Well he’s finally here! Tom Baker has arrived at Big Finish Towers and has lent his voice to a full cast adventure. There has been a lot of excitement since it was announced that he had signed on to do these adventures and its clear that Big Finish have massive plans but that’s all in the future and what we have is Destination Nerva written and directed by Nicholas Briggs and sees the Fourth Doctor and Leela (I love writing that!) arrive at Nerva at a point where it wasn’t an ark or the setting the Cybermen but as a Docking Station. I was expecting a four part adventure however what we got was a two part adventure and this is apparently how the format will be for the upcoming releases. I must admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect but any fears that I had were unfounded because whilst it didn’t feel like a 1977 adventure it sure did feel like a fourth Doctor adventure.
It was quite a strange idea to set a story in such a familiar place. The Nerva beacon had featured twice during Tom Baker’s first season on TV. It’s not somewhere that I would have thought of to set a story in but credit to Big Finish for doing it. The restricted setting should have been a big selling point for me but because of the Doctor and the plot it barely registered with me. All the performances were very well played and weren’t over the top.
Tom Baker is very good and whilst he might not sound like he did back in 1977, he still has some of those characteristics. I had briefly heard him in The Hornets Nest series that he did for BBC Audio but not much. I mention the voice but to be honest Peter Davison doesn’t sound like his TV self but it doesn’t detract from the story. Louise Jameson puts in another solid performance. From interviews that she has done, Jameson and Baker didn’t have the warmest relationship however that has changed and one of the things that I like most about this story is that their relationship is very good. Raquel Cassidy makes another return to the Big Finish world after appearances in ‘The Judgement of Isskar’ (2009) and ‘Recorded Time and Other Stories’ (2011). Her character has suffered a loss and so her reason for being there is reasonable. As Doctor Allison Foster, Cassidy does a good job as the connection between the regular characters and she slotted in very well.
Destination Nerva was the perfect way to introduce Tom Baker’s Doctor into the Big Finish world. It’s not too complicated and it isnt dumbing down for anyone. It’s just a nice big slice of nostalga cake and for those of us not born until sometime after Baker’s era had finished, it’s just nice to hear Tom Baker.
It was quite a strange idea to set a story in such a familiar place. The Nerva beacon had featured twice during Tom Baker’s first season on TV. It’s not somewhere that I would have thought of to set a story in but credit to Big Finish for doing it. The restricted setting should have been a big selling point for me but because of the Doctor and the plot it barely registered with me. All the performances were very well played and weren’t over the top.
Tom Baker is very good and whilst he might not sound like he did back in 1977, he still has some of those characteristics. I had briefly heard him in The Hornets Nest series that he did for BBC Audio but not much. I mention the voice but to be honest Peter Davison doesn’t sound like his TV self but it doesn’t detract from the story. Louise Jameson puts in another solid performance. From interviews that she has done, Jameson and Baker didn’t have the warmest relationship however that has changed and one of the things that I like most about this story is that their relationship is very good. Raquel Cassidy makes another return to the Big Finish world after appearances in ‘The Judgement of Isskar’ (2009) and ‘Recorded Time and Other Stories’ (2011). Her character has suffered a loss and so her reason for being there is reasonable. As Doctor Allison Foster, Cassidy does a good job as the connection between the regular characters and she slotted in very well.
Destination Nerva was the perfect way to introduce Tom Baker’s Doctor into the Big Finish world. It’s not too complicated and it isnt dumbing down for anyone. It’s just a nice big slice of nostalga cake and for those of us not born until sometime after Baker’s era had finished, it’s just nice to hear Tom Baker.
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