2009 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER
This story does have a disjointed way of telling with Jago telling his side of the story and then Litefoot interrupting and vice versa. I quite liked the end of the episode because there is the revelation from Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago says “Your climatic ending was better”. Normally I would have been disappointed with such a strange ending but somehow due to the good feeling that I held this story in I loved it. The Professor’s story was entertaining as his reaction to the wooden mannequin and then for it getting up was priceless. It was however Jago’s story that was perhaps the more interesting as it in his side that we learnt more about what was going on. The two sides meshed quite well. I did like how they made references to The Talons of Weng-Chiang and also a brief mention of the Doctor. I think that failure to do this would have led to this story feeling a bit hollow but thankfully they stuck these references in to please the die-hard fans like myself but not alienate newer fans.
What we have is that the wooden mannequins are in fact prisoners who’s souls have been taken from their real bodies in prison and put them in these wooden dummies is a superb idea. It’s the sort of thing that is so bizarre that it works somehow. Its towards the end of the story that we discover that all this has been down to a Dr Tulip but we never know whether he is alien or whether he works for aliens. Then we have the introduction of Jack Yeovil who seems to be a big gang leader who is desperate to get out of prison.
It’s amazing that after 32 years that Christopher Benjamin (Jago) & Trevor Baxter (Litefoot) sound exactly the same. It seems hard to believe that they haven’t played these characters since 1977. I always liked Jago because I think that he is sort of cheeky chappy with a good heart. Benjamin has recently appeared in Doctor Who appearing alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate in The Unicorn and the Wasp. In this story he slipped back into the role like a duck to water. Trevor Baxter also returned to the role of Litefoot like he only played it a month ago not 32 years ago. In the interview at the end of the story the pair of them as well as Lisa Bowerman seemed to get on which shines through.
Lisa Bowerman is the only other star of this story. She has a brief role as Ellie but it is her directing that is what I would like to write about. This is her best story as director because she manages to get the disjointed storytelling entertaining and with such eerie sounds and it helps that Benjamin and Baxter are so enthusiastic and clearly enjoying themselves. Andy Lane has written a superb story, getting the characters spot on and interacting so well with each other after 32 years. Compared to his first story in this series Here There Be Monsters, The Mahogany Murderers is a thoroughly entertaining and at times completely amazing story and that is what makes it a contender for story of the series.
- Best Companion Chronicle
This story does have a disjointed way of telling with Jago telling his side of the story and then Litefoot interrupting and vice versa. I quite liked the end of the episode because there is the revelation from Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago says “Your climatic ending was better”. Normally I would have been disappointed with such a strange ending but somehow due to the good feeling that I held this story in I loved it. The Professor’s story was entertaining as his reaction to the wooden mannequin and then for it getting up was priceless. It was however Jago’s story that was perhaps the more interesting as it in his side that we learnt more about what was going on. The two sides meshed quite well. I did like how they made references to The Talons of Weng-Chiang and also a brief mention of the Doctor. I think that failure to do this would have led to this story feeling a bit hollow but thankfully they stuck these references in to please the die-hard fans like myself but not alienate newer fans.
What we have is that the wooden mannequins are in fact prisoners who’s souls have been taken from their real bodies in prison and put them in these wooden dummies is a superb idea. It’s the sort of thing that is so bizarre that it works somehow. Its towards the end of the story that we discover that all this has been down to a Dr Tulip but we never know whether he is alien or whether he works for aliens. Then we have the introduction of Jack Yeovil who seems to be a big gang leader who is desperate to get out of prison.
It’s amazing that after 32 years that Christopher Benjamin (Jago) & Trevor Baxter (Litefoot) sound exactly the same. It seems hard to believe that they haven’t played these characters since 1977. I always liked Jago because I think that he is sort of cheeky chappy with a good heart. Benjamin has recently appeared in Doctor Who appearing alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate in The Unicorn and the Wasp. In this story he slipped back into the role like a duck to water. Trevor Baxter also returned to the role of Litefoot like he only played it a month ago not 32 years ago. In the interview at the end of the story the pair of them as well as Lisa Bowerman seemed to get on which shines through.
Lisa Bowerman is the only other star of this story. She has a brief role as Ellie but it is her directing that is what I would like to write about. This is her best story as director because she manages to get the disjointed storytelling entertaining and with such eerie sounds and it helps that Benjamin and Baxter are so enthusiastic and clearly enjoying themselves. Andy Lane has written a superb story, getting the characters spot on and interacting so well with each other after 32 years. Compared to his first story in this series Here There Be Monsters, The Mahogany Murderers is a thoroughly entertaining and at times completely amazing story and that is what makes it a contender for story of the series.
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