Antidote to Oblivion (2014)

The first story from the main range of 2014 is one that I was looking forward to for several reasons. The first is that it is written by Phillip Martin who wrote the 1985 adventure ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and also has also written a couple of stories for Big Finish over the years. Another reason was that it sees the return of Nabil Shaban who plays Sil. The third reason is that it sees the return of the partnership of the Doctor and Flip Jackson. Flip last appeared in Wirrn Isle back in March 2012 and I was worried that we wouldn’t hear from Flip again. I think that the character of Flip is a strong one and Lisa Greenwood has been a sound piece of casting. Anyway, the story sees the Doctor and Flip leave their holiday (isn’t it terrible when that happens!!) and arrive on Earth where Britain is pretty much bankrupt. I can see that there are parallels to whats going on in the real world. It’s the sort of thing that Barry Letts would have done and whilst I was aware that this was what Philip Martin was doing, I didn’t mind it and thought that it was well done.

I like the idea that they have contaminated the water so that the residents don’t see how depressing things are. The moment when they do see whats going on, it’s comes at just the right time and helps speed things along. The wrap up of the story is rather good and done well. I was glad that Sil got away and thought that the sneeze at the very end was quite amusing and whilst it might indicate that he’s got the black death it also suggest that he will return. There was a moment when towards the end the Doctor seemed to have to go on a quest to destroy the Black Death and no sooner was this raised than it ceased to be a problem and I was glad because I would have felt that this was a plot extension too far but it ended at just the right time and in the right way.

I like how they have created some links to the part of ‘The Trial of a Timelord’ that featured Crozier. Here we get his daughter who for quite obvious reason has some resentment towards the Doctor although like most characters in dramas, has a change of heart when she hears the truth. I thought that it was a great performance from Dawn Murphy and she was more than a match at times for Nabil Shaban. I could literally hear Shaban all day and not get bored. One of the things that I enjoyed about this story was that we got a lot of Sil. I think that Sil is a great character and that little laugh that he does is just as good as Frazer Hines’ impression of Patrick Troughton. I hope we get more adventures from Shaban because it would be a great source of entertainment.

I really enjoyed every aspect of this story. It’s a great combination with a great plot and it’s a strong start to the year. I thought that the main performances were solid and also the supporting characters were just as strong. I would be surprised if it weren’t in my top 5 stories in the main range. A strong start to the year and also the series of the Sixth Doctor and Flip.

Vengeance on Varos (1985)

Vengeance on Varos is a curious story because whilst its one of the best Sixth Doctor stories, its also one of the darkest stories and it’s the one that addresses the issue of violence on TV but unfortunately it’s mistaken and the wider public saw it as another example of how violent Doctor Who had become. This story is unusual for this series because it is entirely studio bound and that helps in a massive way to create a claustrophobic feel to the adventure. Vengeance on Varos was written by Philip Martin who credentials at the point of this story airing included the popular show Gangsters (1976-78) and Z-Cars (1962). Martin would go onto writing for Big Finish in 2004 with The Creed of the Kromon.

The story sees the TARDIS land of Varos where they need to get some Zeiton-7 which the TARDIS desperately needs. It’s only when they arrive that they get involved in the events of Varos where Sil is on the planet to negotiate a price for this precious Zeiton-7. But secretly Sil wants to control Varos and its only at the end that Sil’s plans become unstuck and he is ordered to obtain the Zeiton at any price. Meanwhile the Doctor and Peri are just trying to survive but things (as usual) get in the way.

One of the most memorable things from this story is the character of Sil. Played brilliantly by Nabil Shaban. The little laugh that Sil gives when he’s really happy is very creepy and makes the character totally unlikeable. What compliments this very well is the character of The Governor as played by Martin Jarvis making his third Doctor Who appearance. He is a politician who every so often has to sit in a chair and if voted, undergoes a quite painful experience. It’s due to Jarvis’ performance that makes you feel sorry for him and makes him a nice guy in quite not so nice place. Nicola Bryant is memorable for the wrong reasons in this story, here she has to adopt the role of an American companion that is turned into a bird. Yes, a bird. It’s like Martin had written the script and JNT asked him to put in something that made Peri look silly. Apart from the bird thing, Nicola Bryant does a pretty standard job of running down the same looking corridors in tight fitting clothing. Colin Baker does a pretty good job but is let down at the beginning by sulking like a teenager in the TARDIS. Once the story really gets going he shines and he has one of the best cliffhangers of his time as the Doctor when he becomes unconscious as he is crawling on the ground of what he thinks is a desert. Watching on a bank of monitors its only when you see his face that it becomes quite a disturbing ending. Well played by Mr. Baker.

There are some other impressive supporting characters that litter this story. Firstly are Arak (Stephen Yardley) and Etta (Sheila Reid) who are watching the events unfold and quite curiously never venture outside of that small set. They never meet the main characters but yet still feel like important characters despite not having a direct link into the events that go on. Their constant bickering at each other added some humour to the story. I also found Owen Teale (Maldak) to be very good. He starts of as a small character but becomes impressive by the end. The same cant be said for Jason Connery. He is truly awful in this adventure as looks like he was cast simply because he’s someone the ladies could enjoy watching. It’s a dull performance.

When people complain about the violence in Doctor Who, it’s the scene in this story where two people end up in an acid bath after fighting with the Doctor. People wrongly claim that the Doctor pushes them into the bath which is clearly wrong because as you will see one falls in and pulls in the other. The only thing that the Doctor does wrong is say “You’ll mind if I don’t join you!”. I do think that it slightly ruins the moment and does make the Doctor look like he doesn’t fully appreciate the loss of life which even for this eratic Doctor doesn’t seem quite right. I do also question the scene where he makes the two cannibals go through poisonous tendrils.

Vengeance on Varos is a bold story that doesn’t rest on it’s lorals. The people who go on about the violence in Doctor Who are missing the point when they attack this story. In many ways it’s a parody of how violence is used and treated by a society and its just as relevant in todays society than it was back in 1985. It’s the best of the Philip Martin scripts and shows that despite being 22 years old, Doctor Who can still surprise viewers with something completely different.

The Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp (1986)

The next instalment of this epic Trial of a Timelord season is written by Philip Martin who wrote the previous years Vengeance of Varos and this story is memorable for two reasons. One is that it marks the departure of Nicola Bryant as Peri and also we get the booming voice of Brian ‘Gordon’s Alive’ Blessed. The story is the second piece of evidence that is used against the Doctor and the story is very different in terms of tone compared to The Mysterious Planet. This story sees the return of Sil who had appeared in Martin’s previous story. I saw this before I saw Vengeance and so any references to that story were lost on me. That said I’m glad they bought Sil back because it’s a very good character that would be annoying if it were played by anyone else but Nabil Shaban is so good that he becomes a good part of the story.

The story is set on Thoros Beta where they soon stumble across Sil and Kiv and the wonderfully mad Crozier. What seems like a normal story is made even more fun with the Doctor going a bit mad. To the point where he has Peri tied up on the rocks and is willing to let her die. Now there is some debate as to what the Doctor’s mindset is at this point (a debate started by Colin Baker himself on the documentary on the disc) and I have to say that as far as I am concerned he is still under the influence of the process and its not the matrix lying or the Doctor faking it to Crozier. I am starting to find the inter-cutting court scenes to be very tiring. It was OK to begin with in the early episodes but now we have established the format isn’t it time to just dispense with these scenes and just one a big one at the beginning and one at the end.

The cave sets are wonderfully claustrophobic. I remember the first time I saw this I remember the unsettling feeling of being crammed in like sardines. Doctor Who stories work best when the lighting is turned down and the atmosphere is created and it worked in Earthshock and it worked in this. Thankfully these sets are then replaced with the more expansive lab where Crozier is working. Credit must go to the set designers because all off the sets (apart from the first studio one) are very good and there a very real sense of this story taking place over a vast amount of area.

I thought that Patrick Ryecart was wonderful as Crozier. He was bordering on camp at times and I thought that there was a wonderful sense of someone whose professional greed is matched by that of his desire to survive. Christopher Ryan is also good as Kiv. Ryan was well known for appearing in the BBC sitcom ‘The Young Ones’ and he would return to Doctor Who in the 2008 two-parter ‘The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky’ as well as a brief appearance in the 2010 story ‘The Pandorica Opens’. As Kiv, his contribution to the story was good but unfortunately drowned out by that of the booming Brian Blessed. Every single second that he is on screen he overshadows everyone. Even Colin Baker can’t compete against Blessed. He is perfectly cast and adds a lot of humour to what is otherwise a very dark and at times grim story. It’s amazing that he hadn’t been in Doctor Who before because there are plenty of roles he could have done. Another actor worth mentioning is Trevor Laird who plays the very stern Frax which is a character that I didn’t like at first but towards the end he was actually very good. Laird would return to Doctor Who in 2007 as Clive Jones, the father of Martha Jones.

As exits go, this is a superb one for Nicola Bryant. The character never really had much of a chance to become a strong companion but merley one that ran around in pink leotards and other forms of inappropriate clothing. The idea that a companion is killed by having her mind replaced with Kiv’s is quite a horrific idea and then to add to her woes she is killed by Brian Blessed. The worst thing about this story is that they chickened out saying that she survived and is living with Brian Blessed. What? Why didn’t they just leave it as it was because it would have been a far better ending for the character. As it stands the ending just doesn’t make sense.

As a story on its own, Mindswap is a story that has plenty of things going for it including some wonderful characters and superb actors chosen to play them. It could have lost all the courtroom scenes because what was going on over the four episodes is more exciting and dramatic that anything that was going on between the Doctor and the Valeyard. It’s a story that serves the departure of a companion well and when you think of Peri, don’t think about Episode 14.

The Creed of the Kromon (2004)

It’s been a long time since we have had a new companion story. In fact it’s been about 3 ½ years since Erimem first appeared. This is the second story since the epic Zagreus and it’s now that the Eighth Doctor’s stories start to calm down. It’s good that a writer from the TV series is given the chance to write for Big Finish. Philip Martin wrote the 1984 story Vengeance of Varos and also the Terror of the Vervoids part of The Trial of a Timelord season.

The Kromon are a very well thought of creature. There was a moment in this story that had me thinking of the scene where Peri gets turned into a bird in Vengeance. Charley’s transformation into a breeding queen for the Kromon was quite horrific. But for all the horrific moments that Martin introduces it is the creation of C’Rizz that is what this story will be remembered for. The idea of a character that has chameleonic skin is not something that would never have worked on TV but due to the imagination of people who listen to these stories it’s a wonderful idea. By the end of the story I got the feeling that C’Rizz’s emotional state is going to form a very interesting story arc. You know that a character is going to be more than normal when they kill their partner to avoid them becoming a breeding Queen.

Paul McGann and India Fisher were on great form in this story. Their relationship has taken a battering in recent adventures but is starting to go in a new direction. Now that C’Rizz has joined the TARDIS team it’s going to be interesting to see how he affects the balance. The Creed and the Kromon is a nice little story. If you take out the stuff with C’Rizz then what you are left with is a normal middle of the road stuff but Conrad Westmaas has done a great job creating a character that has loads of issues to deal with and potential. The Creed of the Kromon is a good start to thi

Mission to Magnus (2009)

Mission to Magnus is a story that I knew was planned for the abandoned 23rd series. I knew from the Trial of a Timelord DVD that it was to feature the return of Sil and the Ice Warriors. This story was written by Philip Martin who had written Vengeance of Varos (1984) and also Mindwarp (1986). He also wrote the Big Finish play The Creed of the Kromon (2004). The thing that you have to bear in mind is that as far as this story is concerned, The Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp adventure hasn’t happened yet. So Vengeance on Varos is the only time in the Doctor’s timeline that he has met Sil.

The idea that the Ice Warriors want to change the climate of a planet to make it suitable for them is quite a good one to use in a story. The Ice Warriors are used very well in this story, we know that their coming and so their arrival isnt a surprise but is dramatic enough. The story has elements of Galaxy 4 where there is a race of women and in this story they want to use time travel to try and destroy men from another planet who they feel will ruin their way of life. Sil of course is quite unoriginal with his plan to travel forward in time to see what makes a profit and what doesn’t and then invest in the ones that do. What is also unoriginal is that he stops his loyalty with the Ice Warriors and turn against them.

There were some interesting plot points in this story, the male members are kept hidden and only allowed to live for recreational purposes and the rest are given a disease to keep them alive until their 20 years old which is quite grim but matches the grimness of the Colin Baker era. The boys that were used did a good and adequate job and also managed not to irritate me. Also it was quite entertaining to learn that the Doctor was bullied at the academy and it was nice when he finally stood up to him.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant were very good in this story. Whereas in The Nightmare Fair their relationship was more like their TV than their Big Finish one. In this story it seems to be the other way around. The one reason why I was looking forward to this story was the return of Nabil Shaban. Whilst he sounded slightly different to what he did in 1986 the laugh was still there and as silly as that might sound that is what I wanted to hear. I also thought that Malcolm Rennie was brilliant as Anzor who was the bully. His voice was the perfect fit for such as character.

Despite some less than original thinking my final impression is how good the story stands up. Even if it had been made in 1986 this story would have been one of the highlights of the series. More than 20 years later this story benefits from the listeners imagination. This story also benefits from not having massive expectations on it. Another great story for the Lost Stories range and now we really go into unknown territory.