The penultimate adventure of this story is the first one that I truly feel delivers in terms of story arc payoff. Written by Toms Tardis Award winning author Matthew Sweet, this story continues straight after the proceeding story where they have been led there like livestock is led onto a truck. The story starts off in quite a curious way when we meet Winnie who has apparently killed someone. In this story we meet the duo of Mr Kempston and Mr Hardwick. The whole purpose of the train going nowhere was a trapped for Claudius Dark who has been a peripheral figure despite Big Finish’s attempts to make us thing he is someone big and important. However just when it looks like Dark’s involvement was going to be relatively small we get the final few minutes. As the plot goes, I must admit that I found it at times difficult to follow, it was quite a long time into the story before I got to grips with it but it was easier to understand than Sweet’s previous story for the series.
I must admit that I saw the revelation at the end of the story coming. If Baker wasn’t playing the Doctor then why not cast a different actor in the role. Like the previous two stories from this series, Baker’s involvement was somewhat restricted which is slightly infuriating. I liked this story a lot more than I did Sweet’s other story (The Man at the End of the Garden). I thought that this was more in keeping with the style of Jago and Litefoot. I thought that the mystery with what was going on with Jago and Litefoot and what was going on with Ellie and Leela. I loved how gradually the two plot strands seemed to be the same yet were still separate. The two double acts worked incredibly well. Jago and Litefoot always works but it was the Ellie and Leela relationship that I was most impressed with because even though they are from two time zones they are effectively the same intellect. I think that it was these double acts that helped me get through the story as the pace was relatively slow or at least slower than most Jago and Litefoot stories. With Jago and Litefoot, it was the first time this series that I felt they were even in terms of how much of the story they were given. This might have something to do with the fact they spend the entire story together and neither of them outshone the other which was nice to see.
I’m not totally sold on this story, there certainly are elements that work in this story and I can’t say that I was ever bored however as the story progressed and in the brief moments that I had time to think I was just wondering why I wasn’t as gripped as I should be. Whilst I mull over this particular conundrum, I finished listening to this story looking forward to the final story, hoping that this will be they have saved the best story till last because I am starting to worry that this won’t be the best series due to the underwhelming feeling that I have for this series.
I must admit that I saw the revelation at the end of the story coming. If Baker wasn’t playing the Doctor then why not cast a different actor in the role. Like the previous two stories from this series, Baker’s involvement was somewhat restricted which is slightly infuriating. I liked this story a lot more than I did Sweet’s other story (The Man at the End of the Garden). I thought that this was more in keeping with the style of Jago and Litefoot. I thought that the mystery with what was going on with Jago and Litefoot and what was going on with Ellie and Leela. I loved how gradually the two plot strands seemed to be the same yet were still separate. The two double acts worked incredibly well. Jago and Litefoot always works but it was the Ellie and Leela relationship that I was most impressed with because even though they are from two time zones they are effectively the same intellect. I think that it was these double acts that helped me get through the story as the pace was relatively slow or at least slower than most Jago and Litefoot stories. With Jago and Litefoot, it was the first time this series that I felt they were even in terms of how much of the story they were given. This might have something to do with the fact they spend the entire story together and neither of them outshone the other which was nice to see.
I’m not totally sold on this story, there certainly are elements that work in this story and I can’t say that I was ever bored however as the story progressed and in the brief moments that I had time to think I was just wondering why I wasn’t as gripped as I should be. Whilst I mull over this particular conundrum, I finished listening to this story looking forward to the final story, hoping that this will be they have saved the best story till last because I am starting to worry that this won’t be the best series due to the underwhelming feeling that I have for this series.
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