Audio and radio play reviews

Brace yourself. This is the first of a three-part season (that’s already had a prequel) called the Key 2 Time.  

Ouch.

Its slightly unpleasant name comes from the fact it’s a sequel to the Tom Baker season-long story the Key to Time, in which Tombo and new companion Romana (Mary Tamm) went searching for something called the Key to Time, said object having the power to stop all of time if reassembled from its six component segments – just enough no-time, in fact, for the White Guardian, a universal force of goodness (or should that be order), to readjust the balance of the cosmos to stop his opposite number, the Black Guardian, from getting too powerful.

Unfortunately, each segment was disguised as something else, ranging from a rock to a human being (Lalla Ward), and the only way to find the segments, scattered all through space and time, was with a magic Geiger-countery wand called a Tracer.

With me so far?

Okay, the Key 2 Time (urgh) sees the Fifth Doctor (who got to meet the Guardians again for a trilogy of stories during the 20th season) once more having to go looking for the segments of the Key to Time, this time with the help of a living Tracer called Amy – and the hindrance of her sister Zara.

First port of call: Mars and the Ice Warriors.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who: Key 2 Time – The Judgement of Isskar”

This particular Companion Chronicle from Big Finish marks the start of two things: first, it’s the first to really start mixing up the idea of the Companion Chronicles and the range’s two-handers; the second is that it’s the prelude to the Key To Time 2 (aka Key 2 Time. Aargh) season that’s going to dominate the Big Finish Doctor Who range for the next five months or so.

Yey?

Based on the exciting game theory problem The Prisoner’s Dilemma, The Prisoner’s Dilemma has Ace and evil “living tracer” Zara stuck in jail together on some random planet or other and they have to get out somehow. The question is, will you care if they do or don’t?

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×8 – The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

It seems that if you want to listen to a guaranteed decent Companion Chronicle, you have to stick with the Hartnells. Whether it’s because the Hartnell years tended towards greater innovation and harder sci-fi, or whether it’s because the better Big Finish writers prefer it, the quality on the Hartnell releases have tended to be far better than those for other Doctors. Certainly, the very worst of the range is still head and shoulders above most of the rest.

Here, for example, we have The Transit of Venus, read by original Hartnell companion Ian Chesterton (aka William Russell). While not absolutely brilliant, it is a very Hartnellian piece, in which Ian and the Doctor are stuck on board the The Endeavour under the command of Captain Cook as it travels to Australia.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×7 – Transit of Venus”

Has it really been nearly a year since The Condemned? Time, once again, has flown. Oh dear.

Yet already, we have a sequel to that story which first gave us the pairing of the Sixth Doctor with Charley. Also written by Eddie Robson, The Condemned was a modern day tale set in Manchester that tried to be gritty and urban and was really very good.

Which is what makes The Raincloud Man something of a disappointment. While The Condemned was quite tense and managed to throw aside some of the usual conventions of Doctor Who stories, this is a semi-comedic affair that although by no means bad, really isn’t as big or as clever – or even as funny – as it thinks it is.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 116 – The Raincloud Man”

One of the greatest of all Doctor Who writers was Robert Holmes. Creator (to varying degrees) of the Autons, the Master, the Sontarans, virtually everything to do with the Time Lords and sundry other Doctor Who arkana, he also wrote perhaps the best ever story, Caves of Androzani; no lesser person than Russell T Davies thinks he wrote some of the best dialogue in British television history.

However, his first piece of Who writing was a particularly arse piece of work for Patrick Troughton. The Krotons, which starred Welsh god Philip Madoc in the first of his many Who appearances, was a slightly dull piece originally intended to be a serial in its own right. It featured the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie landing on a planet run by South African monsters who want to drain the brains of the intelligent natives. And that was about it. For four episodes.

Here, after no particular clamouring that I’ve detected, is the triumphant return of the Krotons. A bonus play for subscribers to Big Finish’s plays, it’s written by, directed by and stars Nick Briggs and also features the sixth Doctor and Charley – and Philip Madoc, even if he isn’t playing the same part as in the original.

Good job it’s free though.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – Return of the Krotons”