Audio and radio plays

Big Finish are in something of a quandary when it comes to these Lost Stories. The idea behind them is to do a “full cast” production of a script or story that for one reason or another never got made, so that fans can finally have something like what was supposed to be on screen (but wasn’t).  

But as I’ve said before, sometimes there have been good reasons for stories not getting made. For example, apart from production difficulties, the script not getting handed in on time, etc, how about because it’s just rubbish?

What do you do if you’re Big Finish and the story is an absolute heap of sh*te? I mean terrifyingly, Timelash/Twin Dilemma bad. On TV, there are these people called script editors who take the scripts writers produce and, if necessary, make them palatable. But if Big Finish edits a really bad script that never got passed by a script editor, is it the authentic production fans wanted? If they don’t, aren’t they going to be making an absolute heap of Timelash sh*te?

The route Big Finish chose with Mission To Magnus, Philip Martin’s lost script from Colin Baker’s aborted second season, was not to edit the script. Oh dear.

Now Mission To Magnus has everything: it has the Doctor’s school bully; it has a planet ruled by women facing war with a planet ruled by men; it has Sil from Vengeance on Varos, who has a consignment of winter woolies (his words, not mine) to sell; it has child actors.

In short, it’s an absolute heap of sh*te. Normally, I don’t endorse Third Reich policies, but if you can, please burn any copies of this play that you come across. Please.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Lost Stories – 02 – Mission To Magnus”

And so it is that we come to the end of the Stockbridge trilogy, in which the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa travel to the past, present and future of Stockbridge because Big Finish love continuity and it was in the comics in the 80s or something.

We’ve had the past, which tried to be Monty Python and failed, but wasn’t bad when it was serious; then we had the present, which was pretty good apart from a few dodgy performances and odd directorial choices.

Now we have the future. The story carries straight on from the previous one again, except the Doctor and Nyssa appear to have ended up in some futuristic tourist park populated by Northerners and aliens, including Lisa Tarbuck and Keith Barron.

Except, as the title of the story and the cover should tell you, things aren’t what they appear to be.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 129 – Plague of the Daleks”

Big Finish occasionally come up with some nice ideas for subscriber bonuses. Okay, Return of the Krotons wasn’t one of them but Company of Friends was at least a good idea, even if it was poorly executed. However, every time they do it, they say it’s going to be exclusive to subscribers, don’t manage to get many people to subscribe on the strength of it (what? I get three Sylvester McCoy plays and the Key2Time season? Whoopee), so end up releasing them anyway.

So it is with An Earthly Child, a potentially very good idea, which is already available to pre-order, having been sent to subscribers in December. In it, Paul McGann journeys to the now defunct future in which the Daleks mined out the Earth’s core to turn it into a spaceship, so he can visit Susan, his granddaughter.

Yes, the Doctor not only has kids, a wife and probably a mum, he also had a granddaughter – the very first companion to the very first Doctor, William Hartnell, in the very first story, An Unearthly Child (which you can watch all of on YouTube). Played by Carole Anne Ford, she stayed behind on Earth to help rebuild the planet and married a man called David Campbell.

Ford is back as Susan for this story, set 30 years after the invasion, and she’s accompanied by Paul McGann’s son, Jake McGann, who appropriately enough plays Susan’s son, Alex – the Doctor’s great-grandson.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – An Earthly Child”