Home Truths is a unusual story that begs some questions. The first question that comes to mind about this story is why would someone who only appeared in nine episodes be classed as a companion? Then that question becomes irrelevant as the most interesting story of the series. The story has quite a different approach to previous companion stories. This sees a young scientist called Robert who goes into a house and talks to Sara Kingdom. What occurs is at times terrifying and at times mind-boggling.
The story sees The Doctor, Steven & Sara arrive in a house. The inhabitants are dead and things only work when you wish them. As the story moves on its shown that the two dead bodies actually killed themselves because they thought it. The noises were very spooky and when the woman’s body was discovered her eyes were open and when the body was revisited the eyes were closed. When that happened I really wanted to know what happened. It was nice that it was Sara who wished for that to happen. The main theme about this story seems to be forgiveness. Sara visits the fact that she shot her brother in the Daleks Masterplan. She revaluates her actions and you get the feeling that if she could revisit the moment where she shot her brother then she wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.
The character of Robert was well played by Niall Macgregor. At times he seemed cold and destined to finish his job. The job seemed to be whether to kill Sara Kingdom or let an old woman just live out her last few days in the house. This was a tough decision that Macgregor played But it is Jean Marsh who steals the show. I think that the character of Kingdom was a really good character for TV. I think that she would have worked well in stories past the Daleks Master Plan and it was a shame that she would killed when she was. Her voice works well on audio and it seemed like Marsh had played Kingdom last year not 43 years ago. She did old Sara and she did frightened Sara which was really enjoyable to listen to. But the best compliment that could be given to Marsh is that she helped create the atmosphere. Yes the music and sound effects did a bit of the job but Marsh was able to sell the whole thing and create an impression in my mind of this house that has some dark secrets.
Simon Guerrier has written for Big Finish before with the 2006 story The Settling which I personally enjoyed and I think that the new style that was on show here really work and Guerrier did a good job. It could have gone badly wrong but I was enthralled throughout. The chemistry between Sara and Robert was a sort of bitter enemies trying to be friends thing which I thought worked really well. Lisa Bowerman also did well in this story. Her previous story Here There Be Monsters was quite slow and I wasn’t keen on it however she certainly deserves praise for keeping this story entertaining and the pace constant. It may have took a while to get started but once it did it didn’t stop.
The open ended finish was totally out of left field because all other companion chronicles have a beginning middle and an end. Hopefully they will revisit the character of Sara Kingdom either in this series or future series. This is the best Companion Chronicles story of the series and possibly the best of the 13 that have been released. Superb.
The story sees The Doctor, Steven & Sara arrive in a house. The inhabitants are dead and things only work when you wish them. As the story moves on its shown that the two dead bodies actually killed themselves because they thought it. The noises were very spooky and when the woman’s body was discovered her eyes were open and when the body was revisited the eyes were closed. When that happened I really wanted to know what happened. It was nice that it was Sara who wished for that to happen. The main theme about this story seems to be forgiveness. Sara visits the fact that she shot her brother in the Daleks Masterplan. She revaluates her actions and you get the feeling that if she could revisit the moment where she shot her brother then she wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.
The character of Robert was well played by Niall Macgregor. At times he seemed cold and destined to finish his job. The job seemed to be whether to kill Sara Kingdom or let an old woman just live out her last few days in the house. This was a tough decision that Macgregor played But it is Jean Marsh who steals the show. I think that the character of Kingdom was a really good character for TV. I think that she would have worked well in stories past the Daleks Master Plan and it was a shame that she would killed when she was. Her voice works well on audio and it seemed like Marsh had played Kingdom last year not 43 years ago. She did old Sara and she did frightened Sara which was really enjoyable to listen to. But the best compliment that could be given to Marsh is that she helped create the atmosphere. Yes the music and sound effects did a bit of the job but Marsh was able to sell the whole thing and create an impression in my mind of this house that has some dark secrets.
Simon Guerrier has written for Big Finish before with the 2006 story The Settling which I personally enjoyed and I think that the new style that was on show here really work and Guerrier did a good job. It could have gone badly wrong but I was enthralled throughout. The chemistry between Sara and Robert was a sort of bitter enemies trying to be friends thing which I thought worked really well. Lisa Bowerman also did well in this story. Her previous story Here There Be Monsters was quite slow and I wasn’t keen on it however she certainly deserves praise for keeping this story entertaining and the pace constant. It may have took a while to get started but once it did it didn’t stop.
The open ended finish was totally out of left field because all other companion chronicles have a beginning middle and an end. Hopefully they will revisit the character of Sara Kingdom either in this series or future series. This is the best Companion Chronicles story of the series and possibly the best of the 13 that have been released. Superb.
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