2009 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER
The first surprise was of course the revelation of the Celestial Toymaker. It was a different version to the Michael Gough incarnation and the explanation of how he ended up in the Sanatorium was a very smart explanation. Its certainly not what I would have come up with. With the sound effects and the descriptions that they used to describe the Toymaker I just had an African Tribe Wooden Skeleton which had a clockwork heart and mouth. The second surprise was that the Alpine Sanatorium wasn't in Switzerland on Earth but still in the Celestial Toymaker's world. It could have been a totally silly plot point but somehow with everything involved it just made the story The Celestial Toymaker is a very popular character amongst Doctor Who fans and in my opinion he is a very intriguing baddie who only appeared once in 1966. His appearance in this story was refreshing on a character that has always had potential and should have made more appearances than he did. After the revelation that the Toymaker was involved it became obvious because of all the clues that had been put in place such as the fact the inhabitants were playing games and when the Doctor and Queenie were outside Queenie made a comment about a canvas and then Snakes and Ladders was being played elsewhere in the snow. The game that the Toymaker had people playing in Part 4 was typical Toymaker. The revelation as to why everyone is in the Sanatorium was very well thought out. The Doctor, Ace, Hex and the rest were playing against the Toymaker when he lost and everyone had a part of the Toymaker buried in their mind and they were having the shock therapy to try and forget what was happening and about the Toymaker. The idea being that after a certain time the Toymaker would just fizzle away and die was quite clever and as usual in Doctor Who it was close but no cigar.
Sylvester McCoy was very good in this story and played the role well of someone who manipulates people but on this occasion was being manipulated. It was very strange to see the Doctor in this position but once he realised what was going on it was back to his best. Sophie Aldred put in her best performance as Ace. Out of the two of them she is the one that has the plan and also is the one least likely to put it to an end because the Doctor is involved. These parts required them to put on posh accents and with Aldred it was difficult to tell it was her at the beginning whereas despite his best efforts Olivier just can't shrug off his scouser accent. It was quite unusual to see the roles reversed because in practically every Seventh Doctor adventures it is the Doctor that knows what is going on and it is the companions that are in the dark. Philip Olivier also puts in a good performance as Hex but he still seems to be occupying the role of teachers assistant. He tends to fall back into that role when he isn't doing his posh voice which doesn't really work because you could tell it was him whereas with Aldred you wouldn't have been able to guess.
All the guest stars put in superb performance which was helped by the restricted atmosphere of a sanatorium in the Alpine. My favourite character of the story was Queenie Glasscock played by Nadine Lewington. I really liked the character because it was one of the roles that could be a companion if Ace or Hex has gone completely. Its unclear who played the Toymaker but whoever did the voice should get some praise because it was chilling but also strong and posed as genuine problem for the Doctor. I also quite liked the Ludovic Comfort character which I thought was well written and well acted by Paul Anthony-Barber. My only disappointment was the silent character never got revealed to be an instrumental character and was being silent for some secret reason.
Matthew Sweet previously wrote the 2006 story Year of the Pig which is a story that I didn't like at first but after a while it was ok. This was by far a superb story which had me gripped from start to finish. He should be encouraged to write more stories like this in future. What he did well was have characters that worked well in the story and had a setting that was restricted but something that was a believable setting. Ken Bentley has directed a good story that utilises all the great elements that Sweet. He has always been a good director and was a wise choice for a story that could have been confusing and also the music used in the story was nice. This was down to Richard Fox and Lauren Yason. The year was clearly obvious thanks to the 1920's music. It was quite similar to No Man's Land (2006) which used to the music to help add the setting.
The Magic Mousetrap is the best release of 2009 (so far). It has everything that you could want from a Doctor Who adventure. Some people complain about the use of another 'classic' villain but I think that as long as they are used in the right way and more importantly a different way from what we are used to then it doesn't really matter. What they have managed to do is give a different dynamic to a companion that people have written about and talked about for well over 40 years and I think that what they did in The Magic Mousetrap was well done and deserves to be praised.
- Best Main Range Story
The first surprise was of course the revelation of the Celestial Toymaker. It was a different version to the Michael Gough incarnation and the explanation of how he ended up in the Sanatorium was a very smart explanation. Its certainly not what I would have come up with. With the sound effects and the descriptions that they used to describe the Toymaker I just had an African Tribe Wooden Skeleton which had a clockwork heart and mouth. The second surprise was that the Alpine Sanatorium wasn't in Switzerland on Earth but still in the Celestial Toymaker's world. It could have been a totally silly plot point but somehow with everything involved it just made the story The Celestial Toymaker is a very popular character amongst Doctor Who fans and in my opinion he is a very intriguing baddie who only appeared once in 1966. His appearance in this story was refreshing on a character that has always had potential and should have made more appearances than he did. After the revelation that the Toymaker was involved it became obvious because of all the clues that had been put in place such as the fact the inhabitants were playing games and when the Doctor and Queenie were outside Queenie made a comment about a canvas and then Snakes and Ladders was being played elsewhere in the snow. The game that the Toymaker had people playing in Part 4 was typical Toymaker. The revelation as to why everyone is in the Sanatorium was very well thought out. The Doctor, Ace, Hex and the rest were playing against the Toymaker when he lost and everyone had a part of the Toymaker buried in their mind and they were having the shock therapy to try and forget what was happening and about the Toymaker. The idea being that after a certain time the Toymaker would just fizzle away and die was quite clever and as usual in Doctor Who it was close but no cigar.
Sylvester McCoy was very good in this story and played the role well of someone who manipulates people but on this occasion was being manipulated. It was very strange to see the Doctor in this position but once he realised what was going on it was back to his best. Sophie Aldred put in her best performance as Ace. Out of the two of them she is the one that has the plan and also is the one least likely to put it to an end because the Doctor is involved. These parts required them to put on posh accents and with Aldred it was difficult to tell it was her at the beginning whereas despite his best efforts Olivier just can't shrug off his scouser accent. It was quite unusual to see the roles reversed because in practically every Seventh Doctor adventures it is the Doctor that knows what is going on and it is the companions that are in the dark. Philip Olivier also puts in a good performance as Hex but he still seems to be occupying the role of teachers assistant. He tends to fall back into that role when he isn't doing his posh voice which doesn't really work because you could tell it was him whereas with Aldred you wouldn't have been able to guess.
All the guest stars put in superb performance which was helped by the restricted atmosphere of a sanatorium in the Alpine. My favourite character of the story was Queenie Glasscock played by Nadine Lewington. I really liked the character because it was one of the roles that could be a companion if Ace or Hex has gone completely. Its unclear who played the Toymaker but whoever did the voice should get some praise because it was chilling but also strong and posed as genuine problem for the Doctor. I also quite liked the Ludovic Comfort character which I thought was well written and well acted by Paul Anthony-Barber. My only disappointment was the silent character never got revealed to be an instrumental character and was being silent for some secret reason.
Matthew Sweet previously wrote the 2006 story Year of the Pig which is a story that I didn't like at first but after a while it was ok. This was by far a superb story which had me gripped from start to finish. He should be encouraged to write more stories like this in future. What he did well was have characters that worked well in the story and had a setting that was restricted but something that was a believable setting. Ken Bentley has directed a good story that utilises all the great elements that Sweet. He has always been a good director and was a wise choice for a story that could have been confusing and also the music used in the story was nice. This was down to Richard Fox and Lauren Yason. The year was clearly obvious thanks to the 1920's music. It was quite similar to No Man's Land (2006) which used to the music to help add the setting.
The Magic Mousetrap is the best release of 2009 (so far). It has everything that you could want from a Doctor Who adventure. Some people complain about the use of another 'classic' villain but I think that as long as they are used in the right way and more importantly a different way from what we are used to then it doesn't really matter. What they have managed to do is give a different dynamic to a companion that people have written about and talked about for well over 40 years and I think that what they did in The Magic Mousetrap was well done and deserves to be praised.
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