Warfare (2006)

The second story of the third season of Gallifrey is where the Pandora storyline ends and this unofficial two-parter reaches a conclusion. The story (written by Stewart Sheargold) sees Romana skulking around whilst Pandora lives it up (so to speak) in her quarters. The story does a good job of keeping the momentum and pace going and ultimately for not dragging the arc theme out too much. The problem I have with this story is that it spends a lot of time confusing me with the talk of things that I had trouble understanding. I prefer the Gallifrey series when it goes into The West Wing territory but not so much when it descends into technical jargon.

I understand the need to use the science because it’s a sci-fi show but sometimes the series turns it up to 11. I did like every second that Mary Tamm was involved in the story. Mary Tamm shone in the role of Pandora. The only downside to the ending of this Pandora story arc is that we probably won’t hear from Mary Tamm again. Louise Jameson is very good as well. Now that Leela is permanently blind, it’s great how they despite this major problem for the character that it has kept the character the same and not made her all sombre. Lalla Ward is very good and it’s the first time that the character of Romana hasn’t felt infallible. The scenes between Ward and Tamm were very enjoyable.

The stories supporting characters were all very good. Narvin (Sean Carlsen) continues to impress me. He started as a fringe character but his development over the course of the stories he has been in has been well handled. I also found Chancellor Valyes to be very good and well played by Steven Wickham. When someone has a great voice then its fantastic when they are in a scene. Another good character was Lord Mathias as played by Stephen Perring who in the main range is Kro’ka. His potential was plain to see.

All in all, I wasn’t as keen on Warfare as I had been for other stories. Despite all the jargon that was in this story it wasn’t boring and that was partly due to the strong characters and the actors playing them. In this series, one thing is for sure is that they ended the Pandora stuff at the right time and they ended it in a sensible and enjoyable way. However the fallout of this story arc will spill over into Appropriation and it looks like The West Wing side of Gallifrey will take centre stage. Fantastic.

Imperiatrix (2005)

This second series of Gallifrey has been brilliant. The difference in quality compared to the first season is vast and I was hoping that this final story was be a fitting way to sign off. It’s clear that they mean business on the duration alone because at 100 minutes, its by far the longest story in the Gallifrey series so far. Written by Stewart Sheargold this story has a lot to live up to and a long time to fit it in. Thankfully he does this well.

The story does a good job in keeping my interest throughout the whole 100 minutes, despite the action really only getting going in the latter half of the play but even in the first half it doesn’t feel like their just playing for time. The story has Romana battling against Darkel and trying to fight against the future as told by Pandora and Leela who has to try and track to the Free Time terrorists. Leela also has to come to terms with the death of Andred who had been killed but Leela chooses now to admit her feelings and avenge his death.

I am going to repeat myself again here by praising the performances of Lalla Ward, Louise Jameson and Lynda Bellingham. Lalla Ward is fantastic as she has to fight harder than she ever did and excels in the role. Louise Jameson has more emotional stuff to do in this one as she tries to deal with the loss of Andred. I am continuing to be impressed by how the character has developed over the course of the nine stories. Lynda Bellingham is in danger of becoming my favourite character of the series. Considering how two dimensional the character was in Trial of a Timelord it hard to believe that the character we get in this story is the same one. That said, Bellingham appears to be having a ball. The character is totally horrible but brilliantly played.

There are numerous scenes that I thought were very strong and shows what is so good about these characters. One that instantly comes to mind is when the bomb has gone off and killed lots of people and one of the K9 units. There is a lovely quote that accompanies this scene;

“Look out there Romana. Look at that wasteland of ash. That is what we will become under your rule.”

The story goes mad towards the end with Romana declaring herself a dictator after the Great Key has been found. With the return of Romana 1 it was a shock to think that Romana 2 had killed Romana 1 and at the end there was a moment where Romana 2 asks Leela to kill her. It’s a this point the story cranks up the tension. It was good to have Mary Tamm back because as one of the Romana’s she should be in it more but there can only be one Romana. I was listening to this in my car and I was surprised at how abruptly it seemed to end. It’s clearly a cliffhanger to series three (only time will tell) but if this is the case then the first story of series three should be a humdinger. We have Romana effectively locked up and her relationship with Leela which has been one of the highlights of the entire series is very fragile and it’s made even more noticeable thanks to Ward and Jameson. Overall the second series has been a delight to hear with some solid scripts and some superb direction but most importantly the acting has been high rate.

Red (2006)

Well what can I say about this story. Every so often Big Finish give us a story that confuses me and doesn’t quite fall into the traditional Doctor Who story. Its quite an unusual title but then again its an unusual story. Written by a newcomer Stewart Sheargold. What he has written is a story that could never be described as dull. This is the first Seventh Doctor and Mel story since Unregenerate! (2005). The big name of this story is Sandi Toksvig from BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz. She plays Vi Yulqueen (fantastic name) who is a sort of Del Boy in space. This character is an entertaining one that you know could be trusted if not fully.

The story seems (on second listening) that there are those on the planet called Needle who are chipped and anyone who isn’t chipped are considered to be a threat. The Doctor has been chipped and like Unregenerate is the one who finds himself for the second Mel story running as a mentally weaker person. Mel on the other hand is the one who takes the driving seat of this story. As she hasn’t got a chip she is free to cause trouble where she can. Its good that Mel is given more than one chance to take charge. It shows us what the character can do apart from wearing god awful outfits and screaming all the time. In shows like this and Unregenerate! She becomes the companion she should have been on TV.

An issue I do have with this story is that McCoy does nothing effectively in the majority of this story. I know that it’s good for Mel to be in a bigger slice of the action but not the whole bloody pie. Hopefully this isn’t a trend that will continue because otherwise all the hard work that has been done to restore the seventh Doctor to the level of the other will be have been a waste of time.

For a first script, Stewart Sheargold wrote an unusual story that was a bit lob sided in the companions favour. I don’t think it was a bad story but needed to show the Doctor in a better way than what he was. Gary Russell did another good job. I’ve lost count of the number of main range stories he has directed but it’s a lot and I mean this is a nice way but it was a standard job for him. Red is the sort of story that will go down a storm with some people and not so well with others. I think I am in the latter but when put alongside with the stories from Season 24 it is one of the best stories of that time.

The Death Collectors (2008)

The Death Collectors is a companionless story for the Seventh Doctor. It is the third one without a companion following on from Valhalla and Frozen Time. Here we have the third story in four that doesn’t see Hex or Ace and I get the feeling that maybe that they are considering doing more of these stories which would be a shame. This story has been written by Stewart Sheargold who had previously written the 2006 story Red which was a weird story. Another thing about this story is that this is one of those 3 plus 1 stories which sees three episodes form one story and a stand alone episode. I am not a fan of these releases because whilst the three episodes work really well but the single part stories never work because you can’t tell a good story in 25 minutes. Only one story since they have started doing this format has worked and that was Urban Myths in Exotron. Also this story sees Ken Bentley make his first contribution to the Doctor Who range.

Anyone who has been a fan of Doctor Who for more than 12 years will know that Puccini’s Madam Butterfly was played in the TV Movie. According to the Extras on the release this story is set just before the 1996 Movie so it seems that the music is similar to the watcher that appeared in Tom Baker’s finale back in 1981. It was quite a brave decision to set a story so much in Death. Its not exactly a family friendly topic and so it has to be dealt with cautiously. The story is set on a Sky Station above a planet called Antikon. As soon as someone visits the planet they become infected with Decay which slowly kills them. That when the Dar-Traders come in, they feed off death signatures and so anyone who visits Antikon is basically lunch for the Dar-Traders. As the story progresses we learn that the Decay is effecting everything and even travels through sound waves which is unusual for a virus.

Sylvester McCoy is really good in this story. I don’t get the feeling that McCoy was really tested in this story however he still managed to be enjoyable. It enabled him to form some fresh relationships with one off characters. In this story he developed well Katherine Parkinson. Katherine Parkinson isn’t a name that necessarily springs to mind but a little bit of research (god bless Wikipedia). She has appeared in several things but most recently the Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd (since 2006). As Danika Meanwhile she plays a very strong character that starts to believe and work with the Doctor as the events on the Sky Station develop. The best example of that is the cliffhanger for Episode 2 where the Doctor has put himself in a coma and Danika has put the spacesuit on which has very little oxygen showed a lot of trust between the two. Alastair Cording was very good in this story as Professor Mors Alexandryn. We learn in this story that his character was once married to Danika Meanwhile. As this story goes on we go from hating him because it seems that his ambitions could endanger everyone but slowly he becomes the hero and fits in with the listener’s desire that the Doctor should be helped and not hindered. Derek Carlyle was very good for two reasons. The first being that he came up with the voice of the Dar-Traders. The voice was truly eerie and fit the character very well. It must have really hurt his voice doing the Dar-Traders for two days but the end result is well worth it. The second reason he was good was because of playing Smith Ridley. The Ridley character met a sticky end fairly early on but as the decay took effect it was Ridley that was the centre point for the events. His efforts helped make the story that much better. Katarina Olson has been in several Big Finish plays over the last few years and in this story she had another good role as Nancy the ships computer. The role didn’t seem to have a lot going for it to begin with but soon became quite integral to the survival of the Sky Station.

This story was very enjoyable. Every character had a good side and a bad side which were equally effective. Stewart Sheargold has written a story that benefited from the three episode time limit. Ken Bentley’s first Doctor Who story was a very energetic let downbeat story.

Now for some negative comments. I know I have never been a fan of single part stories but Spiders Shadow is the worst that there has been. I just didn’t understand why anybody bothered to be a part of it. That was my initial reaction but on second look it had improved slightly. There is a lot of moving around in time and that comes as a bit of a let down. This is because it should be done in a four part story. That said I did like the characters though we never really got to know them very well.

Katarina Olsson was given a slightly better role in this story as Martial Princess Keldafria. Carol Fitzpatrick was also very good as Martial Princess Keldafria Louisa who is perhaps a better character than Olsson’s character. Kevin McNally is a big name actor and it’s a shame that he was given this story and this character to work with. McNally has appeared in Bond Films and perhaps more famously the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. In this story he played Henry which was perhaps too small a character for such a big name.

As a release this story was very good. I think that The Death Collectors was the better of the two stories and suited the three episode format very well. On the other hand Spiders Shadow was a poorer effort which perhaps would have been better had it been a longer episode. But as I have said before 25 minutes is not long enough for a story, especially one as complex as Spiders Shadow.

The Darkening Eye (2008)

This is the first story to feature a companion from beyond the fourth Doctor era. I am surprised it has taken so long but quite glad that they have done it. It also nice that they chose the best companion from the Fifth Doctor’s era to read this story. I don’t quite know whether using stories featuring the fifth Doctor onwards is a good idea. The companions used are ones that we hear once or twice a year (or more) and that has occurred for the last ten years. Sarah Sutton gives a good performance as Nyssa. Sarah Sutton played Nyssa from January 31st 1981 in The Keeper of Traken to February 23 1983 in Terminus. Originally she was only intended to appear in The Keeper of Traken but due to the need of more companions with the departure of Tom Baker’s Doctor in the next story it was decided to keep Nyssa on as a full-time companion. Nyssa is my favourite companion because she is rationale and doesn’t fit the normal stereotype of the female companion. Another thing that I liked about Sutton’s performance is the voices that she does (or doesn’t do). Her Tegan voice was the best and they seemed the easiest thing to do, the tone that she used for Adric was spot on and the Doctor was not memorable.

The use of death is not the cheeriest of subjects due to its dark and often negative images. The Dar-Traders morbid descriptions in this story help make them the sort of alien that despite having no malice you would not want anything to do with them. The return of the Dar-Traders was a good one because I think that there is a lot of potential for this creature. The idea that the Doctor and his companions all have death signatures makes sense because they have all dealt with death. The Doctor has died four times at this point, Tegan has felt the death of her Aunt (in Logopolis), Nyssa lost her father and others (in The Keeper of Traken) and Adric lost his brother (Full Circle) and would die in Earthshock.

Stewart Sheargold wrote a strong story because of the descriptions that he gives creates a very dark and miserable idea of what the spaceship was like. A series like the companion chronicles depends on the descriptions of the writers and thanks to Sheargold this story works. The bits that he sticks in are valid points, what I mean by that is the line that Adric makes that just because we don’t understand a races rituals or beliefs then that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong which makes sense. When you look at the Dar-Traders then you would think that they have a morbid fascination with death except to them it’s probably perfectly normal. A new word seems to have been created especially for this story because I had never heard of it before Trakenite. That is something that seems obvious to Nyssa but it just seems to have been plucked out of thin air. Ken Bentley is directing his first Companion Chronicles even though he has directed a regular story this is a different discipline but does really well. The story has some really good moments which are important to the story and work and that’s thanks to Bentley.

The best thing about this story is the return of the Dar-Traders. I really liked the Dar-Traders when they last appeared in The Death Collectors. They sound superb and it’s a shame that they are used in audio because they would be brilliant on TV. The cliffhanger was also very good in this story and totally came out of the blue. It genuinely led me to wonder how it was going to conclude because we all know he dies in Earthshock. The conclusion was not a disappointment and it was the second part of this story that was the better half. The introduction of Damasin Hyde helped move the story along and added a threat to the companions. I think it would have been better if another actor played Hyde instead of using Sutton. It did slightly devalue the character no matter how much it added to the story.

Overall this was an enjoyable story, its does have its faults but the use of Nyssa was a good idea and the story was sound.