Doctor Who and The Horror of Glam Rock

‘The Horror of Glam Rock’

Written by Paul Magrs, directed by Barnaby Edwards
Story 1.03
Transmitted 14 January 2007

The Doctor is anxious to be rid of his unwelcome traveling companion, Lucie Miller. This leads the TARDIS to a motorway diner outside London 1974. The soon-to-be-famous brother and sister duo The Tomorrow Twins, find themselves stuck on their way to celebrity status on Top of the Pops, and a menace from beyond the stars is hunting them, killing any that get in its path. The Doctor is bemused and intrigued by the Stylophone Tommy Tomorrow obsessively plays in his lament to the cosmic creatures of his imagination, but Lucie is more interested in the counter worker Pat, whom she knows better as her aunt in the near future.

The Horror of Glam Rock is a love/hate story that once more utilizes the strengths of the Graham Williams era of the TV program; absurdity, humor and drama. Paul Magrs, who previously composed new adventures for Tom Baker’s Doctor on BBC Audio in addition to working on the Iris Wildthyme adventures and many more, brings a rich character to the Eighth Doctor that (in my opinion) had been lacking after his first audio series. I am a fan of Magrs signature style and of Bowie, T Rex and Roxy Music, so The Horror of Glam Rock is perfection for my ears. The long-haired and velvet-jacketed Doctor also fits right into the era. Even the manager of the Tomorrow Twins, Arnold Korns (a reference to Bowie’s pre-Ziggy persona) takes the Doctor as a rival glam rocker.

Once more the audio series echoes the BBC Wales TV series by placing the focus on the companion and having her meet her family in the past. Amusingly, there is no universe-shaking contradiction at stake if Pat believes her future niece. The story shrugs off the significance yet it retains a kind of touching humanity as Lucie mistakenly states her aunt is no one in the future… just Auntie Pat. In spite of this, Pat, formerly drummer for Methylated Spirits, proves Lucie wrong by showing she may not be an integral cog in the matters of the universe, but that doesn’t stop her from being a brave, resourceful and wonderful person.

The story is a rather standard ‘base under siege’ affair as the Doctor, twins and the rest attempt to not only survive the attack from the monsters outside but also unravel their mystery, but often the simpler plot ideas are the best as they leave room for character development and strong dialog. Luckily this story has both qualities in healthy doses. The guest cast are entertaining with Bernard Cribbins as Korns especially full of great moments. I also quite liked the solution involving the Stylophone (since I am a fan of the instrument and it ties into the music-heavy subject matter) and the revelation of ‘the Only Ones’ as being desperate under-handed aliens looking for a quick meal. The Only Ones exist in two versions, a base monstrous creature and an ethereal one that appeals to Tommy’s sensibilities. Using the music of the Stylophone, the Only Ones seek to merge the two and become whole then feast of the teenage fans of the Tomorrow Twins.

It’s a crass notion, but it works, especially given the theme of glam itself that is both visceral and cosmic. Magrs really penned a winner here and it is so weird that it becomes instantly iconic of this new Eighth Doctor era. After so much drudgery in the Divergent Universe adventures, it is delightful to see so much variety in this series once more.

When he arrived, Paul McGann was welcomed by all as the ideal man for the job as a new generation’s Doctor Who. His reign was of course cut short and even though comics and novels took up the mantle, he has found new life in the audio format. This revival of the Eighth Doctor is great fun, so much so that you can almost see it in the mind’s eye as a televised reality.

Doctor Who and Horror of Glam Rock can be ordered from The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide by clicking on the link below:

Doctor Who and The Blood of the Daleks

‘The Blood of the Daleks’

Written by Steve Lyons, Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Story 1.1/1.2
Transmitted on 31st December, 2006 and 7th January, 2007

Having just lost his best friend Charley, the Doctor is in a sour mood. Unfortunately, he is given no time to himself as the TARDIS is infiltrated by a foreign body named Lucie Miller. A stroppy north Englishwoman, Miller wastes no time in getting right on the Doctor’s last nerve by insulting his wardrobe, hairstyle (is his hair real?) and also implying that there is much more to her than she lets on. Unmoved by the concept of time and space travel, Lucie Miller accuses the Doctor of being a Martian kidnapper. When the TARDIS lands, the travelers find themselves in a hostile environment on the colony Red Rocket Rising.

The population is desperate for escape from a doomed city that is on the verge of collapse. Chased by a mad mob driven to extremes, a car crashes into the impenetrable TARDIS, killing the driver and stranding a pair of handcuffed survivors, Eileen Klint and her prisoner Asha Gryvern. Drawing attention from the others, the Doctor attempts to glean some information from the mob by playing the fool but ends up more confused than before. Rockets are sparingly launching from the planet toward a new home, but spots on them are valuable and rare.

There seems to be animosity directed at Asha’s former associate, the mad scientist Professor Martez who had committed unspeakably dark crimes involving grave robbing and genetic manipulation. After Martez died, the anger passed on to Asha who surprisingly declined her seat on an escape ship and found herself in the custody of Colony Senator turned President Klint. The Doctor and Lucie escape an incoming acid rain shower thanks to an apparently deranged survivor Tom Cardwell, a crackpot screaming about intruders from the stars from beneath a tin foil ha
Of course, crazy Tom Cardwell is precisely correct. Invaders are on the way, yet they arrive under the false promise of salvation, the Daleks. What makes matters more complicated is that they are not only expected, but they are not the only Daleks on Red Rocket Rising. It turns out that Professor Martez fancied himself a junior Davros and crafted a cross-breed of Daleks using corpses and Dalek blood. Will the two factions unite or wage a war that could threaten the tentative future of the human population.

The era of the Eighth Doctor is a convoluted one. Directly after the pilot movie that failed to launch a new TV series, a line of novels and a comic strip attempted to take the latest Doctor into his own legacy. Then the audio dramas came and developed yet another Eighth Doctor saga. Following six years of original audio stories, the decision was made to give him a fresh start. The Eighth Doctor had become more fleshed out from the limitations of his characterization on screen, but he was soon trapped within a story that had become angst-ridden and overly emotive as well as wildly random in quality.

The first few years are quite solid and build toward a dynamic finale, but once Zagreus arrives there is a definite drop into the Divergent Universe where the Doctor became cranky and his companions rather annoying. I don’t mean to dismiss such a large body of work like that… but it’s hard going. There is a 14 story block that challenges the listener to hang in there. That’s unfortunate as there are some superb ideas in there and Charley is one of the best companions ever, yet even actress India Fisher realized by her final adventure that fans were likely happy to see the back of her (ooh-er!)

Luckily, the pay off is in Blood of the Daleks when the Doctor is granted a reprieve from his past and a new lease on life. There have been comparisons of Lucie Miller to Donna Noble, another spirited companion who gave the Doctor some lip, however… I like Lucie Miller. She’s smart, self-determined and full of her own ideas about what should be done and how. There are many differences between Donna and Lucie, but the biggest to me is that she and the Doctor grate on each other (she actually causes the Doctor to get downright nasty) yet they end up complimenting each other in the end. There is also a big mystery around Lucie, how and why she ended up in the TARDIS and what her relationship is with the Time Lords. It’s all told very well and entices listeners to come back and see where it will go. Thankfully all of these stories are in the past, so I can say with some authority that the pay off is there.

After so many Dalek audio stories, many were getting bored with the creatures. Much like the situation on screen in the BBC Wales program, they lost their impact with familiarity. Yet Blood of the Daleks makes them downright scary and full of hatred again. These are the Daleks who are both cunning and deadly, killing everything that gets in their way. When they meet a breed of newly created Dalek/human mutations, they are filled with rage. An adventure that hearkens back to the events of Genesis of the Daleks when the Doctor had the opportunity to exterminate his enemies. This time, the Doctor is compelled to make a different decision and end the threat of the Daleks once and for all.

Again, this is the start of a very different era for the Eighth Doctor, one that would take him to new extremes and challenge what the character was capable of. I honestly can say now that I enjoy all of the various Doctors in audio form, but the Eighth Doctor is the most exciting as his path is still a mysterious one, leaving the possibilities wide open.

As a new companion, Sheridan Smith is a mixed bag, but only in that she grated with me right away, reminding me of Rose Tyler who I had already grown so weary of I had come to associate with the many failures of the BBC Wales program. Yet I had forgotten how brilliant Big Finish is in creating these new companions and she grew on me very quickly. As soon as it became clear that the mouth northern girl was something of a cover, Smith’s vocal range gains another level and I realized that this was going to get interesting. Well known from TV, Sheridan Smith was something of a score for Big Finish and her entry into the annals of Who immediately creates a dividing line from Charley, the Edwardian Adventuress.

Initially appearing to be a standard contemporary companion that listeners more familiar with characters like Rose Tyler, all that changes in the first story alone. When Lucie Miller becomes separated from the Doctor, she gains the freedom to make her own decisions that have surprising consequences including betraying the Doctor right after vocally calling out to the Time Lords for assistance. Just who is Lucie Miller and what is she all about??

Doctor Who and The Blood of the Daleks can be ordered from The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide by clicking on the link below:

Doctor Who and The Girl Who Never Was

The Girl Who Never Was

Written by Alan Barnes, directed by Barnaby Edwards
Story 103
Released December 2007

After losing C’rizz, Charley has come to the realization that her life with the Doctor was at best a fantasy that has come to an end. The Doctor may appear to be a dashing romantic adventurer, but he is also an ageless alien being who exists outside of time and space. He is incapable of relating to Charley as she would like and the closer the two have become, the more alien he has become. Their journeys through time and space were fun, but the excursion into the Divergent Universe strained their partnership to the breaking point. Despite all this awkwardness, the Doctor is determined to give his best friend one last adventure before they part and takes her to Singapore, where she was headed when they first met.

However, nothing ever goes as planned and the TARDIS has become confused by a temporal anomaly, causing them to land in the right place but the wrong time, New Year’s Eve 2008. But he is not the only person investigating the strange temporal hump centered on the SS Batavia. Charley is convinced that the Doctor redirected the TARDIS to 2008 in order to prevent her from interfering with the ‘web of time.’ She befriends the shifty man named Byron who, along with his mother, is very interested in the anomaly on the SS Batavia. The Doctor and Charley manage to extricate themselves from Byron and travel to the Baravia to find that it is mysteriously abandoned and encrusted with what appears to be rust but is actually temporal corrosion. As the infection spreads for the TARDIS, the travelers become separated and the HADS (Hostile Action Defense System introduced in the Troughton story the Krotons) prompts a sudden displacement.

The Doctor and Charley become separated by decades with Charley back in 1942 and the Doctor, Byron and his mother who identifies herself as Charley Pollard. Meanwhile, Charley attempts to help the crew of the SS Batavia, stranded in the Karimata Strait and under attack from a platoon of Cybermen, stranded om Earth.

Yes, I had intended to listen to the Eighth Doctor adventures in order but after the dreadful pacing of the Divergent Universe stories and the arrival of Dark Eyes in the mail, I decided to skip ahead. The final adventure of the Eighth Doctor and Charley arrived strangely after the BBC4 radio series started with Blood of the Daleks which introduced new companion Lucie Miller. As such, it is a celebration of the early days of the Eighth Doctor era and the beginning of a different approach to the dashing romantic as he became more of a brooding loner. It’s a remarkable idea and The Girl Who Never Was fits the bill, being equal parts melodrama, comedy and action.

I am a fan of the Cybermen, so I was very happy to hear them in this story, earning their place as the second most dangerous Doctor Who monster. It is true that the Cybermen are always on the verge of extinction with each appearance. There is no exception here but I do have to say that I am getting very tired of hearing their battle cry ‘you will become like us.’ As monsters they make a great impact and are suitable creepy, but it does become clear that they are filling the void as the ‘monster of the week’ which could just as easily been Zygons, Ice Warriors… Mechanoids…. whatever.

I am a broken record, I know, but there are so many elements of the Eighth Doctor era that are present in the Russell T Davies material that I cannot ignore, especially the whimsical character of the Doctor and his sharp wit. However, just as Alan Barnes and company deal with the ‘Doctor in love’ idea far better than Davies, so is the Eighth Doctor far funnier and full of vitality than the 10th who serves as a pale imitation (in my opinion, anyway).

Like many, I was overjoyed with Charley at first, but as with everything, her character grated in the Divergent Universe adventures. Happily she is in fine form here and full of spunk and daring courage in the face of the unknown and an army of body stealing Cybermen. The temporal conundrums got a bit confusing at times, but the strength of the emotional story held up very well and paid homage to one of the most beloved of companions (if only to a select few) the ‘Edwardian Adventuress,’ ending on a sour note as the Doctor comes to realize that he must always lose his companions in the end.

I must say that the ending, sign posted by the change in signature theme, was very surprising and I look forward to what comes afterwards for both Charley and the Eighth Doctor in the stories to come. After some major set backs, the Charley/Doctor story ended on a very high note that Big Finish should be proud of.

Doctor Who and The Girl Who Never Was can be ordered from The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide by clicking on the link below:

Paul McGann,The Eighth Doctor, returns in Doctor Who – Dark Eyes

Finally some details have emerged for the new Eighth Doctor box set, Dark Eyes. This hotly anticipated series set after the cataclysmic story ‘To The Death.’ McGann can be seen on the box art sporting his new attire and ‘armed’ with a new sonic screwdriver.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes will be released November 2012.

Click to pre-order!

In the aftermath of To The Death…

An epic, box set adventure, taking the Doctor on a desperate journey through space and time.

Part One. The Great War - The Doctor is heading to ‘the edge’ and beyond. But the Time Lords have other ideas. On Earth, during the First World War, Molly O’Sullivan works hard as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant. How can her destiny be bound up with that of the Doctor’s?

Part Two. Fugitives

Part Three. Tangled Web

Part Four. ‘X’ and the Daleks

More details soon…

Written By: Nicholas Briggs
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs

Cast

Paul McGann (The Doctor), Ruth Bradley (Molly O’Sullivan), Peter Egan (Straxus), Toby Jones (Kotris), Tim Treloar (Lord President), Laura Molyneaux (Isabel Stanford), Natalie Burt (Sally Armstrong), Ian Cullen (Nadeyan), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks)

More details to come…

Doctor Who and The Silver Turk

‘The Silver Turk’

Written by Marc Platt, Directed by Barnaby Edwards
Story 153
Released October 2011
“You poor pitiful creature. Your world has no God. Who will save your soul?”
“We save ourselves.”

In the streets of Vienna, a strange oddity called the Silver Turk amuses the populace. A cloth-wrapped mechanization, it is an expert gamesman and pianist. Possessing a garbled voice box, it cannot be understood and appears to be wounded and in some distress. But if it is expecting rescue from the Doctor, it will be sorely disappointed. When the Doctor encounters the stranded Cyberman he is overcome with disgust, placing a solid schism between him and his compassionate traveling companion, Mary… who no doubt sides with the monster over the monster hunter.

Traveling with the famed novelist Mary Shelley, the Doctor lands in Vienna during the 19th Century. Exuberant with the possibilities of showing the marvels of time and space to one of the progenitors of science fiction, this is a very different version of the character who was far more angst-ridden and moody after the events of the Divergent Universe. I had intended to listen to all of the Eighth Doctor stories in order, but after being frustrated by the second series, I have jumped to the most recent trilogy, skipping Company of Friends which means I am missing the initial meeting of Mary and the Doctor.

When I had first learned of Mary Shelly being the new companion, I immediately ruled out that Mary Shelley, so imagine my surprise when I learn that this is indeed the person who penned Frankenstein. Historical characters in the new BBC Wales series have been frankly tiresome, but in this case Julie Cox injects so much vitality and passion that she stands out as an ideal match for the ‘breathless Romantic’ Eighth Doctor.

The lovely Julie Cox as Mary Shelley

But the Silver Turk, used as a relatively innocent sideshow attraction, is not the real danger here. The dastardly Dr Johan Drossel (played by Gareth Armstrong, Juliano from The Masque of Mandragora). A propped up Cyberman playing piano and chess may be strange, but Drossel’s Marionette World is simply terrifying. Using technology from the grounded craft, Drossel uses a Cyberman driven mad with anguish to derive material from the streets, leaving a stream of corpses in its wake, their eye sockets empty.

Mangled bodies, wooden mechanations with human eyes set in their faces, gurgling clicking creatures that strike in the night… The level of grotesque and tactile horror is upsetting but made all the more poignant by the Doctor’s dispassionate reaction to it all. While he takes it all in stride, Mary is almost driven to anxiety by the situation , especially because the Doctor is comfortable with labeling the Cybermen as simple monsters that need to be stopped at all costs. After losing so much, sacrificing friends and freedom to save all of creation, perhaps this Doctor has become far more alien than the human-like gentleman we first met.

Depicting the Cybermen as wretched weak victims of circumstance is an inspired choice and it works so well. They are still striking and terrifying boogeymen who clank and growl in the darkened streets of nineteenth century Vienna, but they are near death and desperate. As Mary finds out, their lives are also cold empty things ruled by logic and purpose. They live only to propagate their race and survive into the future. With two worlds lost, an empire crumbled and tombs raided, they are still one of the creepiest monsters of classic Doctor Who.

There are some lovely touches to this story, such as the aforementioned friction between the Doctor and Mary. It is also very moving when Mary realizes that all of her friends and family would be dead in the future. It’s not overdone, so it carries much weight and moves the story along with equal measure. Marc Platt’s script is brilliant but again not overly so. His previous Cyberman story Spare Parts got a trifle too smart at times, but this adventure is so emotive and intense that the drama, horror and fantasy blend so well that it is classic Doctor Who.

A stirring Gothic horror with an iconic monster and even more dangerous central villain, The Silver Turk is a dark opera of murder and alien invasion combined with the tragedy of human cruelty.

The Silver Turk can be ordered from The Book Depository with free shipping worldwide by clicking on the link below:

Doctor Who and The Natural History of Fear

The Natural History of Fear

Story 054
Written by Jim Mortimore, Directed by Gary Russell
Released February 2004
“A fist is not a threat, a gun is not a threat, a word is a threat. An idea is a threat. Ideas are patient.”

In Light City, everyone enjoys watching their favorite emotionally-charged adventure program provided for light entertainment. The program is actually a rehash of the events in Neverland in which the Doctor and Charley struggle to express their true emotions to each other while the universe hangs in the balance. But this is a fiction in a bland world where every question is a crime punishable by removal.  When one of the citizens rejects the distraction, he is forcibly removed from his home. Fleeing his captors, he launches into the air and falls to his death beside a fountain.

No one reacts or questions the event.

In an abstraction of reality, familiar voices of the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz swap from character to character as the truth is edited and rewritten over and over. Citizens start to see the cracks in the foundation of Light City, but are quickly silenced by censors and the editor.

The Natural History of Fear is the strangest and most post-modern Doctor Who story I have ever experienced. Not only does it feature the a fictionalized version of Doctor Who used as a tool to control the masses, but it also utilizes the creative writing process including revision and editing in order to control the course of a story… or society. This is a world that is struggling to maintain a static state and keep the masses from questioning their world or changing. It is the ultimate tyrannical empire where free thought is impossible.

The true nature of this story takes its time to unravel, but it is clear early on that this is not a simple tale of the Doctor and his companions fighting an alien despot. In fact, the Doctor inadvertently introduced chaos into this world while he was simply passing through. The rest is post-script as Light City nears a period of violent revolution and a toy top that the Doctor left behind spins languidly on.

A deeply sophisticated and mature story, The Natural History of Fear dwells on the question of identity, of the purpose of entertainment and the price of freedom. It is a disturbing and moving piece that teeters on the edge of being far too clever for its own good but never topples over. Author Jim Mortimore shows that he could be one of the most brilliantly gifted writers to ever pen a Doctor Who story with this one.

I have to admit that I was thrown by this one at first, desperately trying to figure out if our heroes had gotten their minds wiped by some evil entity or placed in some trap to derive secrets from their brains.  The proximity to Zagreus in which several familiar actors and actresses voice different characters is unfortunate as it makes the innovations in this story seem familiar (and nothing should remind anyone of Zagreus).  The shifting characters grants the actors ample opportunity to stretch their creative muscles and try on some different emotions which is a real treat.

The Natural History of Fear is a gift to the cast of McGann, Fisher and Westmaas who rise to the occasion and give life to what could have been a nonsensical audio story.

When it was first released, The Natural History of Fear had a somewhat split reception; some praising it as genius others derided it as delusional nonsense. There are some cliched moments (as one would expect in a story such as this), and some strong similarities to popular films such as THX-1138 and the Matrix as well as the novel 1984 but it introduces so many wonderful new ideas that engage the listener with its energy.

A welcome break from the journey through the Divergent Universe, The Natural History of Fear is a real stunner that reminds fans that one can truly do almost anything with a Doctor Who adventure. The only limit is imagination.

The Natural History of Fear can be purchased from Big Finish and from local retailers such as Mike’s Comics.

Doctor Who Big Finish- The Creed of Kromon

‘The Creed of Kromon’

Story 053
By Philip Martin, Directed by Gary Russell
Released January 2004
“I saw and felt enough. I glimpsed the soul of the Kromon. It was like a vision of a pit of deepest hell.”

The Doctor and Charley find themselves in the Interzone, a connected system of spheres ruled over by an entity known as Kro’Ka. Forced through a series of tests and tirtured by their memories, the Kro’Ka learns of the Doctor’s origins and is intrigued by the notion of travel outside of its small universe. It allows the pair of travelers safe passage through the Interzone, but is clearly watching them carefully, as a scientists observes an experiment.

In the vast wasteland of Eutermes, the Doctor and Charley meet C’rizz, a heart-broken man living in a society ruled over by massive insect-like creatures. Every inhabitant has a role, a purpose, and lives out a very limited lifespan in their tiny world. C’rizz was intended to be a member of the royal class, a collaborator with the Kromon over his people, but found himself exiled when the mind-control process failed on him. A strange liquid, ingested during a ceremony, failed to work on him, but transformed his lover L’da into a zombie.

The Doctor is anxious to find his TARDIS, but is driven to confront the Kromon and end their wicked regime.

I have often viewed Philip Martin as a writer of untapped potential. Creator of the post-modern program ‘Gangsters,’ (which starred the excellent Maurice Colbourne, who later turned up as Lytton in a pair of Doctor Who stories) he is the author of the Doctor Who adventures Vengeance On Varos and Mindwarp, two of the memorable TV stories starring Colin Baker. Both stories are very traditional in structure in that they feature the Doctor rebelling against systems of control and restriction. The Creed of Kromon continues this trend with the Doctor acting as one man in the face of an entire culture ruled over by the the Kromon.

Ultimately Creed of the Kromon is a rather dull story with very little to offer. This is especially disappointing after the spectacular ‘Scherzo’ just prior to this one. The landscape and world that the story is set in is very interesting and it is of course refreshing to have an alien companion for once, but all of the development that the Doctor and Charley have endured over the course of the previous tales has somehow evaporated, leaving them stock characters with little to say to each other.

C’rizz, on the other hand, receives great heaping loads of development. Teaming up with the Doctor and Charley, he tries to overthrow the Kromon who are cross-breeding with C’rizz’s people through genetic manipulation. Charley is saved from being assigned as breeding stock, but L’da has been transformed into a monstrosity pumping out hatchlings. Horrified, C’rizz grants her a merciful death. However, the experience leaves him a broken man who craves death and oblivion for his actions.

With the Doctor’s help, C’rizz overcomes his grief and takes down the Kromon, a combination of an evil monster and a corporation, giving freedom back to the population. The Doctor and Charley are allowed to continue their travels through the Interzone, this time with C’rizz who is interested in uncovering the truth behind his world and how the Kromon took control.

A tremendously traditional story, The Creed of Kromon is by the numbers Doctor Who with very few twists including the new dimensional setting and a new companion. The loss of the TARDIS and the immense power of the Kro’ka are intriguing and open up some new possibilities, but the end result is rather blandIn the end, I found myself struggling to maintain interest.

The Creed of Kromon can be purchased from Big Finish and from local retailers such as Mike’s Comics.

Doctor Who Big Finish- Scherzo

‘Scherzo’

Story 052
Written by Robert Shearman, Directed by Gary Russell
Release date: December 2003
“What good is being a Lord of Time in a realm where there is no time?”

Exiled in the Divergent Universe, the Doctor discovers to his horror that he is in a realm without time as he knows it. This is interesting as it makes the limitations of the Time Lords more implicit. As the Doctor writhes in agony, the TARDIS is reduced to ash before his eyes. Ironically, it is Charey who helps him through the experience, her reluctance to back down before a challenge and her undying love for her friend assists her in being strong enough to survive.

Part of the appeal for me of the Eighth Doctor audio adventures has been their innovation. Of all the audios, they have had the unique opportunity to chart new realms, unrestricted by continuity and mythology as seen on TV. His first era of stories was a mixture of traditional and bizarre, granting listeners a kind of nostalgic hint of the Graham Williams era along with some new ideas. The step into another universe where reality is entirely different adds a new spin… one that gets explored in great detail in Robert Shearman’s Scherzo.

To this point, the Doctor had been portrayed as an adventurous romantic with a touch of mania. In Scherzo, new facets are added and we see that he is a very very strange man. In the white void outside of the TARDIS, the Doctor cannot sense anything. The world around him is a blank slate. For Charley, however, her senses are filling in the gaps, supplying sounds, tastes, smells and even textures where there are none. Charley is overcome, but the Doctor is detached and alien, a distant stranger compared to the man that she had grown to love.

This is part of the genius of Big Finish, the transition from romance to alienation is of course the path that a relationship with the Doctor would take. It’s absolutely stunning to hear Charley realize that she has sacrificed everything that she knows for someone who ultimately rejects her, not out of callousness but out of his nature. The Doctor simply cannot love in the same way that a human being can. And like his being a Time Lord, a lack of compassion and intimacy is also a handicap for the Doctor.

Realizing that without the TARDIS, the Doctor and Charley are both going to die in a universe they should not even exist in. His act of bravery now a hollow gesture, the Doctor is furious and hurt, but also feeling new emotions that confuse him and make him more lost than his blindness caused by their surroundings.

Scherzo is a character piece, a wonderful and brilliant examination of the Doctor and what he relies on to exist. Shearman’s script consists mainly of Charley and the Doctor walking about in a circle, awkwardly trying to reach closure on their relationship, unable to make any real connection. Their only company is a half-mocking echo of their words played back at them. A disembodied entity has been attempting to communicate with them through sound, relying on the intonations in their words. It’s an interesting correlation to the Doctor and Charley’s lack of empathy.

For anyone thinking that this must be the most boring story ever, four episodes of two characters flapping gums in a void, I can sympathize. However, Scherzo is absolutely amazing. Their senses dwindling one by one, the travelers walk in a circle endlessly encountering a cadaver to give them sustenance, each time evolving more until they find that they are feeding off of a corpse in Charley’s image.

The pinnacle of the adventure is likely the moment when the Doctor and Charley find that they have been holding hands for so long that their flesh has become fused. At the Doctor’s suggestion, they push further and merge fully, becoming one being.

The start of what should have been one of the most amazing string of stories ever, Scherzo needs to be heard to be believed.

Scherzo can be purchased from Big Finish and from local retailers such as Mike’s Comics.

Doctor Who Big Finish- Zagreus

Zagreus

Story 050
By Alan Barnes and Gary Russell
Release date: November 2003
“That has to be the biggest load of old rubbish I’ve ever heard in all my lives.”

The Doctor has defeated Rassilon, the architect of Gallifreyan society, in his attempt to destroy the world that he helped make. He has also repelled the sentient forces of ‘anti-time’ as they threatened the entire universe. He also saved the life of his friend Charley, who could have been killed by Rassilon, the anti-time energy or the Gallifreyan Supreme Council as she was the living conduit through which destruction operated. The Doctor and Charley also expressed their love for each other which prevented the Doctor from sacrificing Charley. He did all of this, but at a price. Infected with anti-time, he vowed to depart from the universe he knew and never return. He asked Romana to take Charley back to Earth, to her home just before she was meant to die, and he left in his TARDIS, an exile.

Unknown to the Doctor, Charley had found a secret entrance to the TARDIS (with Leela’s help) and stowed away. But when she announced herself, it was revealed that the Doctor’s infection had transformed him into something else, the mythical force of evil known by the Time Lords as Zagreus. The Doctor was mad and determined to spread havoc throughout reality… if his best friend failed to stop him.

That may sound like a great story but… it’s the first two minutes of this three disc adventure. The remainder is absolutely absurd (and not in a good way). Assisted by the TARDIS, Charley is sent on a series of adventures throughout time and space, bearing witness to instances when anti-time threatened to break through into the positive reality. Playing the voice of the TARDIS is Nicholas Courtney, a lovely addition that brings a sense of comfort to the tale. However, that tinkly ‘magical moment’ music precedes nearly every line he has making what should be touching saccharine sweet.

The TARDIS also attempts to straighten the Doctor out by putting him in contact with his previous self, represented by sound bites of the late Jon Pertwee. This could very well be the worst of all the horrible ideas in this story. Pertwee’s dialog is barely audible and nonsensical. Never for a moment are you unaware that this is found audio material squeezed into the production.

The Doctor spends almost all of the three discs literally talking to himself and attempting to converse with entities that won’t reply. This means that McGann, who had just wrapped up an impressive run of adventures that endeared him to a fan base that finally had their 8th Doctor, was reduced to screaming ‘I am Zagreus!’ ‘Cat???!! CAT!!!??’ or ‘Ship!!! SHIP???!!’ over and over. It’s painful to witness.

Additionally, the adventure of Zagreus is mainly a psychedelic trip that gets more implausible as it progresses. The cast consists of nearly every voice actor who had featured in a Big Finish production for the Doctor Who series, all playing bizarre characters. This is the only saving grace of the entire incredibly long story. Nicola Bryant plays a thigh-slapping mad scientist, Peter Davison plays a religiously conflicted experimental genius, Maggie Stables plays a crazy high priestess of the Sacred Flame and Sylvester McCoy plays some kind of weird Walt Disney-type creator, alone on a planet populated by his creations who are engaging in a centuries long war in his name.

All that said, it makes absolutely no sense. After the Doctor engages on several soul-searching quests and Charley travels from 20th Century Earth to ancient Gallifrey and finally to the middle of a cartoon animal global war, the TARDIS is revealed to be the real enemy. Not only that, it pisses and moans about the Doctor’s many female traveling companions leaving their dirty pants in the hallways.

That really happens. Is it worse than the Doctor’s Wife? No… but after being given such a humanized representation of the TARDIS, it’s painful to hear it talk about women’s underwear.

In addition the incredibly impressive performances, there are some other bright spots. The first story about the exploration into the rift in anti-time is almost interesting but the middle story about ancient Gallifrey is actually incredibly interesting. If Gary Russell and Alan Barnes had jettisoned the other two ideas and stuck with this, the only one that made any real sense, Zagreus might work. In this part, Charley finds herself in Rassilon’s laboratory as it is invaded by one of the Great Vampires and a Holy Mother of the Sisterhood of Karn.

Loads of information is dropped about regarding Rassilon’s creation of another race called the Divergence, a powerful threat that could eclipse the Time Lords given the chance. The Great Vampires and the Sisterhood of Karn are eager to humble Rassilon by destroying his foundry but end up getting caught in its auto destruction. In the ensuing confusion, Charley witnesses anti-time slipping through, represented by a tribal war cry.

The debacle reaches a nadir of badness when the Doctor ‘dies’ and meets his previous selves (well, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy) who bicker like old women about their lives and how they died. Then the Doctor somehow returns to life. Realizing he was manipulated by Rassilon to become  Zagreus and destroy the Divergence, the Doctor and refused to play along and cast Rassilon into the pocket universe where he had hidden the Divergence.

The day is saved and the Doctor is with Charley again, but they are in a different universe where time and space do not flow in the same way that the Doctor is familiar with. New and truly alien threats face the pair in this alternate reality, but they will face them together.

I should note that I had to listen to this story three times (not in a row) to feel comfortable reviewing it. I think I deserve an award… or therapy. Whichever.

A bloated product overcome with terrible dialog (Krotons, Yeti and Drashigs? Oh My! Not Drashigs! Anything but Drashigs!) and worse ideas (the Doctor having an actual conversation with himself that amounts to an empty experience in fannish continuity references), Zagreus is the point when many fans of the Big Finish line jumped ship and never came back. I can truly understand why as this was a celebratory anniversary story that was hoisted on a large body of previous work. Not only is it badly made, it feels crass and in bad taste at times (the McCoy character repeatedly tries to force himself om Charley). It makes The Five Doctors look like The Third Man in comparison.

I can say from an informed position that this is not the end of Big Finish’s high quality output, just an unfortunate mis-step. A really unfortunate one.

If you feel the need to be a completest, Zagreus can be purchased from Big Finish and from local retailers such as Mike’s Comics.

Doctor Who Big Finish- Neverland

Neverland

Story 033
By Alan Barnes
Release date: July 2002

“Doctor… of all the countless billions people in the whole of space and time, why did it have to be you?”

Desperate to protect his friend Charley, the Doctor has been evading fate, a fleet of TARDISes on his heels. But finally his debt has to be paid and the price is big. All of the Big Finish stories for the Eighth Doctor have been building to something… and this is only the first chapter.

The web of time is stretched thin to accommodate for Charley being rescued from her fated death on the R-101. The President of Gallifrey, Romana, must bring the Doctor in and not only make him face up to his actions but solve a problem that only he can unravel, anti-time. The fabled realm of anti-time is shrouded in mystery and myth, a forbidden reality that the great Rassilon had surveyed and cut off before the birth of the Time Lords. Anti-time is ‘leaking’ into reality, using Charley as a conduit. In order to stop the impending disaster, the Time Lords must journey to the world of anti-time and find the source of the emissions then cut it off. In their mission, the truth of anti-time and Rassilon is revealed as far more disturbing than the Doctor or Romana could imagine.

There’s a lot of mythology in Neverland, but it’s all played out very well. Whole heaps of history and alternate futures are explored which, handled poorly, would bore the listener to tears but the lovely Alan Barnes makes it all as massively important as it needs to be.

Rassilon is played by the sumptuously-voiced Don Warrington (seen briefly in Doctor Who as the President of Great Britain in Rise of the Cybermen). A character of great importance from his first mention in The Deadly Assassin to the frothingly mad version seen in The End of Time, Rassilon is the creator of Time Lord society. He is also the greatest criminal who has ever lived as he has made himself a god of all creation, existence and possibility. Think of a mobster with the ultimate nullifier from Fantastic Four and you’re on the right track.

Neverland presents the listener with a realm of anti-time which is short-hand for evil-land. Everything that is in it is wrong and a threat to our world. What’s worse, Gallifrey has been using it as the dumping ground for undesirables and then erasing the event from history. This allows even Romana to commit horrendous acts by sending fellow Time Lords into the ‘neverland’ without ever remembering that she did so. Creepy stuff.

But the heart of this story is the budding never-to-be romance between the Doctor and Charley. Both Paul McGann and India Fisher have accomplished what no one in Doctor Who had before. With only one TV appearance to his credit, McGann fleshed out his incarnation of the Doctor with Fisher who provided his first ‘real’ companion. The pair are magnificent and Neveralnd puts their chemistry to the test.

Paul McGann and India Fisher

The Doctor and Charley Pollard have become close friends, the best of friends in fact. The relationship between them becomes romantic in this story but not because of any ‘hanky panky’ but on account of them admitting their long held love for each other. It’s marvelously handled and I challenge the butchest of listeners to claim that he didn’t get a bit teary as the Doctor prepares to sacrifice everything for Charley, but… it’s all a bit much. The emotions become a little over-blown in my opinion, but the material is so strong that I give it a pass. A LOT of work went into this set of stories and it all led to this point, where the Doctor and Charley come clean with each other and it is so honest that it almost feels like as listeners we’re intruding.

Because a certain writer/producer decided to explore the notion of the ‘Doctor in Love,’ I can compare the Eighth Doctor/Charley relationship to the Tenth Doctor and Rose (which obviously steals big from this material). It’s not an idea that I’m interested in exploring, but if you had to, Sir Alan Barnes is your man. The pathos and angst are all there but so too is the Doctor’s alien-ness, his other-ness that makes the mere act of being in love equal to a human being being experiencing zero gravity. He doesn’t know what it is or what to do with it. Later stories explored where this notion would go in the end, but that’s for a different time.

Throughout the Eighth Doctor’s adventures (and even in the past Doctor’s stories released during that period), the villainous Zagreus was mentioned over and over. In Neverland, the Doctor dismisses it as a boogeyman created to get children to behave. Zagreus, along with key entries in the black scrolls of Rassilon (this story is really concerned with continuity and fan knowledge) is a myth created by the denizens of anti-time in order to lure the Time Lords into their realm. As with most Doctor Who stories of old, it’s all an elaborate trap, but the punch-line is saved for the last line of dialog… which is also a tale for another time.

Neverland is a massive story of epic proportions that attempts to accomplish so much and wrap continuity into the bargain as well. The result is uneven with parts jammed with techno-babble and other moments over-flowing with emotion. I want to enjoy Neverland, but it’s just a bit too much for me in the end.

Neverland can be purchased from Big Finish.