An Idiot With A Box And A Screwdriver

Kid Robson asked me recently if I re-listened to the audio plays of Big Finish. I certainly intend to do so with three plays from 2006-2007 but at present I have a further five, as yet unheard, to work through. Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on Dr. Who audio which I listened to in January.

Big Finish are currently adapting 90s DW prose into audio plays. The Highest Science is, in part, a parody of H.P. Lovecraft and the prototype of the David Tennant Easter special, Planet of the Dead. It was the eleventh book in the legendary Virgin New Adventures series of original novels and was published in the early months of 1993.

The style of the novel is a blend of whimsy and punky violence- a style pioneered by Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly's classic comic strip and one inspired by 2000AD's irreverent, adolescent collision of post-jubilee Sex Pistol shock tactics and the Spaghetti Western.

The book was jammed with all the ideas bursting forth from new author Gareth Roberts: forbidden cities;  a crazed, pitiful artificial intelligence; stranded sitcom Earthmen; a madly elaborate trap for a space criminal and a warmaking race of hermaphrodite, cyborg tortoises. It's also the first Tardis voyage for Professor Bernice Summerfield, the witty, bibulous archaeologist.

The audio version truncates some of the action and dispenses with a couple of extraneous characters. I was entertained by the realisation of the story- it's always nice to hear Lisa Bowerman's sardonic Benny ( rather overshadowed by "Space Cougar" River Song on tv).  But just as the original novel's mash-up of IPC Future Shocks and Douglas Adams humour seemed without direction, so here too it strains for effect. BF has produced original material more stylish and focused than this.

I have been fortunate enough to win the Doctor Who Magazine phone-in competition on a couple of previous occasions and recently became a winner for a third time, receiving the handsome Worlds of Doctor Who box set!

This is a series of four linked audios charting the evil exploits of the mysterous Mister Rees, as he encounters characters from BF's Doctor Who spin-off ranges. The plays are written by  Justin Richards, Jonathan Morris and Nick Wallace.The villain is played by Jamie Glover- the son of urbane tv heavy, Julian Glover- and Mr. Rees' plans to stamp his image on the cosmos echo those of Skagra in the most famous unmade story ever told, Shada.

The story begins with the rambunctious Jago and Litefoot in Victorian London; Mind Games owes a great deal to their debut adventure The Talons of Weng Chiang. Rees' hypnotic powers resurface next in Sixties London, in an adventure with the Counter-Measures team, The Reesinger Process. This disc attempts, fairly successfully, to sound like a "lost" ITC series: The Champions or Department S.
The third disc sees the UNIT operatives from Mastermind pitted against The Screaming Skull while
the Sixth Doctor and Romana must deal with a possessed Leela in Second Sight. This final episode depicts Rees attempting universal domination..



I would have preferred it if the Doctor had interacted with all the earthbound groups and it was a pity that the ending- which, unusually, saw the villain redeemed by familial love- was reversed for a Bondian twist in the final "reel". Nevertheless, it's a beautiful artefact and an entertaining epic.

Coming soon: Multiversity; Smallville: Continuity; Gareth Roberts' Missing Advenures

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