The Seventh Doctor series where he is companion light continues after the brief pause to celebrate release 150. The Doomsday Quatrain sees another figure from history used in a Big Finish story. Now first of all I have never heard of the word Quatrain so with the help of Wikipedia I was able to find a long description of it but here is the short version.
“A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse.”
This story is written by two people who are complety new to Big Finish (to the best of my knowledge) and that’s the first thing that strikes me about this story is how fresh it feels and in particular the first episode never seems to take a breath. The historical figure was Nostredame who was famous for being able to predict the future and certain atrocities. Nothing is normal in Doctor Who and we learn that the Nostredame in this story isnt the proper one but infact made up. That’s where the story goes from a simple pseudo-historical to just plain sci-fi. The whole 1560 Florence has been designed by a bunch of poltagons who are creating worlds and in this particular adventure have created a fake world where a group of crocodile like creatures who are planning to invade and this is a sort of training exercise.
There are many plot threads being woven through this story. The first being this world created for the Crocs and its the relationship between the Poltagons and the Croc people. Now the course that this went down which was predictably strained and went the way that I thought it would but to be honest I thought that it was done rather well. Then we learn that the Crocs have had previous dealings with the Timelords and once they discover that the Doctor is a Timelord then their plan changes to capturing the TARDIS. As well as this there is the Doctor trying to prevent the inhabitants of this fake Florence being killed. All these plots are well handled and don’t feel like they have been rushed or compromised.
The big name of this story is that of David Schofield who makes his second appearance in a Big Finish play having appeared in the 2009 Eighth Doctor adventure ‘Death in Blackpool’. He has appeared in the first Pirates of the Carribean film as well as in the Christopher Eccleston led ‘The Shadow Line’. I thought that his interpretation of Nostradame was very well played. It flipped between being of his time and being able to take in the fantastic sights of the TARDIS interior and being able to accept that he is not real and has only existed for a few days. I was also impressed with Caroline Kleff who has to fill the role of temporary companion as Ace and Hex are nowhere to be seen. I think she does a good job and comes across as a likeable person from the get go. She is the only one of the Poltagons that seem to have a conscience. I always think that the test would be if I would want to see that person as a long term companion and in this case I would. I think that the character had potential and with a bit of tweaking she would be very good. Over the course of the four episodes she is continually on the side of good and not willing to let things carry on. I thought that Kleff’s performance was well played.
Slyvester McCoy is on his usual good form in this. I am glad he doesn’t do his rolling r’s that seem to have become his trademark since starting his Big Finish career. He seems to do well with having Ace, Hex or Mel with him and it gives McCoy a bit of freedom as the story focuses on the drama rather than some padding with the companions. It’s nice when Sophie and Philip are with McCoy as there is a nice chemistry between the three of them but in stories like Frozen Time, Robophobia and this one its good to have a bit of variety for us and for McCoy.
I like how at the end they decide to name the planet Prophecy. But like Project: Destiny last year it was the final scene that really set things up for the following story. A prophecy by Nostradame handed to the Doctor seems to indicate his death. Now this is quite an odd thing to do because we know that the Seventh Doctor dies in a alley way in 1999. However I may have this wrong but no matter it is still nice to have a link to another story. It might seem odd if you listen to this on its own but otherwise its ok. Both Beeby and Rennie have written a very smart story that had a lot going on and I could very easily have lost track and nearly did a few times but at the end of the adventure I thought that it was a solid adventure and hopefully they will get the chance to write further adventures in the future.
“A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse.”
This story is written by two people who are complety new to Big Finish (to the best of my knowledge) and that’s the first thing that strikes me about this story is how fresh it feels and in particular the first episode never seems to take a breath. The historical figure was Nostredame who was famous for being able to predict the future and certain atrocities. Nothing is normal in Doctor Who and we learn that the Nostredame in this story isnt the proper one but infact made up. That’s where the story goes from a simple pseudo-historical to just plain sci-fi. The whole 1560 Florence has been designed by a bunch of poltagons who are creating worlds and in this particular adventure have created a fake world where a group of crocodile like creatures who are planning to invade and this is a sort of training exercise.
There are many plot threads being woven through this story. The first being this world created for the Crocs and its the relationship between the Poltagons and the Croc people. Now the course that this went down which was predictably strained and went the way that I thought it would but to be honest I thought that it was done rather well. Then we learn that the Crocs have had previous dealings with the Timelords and once they discover that the Doctor is a Timelord then their plan changes to capturing the TARDIS. As well as this there is the Doctor trying to prevent the inhabitants of this fake Florence being killed. All these plots are well handled and don’t feel like they have been rushed or compromised.
The big name of this story is that of David Schofield who makes his second appearance in a Big Finish play having appeared in the 2009 Eighth Doctor adventure ‘Death in Blackpool’. He has appeared in the first Pirates of the Carribean film as well as in the Christopher Eccleston led ‘The Shadow Line’. I thought that his interpretation of Nostradame was very well played. It flipped between being of his time and being able to take in the fantastic sights of the TARDIS interior and being able to accept that he is not real and has only existed for a few days. I was also impressed with Caroline Kleff who has to fill the role of temporary companion as Ace and Hex are nowhere to be seen. I think she does a good job and comes across as a likeable person from the get go. She is the only one of the Poltagons that seem to have a conscience. I always think that the test would be if I would want to see that person as a long term companion and in this case I would. I think that the character had potential and with a bit of tweaking she would be very good. Over the course of the four episodes she is continually on the side of good and not willing to let things carry on. I thought that Kleff’s performance was well played.
Slyvester McCoy is on his usual good form in this. I am glad he doesn’t do his rolling r’s that seem to have become his trademark since starting his Big Finish career. He seems to do well with having Ace, Hex or Mel with him and it gives McCoy a bit of freedom as the story focuses on the drama rather than some padding with the companions. It’s nice when Sophie and Philip are with McCoy as there is a nice chemistry between the three of them but in stories like Frozen Time, Robophobia and this one its good to have a bit of variety for us and for McCoy.
I like how at the end they decide to name the planet Prophecy. But like Project: Destiny last year it was the final scene that really set things up for the following story. A prophecy by Nostradame handed to the Doctor seems to indicate his death. Now this is quite an odd thing to do because we know that the Seventh Doctor dies in a alley way in 1999. However I may have this wrong but no matter it is still nice to have a link to another story. It might seem odd if you listen to this on its own but otherwise its ok. Both Beeby and Rennie have written a very smart story that had a lot going on and I could very easily have lost track and nearly did a few times but at the end of the adventure I thought that it was a solid adventure and hopefully they will get the chance to write further adventures in the future.
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