2010 TOMS TARDIS AWARD WINNER
The story starts off on the Titanic where the Doctor and Jamie think their on the Mary Rose in 1936. They soon meet the posh (but probably dim) Tess and Teddy. The ship then turns out to be the Titan. Now here’s where my literature knowledge shows itself. I wasn’t aware there was a novella called The Wreck of the Titan. For those that did probably clicked what was going on from that point. The Wreck of the Titan is a book that pretty much predicts the sink of the Titanic. Which is quite a chilling thing to say considering the Titan was written about 14 years before the Titanic sank and in the Titan book it sank in April and in the North Atlantic (both points are true of the Titanic). When the Titanic turns into the Titan, Tess and Teddy are replaced with Myra and John who are both American socialites. But when the Titan sinks the story moves onto the Nautilus which is featured in the novel 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne. The story then tries to survive the attack from squids who the Captain and his crew are trying to milk for the black water that was mentioned in City of Spires.
The original theory that the Doctor came up with as to why the Titanic turned into the Titan and then the appearance of the Nautilus was that they were in some sort of computer game and their involvement in the game led to the game trying to jump to another level in order to fix the problem. This was a nice and very clever idea but it was bettered by the real explanation. They weren’t in a computer game but in the Land of Fiction where they had been in the 1968 TV adventure ‘The Mind Robber’. The cliffhanger saw the robots that appeared in that story approach the Doctor and Jamie. What a wonderful way of ending it.
Despite a lot of going on there are quite a small number of characters. Obviously Colin Baker is on usual fine form. I honestly cant remember when he gave a dud effort in a Big Finish play. Frazer Hines was also good but the character of Jamie was much better in this story. He seemed more like the Jamie that we all know and love and Barnaby got a good handle of him and his relationship with the Doctor bang on. Miranda Raison is perhaps one of the biggest names that Big Finish have cast in one of their dramas. She previously appeared in the BBC show Spooks and also appeared alongside David Tennant’s Doctor in Evolution of the Daleks & Daleks in Manhattan. As Tess she was very good, she was sweet and made the character a gentle and caring one. However whilst she was just as good as Myra I did find the accent annoying. It was the same one that she did in the Dalek episodes and it continues the ongoing tradition of doing annoying American accents. Matt Addis was very good as both Teddy and John. It was whilst he was John that he really came into his own and in the scenes where John was with the Doctor on the iceberg that I found the character to be a strong and dependable one. Alexander Siddig was another big name like Raison, having appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wasn’t totally keen on his character because I just didn’t really warm to the character of the Captain.
When the story finished I found myself liking this story but not totally sure as tow why. I think that whilst it was mysterious for large parts of the story it wasn’t too confusing as for me to stop caring. The reason behind what was going on was clever and not to ‘out there’ and all the characters were well written and Barnaby Edwards has done another fine script which has led to a potentially outstanding Cyberman story.
- Best Main Range Story
- Best Writer (Barnaby Edwards)
- Best Director (Barnaby Edwards)
- Best Cover Design (Simon Holub)
- Best Music/Sound Design (Howard Carter)
- Best Guest Star (Alexander Siddig as The Captain)
The story starts off on the Titanic where the Doctor and Jamie think their on the Mary Rose in 1936. They soon meet the posh (but probably dim) Tess and Teddy. The ship then turns out to be the Titan. Now here’s where my literature knowledge shows itself. I wasn’t aware there was a novella called The Wreck of the Titan. For those that did probably clicked what was going on from that point. The Wreck of the Titan is a book that pretty much predicts the sink of the Titanic. Which is quite a chilling thing to say considering the Titan was written about 14 years before the Titanic sank and in the Titan book it sank in April and in the North Atlantic (both points are true of the Titanic). When the Titanic turns into the Titan, Tess and Teddy are replaced with Myra and John who are both American socialites. But when the Titan sinks the story moves onto the Nautilus which is featured in the novel 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne. The story then tries to survive the attack from squids who the Captain and his crew are trying to milk for the black water that was mentioned in City of Spires.
The original theory that the Doctor came up with as to why the Titanic turned into the Titan and then the appearance of the Nautilus was that they were in some sort of computer game and their involvement in the game led to the game trying to jump to another level in order to fix the problem. This was a nice and very clever idea but it was bettered by the real explanation. They weren’t in a computer game but in the Land of Fiction where they had been in the 1968 TV adventure ‘The Mind Robber’. The cliffhanger saw the robots that appeared in that story approach the Doctor and Jamie. What a wonderful way of ending it.
Despite a lot of going on there are quite a small number of characters. Obviously Colin Baker is on usual fine form. I honestly cant remember when he gave a dud effort in a Big Finish play. Frazer Hines was also good but the character of Jamie was much better in this story. He seemed more like the Jamie that we all know and love and Barnaby got a good handle of him and his relationship with the Doctor bang on. Miranda Raison is perhaps one of the biggest names that Big Finish have cast in one of their dramas. She previously appeared in the BBC show Spooks and also appeared alongside David Tennant’s Doctor in Evolution of the Daleks & Daleks in Manhattan. As Tess she was very good, she was sweet and made the character a gentle and caring one. However whilst she was just as good as Myra I did find the accent annoying. It was the same one that she did in the Dalek episodes and it continues the ongoing tradition of doing annoying American accents. Matt Addis was very good as both Teddy and John. It was whilst he was John that he really came into his own and in the scenes where John was with the Doctor on the iceberg that I found the character to be a strong and dependable one. Alexander Siddig was another big name like Raison, having appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wasn’t totally keen on his character because I just didn’t really warm to the character of the Captain.
When the story finished I found myself liking this story but not totally sure as tow why. I think that whilst it was mysterious for large parts of the story it wasn’t too confusing as for me to stop caring. The reason behind what was going on was clever and not to ‘out there’ and all the characters were well written and Barnaby Edwards has done another fine script which has led to a potentially outstanding Cyberman story.
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