I took along two audios for the five hour journey. The first was the talking book adaptation of The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter. A "hard" sci-fi author with degrees in Maths and Engineering, Baxter was supposed to write the 100th Big Finish audio five years ago. The play, called Earthstorm, was delayed then abandoned.
Unusually (and for the first time in about seven years) this is a Past Doctor adventure, featuring Jamie, Zoe and the Second Doctor. It's read by David Troughton who does a sterling job of invoking his father's creation. The novel's action takes place among the rings and moons of Saturn and revolves around the presence of an ancient alien intelligence known as Arkive.
Baxter creates a convincingly challenging colony world where society is strictly stratified and run by a powerful corporation. The Mnemosyne Cincture is soon overrun by the alien Blue Dolls and the Doctor and his friends have to save the solar system itself from destruction. There are exciting scenes in the methane seas of Titan; continuity references to The Tenth Planet, The Wheel in Space, The Mind Robber and The Seeds of Death; and the whole epic has a strong Arthur C. Clarke influence. It's pretty much "Doctor Who and the Space Odyssey".
Baxter represents the Tardis crew faithfully, although his version of Jamie is played as a young man in his early twenties. While that would be a reflection of Frazer Hines' true age in 1969, I always thought Jamie was meant to be somewhat younger- in his late teens, perhaps. The author's original characters are lively and engaging, especially MMAC, the Clyde-built robot with a poignant backstory of a Govan "childhood".
A Season Six take on classic British sci-fi, I'll award this one a record five out of five Talmars.
The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe return in The Rosemariners, the latest release from Big Finish's range of Lost Stories. This one was scripted by Donald Tosh, the Sixties story editor who had introduced some radical and tonally darker ideas to shake up the third season.
The script reflects Tosh's interest in the growth habits of roses. It was originally written for the Tardis team of the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria and takes place on an Earth space station. A criminal named Rugosa ( played with melodramatic relish by Clive Wood) uses a species of carnivorous rose as the keystone of his plan to rule the universe. I'm sure Nicholas Briggs was responsible for tying the deadly roses to the monstrous Vaaga plants featured in The Daleks' Master Plan.
The story is rather predictable and somewhat slow but the minimalist sound design ensures that it feels like an absolutely authentic serial from Season Six in 1968-9. Guest star David Warner, rather surprisingly, plays an ally of the Doctor- an Earth botanist, rather than the villain one might expect.
Yet again, Frazer Hines supplies his uncanny impersonation of Patrick Troughton and I quickly forgot I was listening to another actor altogether. Although the plot is pretty hackneyed, I'll give this faithful re-creation four out of five Talmars
There are further Lost Stories to come next year but the ones I really want to hear will probably never be made: The New Armada, Operation Werewolf and Erinella. None of these adventures ( for the First, Second and Fourth Doctors respectively) existed other than as outlines, I believe. However, my next Who review will be another Eleventh Doctor audio exclusive.
Coming soon: Mantlo and Buscema's X-Men and Brainiac 5's Original Sin.
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I must see if my local library has these CDs so that I can give them a listen. I bought the Big Finish Dalek ones and though that they were over-done in the background sound department. I prefer a more realistic, minimalist approach - like a Radio 4 play for example.
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