Moonflesh (2014)

Moonflesh is the first time that we have had the combination of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in a series since the Stockbridge trilogy of stories at the end of 2009 (even though of course they appeared in Fanfare for the Common Men). Since then we have had plenty of Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough adventures so its nice that they have decided to freshen it up by doing something different with the Fifth Doctor. I have always been a huge fan of Nyssa and she is one of only two people to win the Best Companion award at the Tomstardis Awards (winning it in 2007 and 2012). As the current holder of the Best Doctor category, Peter Davison has had a good run of stories in recent years and the run continues in this story.

What does strike me about the early stages of this story is that it seems like its going be a base under siege type story and the story does a good job of building the tension up nice and slowly and by the halfway stage I thought that this would have worked very well during the Davison era on TV.

From start to finish, I couldn’t help think that Francesca Hunt was doing an impression of Sandi Toskvig. I thought that the characters in this story were very good because Hunt did very well as Hannah Bartholomew and I thought that the character was a very strong one and it could easily have been Leela in this story. I also quite liked Phoebe Whitlock played by Rosanna Miles and thought that whilst she might not have been quite a strong as Hannah, she was still an interesting character and I wasn’t bored when she was in the scene. Phoebe really stepped up as a character when became ‘possesed’ and it was almost like an initiation into the story before she becomes accepted as a solid character.

The most famous name in this story is that of Hugh Fraser who played Hasting in the David Suchet series of Poirot stories. Here he plays Edwin Tremayne and he’s a perfectly fine character in this. Tim Bentinck is the face on the cover that I recognise from his handful of appearances in the great BBC comedy ‘The Thick of It’. Also according to Wikipedia (the fountain of truth and knowledge), he is actually Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, 12^th Earl of Portland, 8^th Count Bentinck. As Nathaniel Whitlock, Bentinck does come across as someone with more money than brains. For me the most interesting person in this entire story was Silver Crow (played brilliantly by John Banks). He just pips Hannah to most interesting character in the story. Silver Crow is a Sioux Indian and is very likeable and I couldn’t help but think of Latoni in ‘Black Orchid’ but Silver Crow is more talkative.

Mark Morris has written a great group of character who are never boring and never become annoying and that’s a rare thing in a story. I cant deny that I found his ghost dance slightly amusing but credit should go to John Banks for making it seem perfectly natural and not a comedy routine. In fact Morris does enough in the early stages of the story to stop it from becoming a comedy. The direction of the story was well handled by Ken Bentley and whilst I didn’t always understand what was going on I will say that it was an enjoyable adventure from the beginning and I look forward to the next two stories in this series.

The House of Blue Fire (2011)

House of Blue Fire is written by Mark Morris. His previous stories have included a single adventure in ‘Forty Five’ (2008) and Plague of the Daleks (2009). Set in 2020. The story is set in a hotel that seems to have people with fears (a bit like a certain Matt Smith story that aired recently). The story starts off like a ghost house and some sort of Halloween story. Story starts off with a woman arriving at a house she doesn’t know or is even aware of her own name. She has Mind-wipe Syndrome.

Something has drawn these four people to this house. According to the Doctor mentioning its name will strengthen it. The creature is the Mi’en Kalarash. Who is a scary bedtime story, a sort of bogeyman. The four people we meet at the beginning are Miss 5 –Apraphobia (An abnormal fear of water or drowning), Mr 12 – Catoptrophobia (Fear of mirrors, or seeing one’s own reflection), Mr 16 – Blattodephobia (The morbid fear of cockroaches), Miss 18 – Athazagoraphobia (Being forgotten or ignored). Big Finish gladly described the first three but I had to look up the final one. Which lead me to The Phobia List on the internet and some of the funniest phobias ever. I spent ages looking up some of the stupidest phobias including fears of chins, noses, sitting down, rooms and phobias of phobias.

The first half of the story is spent establishing the setting and the phobias of each person. The second half changes gear, the Doctor set up that house out of his subconscious. The Blue Fire System is a military base where they are trying to eradicate fear in the hope that soldiers would become better in war. The latter half of the story is spent trying to defeat the Mi’en Kalarash which is some sort of fear parasite which is very dangerous and due to the performances from the cast it’s a danger that is believable. It’s quite a good creature because it gets other people to do its work for it which is different to how most aliens/baddies act in these stories. The Doctor’s fear seems to be the deaths of everyone that he has encountered in his lives. This is revealed quite late in the day and like The God Complex the Doctor’s fear isn’t the same as everyone else’s.

The Doctor doesn’t appear until the end and in fact his appearance brings about the first cliffhanger. I may be wrong on this one but it has to be the first time that the first appearance of the Doctor is used in such a way (apart from a regeneration of course). It did through me a bit but I thought that this was a very clever thing and it meant that the supporting cast had to carry the story until McCoy appeared and they did it very well. McCoy’s Doctor is verging on the manipulative side of his character that he was famous for during his time on TV and has done from time to time in Big Finish stories. Timothy West returns after his 2007 appearance in Immortal Beloved. He takes a back seat role in the first half of this story and it’s only in episode 3 when the story moves into reality that he gets to be as good as we would want. I wouldn’t say it was a particularly massive role but West does do well with the role. I honestly couldn’t say that out of the four actors we meet at the beginning there was one that was better than the others and that’s because they were all very good. Amy Pemberton (18), Miranda Keeling (5), Ray Emmet Brown (16) and Howard Gossington (12) really did work well and were totally engaging throughout.

The cliffhangers were very enjoyable. The third one was possibly my favourite and I think that cliffhangers are pretty redundant on audio because people will listen to this story in one go and normally the cliffhangers are pretty ropey but in this story they are really well done. Even managing to make the Doctor’s first appearance dramatic is no easy task but credit to Mark Morris. The final scene is very interesting as Sally Morgan leaves with the Doctor in the TARDIS and it dematerialises which seems to imply that the character will feature again in 2012.

To show that I really like this story I am nit-picking and this is ultimate nit-picking because this is the biggest flaw with this story. After an apparent rest on rolling his r’s. McCoy is back on form with a few that actually didn’t need to be there but that maybe because of McCoy and not Morris. I didn’t think anything could be better than The Doomsday Quatrain but this one does it. It has to be in my top 3 of the year as from start to finish it was thoroughly enjoyable with some clever writing and some superb casting. In this series of Seventh Doctor adventures. Only Robophobia has disappointed me. It wasn’t terrible but when you compare it to this story and The Doomsday Quatrain it doesn’t stand up.

The Necropolis Express (2011)

The Necropolis Express is the follow up to the great first story. The story takes place just after Litefoot and Sanders and so the sadness of Ellie’s death is clear. In fact the story starts off with quite a grizzly idea. Jago and Litefoot are on the train so that they can put Ellie out of her misery and stop her becoming a vampire. The story is written by Mark Morris who is a writer I like and we always get a good story with him. His previous credits include Plague of the Daleks and Freakshow.

The story sees the train that Jago and Litefoot were travelling on arrive at a church which instantly sends out alarm bells (figuratively). It was clear it wasn’t going to be plain sailing when they set off on an unofficial train and bribing the station master to get on it. When they arrive at the church there is no-one there to great them. It does raise one question. Who was driving the train and why didn’t they get involved in the story? The only person there is a figure who turns out to be Doctor Sibelius Crow who use to be friends with Litefoot but got struck off for doing things that he shouldn’t be. The setting helps a lot with this story. As there is a lab underneath the church along with tunnels it helps add to the unknown and the creppy setting gets turned up to 11.

Crow had a secret and it was he was trying to fend off death but what he had created were monsters. What was surprising was that he wasn’t working on his own and in fact it was Gabriel Sanders that he was in cahoots with. The fact that Sanders was behind what was going on in the lab proves that he will feature more in the remainding stories. When Crow thought that Litefoot was making up Sanders’ death up, I thought that Sanders was going to turn up but alas he didn’t.

Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter are on superb form as usual but I think that the main star of the story was Vernon Dobtcheff (previously a scientist in The War Games) is very good and is a good baddie. The character was very similar to Litefoot in that he is quite posh and is clearly is a very smart man (even though his motives are stupid). The relatively small cast worked surprisingly well and meant that there was more time for longer scenes between the three main actors and some great speeches. The Necropolis Express is an enjoyable story which manages to maintain the quality from the first story. In the previous series, I thought that the second story wasn’t as good as the first but in this series I cant say that. I think that the idea of a story arc is a good one and will benefit this series. The Necropolis Express is a story that is just as good as a single story as it is fitting into the series. Oh and the title is great and has a lovely explanation from Benjamin.

Freakshow

When Ringpullworld was first released in November 2009, I was a little disappointed with the release because it just didn’t really click for me. I thought that the strange way it was structured was not what should be. This story follows on from the 2009 free Companion Chronicle story The Mists of Time. Mark Strickson appears in his second story but according to the Doctor Who Magazine it was the first to be recorded. This story is set after Terminus whilst the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are running from the Black Guardian.

Arrive Buzzard Creek in Arizona in 1905. Turlough leaves the TARDIS after he gets sick of Tegan. He comes across the town and its not long there after before he comes across a fairground and in it there is a figure called Mr Winklemeyer. There is something sinister about Winklemeyer. Who is a Vomar and is on Earth to promulgate his species. He is using the elixir of life and is going to use the people of Buzzard Creek to get what he wants. The elixir contains micro organisms to together will make a Vomar. Whilst inside the stomach of their host they basically eat their way out. Turlough befriends a creature called The Wild Man is a creature that Winklemeyer uses in the shows. His name is actually Berman Lamizine (guessing about the spelling) and is a Krolok (again guessing with the spelling). Apparently he is been held there against his will which is quite similar to some of the horrible animal shows around the world.

The story in the second half is about the smart implants and how to override them. It becomes a game to try and outsmart Winklemeyer but eventually he manages it with Winklemeyer giving up. The Doctor’s plan to introduce an anti-elixir to kill of the spawn and prevent the people of Buzzard Creek might seem like murder but then the argument could be made that to allow the humans to die would be murder. It ended with the Doctor taking all the creatures of Winklemeyer’s show back to where they belong and all’s well that ends well.

Mark Strickson was very good in this story and in fact was better than in Ringpullworld. I think because he didn’t have to stop every five seconds to deal with the other character he was allowed in this story to just get on with it. His Peter Davison impression wasn’t great and neither was his Tegan voice but to be honest that’s not a major issue for me. The character of Winklemeyer wasn’t quite what we normally get in Doctor Who. I didn’t think that his plan to try and recreate his species by using the citizens of Blizzard Creek was totally wrong. I didn’t get the feeling that he was in the group of evil people like Mavic Chen, Tobias Vaughn or even Davros. I did enjoy Toby Longworth’s performance and felt that it was an entertaining performance. He has a wide range of voices and Longworth manages to do something unique in a Big Finish play. That is to do an American voice without me cringing with embarrassment. I thought that the Berman character was a very nice character. He sounded friendly and it was (if not inevitable) that he was going to die. His death was dealt with in just the right way.

There is a slight issue that I have with this story and it’s a tiny bit of continuity. The story is a testimony presumably for the Galactic Authority. Though he mentions that he is doing a testimony it is never mentioned again. I think that this may have been a mistake by someone actually editing this.

Mark Morris has written a very sharp and enjoyable story. One of the things that I wrote when reviewing The Mists of Time is that I wouldn’t grumble paying for it. With Freakshow I would definitely have no problem paying for this.

The Three Companions (2009-2010)

The Three Companions is a special Companion Chronicles story that was released in twelve separate parts to accompany the main releases starting with The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009 and finishing with Survival of the Fittest in February 2010. This was quite an unusual thing to do and I made the decision that I would wait until all twelve parts had been released. Written by Marc Platt, this story feature Anneke Wills as Polly, Nicholas Courtney as The Brigadier and Jon Pickard as Thomas Brewster. This was probably an advertisement to try and convince people to get buy the Companion Chronicles series but for people like me who already buy them this is just a subscribers special. The story starts with the Polly contacting the Brigadier and they start chatting about how they travelled with the Doctor before realising that it’s not the same Doctor. There was a nice link to a previous companion chronicle in the form of The Doll of Death. Polly starts to tell her story that she had whilst travelling with the second Doctor, Jamie & Ben. Polly’s story was quite interesting. It is cantered around this planet that is destined to be cremated. The story itself is a nice short one that would probably need to something else were it to be included in a full story. Anneke Wills gives a great performance and probably does a better impression of Ben than that of Jamie and the Doctor.

No sooner had Polly’s story finished than the Brigadier’s started. His story sees the Third Doctor and the Brigadier follow a distress call and ended up on what seemed to be the platform at Waterloo Station. One of the funniest lines in these companion chronicles popped up at this point when the Brigadier says “The Tardis made that dreadful sound like an elephant in labour”. It goes a bit weird when someone who looks like Polly pops up in his story as well as the Eiffel Tower and other familiar landmarks. Soon it seems like the whole place is in fact a museum on another planet. There was a similarity to Polly’s story in some sort of bug infestation. The Brigadier’s story was better than Polly’s. There was more of a mystery going on. It turns out that Jerry Lens (the voice of the distress signal) has the Doctor’s TARDIS, he also has taken the TARDIS away from Thomas Brewster. It turns out that the person who ran this world just got bored and left it to fall to pieces. It was an enjoyable story and it felt more action packed than Polly’s story.

The Coffin Loaders got mentioned of CFC5 in Polly’s story and then get mentioned in the Brigadier’s story. They only arrive when a planet is about to end like CFC5. Thomas Brewster talks to a Jerry Lens (or Mr L) and he appears in Polly’s story as well as the Brigadier’s. It’s about an hour (or the end of part six – Coffin Loaders) before Thomas Brewster really comes into this story with the revelation of him having the TARDIS which places his part of the story between The Haunting of Thomas Brewster and Time Reef.

It’s Part Nine (Many Meetings) before things start entering the interesting stage. It’s when Polly, The Brigadier and Thomas Brewster finally all meet. The rain is starting to become more central and as Polly and The Brigadier are talking, Thomas Brewster is telling his story but makes the surprising claim that he is the Doctor. Of course this didn’t fool either Polly or The Brigadier. Brewster told his story in Part Ten about how he was found after he stole the TARDIS and essentially there is a creature that is making it rain and Brewster is being used as a sacrifice.

I do have an issue with listening with this whole release whether you listen to it in one go or as it was released. The theme music ruins the flow of the story. It perhaps would have been better to have the theme tune on a separate track so that if like me you listen to it in one go there is a better flow to it. There was a nice sub-plot that started off quite quickly where it seemed to be raining quite a lot which obviously got explained during Part Ten. There was a nice link at the beginning to The Doll of Death which starred Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Jo contacted the Brigadier.

Anneke Wills and Nicholas Courtney were very good as Polly and The Brigadier. They both put in performances that were just like their companion chronicle stories that they both have done (Old Soldiers for Courtney and Resistance for Wilkes). Despite only appearing in 8 episodes back in 2008, I am glad that they managed to get Jon Pickard back to do some more stories. There is a lot of room for future adventures and this helped to partly fill the gap as to what was going on whilst the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa were in The Boy That Time Forgot. I thought that the best was Russell Floyd who played Gerry Lenz or Garry Lendler depending on how you prefer to think of him. He was a sort of Meddling Monk for the 21st Century. This was a well acted character that hopefully will appear in future Doctor Who adventures.

Unfortunately despite all the good building up the story did start to go downhill a bit towards the final 20 minutes. The story wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination because there was still enough action on the hunters ship to keep me entertained. I just think that too much time was spent building it up and then it felt like it was being rushed. In comparison to other Companion Chronicles this doesn’t quite match up. I liked it how three of the Doctor’s companions got together. It was like a Multi-Doctor story but with companions and this was the only time they were likely to meet up. I think that it has that epic feel to it but isn’t quite as strong as it could have been. Whilst the characters were very strong and well acted it was slightly let down by the ending of the story.

If they ever decided to this again then I think that they should reduce the time (spread it over 6 releases not 12) and personally I would listen to them as they came out instead of all at once. That was a mistake on my part.

Plague of the Daleks (2009)

The final of the Stockbridge Trilogy sees the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa thrown into the future after the time bubble thingy in The Eternal Summer. This story also sees the third time that the Daleks have been used in 2009. I have liked how the stories have bled into each other. This story is the full story debut script from Mark Morris who wrote one of the stories from Forty-Five in 2008.

In many ways this story is a traditional adventure. The Doctor and Nyssa are separated for most of this story. The Doctor was paired off with Issac Barclay and Nyssa is paired with Lysette Barclay. It’s the characters that I was particularly impressed with in this story. Keith Barron was very good as Issac and the way he interacted with the Doctor reminded me of Stein in Resurrection of the Daleks. Barron who previously appeared in Enlightenment back in 1983 and his voice is ideal for radio and gave the character a friendly feel to it. Liza Tarbuck did a similar job as Lysette. In fact the revelation that she was a sort of RoboDalek was quite a shock.

I thought the idea of a Zombie plot was quite fun. However the idea of rain water turning people into Zombie just weeks after Waters of Mars was perhaps just a case of bad timing. I also thought that the Doctor’s Dalek voice was quite entertaining. It did slightly confuse me how if the Doctor was being changed did he manage to then act like nothing happened a few moments later. Then it became clear he was just trying to con the Daleks. Peter Davison put in another great performance and seemed to revel in having the opportunity of playing a different Doctor like he did in The Eternal Summer. Sarah Sutton was on usual good form, it was good that she was able to become the driving force of the events at times.

Out of the three Stockbridge plays its not the best and perhaps a bit of an anticlimax. Ultimately the story would have benefited without the Daleks as their part in this story wasn’t really what I had hoped. Also out of the three Dalek stories we’ve had this year it is also the poorest of the three. Don’t get me wrong its not that I think it’s a poor story , just that it wasn’t the ending to this mini series that I was expecting. I have enjoyed this Stockbridge Trilogy, not knowing anything of it before didn’t really hamper my enjoyment. I think these three adventures were better for the Fifth Doctor than the Key 2 Time series at the beginning of the year.

Forty-Five (2008)

To celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Big Finish decided that they were going to do four single part stories that have the same theme. When they did this for the 100th release the theme was 100. Well to celebrate the 45th Anniversary the theme was 45. In the past I have not liked single part stories. To me they just don’t work because I don't think that you could write a good strong story in 25 minutes. Whenever they have done stories like The Death Collectors or Exotron it isn’t the three part stories that let the release down but the single part. 100 was also a mild disappointment for me, some stories were good but then there were some that were poor. When they announced that they were going to do the same thing for Forty-Five my heart sank because I thought that they were going to make the same mistakes again. However this story is the exception and has started to change my mind about whether single part stories work. One other point to mote is that all the writers on this story are making their debut for Big Finish.

The first part was False Gods and written by Mark Morris. Set in 1902 it is an entertaining story that only really comes into its own in the last few minutes. Its quite strange that with the new series saying there are no Timelords yet in the Big Finish universe they are all over the cosmos. Morris wrote a story that created good characters that when the episode finished you felt you knew them well. The setting was quite a good one and I write this because normally historical settings are something that I am not a fan of but I put that to one side and just tried to figure out where the 45 theme would be placed. The moment that Ace got transported back in time was a shock and I then wondered how they were going to resolve this within the 25 minute format however they did and by the end of the first part I thought that the story was very good. Of the guest stars in this episode the best was Lucy Adams who played Jane Templeton who we thought was just a normal archaeologist but then turned out to be a Timelord. That was the second shock of the story and her death. Another shock that I felt came when the Doctor got really angry and vented that anger (rightly so) at Hex. Its something that I don’t recall witnessing in any Doctor Who form. The other guests of this story also did very well. Benedict Cumberbatch (really that’s his name, I’ve check on Wikipedia) was enjoyable as Howard Carter with Paul Lincoln putting in a good performance as Robert Charles. Another good performance came from Jon Glover as Creodont. As a story it was very good which packed such a lot in 25 minutes and managed to make it all seem sense. As an episode I would give it 3/5.

The second story was in fact my favourite, Order of Simplicity was written by Nick Scovell. This story was good because it used the Doctors necessity to be able to solve a problem or puzzle. Which is a character trait that follows all Doctors. I liked the idea that there is a virus that makes you stupid because most viruses that occur in Sci-Fi tend to work to kill you. Jon Glover put in another good performance as Dr Verryman who played the baddie role very well. Lucy Adams also gave another good performance as Mrs Crisp. There was something sinister about her performance which I really liked. Benedict Cumber batch and Paul Lincoln put in equally good and enjoyable performances as they are credited as Thing 1 & 2. Something that did strike me was the idea that there was a room of stupid people and then the moment came when they fought back. Nick Scovell has written a good story that is a lot darker but just as enjoyable as False Gods and what I liked about this story is the Doctor is put in a position where his intelligence is diminishing by the minute and that is a scary thought. The rating I would give for this episode would be 3/5.

The third story was Casualties of War written by Mark Michalowski which is the only story that I felt was the weakest of the four. It wasn't a bad story by any means but it was just OK. The idea that the story has loose links to the 1989 story The Curse of Fenric was a nice surprise as it added a more human side to the story. However I think that the looking back at Ace’s past has been done in the Fenric story and so to spend any more time on it is a waste really and even if they did put a new spin on Ace’s childhood then I think its something that can best be left untold. That said there were still some good characters and equally very good actors. Beth Chalmers was perhaps the best of the guest stars because of the fact that she played two good characters in the form of May & Audrey. Audrey was the best because that was the one that has the most emotional link to Ace being that she is Ace’s mother. Overall it was an ok story that doesn’t really leave a mark on me. The rating I would give for this story is 3/5.

The final story of the release was The Word Lord and was my second favourite story which with the quality of the stories is quite a strong statement. The story felt like it could have been a four parter easily but somehow managed to make it fit inside 25 minutes. One I things I like about this particular episode is that it has the greatest name for a baddie. Nobody No-one is the sort of nemesis that the Doctor should be facing more often and one that the TV Doctor could face. When I pictured what Nobody No-one would look like I imagine Skagra from Shada (the 1979 abandoned adventure). I don’t really know why but I suspect that might have something to do with Paul Reynolds who plays Nobody. The episode felt longer than 25 minutes which shows how much they managed to fit in such as short time. The frequent 45 references went un-noticed by me and when they were bought back in a list of when the number was mentioned was quite freaky. The setting also helps create the tension. Setting it in an Antarctic Base isn’t anything original but it helps add to the feeling of the story. Linda Marlowe performed well as Commander Claire Spencer as she was very authoritative throughout this story as was Andrew Dickens as Captain James Hurst. A very good story that keeps you enthralled throughout. In a way you feel that its wasted in just a single episode. The rating I would give this story is 4/5.

The release as a whole was a very good one and was a fitting tribute to Doctor Who. It seems that they have finally got the hang of telling short stories. Like the previous 7th Doctor story Kingdom of Silver's story Keepsake the short episode format was well written and entertaining. I really look forward to seeing whether Big Finish can keep up this good form. Sylvester McCoy was very good in this release and really shone for me in The Word Lord & Order of Simplicity. Sophie Aldred continues to play the loyal sidekick well but really stood out for me in Casualties of War with Philip Olivier sort of putting in a performance that we come to expect from him. Ken Bentley directed all episodes with a firm discipline and didn’t allow for the action to slow up and thus cause a rush at the end and ruining it. Ken Bentley is a real treasure for Doctor Who