Audio and radio plays

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

Audio and radio plays

The Companion Chronicles and more at Big Finish

20 November 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Big Finish, as always, has news. The interesting stuff (ie stuff that isn’t about Benny Summerfield, The Tomorrow People, Dark Shadows, et al) is as follows:

The Companion ChroniclesJanuary sees the release of The Companion Chronicles, four new Doctor Who adventures on audio – one for each of the first four Doctors. Each story will be told from the viewpoint of one of the Doctor’s companions. Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Caroline John (Liz Shaw) and Lalla Ward (Romana II) all reprise their television roles.

As far as I can gather, these will be two-handers featuring the companion and one other actor – in the case of the Liz Shaw story, it’ll be Nicholas Courtney as The Brigadier, but the other stories won’t feature anyone else from the TV series. They’ll also still be Doctor Who stories, only narrated rather than acted, so don’t necessarily think of these as the audio equivalent of Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma et al, with the companion being Doctor-less and taking over as the hero/heroine of the piece.

Blood of the DaleksThe cover and synopsis for the first of the New Year BBC7 dramas, Blood of the Daleks, is online, too. Anyone want to guess who the enemy is going to be? Looks like they’re going for a different look for these titles and it appears quite adult and grown-up. On the other hand, reading the synopses for the stories, I don’t get the same feeling, so who knows what they’re actually going to be like.

Still, with the likes of Kenneth Cranham, Anita Dobson, Sheridan Smith, Bernard Cribbins, Una Stubbs, Ian McNeice, Elspet Gray, Timothy West, Nerys Hughes, Nigel Havers, Roy Marsden and Nickolas Grace appearing in them, it’s hard not to think the Beeb’s amped up Big Finish’s budget for a reason…

PS Wonder how close Immortal Beloved is going to be to one of our regulars’ forthcoming novel…

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: I, Davros – Purity

16 November 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

I, Davros - PurityAnother month, another Davros play from Big Finish: I, Davros – Purity. Okay, fair dos: it’s part two in a four-part mini-series that started last month with I, Davros – Innocence. We’ve moved on a bit now.

Ostensibly, the narrative link between the various plays in the series is that Davros has been captured by the Daleks to help them out of a hole. Apparently, Davros thinks talking about his personal life is the best way to do this. I like to think he’s sitting in front of an open fire, with the Black Dalek next to him, sucking up mulled wine through a special attachment. I’m not sure why the Daleks are humouring him so far, but they are.

While Innocence saw Davros eulogising about his childhood and how it taught him to be a man (ie sociopath), Purity takes us to Davros, aged 30, stuck in weapons testing, wishing he could be something big in the science corps.

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News

Another scoop from BBC Norfolk

13 November 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Terry MolloyBBC Norfolk, which always seems to be first with the Doctor Who news these days, has a nifty interview with Terry Molloy, who played Davros, creator of the Daleks, back in the 80s. He’s mainly plugging I, Davros (review of Purity coming this week and I’ve already covered Innocence), but it concludes with this potential spoiler. Or not.

MB: Are there any whisperings from the Doctor Who office in Cardiff whether Davros might return to our screens?

TM: You might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment.

MB: You could…

TM: But I won’t. It was worth a try. [He laughs]

You’ll have to watch the video to see if he laughs like Davros or not.

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – Memory Lane

10 November 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

The front cover to Memory LaneIf there’s a Doctor synonymous with Big Finish’s range of Doctor Who audio plays, it’s Paul McGann. Doctor number eight has appeared in books, comics and countless other media since his appearance in the TV movie of 1996. But it wasn’t until 2001 that McGann was to appear again as the Doctor and show us how he would have portrayed that wanderer in time and space if he’d been given the chance.

It was Big Finish who gave him that chance. Together with the producers, he’s crafted a fun-loving, slightly comedic, sports-worshipping, Peter Pan of a Time Lord that anticipated the lonelier, romantic and pop culture-friendly tendencies of David Tennant’s tenth Doctor – he does, perhaps, encapsulate best the various themes of Big Finish’s disparate writing styles.

Now several ‘seasons’ in, with 1930s adventuress Charley Pollard by his side, he’s encountered Daleks, Cybermen, the Brigadier, the Time Lords and dozens of new enemies, forever dispelling the “George Lazenby” jibe that he’s endured over the years. He’s not had the best of stories, with a few notable exceptions, but he’s had some of the best of the Big Finish ‘atmosphere’ in his time.

Now, we have Memory Lane, perhaps the most Eighth Doctor-ish story of his adventures so far.

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Silly Who rumour of the week

27 October 2006 Rob Buckley 24 Comments

Tennant fun

It seems the “episode without the Doctor” possibility is really driving fans nuts. We’ve already had Love and Monsters in series two, and the expectation is that there’ll be another episode that’s Doctor-lite, thanks to hellish filming schedules. So how will the production team cope?

We’ve already had one possibility thrown at us: the Doctor and new companion are regressed into children by mad scientist Mark Gatiss and so child actors will take the place of Freema Agyeman and David Tennant. Since there’s that exciting competition for some lucky fan to land a part on the show, maybe that’ll tie in nicely.

Paul McGannBut now, we have another one, which has the virtues of a 1% chance of being true and all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory. In this exciting possibility, Martha Jones turns round, says “Tell me all about regeneration, Doctor”, and low and behold, we have a Tennant-narrated tale of life being Paul McGann. That would fill me with joy if it happened, because it’s about time McGann got to be something more than a footnote in Who history*.

Sheridan Smith with a DalekWhere the conspiracy theory element comes in is the BBC7 series starting in the New Year. The idea is that that will act as a primer for the public to accept McGann as a previous Doctor and more importantly to get them used to Sheridan Smith as his companion, who will then legitimately be able to appear on-screen as the Doctor’s companion and be an audience draw. Smith, of course, has a big youth following from Two Pints of Lager (although not from Grown Ups).

Not at all plausible, particularly since the rumour also says it’s going to be set during the Time War, but I liked it anyway.

Incidentally, the Big Finish web site now has more details on those BBC7 audio plays. One thing I spotted that I hadn’t seen elsewhere: Sheridan Smith’s character is going to be with the Doctor thanks to some form of Time Lord Witness Protection Programme (very Big Finish). Even she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to have seen, though.

*Footnote: Technically, Paul McGann is the longest running Doctor, since he was the official Doctor between 1996 and 2005, appearing in the TV movie, comics, books and audio plays, all of which were licensed by the BBC.

UPDATE: The rumour mutates and combines with the earlier rumour! Now the suggestion is that when the Doctor and companion are zapped by Mark Gatiss, he turns back into Paul McGann. Now that’s the hallmark of a great rumour.