The third release is one that I don’t know anything about. Leviathan was originally written by Brian Finch and adapted for by his son Paul Finch. Whereas The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus were ones that I knew because they had been talked about in the DVD about the 1986 series on the Trial of a Timelord.
The relationship between the Doctor and Peri was more like the one on TV than their Big Finish one. This is the thing about these Lost Stories is trying to find the right balance of how the Doctor and Peri’s relationship should be pitched. The TV version was more of a biting one where they didn’t necersarily get on, forward 25 years to the Big Finish plays and they are friendlier and get on better. This story pitches it just right.
The first episode is really a bit dull. There’s a lot of the Doctor and Peri being captured by the villagers thinking they were for the Baron. It’s not until the massive cliffhanger at the end of Episode one which shows that the village is actually in a spaceship. I thought that the story took way too long to get going. I understood that the villagers are culled when they get to a certain age but it just got a bit stagnant after about 20 minutes. I think the first part was close to an hour so it’s a shame that it was only the last 30 seconds that I will remember. Zeron turns out to be a computer system that controls everything on the ship. It’s not the most original idea as it’s a common staple agreement in science fiction of a computer system designed to look after humans ends up turning on them. It was even done during the Trial of a Timelord series. The Baron was a character that always had something about him and you just knew that he wasn’t the top man.
The village was created on a spaceship was created to try and create an atmosphere where people could live whilst the leviathan ship goes to a new planet. However it turns out that the conditions are worse than they should be. I found that the explanation of the culling was grim but also quite good. When the villagers get to a certain age then their bodies chemicals are broken down and then effectively the reset button is hit on them and they start again. This is done when they start to question authority and work out what’s going on. This cycle is kept going until the ship gets to where it’s going.
Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant do their best with the script they are given. Admittedly they are really allowed to explore the story in Part two but it’s a shame that they are not really given anything interesting to do. The only nice scene they had together was at the beginning in the TARDIS. With the knowledge that there are five more stories with Baker and Bryant I am more willing to overlook the fact that there isn’t as much for the leading stars as there should be. I think that Howard Gossington was the best or strongest of the guest stars as Gurth. The character seemed like the sort that could become a good companion as he is not as intelligent as others but would soon grow.
When I conduct my series review, I will probably rate this story as one of the weakest offerings. When I listened to The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus I still felt they should have been made for TV but with Leviathan I don’t think we particularly missed anything. It’s a story that only really got going in Part Two. The first half was just padding of this most extreme. Definitely one of the weakest releases so far.
The relationship between the Doctor and Peri was more like the one on TV than their Big Finish one. This is the thing about these Lost Stories is trying to find the right balance of how the Doctor and Peri’s relationship should be pitched. The TV version was more of a biting one where they didn’t necersarily get on, forward 25 years to the Big Finish plays and they are friendlier and get on better. This story pitches it just right.
The first episode is really a bit dull. There’s a lot of the Doctor and Peri being captured by the villagers thinking they were for the Baron. It’s not until the massive cliffhanger at the end of Episode one which shows that the village is actually in a spaceship. I thought that the story took way too long to get going. I understood that the villagers are culled when they get to a certain age but it just got a bit stagnant after about 20 minutes. I think the first part was close to an hour so it’s a shame that it was only the last 30 seconds that I will remember. Zeron turns out to be a computer system that controls everything on the ship. It’s not the most original idea as it’s a common staple agreement in science fiction of a computer system designed to look after humans ends up turning on them. It was even done during the Trial of a Timelord series. The Baron was a character that always had something about him and you just knew that he wasn’t the top man.
The village was created on a spaceship was created to try and create an atmosphere where people could live whilst the leviathan ship goes to a new planet. However it turns out that the conditions are worse than they should be. I found that the explanation of the culling was grim but also quite good. When the villagers get to a certain age then their bodies chemicals are broken down and then effectively the reset button is hit on them and they start again. This is done when they start to question authority and work out what’s going on. This cycle is kept going until the ship gets to where it’s going.
Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant do their best with the script they are given. Admittedly they are really allowed to explore the story in Part two but it’s a shame that they are not really given anything interesting to do. The only nice scene they had together was at the beginning in the TARDIS. With the knowledge that there are five more stories with Baker and Bryant I am more willing to overlook the fact that there isn’t as much for the leading stars as there should be. I think that Howard Gossington was the best or strongest of the guest stars as Gurth. The character seemed like the sort that could become a good companion as he is not as intelligent as others but would soon grow.
When I conduct my series review, I will probably rate this story as one of the weakest offerings. When I listened to The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus I still felt they should have been made for TV but with Leviathan I don’t think we particularly missed anything. It’s a story that only really got going in Part Two. The first half was just padding of this most extreme. Definitely one of the weakest releases so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment