Doctor Who and The Foe From the Future

After a long period of ignorance on the line of audio adventures, I have become deeply embedded in the Big Finish Productions of Doctor Who. The line has centered on four of the classic Doctors, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker), the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and the Eight Doctor (Paul McGann). Actor Tom Baker had avoided renewing his association with the role that had made him a household name until last year when he recorded Hornet’s Nest and Demon Quest for the BBC.

More recently, Big Finish has announced that Baker has agreed to star in two series of audio adventures. There have been few details of what to expect until today when the title of the first release was revealed as ‘The Foe From the Future,’ an abandoned script from 1977 written by Robert Banks Stewart.

Stewart had already delivered two knock-out scripts for Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom, both atmospheric and exciting dramas heavily influenced by folklore and Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass serials. Script editor Robert Holmes had contacted Stewart to provide the series fourteen finale, The Foe From the Future. When Banks proved unavailable, Holmes developed the classic known as The Talons of Weng Chiang.

(News via TardisNewsroom)

Doctor Who - Tom Baker

January 2012 sees the release of Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set, and we’re able to reveal details of one of the two stories in the five-disc package.

The six-part The Foe From the Future by Robert Banks Stewart has been adapted for audio by John Dorney, and will be recorded as a full cast drama with Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. The serial was planned for TV broadcast in 1977, and development was well underway when Stewart was offered a job with ITV. Regretfully he was forced to abandon work on the story, which was ultimately replaced byThe Talons of Weng-Chiang.

“The Foe from the Future was one of those Doctor Who storylines that somehow got away,” says Robert Banks Stewart. “It’s great news that Big Finish are going to recapture the yarn with an audio production.”

John Dorney’s adaptation authentically re-creates the tone of the era, as the Doctor and Leela arrive in the present day Earth of 1977, where ghostly figures are appearing…

The Fourth Doctor Box Set is available to pre-order, either individually or as a bundle with the two Fourth Doctor Adventures series.

(more details on Robert Banks Stewart’s story from ’77 can be found at A Brief History of Time Travel)

Available for purchase:

Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest - The Complete Series

Doctor Who: Demon Quest: Five Exclusive Audio Adventures

Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom

Batman: Brave and the Bold: Bat-Mite Presents Batman’s Strangest Cases

The final season of Batman: The Brave and the Bold is apparently pulling out all stops. Bat-Mite Presents Batman’s Strangest Cases offered up three different versions of the Caped Crusader that, to the long-term fan, are more than familiar.

The episode begins with the classic Mad Magazine version (published in 1953), based directly on an actual strip from the glory days of the much-loved mag. Bat-Boy and Rubin pokes fun at nearly every facet of the Bat-mythos from the dark knight detective’s endless array of gadgets to his goofy villains. With no other point of reference that this was going to be an out of the ordinary episode, I wondered if someone had slipped something into my tea when I wasn’t looking!
Mad Magazine

After Bat-Mite arrives and sets the stage, it becomes clear that we are in for something unique. Batman’s biggest fan from the fifth dimension offers up wildly different versions of the much-loved hero, each one more absurd than the last.

The second part is based on the Bat-Manga, recently collected in a volume wrapped in a lovely Chip Kidd-designed cover. The style and logic are very reminiscent of Speed Racer and Gigantor… only zanier. The Bat-manga strips illustrated by Jiro Kuwata from 1966-67 were likely never conceived of as material for a cartoon, but they are ready made for the medium.

I want more!
Bat-Manga

The final and perhaps most startling portion of the episode is based on the character’s frequent appearances on the Scooby Doo series back in the 1970′s. I recall as a kid I was obsessed with Batman, an avid viewer of the Adam West series and owner of various products from Halloween costumes to bubble guns and action figures. Whenever I glimpsed my hero on Scooby Doo I would be instantly excited until I realized that Batman was apparently struck by a condition preventing him from moving aside from sequences when he would raise a hand or dash across the screen.

The Brave and the Bold segment captured every flawed detail from the ‘off’ voice to the aforementioned bad animation and even included an homage to the Super Friends host segments. The limitation on violence in Scooby Doo is even addressed and overcome, thanks to Bat-Mite’s magical abilities!
Batman and Scooby Doo

I’ve said it before and will say it again… if you are not watching this series you are missing out!

Other available products:

Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan

Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Season One, Part One

Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Season One, Part Two

Batman Masterpiece Edition: The Caped Crusader's Golden Age

Doctor Who Big Finish- Storm Warning

Storm Warning

“You’re a very persuasive fellow- I’d have you on staff… if you weren’t being shot.”

Story 16 Written by Alan Barnes
Released January 2001

The first Big Finish production featuring Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, Storm Warning is the initial step in constructing an ambitious legacy. As is well-known, McGann’s Doctor was only featured in the pilot TV Movie co-production in 1996. There are many opinions on this film and its success or failure, but what nearly everyone agrees upon is the inspired casting of Paul McGann as the Doctor. The most handsome and romantically inclined version of the character to date, much of the planned direction of the new Doctor was left on the cutting room floor as the pilot failed to attract a strong enough following in the US (scheduled against the final episode of the popular sitcom Rosanne, this was hardly a surprise). The Eighth Doctor had already received copious material in two mediums, the original novels published by BBC Books and the long-running comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine. But neither of these adaptations of the Doctor used the actor Paul McGann who had lent so much personality to the program.

Storm Warning is greatly assisted by Alan Barnes’ script and its understanding of Doctor No. 8. As the writer of the Eighth Doctor’s adventures in Doctor Who Magazine over five years, he had taken what was initially a shell of a character into a fully fleshed-out incarnation of the Time Lord’s latest persona.

Storm Warning finds the Doctor apparently in the same place we left him in the final scene of the TV Movie, puttering about the TARDIS. He is shaken from his reverie as his craft is caught in the wake of another time ship’s explosion in the Vortex. To add to the frenzy of activity, a swarm of flying predators called vortisaurs arrives, forcing the Doctor to land. He soon finds himself on the doomed airship R-101 and in typical Doctor Who fashion, all is not what it seems.

The adventure introduces a new companion, the brave and sassy Charley Pollard who is out in the world looking for danger and excitement only to collide head first with the Doctor. India Fisher makes for a sparkling addition to the long list of companions and matches the Eight Doctor’s enthusiasm for action and his romantic sensitivity as well. Another welcome cast member is Blake’s 7 alum Gareth Thomas as the blustering Lord Tamworth who proves to be far more complicated than the two-dimensional caricature he appears to be at first.

Art by Lee Sullivan

Discovered on the maiden voyage of the R-101, the Doctor is hardly welcome. Thinking quickly, he conjures up a hastily constructed cover story of being a German spy and even attempts a broad accent. This apparently does the trick as nearly everyone buys the story, especially since a mere stow away would have been shot while a political spy would demand more complicated treatment.

The Doctor is mostly concerned with tracking down and taming the rogue vortisor that followed him from the Time Vortex while maintaining the web of time and not getting involved in an historical disaster, but there are far more interesting things afoot aboard the airship, chiefly the mystery surrounding a special passenger restricted to his (?) quarters. Uncovering the identity of the passenger reveals that the Lord Tamworth’s presence isn’t just to provide a loud British presence to the journey, but to represent to the Crown on a special mission.

I won’t dwell too much on the ‘meat’ of the story to save the surprises for anyone who has not listened to this one, but it has so many more levels and provides opportunities for the entire cast to stretch and grow in the four installments (I still can’t figure out why these stories are separated with opening and closing music as I am listening to it at home rather than experiencing it as a transmitted piece, but never mind. I suppose it helps to carry the ‘mystique’ of the program and as this is generally regarded as ‘series 27′ following the McCoy era, it is perfectly sensible.

As I have said before, I had refrained from dipping into the Big Finish audio adventures for some time simply because I thought it a poor substitute for the ‘real thing.’ However, the more that I listen to these productions, the more I am impressed that the Big Finish team have a deeper understanding of the Doctor Who mythos than I at first imagined. All of the magic and intelligence of classic Doctor Who is present in these tales so if you are a fan of the old stuff, dig in!

Doctor Who – Storm Warning can be purchased at local retailers and online from Big Finish.

Read other Big Finish reviews at the Daily P.O.P. here.