The Whispering Forest is the second in what I am calling the Richter’s Trilogy. Following the very impressive Cobwebs, I had high hopes that The Whispering Forest would be able to build on that good work and make The Cradle of the Snake a brilliant finale to this series. This story was written by Stephen Cole who has written three stories for the main range stories between 1999 and 2003.
What is happening is that the people are being taken by the people called ‘The Takers’. Whenever someone is ill or dying are taken away so there is an obsession with cleaning. The revelation that the Takers are infact the medical robots and they are doing what they are programmed to do made sense to me. The story sees a power struggle between Seksa and Mertil. Mertil sees the arrival of the Doctor and his friends as a threat but Seksa is more reasonable. Part of the story sees Mertil trying to lead an attack on the Takers. The stories conclusion was pretty standard, it didn’t cop out and didn’t get silly but the problem is that by the end of episode four I had just found that the story ordinary.
The problem with this story is that I didn’t get a sense of the danger. Ok so Mertil is clearly mad and wants power but apart from that there was no menace. It felt like a story that was just going through the motions. At the end of the story there was a reference to the Mara which leads into The Cradle of the Snake. As a stand alone story its not as good as it should be but as part of the series it’s a nice bridge story between Cobwebs and Cradle of the Snake.
The Main cast were on good form. I found that Janet Fielding was better in this story because she had slightly more to do. I think that the next story will be her story but in this case I found that she had got a proper handle on the Big Finish version of her character. Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton were on good form but I did find at one point Turlough’s sarcasm was just a bit annoying. That said I think that what was a crowded TARDIS on TV has been handled very well and all four actors get a fair crack of the whip. Of the supporting cast I thought that Sue Wallace was the best, whilst it wasn’t the most original character I found that Wallace’s performance was very enjoyable. Hayley Atwell’s performance was also very strong and I thought that the conflict between Seksa and Mertil was a highlight of the story. Atwell is a very good actress and was good in Blood of the Daleks back in 2007.
The thing that I will remember about The Whispering Forest is how it just didn’t delivery what I was expecting. The acting was good and the music and sound effects were what I would expect from Big Finish but on the storytelling front I just found it lacking that killer punch. The middle story syndrome seems to have struck again.
What is happening is that the people are being taken by the people called ‘The Takers’. Whenever someone is ill or dying are taken away so there is an obsession with cleaning. The revelation that the Takers are infact the medical robots and they are doing what they are programmed to do made sense to me. The story sees a power struggle between Seksa and Mertil. Mertil sees the arrival of the Doctor and his friends as a threat but Seksa is more reasonable. Part of the story sees Mertil trying to lead an attack on the Takers. The stories conclusion was pretty standard, it didn’t cop out and didn’t get silly but the problem is that by the end of episode four I had just found that the story ordinary.
The problem with this story is that I didn’t get a sense of the danger. Ok so Mertil is clearly mad and wants power but apart from that there was no menace. It felt like a story that was just going through the motions. At the end of the story there was a reference to the Mara which leads into The Cradle of the Snake. As a stand alone story its not as good as it should be but as part of the series it’s a nice bridge story between Cobwebs and Cradle of the Snake.
The Main cast were on good form. I found that Janet Fielding was better in this story because she had slightly more to do. I think that the next story will be her story but in this case I found that she had got a proper handle on the Big Finish version of her character. Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton were on good form but I did find at one point Turlough’s sarcasm was just a bit annoying. That said I think that what was a crowded TARDIS on TV has been handled very well and all four actors get a fair crack of the whip. Of the supporting cast I thought that Sue Wallace was the best, whilst it wasn’t the most original character I found that Wallace’s performance was very enjoyable. Hayley Atwell’s performance was also very strong and I thought that the conflict between Seksa and Mertil was a highlight of the story. Atwell is a very good actress and was good in Blood of the Daleks back in 2007.
The thing that I will remember about The Whispering Forest is how it just didn’t delivery what I was expecting. The acting was good and the music and sound effects were what I would expect from Big Finish but on the storytelling front I just found it lacking that killer punch. The middle story syndrome seems to have struck again.
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