Audio and radio plays

As has been discussed before, Big Finish are in a dilemma with these Lost Stories. Just how authentic should they be to a half-finished script that never saw the blessed red of a script editor’s pen? Should they improve them or give the fans exactly what they want – a word-for-word identical version of the script as is, no matter what state it’s in?

In the case of MIssion to Magnus, they went with the wrong choice: they left it as was and served us all a great big pile of rubbish. But Magnus did have a virtually complete script. Paradise 5 is a different matter.

Written by He Who Must Be Hallowed, the creator of Sapphire and Steel PJ Hammond, Paradise 5 is an awkward lost story since it was originally intended for the The Trial of a Timelord season in the slot that ended up in Pip and Jane Half-Baked’s Terror of the Vervoids. It was going to have lots of Time Lords in it, lots of trial stuff and the companion was going to be Mel, as played by Bonnie Langford.

Big Finish couldn’t afford that. There was no way they were going to get Lynda Bellingham and Michael Jayston to reprise their roles, for one thing. Bonnie Langford’s stopped doing the Big Finish plays, now she’s having fun dancing – and proved her point that it wasn’t her, it was the writing of Mel that was the problem.

So they stripped out all the Time Lord stuff from what there was of PJ Hammond’s scripts, which left just three episodes. PJ Hammond wasn’t free to adapt the rest of the story into an audio play, so they got Andy Lane to write an intro episode, convert Mel to Peri – since Nicola Bryant was well up for some more Lost Stories – and polish it all up. He also ‘updated’ it so that it was less 80s, which he reckoned wouldn’t wash these days.

So given all of that, do we have a PJ Hammond Lost Story now or simply a shiny new sixth Doctor and Peri story that’s a bit PJ Hammond-esque in places?

Discuss.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Lost Stories – 05 – Paradise 5”

Dearie me. It’s getting harder and harder to find the time to listen to these things, what with the main range and the Lost Stories to listen to as well. Even with the judicious skipping of the obvious ringers (4×6 – Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code – being an obvious one, since SHE HAS HER OWN RANGE. SHE DOESN’T NEED A COMPANION CHRONICLE AND SHE’S NOT EVEN A PROPER COMPANION ANYWAY SINCE SHE’S ONLY IN THE BOOKS), I’ve had to skip 4×7 (The Suffering) as well, even though it looks quite interesting, since it’s a double CD so takes twice as long. I’m sure I’ll get back to it in due course, but until then, here’s 4×8 The Emperor of Eternity.

This is a purely historical story set in BC China, with the second Doctor, Victoria and Jamie having close encounters with the emperor of China and swords. Like The Suffering, it’s a double-companion piece, with both Deborah Watling and Frazer Hines reprising their roles.

Sort of.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 4×8 – The Emperor of Eternity”

When people (by which I mean Doctor Who fans) think of ‘lost stories’ and Colin Baker, they generally think of those stories from the original season 23, such as The Nightmare Fair and Mission Magnus, that got replaced with Trial of a Timelord thanks to Michael Grade and his ‘hiatus’.

However, those stories weren’t the only Colin Baker stories that fell by the wayside. Here we have Leviathan, a story written by the late veteran TV writer Brian Finch for season 22. Despite getting as far as a rehearsal script, the story never got made, probably because it would have been too damn expensive to make.

In the story, the Doctor and Peri land in a medieval forest near a castle. They come across some villagers who are being pursued by Herne the Hunter.

Cue the Celtic charms of Clannad and the theme to Robin of Sherwood? No, because this Herne is mean and he’s out for blood…

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Lost Stories – 03 – Leviathan”