February 03, 2012

The Foe from the Future (2012)

The Foe from the Future is the first lost story to feature the fourth Doctor. It was suppose to fill the slot before being replaced by ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’. The story was from Robert Banks Stewart who had a reasonably good track record with two stories during the Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane Smith era. This story marks the first time that Big Finish have done a six part story since 2005’s ‘The Game’. Since doing my Doctor Who marathon I have distinctinly gone off six part stories partly because after the two third point the story starts to drag. The story has a big epic feel an that is down to the idea that it has something to do with totally changing time and the timelines which seems very much something you would get from a new TV series. The adventure does take a while to get going but at no point was I bored. I may have been a little confused once or twice but the performances were so good that by the time it did find its feet that I had bought into the story.

Tom Baker is very good in this story and there were several moments when if I closed my eyes I could see the 1977 Doctor saying those lines. Baker cant be accused of not putting in the effort as he never puts a foot wrong. Louise Jameson is also very good and the chemistry between the two is one of the best things about it. The best thing that Leela did was flying through the void thing using the Doctor’s scarf. It’s quite hard to imagine how they would achieve this with a 1977 budget. Actually I can, it would probably be worse than the rat in ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’. My favourite character was Charlotte ‘from the village’ as played by Louise Brealey. From the very first moment that I heard the character I thought that there was a sweetness to. If Big Finish want to create a new companion for future stories then they could do worse than Charlotte from the village. For me the big name from this release was Paul Freeman who appeared in the first Indiana Jones and also the third series of the BBC drama ‘House of Cards’. His role as the baddie was well done and it actually seem to come naturally to Freeman.

As much as I love ‘Destination Nerva’ this felt more like a Fourth Doctor adventure. Despite it being six episodes long it still had that vibe that it came from 1977 which when you consider the year we are in is quite an achievement. Normally in a six part adventure you could tell when that happens as it is happening but in The Foe from the Future its very difficult and credit must go to John Dorney for managing this. Foe from the Future is an enjoyable adventure.

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