a lot better than previous single parters that have been done in the past.
The plot point that there are plants that are slowly consuming both Peri and Erimem was quite creepy and it served the purpose of moving the story along. There was enough to keep you interested and at no time did I look at how much was left of each episode. The characters in this story are written well and are used in a sensible way and are effective. Owen Teale, who had appeared in Torchwood and had appeared in Doctor Who back in 1984 was brilliant as Hayton. From the way that he was talking to the Doctor and to Major Takol it started giving me the feel that he was up to something then that feeling went away, it soon became obvious that he has alterative motives. Teale voice works very well in this story and it is by far the best voice in this story. I think even with a bland script Teale would manage to make the character seem menacing. If you ever watch Torchwood then you would know what I mean. Peter Davison seems to be on a roll. This is his fifth story of 2007 and he has now done three great performances and one mediocre and one poor performance. I think that because of the scripts sometimes Davison’s Doctor came seem to be taking a bit of a back seat in action. What I liked in this story about Davison’s performance in this story is that there didn’t seem as much of the humorous side of his character as there normally would be, it was straight into the action and as soon as he discovered what was happening he went straight into helping Erimem and then helping Peri. Caroline Morris was on fine form again as Erimem, like in Son of the Dragon she was very strong against people she was placed with. Like Kharto who was considered an enemy to the colony just because he had different views was treated as someone who could be spoken to in a respective way. Owen Teale wasn’t the only person who has appeared in Doctor Who on TV as well as on audio. Thomas Brodie-Sangster who was in the Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter played Kyle in Peri’s life. He was very much the awkward step-son but didn’t overplay it and didn’t try to steal the scenes. His voice is quite distinctive and it the moment he first comes into the story you can tell its him.
This story was well written by Colin Brake and was suited as a three-parter and I think that had it been stretched to four then it would have lost a lot of the pace. The setting was just right and the plot was well thought of and executed in a fine way. Barnaby Edwards has done a good job with the directing of this story. Nothing really out of the ordinary for Edwards but what managed to do was to keep the different shifts in scenes to a reasonable level and by that I mean it wasn’t to complicated.
Rating for The Mind’s Eye was 4/5 and also Mission of the Viyrans got a 3/5. Theres not really a great deal that I could say about this story except that it was a lot better than previous single parters that have been done in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment