Valhalla is a story which sees the Seventh Doctor on his own. Companionless stories are more interesting because we know that the majority of this story will be led by McCoy. There hasn’t been any since the series of Davros, Master & Omega adventures back in 2003. We also know that with this story being written by Marc Platt will not be a simple straight forward story. Platt has a very good track record for writing a story that could never be classed as bland. In the past, Platt has written Spare Parts which many fans regard as the best story that Big Finish ever and also he wrote Loups Garoux, and also the first story in the Companion Chronicles series. He also wrote Ghostlight which is really weird story that even 15 years after I first say it I still don’t understand it. Anyway that’s all irrelevant as I sat down to listen to this story.
There were some things that I liked about this story. The dark tone of this story was quite a breath of fresh air, there was a dark tone to it throughout and at times there were moments of tension. The story sees a slightly different Doctor to the one that we have grown to know. There is a sense that he is heading towards the end of his time and there are several moments where he feels like he is trying to save himself and not just the people around him. I quite liked the idea that the Doctor wants to open a hotel. It just doesn’t seem him somehow.
Sylvester McCoy puts in a very good performance in this story. He seems content with his loneliness and is considering settling down. This gives McCoy a chance to play a different side to his Doctor that he has now been playing for 20 years. I particularly enjoyed the scenes that he did in the job centre. Michelle Gomez is the one off companion in this story. She plays Jevan and to be honest she doesn’t really shine in the role for me. I know that there isn’t much point in establishing a character in a companion like role but for me without Ace or Hex it was important to have someone that you could feel would stay with the Doctor if asked. There were some moments where she has to do some serious acting and then moments where she has lighter scenes. She performed these scenes well. Susannah York plays the Termite Queen. She seems to go for it and that was what made the role seem well played. She was believable in being this larger than life leader. As a menace she was just right and considering the atmosphere and the setting of this story it was a performance that was spot on. There were a lot of other characters that were in this story played by many different actors. Too many to mention but they all played their part. Perhaps that is a problem that I have, if there were just four or five (apart from the Doctor) then things would have been better but there were 16 characters which is just too many.
This isn’t Marc Platt’s finest script. Characters are there and so is the setting but somehow it just doesn’t gel for me. I have to be honest and say that he isn’t one of my favourite writers but I do admire him for his attempt at doing something different. John Ainsworth unfortunately didn’t quite get it right on this occasion. I think he’s a good director but what let this story down was that it didn’t gel and some of that would fall into the director’s chair. The setting was well created the music were something that I have high praise for. Simon Robinson (Music) and Steve Foxon (Sound Design) did a great job. After I finished listening to this story I felt a little disappointed. There wasn’t really anything that stood out for me and it all felt a bit flat and just not worth the time. It wasn’t that it was bad but just normal. With this being the first companionless story for the Seventh Doctor since Master back in 2003, this really should have been better.
There were some things that I liked about this story. The dark tone of this story was quite a breath of fresh air, there was a dark tone to it throughout and at times there were moments of tension. The story sees a slightly different Doctor to the one that we have grown to know. There is a sense that he is heading towards the end of his time and there are several moments where he feels like he is trying to save himself and not just the people around him. I quite liked the idea that the Doctor wants to open a hotel. It just doesn’t seem him somehow.
Sylvester McCoy puts in a very good performance in this story. He seems content with his loneliness and is considering settling down. This gives McCoy a chance to play a different side to his Doctor that he has now been playing for 20 years. I particularly enjoyed the scenes that he did in the job centre. Michelle Gomez is the one off companion in this story. She plays Jevan and to be honest she doesn’t really shine in the role for me. I know that there isn’t much point in establishing a character in a companion like role but for me without Ace or Hex it was important to have someone that you could feel would stay with the Doctor if asked. There were some moments where she has to do some serious acting and then moments where she has lighter scenes. She performed these scenes well. Susannah York plays the Termite Queen. She seems to go for it and that was what made the role seem well played. She was believable in being this larger than life leader. As a menace she was just right and considering the atmosphere and the setting of this story it was a performance that was spot on. There were a lot of other characters that were in this story played by many different actors. Too many to mention but they all played their part. Perhaps that is a problem that I have, if there were just four or five (apart from the Doctor) then things would have been better but there were 16 characters which is just too many.
This isn’t Marc Platt’s finest script. Characters are there and so is the setting but somehow it just doesn’t gel for me. I have to be honest and say that he isn’t one of my favourite writers but I do admire him for his attempt at doing something different. John Ainsworth unfortunately didn’t quite get it right on this occasion. I think he’s a good director but what let this story down was that it didn’t gel and some of that would fall into the director’s chair. The setting was well created the music were something that I have high praise for. Simon Robinson (Music) and Steve Foxon (Sound Design) did a great job. After I finished listening to this story I felt a little disappointed. There wasn’t really anything that stood out for me and it all felt a bit flat and just not worth the time. It wasn’t that it was bad but just normal. With this being the first companionless story for the Seventh Doctor since Master back in 2003, this really should have been better.
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