Frozen Time is another companionless story for the Seventh Doctor. Another thing about this story is that it features the Ice Warriors. They last made an appearance in the 2000 story Red Dawn and their appearance in this story was a total shock. There was a slight hint in the bottom left hand comer of the cover but apart from that it gave me the only shock that I have had in the many years that I have been listening to these plays. This story was written by Nicholas Briggs who has a good track record when it comes to writing good plays. The Nowhere Place is a very good effort. The Ice Warriors have been a very underrated monster in Doctor Who history. They first appeared in the self titled story back in November/December 1967, this was followed by The Seeds of Death in 1969. They would return in 1972 to star opposite the Third Doctor in The Curse of Peladon with a final TV appearance in The Monster of Peladon in 1974. The first thing that I noticed about this story is how it has a Tenth Planet/Moonbase feel to it. By that I mean that a group of people cut off and face a alien threat. This story is quite clever in that it leads you to believe one thing and then it turning out to be another. In this story we have Lord Barset's Grandson leading an expedition to find traces of the original quest and uncover The Doctor who has been frozen. As the story unfolds we have the classic Ice Warriors who are trying to wipe everyone out and everyone just trying to escape from the Antarctic. What I liked about this story is that in this story the expedition is trying to look for Silurians which would be a fantastic plot point but then it's replaced with the accidental find of The Ice Warriors.
Sylvester McCoy is on good form in this story. He performs well with or without a companion and was in an unusual position in this story in that he was the one being rescued and not the rescuer. Its nice to see how McCoy's Doctor would interact with the Ice Warriors and it was a refreshing adventure. Without Ace of Hex it falls on Maryam d'Abo to play the stand in companion. In this story she plays Genevieve who is a woman who is very stem at the beginning but by the end of episode four she has a new found sense of respect for the Doctor. Anthony Calf does a very good job in this story as Lord Barset. It's hard to have a definitive point of view of him. I wasn't quite sure whether to hate him for what he has done or whether to feel sorry for him. Esther way it's because of Calf s acting that we have a character that isn’t boring or wasted. Greg Newton is very good as Ben who acts like he could be a companion. Then we have Tony Milian who stars as Professor McIntyre and the Gwynn Beech who plays Harman. Both of these characters whilst not the most important ones do play a part in this story and are likeable characters and are well acted.
Nicholas Briggs has managed to maintain his successful writing form with this adventure. There is the build up to the revelation of the Ice Warriors which (night have been the peak but the enjoyment just carried on and the plot never got tiresome and all the characters were spot on. Barnaby Edwards has done a brilliant job with this story creating an atmosphere that just hits the right note and makes you believe that all these characters are stranding in the middle of nowhere. I know that there has only been one other Ice Warrior story but whilst Red Dawn wasn't a bad story there were faults and Frozen Time is the better story I think that with this story has so much going for it that it could be in contention for story of the year. The surprise return of the Ice Warriors isn't the main selling point what there is a collection of well written and well acted characters along with some superb music and sound effects from Steve Foxon and also brilliant job from Mr. Edwards adds to the reason for this great story.
After all this just three words will sum up my feeling for this story, Buy it now!
Sylvester McCoy is on good form in this story. He performs well with or without a companion and was in an unusual position in this story in that he was the one being rescued and not the rescuer. Its nice to see how McCoy's Doctor would interact with the Ice Warriors and it was a refreshing adventure. Without Ace of Hex it falls on Maryam d'Abo to play the stand in companion. In this story she plays Genevieve who is a woman who is very stem at the beginning but by the end of episode four she has a new found sense of respect for the Doctor. Anthony Calf does a very good job in this story as Lord Barset. It's hard to have a definitive point of view of him. I wasn't quite sure whether to hate him for what he has done or whether to feel sorry for him. Esther way it's because of Calf s acting that we have a character that isn’t boring or wasted. Greg Newton is very good as Ben who acts like he could be a companion. Then we have Tony Milian who stars as Professor McIntyre and the Gwynn Beech who plays Harman. Both of these characters whilst not the most important ones do play a part in this story and are likeable characters and are well acted.
Nicholas Briggs has managed to maintain his successful writing form with this adventure. There is the build up to the revelation of the Ice Warriors which (night have been the peak but the enjoyment just carried on and the plot never got tiresome and all the characters were spot on. Barnaby Edwards has done a brilliant job with this story creating an atmosphere that just hits the right note and makes you believe that all these characters are stranding in the middle of nowhere. I know that there has only been one other Ice Warrior story but whilst Red Dawn wasn't a bad story there were faults and Frozen Time is the better story I think that with this story has so much going for it that it could be in contention for story of the year. The surprise return of the Ice Warriors isn't the main selling point what there is a collection of well written and well acted characters along with some superb music and sound effects from Steve Foxon and also brilliant job from Mr. Edwards adds to the reason for this great story.
After all this just three words will sum up my feeling for this story, Buy it now!
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