Audio and radio plays

An archive of entries about audio and radio plays, including reviews

Review: Doctor Who – Kingdom of Silver

8 October 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments


Kingdom of Silver

Two questions. First, do you think there’s a reason that the seventh Doctor has been particularly companion-bereft of late? The Big Finish-ies claim it’s because they want to explore the ‘vast’ time that he’s alone before the TV Movie. I’m wondering if so few people are buying the seventh Doctor audio stories, they can’t afford companions as well. Or maybe they don’t like Sophie Aldred.

Question two: why do writers bother trying to be clever with Big Finish? Here we have a cyberman story. We know this because there’s a great big cyberman on the front cover and because the story’s Kingdom of Silver. Mondas gets mentioned halfway through the first episode and one of the ‘houses’ in the play is called Argentum (sp?). So what’s the big cliffhanger at the end of episode one? OMG, it’s a cyberman! Who saw that coming?

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – Kingdom of Silver”

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – The Doomwood Curse

26 September 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment


 

I imagine, if you’re a regular Big Finish actor, there is a range of reactions you experience when getting your latest script, depending on which of the various standard Big Finish categories it falls into. A lot of the time, you’re going to be wondering how you’re going to get all that jargon out. "Blimey, it’s a bit complicated. I don’t really understand a word of it. I must remember to be ever so serious."

Quite a lot of the time, you’re also going to be thinking, "Ooh, goody. This looks like fun. We’re going to have a laugh doing this, aren’t we?"

And then, just occasionally, you’ll get one through that not only makes you think, "Ooh goody, that’ll be fun," you’ll also be thinking. "Ah! I love the smell of ham in the morning."

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – The Doomwood Curse”

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Sapphire and Steel – Wall of Darkness

25 September 2008 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

There are species of sloth faster than me. I really do learn incredibly slowly sometimes. Case in point: the Big Finish Sapphire and Steel audio plays.

These have been a largely hit-and-miss affair, with the distinct emphasis on ‘miss’. Yet I’ve kept on getting them and wasting my time with them. Doh! Still, once in a while, a good one turns up, so I’m not wholly insane.

Where I’m learning impaired is in forgetting to note who writes each story. In particular, if it’s producer Nigel Fairs, the Sapphire and Steel supremo at Big Finish, you can pretty much guarantee that the first part of the whole play is going to be absolute drek, with a second part that manages to make the misery you’ve experienced almost worthwhile.

Turns out that for this, the final play in the series, possibly ever, pretty much the whole of the second part is absolute drek as well. The final ten minutes or so? Now that’s where it gets really interesting.

Continue reading “Review: Sapphire and Steel – Wall of Darkness”

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×2 – The Great Space Elevator

18 September 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Great Space ElevatorWell, there’s good news and bad news for this, the second of the now-monthly Companion Chronicles. The good news is that after two spectacular misses (Fear of the Daleks and Helicon Prime), we finally have a second Doctor Companion Chronicle that actually feels like a second Doctor story. The bad news is that it’s just not very memorable.

Told by Deborah Watling, who played Victoria during the second Doctor’s reign, it’s one of those future Earth stories that were so beloved by the era (eg The Moonbase, The Invasion, The Seeds of Death), in which some exciting world-changing doohickey has been invented and some aliens come along to take it over.

The trouble is that it’s pretty much that – a regular old second Doctor story – rather than something more exciting, such as a chance to give Victoria some decent characterisation.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles 3×2 – The Great Space Elevator”

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Torchwood – Lost Souls

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Lost Souls

JACK: Okay, listen up fucktards. It’s Torchwood here. We’re below the law, beside the government and over the top and we’re here to educate you about the Higgs Boson.

MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Yes, you idiots. You know nothing about CERN or the large hadron collider or really difficult science things. So Radio 4 have asked us to come and educate your asses for Big Bang Day.

MORE MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Shut it or I’ll make you smell my coat. I haven’t washed it since I first got it and I was buried in peat for 2,000 years.

GWEN: Ych y fi, Jack!

JACK: Right, the Higgs Boson. It’s… Hmm. Anyone know? Gwen?

GWEN (ON PHONE): Can I phone a friend? Rhys? Oh, Rhys man! What are you doing? I loves you. You knows I loves you!… But Rhys… Why her?…

JACK: Maybe not then. Tosh? Oh sh… she’s dead. Owen. Oh sh… he’s dead too. Christ, they were the only ones who knew anything. Martha?

MARTHA GIGGLES AND IMPERSONATES A PIECE OF WOOD

JACK: Ianto?

IANTO TRIES TO AVOID JACK’S EYE BY READING THE CRACK-A-JOKE BOOK AND LAUGHING UNCONVINCINGLY

JACK: Guess it’ll be me then. Erm, it’s a thing that you, like, see. Erm, inside rain drops. Protons? Are we clear yet?

MORE MURMURS, THIS TIME OF RIDICULE FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS WELL EDUCATED RADIO 4 AUDIENCE

JACK: What do you mean Torchwood know sweet FA about science, so much so it’s embarrassing? Oh…Look over there. It’s an eagle. No really. Look! Look!

AUDIENCE LOOKS STAGE RIGHT

JACK: Quick, Ianto – the rear entrance!

Excerpt from Torchwood: Lost Souls

Continue reading “Review: Torchwood – Lost Souls”