Month: September 2006

As promised yesterday, here’s my review of Red, the latest of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays.

Sit down. Be calm. Brace yourself. This one stars Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford.

I do appreciate that to most people of taste and distinction, those words will strike the same kind of terror in your heart as phrases such as “biological warfare”, “plague of rats” and “a very special episode of Blossom”. But, I’ve said it before and I think it’s worth re-iterating again, Bonnie Langford is actually pretty good in these Big Finish stories. It comes to something when you look forward to her stories more than Ace (Sophie Aldred) stories, I know, but the producers really have done wonders with her character: I don’t think she screams once in any of her appearances, and in just about every story, the fact that Mel was supposed to be a computer programmer has come in extremely handy. She’s actually probably the best and most consistently written of all the audio companions at the moment (possible competitor: Charley Pollard, but she’s not been the same since C’rizz arrived).

So don’t be too afeared. Red is quite a good story and Bonnie Langford is rather a good companion.

What’s that? “What about Sylvester McCoy?” Oh. I was hoping you weren’t going to ask that…

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – Red”

Okay, The Nowhere Place has been out about a month now, but since we’re just kicking off this whole audio play review thing, I think I’m allowed a little give and take to start with. Besides, there is the outside possibility you haven’t bought it yet. Never fear though, tomorrow I’ll be reviewing the very latest Big Finish Doctor Who play, the Sylvester McCoy/Bonnie Langford effort Red.

Strangely enough, despite his extreme on-screen kackness, Colin Baker is my favourite of all the Big Finish Doctors (it’s a tie between him and Paul McGann really), so I was actually looking forward to this, even though it doesn’t feature Peri. Ah, Peri. Sigh…

I’m digressing.

Written and directed by Nicholas “Voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen. How cool is that?” Briggs, The Nowhere Place is actually a surprisingly creepy little piece, marred by only the occasional piece of silly acting, some odd numbers and the suspicion you’ve heard it somewhere before (even though you haven’t). Otherwise, it’s really very good.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Nowhere Place”