After listening to Robophobia which if I’m honest I found disappointing. I was hoping that Earth Aid would restore my faith in the Seventh Doctor adventure. This story comes from the minds of Ben Aaronovitch (Remembrance of the Daleks) and Andrew Cartmel. The opening scene was mentioned on the Survival DVD where they discuss that there is a ship and Ace is the captain. This is about as much that seems to have been developed before this story got made for Big Finish. The story sees the return of the Metratraxi who actually are in their best story. The story is about some aid that needs to be delivered. There is the small matter of the Metratraxi who aren’t in it just in for the sake of it but we learn more about them. Their story is that they have been created by this planet and there is another alien race that are always hungry and are eating most of the 9 million tonnes that is on the ship. It’s a fairly interesting story that managed to make the time go very quickly.
The Doctor isn’t as good in this as he was in Robophobia. But that’s not to say that Sylvester McCoy is rubbish, far from it. There are several moments when he is very good but I don’t think there is an air of mystery about his motives as there was in the previous story. This is definitely an Ace story as she is the one who is captain and she is the one who has to do a lot of the stuff. It’s always good when Ace is placed in the role of the action hero and Sophie Aldred does well when she’s required to do this. I think that it was believable how she started off not knowing what the heck she was doing before progressing to having plans. It was also good how the crew found her terminology strange. There were several Star Trek references which seemed quite fitting considering the space opera theme.
I thought that the moment when they stage a coup de tat was a nice moment because it felt like the logical conclusion to this thread of the plot and that is ultimately what I like most about Earth Aid. There were a few plots running through this story and they were built up at a steady pace and never felt rushed or mishandled. I was quite surprised when Raine appeared as I hadn’t paid much attention to the cover and didn’t reach the cast list of the Big Finish page so it was one of those rare moments where I was genuinely shocked. I’m glad that she’s back in as I think the Beth Chalmers is a good actress and the character of Raine is a nice alternative to Ace. There was one bit of plot that didn’t seem to get resolved and that is the impression that there is more to the death of Raine’s father than meets the eye. I don’t know what the plans are for the character but hopefully this will be explained because it has potential to be a big thing.
Earth Aid is a nice story to end this series of Lost Stories. It wasn’t the best but it was certainly a lot of fun to listen to and it hopefully Ben Aaronvitch will right another story for Big Finish in the not too distant future. For a story that seemed to have been born from a simple opening scene it was impressive that they got what they
The Doctor isn’t as good in this as he was in Robophobia. But that’s not to say that Sylvester McCoy is rubbish, far from it. There are several moments when he is very good but I don’t think there is an air of mystery about his motives as there was in the previous story. This is definitely an Ace story as she is the one who is captain and she is the one who has to do a lot of the stuff. It’s always good when Ace is placed in the role of the action hero and Sophie Aldred does well when she’s required to do this. I think that it was believable how she started off not knowing what the heck she was doing before progressing to having plans. It was also good how the crew found her terminology strange. There were several Star Trek references which seemed quite fitting considering the space opera theme.
I thought that the moment when they stage a coup de tat was a nice moment because it felt like the logical conclusion to this thread of the plot and that is ultimately what I like most about Earth Aid. There were a few plots running through this story and they were built up at a steady pace and never felt rushed or mishandled. I was quite surprised when Raine appeared as I hadn’t paid much attention to the cover and didn’t reach the cast list of the Big Finish page so it was one of those rare moments where I was genuinely shocked. I’m glad that she’s back in as I think the Beth Chalmers is a good actress and the character of Raine is a nice alternative to Ace. There was one bit of plot that didn’t seem to get resolved and that is the impression that there is more to the death of Raine’s father than meets the eye. I don’t know what the plans are for the character but hopefully this will be explained because it has potential to be a big thing.
Earth Aid is a nice story to end this series of Lost Stories. It wasn’t the best but it was certainly a lot of fun to listen to and it hopefully Ben Aaronvitch will right another story for Big Finish in the not too distant future. For a story that seemed to have been born from a simple opening scene it was impressive that they got what they
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