No More Lies is the sixth story and technically the penultimate story of this first season. What we have is a story that starts off with the listener feeling like they have to dislike a character but then within 50 minutes actually pity him and feel like telling him to run along and see him run into the sunset. Paul Sutton has written this story having already penned stories such as Arrangements for War (2003), Thicker Than Water (2005) and Exotron/Urban Myths (2007).
One thing I liked about this story is that we join the action half way through some big trauma. I really like this form of storytelling because providing it’s not too complex then you find yourself hitting the ground running. The essential point to the story is that Nick Zimmerman has created a time loop so that his sick wife will essentially never die. This time loop is decaying with every time the whole day starts again and the result is that Vortisaurs seeps through and cause their usual mayhem. The Vortisaurs may sound familiar because they appeared in Paul McGann’s first full cast audio adventure Storm Warning (2001). The ending of this story is very good and totally unexpected. We finally see The Headhunter capture Lucie. This instantly leads into Human Resources and just shows that the next two episodes will be totally unmissable. I have to admit that I had to listen to it again because I was just a little bit confused as to how the opening scene related to all that business in the garden party. The second time that I listened to it I found that it all made sense. What is amazing is that despite the complex script that Sutton has written, this story makes quite a bit of sense and becomes really enjoyable.
Paul McGann is very good as the Doctor. He is overshadowed by Lucie but that may have been deliberately by writer Paul Sutton but McGann still gives a top notch performance. With every story we see what McGann could and probably would have done with the Doctor. Its one of the bug bears about McGann’s time as the Doctor that we only got one story with him in on TV because I think if he had been given more time then he would have been a superb Doctor. Sheridan Smith puts in another enjoyable performance. She is really getting into the role of the companion. She takes the lead out of the two. Smith has really got to grabs with the character and it is really a cliché to say this but its difficult to have someone play the role of Lucie.
Nigel Havers is perhaps the biggest name of the entire series. He has appeared in such shows as Little Britain, Dangerfield and Manchild all for the BBC. In this story he plays Nick Zimmerman. Havers plays a character that has changed from his evil ways to one that is just trying to spend some time with someone who has made him change his priorities and is a better person for it. Havers puts in a good performance and I genuinely felt sorry for him as we learnt how much Zimmerman had changed. Julia McKenzie also is a big name having starred in Cranford and also set to appear as Miss Marple plays Rachel Zimmerman who is in love with Nick but to add a tragic element to the character she has cancer. Her character is very likeable and her illness helps add a tragic side to this role. McKenzie performs well from start to finish and has some truly moving scenes with Havers.
Tom Chadbon returns to Doctor Who for the first time in nearly 30 years. Chadbon had appeared opposite Tom Baker’s Doctor in the 1979 adventure City of Death. He also made another appearance alongside Colin Baker’s Doctor in The Mysterious Planet segment of The Trial of a Timelord. He played a bungling over aggressive police officer in that but in this he plays the brother of Rachel and seems to have been a former security guard or someone in the security sector who has fallen on hard times and seems to have been given the job as Head of Security at this garden party just to keep him happy and make him feel like he’s valued. Katarina Olsson’s appearance at the end of the scene was a nice surprise and helped create a different shift to the final two episodes of this series. Her regular contribution to the series has helped create a nice feeling to this series as a story arc has slowly but deliberately mapped out over the previous episodes.
Paul Sutton has contributed a nice strong script that might require a second listen to this story but most people will probably be able to follow the action just listening to it once. If I do have a critiscm about this story then it is that the story could have done with a few more actors. There are only five actors in this story and I think with one or two more roles then some of the plot could have been changed slightly to make this story seem a bit more epic. After the brilliant start to the story we settle down and have to listen to the same 5 people and not have any more characters to enjoy.
Barnaby Edwards has done another superb job with this story. He manages to keep the slightly complex plot and interesting characters going along at a nice plot for 50 minutes. This is not exactly an original statement but Edwards does a good job in making sure all the plates are continually spinning (actors and plots) which can always be relied upon to do. Overall whilst its not the best story of the season it is a marked improvement of previous stories such as Phobos and Immortal Beloved. It seems that the quality of stories are gearing up towards the end of the series so that all the plots are tied up. It does the job of leading us into Human Resources with expectations and a desire to know exactly what has happened to Lucie.
One thing I liked about this story is that we join the action half way through some big trauma. I really like this form of storytelling because providing it’s not too complex then you find yourself hitting the ground running. The essential point to the story is that Nick Zimmerman has created a time loop so that his sick wife will essentially never die. This time loop is decaying with every time the whole day starts again and the result is that Vortisaurs seeps through and cause their usual mayhem. The Vortisaurs may sound familiar because they appeared in Paul McGann’s first full cast audio adventure Storm Warning (2001). The ending of this story is very good and totally unexpected. We finally see The Headhunter capture Lucie. This instantly leads into Human Resources and just shows that the next two episodes will be totally unmissable. I have to admit that I had to listen to it again because I was just a little bit confused as to how the opening scene related to all that business in the garden party. The second time that I listened to it I found that it all made sense. What is amazing is that despite the complex script that Sutton has written, this story makes quite a bit of sense and becomes really enjoyable.
Paul McGann is very good as the Doctor. He is overshadowed by Lucie but that may have been deliberately by writer Paul Sutton but McGann still gives a top notch performance. With every story we see what McGann could and probably would have done with the Doctor. Its one of the bug bears about McGann’s time as the Doctor that we only got one story with him in on TV because I think if he had been given more time then he would have been a superb Doctor. Sheridan Smith puts in another enjoyable performance. She is really getting into the role of the companion. She takes the lead out of the two. Smith has really got to grabs with the character and it is really a cliché to say this but its difficult to have someone play the role of Lucie.
Nigel Havers is perhaps the biggest name of the entire series. He has appeared in such shows as Little Britain, Dangerfield and Manchild all for the BBC. In this story he plays Nick Zimmerman. Havers plays a character that has changed from his evil ways to one that is just trying to spend some time with someone who has made him change his priorities and is a better person for it. Havers puts in a good performance and I genuinely felt sorry for him as we learnt how much Zimmerman had changed. Julia McKenzie also is a big name having starred in Cranford and also set to appear as Miss Marple plays Rachel Zimmerman who is in love with Nick but to add a tragic element to the character she has cancer. Her character is very likeable and her illness helps add a tragic side to this role. McKenzie performs well from start to finish and has some truly moving scenes with Havers.
Tom Chadbon returns to Doctor Who for the first time in nearly 30 years. Chadbon had appeared opposite Tom Baker’s Doctor in the 1979 adventure City of Death. He also made another appearance alongside Colin Baker’s Doctor in The Mysterious Planet segment of The Trial of a Timelord. He played a bungling over aggressive police officer in that but in this he plays the brother of Rachel and seems to have been a former security guard or someone in the security sector who has fallen on hard times and seems to have been given the job as Head of Security at this garden party just to keep him happy and make him feel like he’s valued. Katarina Olsson’s appearance at the end of the scene was a nice surprise and helped create a different shift to the final two episodes of this series. Her regular contribution to the series has helped create a nice feeling to this series as a story arc has slowly but deliberately mapped out over the previous episodes.
Paul Sutton has contributed a nice strong script that might require a second listen to this story but most people will probably be able to follow the action just listening to it once. If I do have a critiscm about this story then it is that the story could have done with a few more actors. There are only five actors in this story and I think with one or two more roles then some of the plot could have been changed slightly to make this story seem a bit more epic. After the brilliant start to the story we settle down and have to listen to the same 5 people and not have any more characters to enjoy.
Barnaby Edwards has done another superb job with this story. He manages to keep the slightly complex plot and interesting characters going along at a nice plot for 50 minutes. This is not exactly an original statement but Edwards does a good job in making sure all the plates are continually spinning (actors and plots) which can always be relied upon to do. Overall whilst its not the best story of the season it is a marked improvement of previous stories such as Phobos and Immortal Beloved. It seems that the quality of stories are gearing up towards the end of the series so that all the plots are tied up. It does the job of leading us into Human Resources with expectations and a desire to know exactly what has happened to Lucie.
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