Today's post is both cybernetic and aquatic as we look at my train-journey listening from Big Finish, over last weekend's half-term holiday.
The Isos Network: here, Nicholas Briggs delivers an utterly unnecessary sequel to 1969's The Invasion. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe (somehow) steer the Tardis in pursuit of the Cybermen to the colony planet Isos II. With its generic spacemen, the Isons and an excruciating, expository ride on giant slugs ("Wheee!") this sounds like a pastiche of a World Distributors comic strip. Briggs does state in the audio extras that he wanted to write an "old-fashioned" story. While I believe that BF can and should revisit any iteration of Doctor Who, this juvenile and pointless rehash rather squanders time and talent. It has to be said, however, the musical score is very evocative of the late Sixties tv programme. (1/5)
Last of the Cybermen: yet another Cyber-sequel, this was the middle installment of the uninspiring "Locum Doctors" trilogy from last summer. It also references The Isos Network, although it predates it. Jamie and Zoe team up again ( as they sort-of did in Legend of the Cybermen) with the bumptious Sixth Doctor in a continuity-heavy story that gets bafflingly timey-wimey in the final episode. The silly Northern Cyberman "Lanky" is quite irritating while the happy ending for Jamie and Zoe that would mitigate The War Games- if being a Laird in an irradiated Scotland is happy- is revoked. So why introduce it? A frivolous but slow-moving story where the grisly Cyber-conversions really jar. However, Sixie, Zoe and Jamie make a very likeable trio; Frazer Hines is always a fine foil for Colin Baker. (2/5)
The Waters of Amsterdam: more timey-wimey hi-jinks from Jonathan Morris, this time in a sort-of sequel to 1983's Arc of Infinity. An encounter with Tegan's stalker-ish ex-boyfriend coincides with an attack by aqueous aliens, the Nix. The Fifth Doctor travels back in time to investigate futuristic designs by the curmudgeonly bankrupt, Rembrandt. A ruthless alien exile (Mrs. Peter Davison) is behind the anachronisms and the Tardis team return to a 1983 where the Netherlands is now the dominant power in the Solar System.
This is a fairly diverting story where Nyssa gets a good scene and the rapport between the companions is appealing. However, it only really gets going in the explosive final episode. (3/5)
Wave of Destruction: is the first of a new season of Fourth Doctor Adventures, evoking 1979's Season 17. Romana, K9 and the Doctor must thwart the (faintly rubbish) alien Vardans who are invading in the 1960s from a pirate radio ship. This is lots of fun: I wondered if it would be too similar to the James Goss Tenth Doc audiobook Dead Air but it's much lighter in tone. The real revelation is that it's written by Justin Richards, whose previous work has often been the stodgiest and most lifeless in most media. As a single disc release, it fairly races by and is highly entertaining. (5/5)
Coming soon: The Dynamic Defenders
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