I have to admit that this stint of the Lost Stories is stretching that term just a little bit. All that seems to have been planned before this story was released was the introduction of the new companion. On the Survival DVD it was mentioned how they invisiged that Raine would be introduced and it was how this story started. Written by former Script Editor Andrew Cartmel, this story directly follows on from Thin Ice with Ricky Groves returning as Markus Creevy. There does seem to be a morale message running through the early part of this story where Markus is talking about the recession of the late 1980’s which mirrors the one that we were in back in 2008. It’s a nice little message about how the rich get richer and don’t lose anything whilst everyone else get poorer and lose everything and how the recession of the late 1980’s in Markus’ mind was ‘The Crime of the Century’. I thought this was a clever was of linking the title to the story.
The story is set some twenty years after Thin Ice. When the story begins we are introduced to Raine who is breaking into a safe which contains the Doctor. We soon learn that the Doctor has hired Raine to steal these things which belong to her dad. Markus Raine has fallen on hard times and the relationship between the two was strained at best. I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed Markus Creevy until he wasn’t in it. Ricky Groves is very good despite not being in it for large portions of the story.
The frosty relationship between Markus and Raine. Raine blames Markus for the affairs that he had and how her mother was treated, what was good was how this didn’t really last for long. I did like the icy relationship between Ace and Raine. The two are similar but different in many ways and their first meeting reminded me of the first meeting between Rose and Sarah Jane in School Reunion. However by the end of the story they seem to be getting on better.
I think the Beth Chalmers is brilliant as Raine. I think that she has got the character spot on and its quite an upper class role but its not too upper class as to be annoying. I also thought that Sophie Aldred does quite well on her own without the Doctor. It’s still quite strange not having Hex around in one of these stories but I think that Aldred is about to be more like she use to be without playing the big sister role in the main range. I thought that this story was the rare example of Sylvester McCoy giving a below par performance. I think however this is more to do with the writing than with McCoy himself.
Years ago I found American accents to be totally unbelievable and I am starting to feel the same for Russian accents. In the 2005 story Singularity, they got proper Russian actors to play the Russian roles. When listening to this story I just found the accents a tad annoying and the more I was listening to this story the more that the accents got to me. According to the director Ken Bentley the actors were chosen to play the Russian soldiers because he knew they could do a Russian accent and granted they can but for reason it still bothers me to an extent that it gets in the way of my enjoyment.
The biggest issue that I have with this release and that is at several points during the story I struggled to understand what exactly was going on. At the end of the second episode I was trying to work out when the story was going to kick in. It is essentially Ace, The Doctor and Raine travel to a country that I have never heard of before to get in a vault to capture this sort of Faberge egg. When they get into this illusive vault they have in the meantime had to deal with some insectoid alien called the Metatraxi who are a nobel if slightly odd creation. When they get into the vault there is a robot guard inside and for some reason the place where it was made seems to be of some interest. Its not normal for the Doctor to be bothered by where a machine was created but on this odd occasion he does.
The Metatraxi might not have been anything special but I did like the comedy that came with their voice box. Initially I found it tiresome but then something changed in my mind and I found it to be thoroughly entertaining. The idea that their voice box switches from serious to some sort of American surfer seems like a totally random idea but it’s a bit of fun and at least it makes sense.
Overall, I have to say that I found this a largely disappointing release. There is something that I do like about this story so its not the worst Lost Story that there has ever been but neither is it the best. I am looking forward to the next story ‘Animal’ which this story did a good job in setting up.
The story is set some twenty years after Thin Ice. When the story begins we are introduced to Raine who is breaking into a safe which contains the Doctor. We soon learn that the Doctor has hired Raine to steal these things which belong to her dad. Markus Raine has fallen on hard times and the relationship between the two was strained at best. I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed Markus Creevy until he wasn’t in it. Ricky Groves is very good despite not being in it for large portions of the story.
The frosty relationship between Markus and Raine. Raine blames Markus for the affairs that he had and how her mother was treated, what was good was how this didn’t really last for long. I did like the icy relationship between Ace and Raine. The two are similar but different in many ways and their first meeting reminded me of the first meeting between Rose and Sarah Jane in School Reunion. However by the end of the story they seem to be getting on better.
I think the Beth Chalmers is brilliant as Raine. I think that she has got the character spot on and its quite an upper class role but its not too upper class as to be annoying. I also thought that Sophie Aldred does quite well on her own without the Doctor. It’s still quite strange not having Hex around in one of these stories but I think that Aldred is about to be more like she use to be without playing the big sister role in the main range. I thought that this story was the rare example of Sylvester McCoy giving a below par performance. I think however this is more to do with the writing than with McCoy himself.
Years ago I found American accents to be totally unbelievable and I am starting to feel the same for Russian accents. In the 2005 story Singularity, they got proper Russian actors to play the Russian roles. When listening to this story I just found the accents a tad annoying and the more I was listening to this story the more that the accents got to me. According to the director Ken Bentley the actors were chosen to play the Russian soldiers because he knew they could do a Russian accent and granted they can but for reason it still bothers me to an extent that it gets in the way of my enjoyment.
The biggest issue that I have with this release and that is at several points during the story I struggled to understand what exactly was going on. At the end of the second episode I was trying to work out when the story was going to kick in. It is essentially Ace, The Doctor and Raine travel to a country that I have never heard of before to get in a vault to capture this sort of Faberge egg. When they get into this illusive vault they have in the meantime had to deal with some insectoid alien called the Metatraxi who are a nobel if slightly odd creation. When they get into the vault there is a robot guard inside and for some reason the place where it was made seems to be of some interest. Its not normal for the Doctor to be bothered by where a machine was created but on this odd occasion he does.
The Metatraxi might not have been anything special but I did like the comedy that came with their voice box. Initially I found it tiresome but then something changed in my mind and I found it to be thoroughly entertaining. The idea that their voice box switches from serious to some sort of American surfer seems like a totally random idea but it’s a bit of fun and at least it makes sense.
Overall, I have to say that I found this a largely disappointing release. There is something that I do like about this story so its not the worst Lost Story that there has ever been but neither is it the best. I am looking forward to the next story ‘Animal’ which this story did a good job in setting up.
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