It's a beautiful sunny Moray morning. We've just had two Inset days - possibly the most ineffectual and tedious that I've ever sat through. There was so much work I could have done that simply wasn't done because deputes chose to read Powerpoint presentations aloud to people with university degrees.
Anyway, last night I finished listening to Ravenous, the latest in the ongoing quadrilogy box sets for Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor. I'll come to back to that in a post or two- I still haven't gathered all my thoughts on FCBD and diversity at Marvel and DC- but today I want to review some other Big Finish audios. As you know by now, I listen to these as I walk to work across the Lossie and the Morriston playing fields and running track.
The Third Doctor Adventures has now reached its fourth volume. Tim Treloar is no longer narrating but giving a full-blown impersonation of Jon Pertwee and his chemistry with Katy (Jo Grant) Manning results in very charming and affectionate pastiche. I haven't been engaged by many of the previous stories and their Three-Day-Week nostalgia, although The Transcendence of Ephros and The Conquest of Far had their moments. However, this was the most satisfying box so far.
A techno-thriller about genetic engineering with echoes of the X-Men movies, The Rise of the New Humans by Guy Adams baits us with Delgado's Master and switches him for Rufus Hound's Meddling Monk. This is a garrulous and oddly likeable incarnation, whom BF have already pitted against the Second and Eighth Doctors. Hound is also a committed and erudite fan whose opinions and perceptions elevate the usually pedestrian Audio Extra interviews.
The Tyrants of Logic by Marc Platt exists primarily for fan service: the Cyberman clash Pertwee never had on tv. Platt's dystopian sci-fi world of Port anvil on the planet Burnt Salt has whimsical magical realist flourishes: lemur-people and a musical cyborg one-man-band. He also innovates conversion by Cyber-smoke but his Cyber-Leveller is a faintly laughable concept. Nonetheless, it's an exotic twist on the standard Base Under Siege Cyber-plot.
With a total of 7/10 Talmars, this is the most convincing and entertaining set so far, although neither adventure feels like it truly comes from 45 or 46 years ago. I posed this same question about the last Baker box in March. http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/bakers-seven.html
I wonder if all the creativity lavished on this series would have better served another, less iconic incarnation such as Richard E. Grant's Shalka Doctor -or even a BF original Doctor...
By Paul Hanley
It's a hopelessly late Anti-Thatcher melodrama where voodoo aliens build battleships on Merseyside. Ace becomes a living arcade game Mecha and Bonnie Langford has an utterly unconvincing old flame. The aliens, led by the formidable Julie Graham should just have been the Sycorax, since they used their gimmick. Dull. 4/10 Talmars.
The Behemoth is much better: Marc Platt pens a slave trade story with no sci-fi elements save for the Tardis and set in 1750s Bath. I have to admit I have been completely won over by the interplay between pukka Constance and (Rose Tyler-lite) Flip. Naming a rhino Clara seems a little cruel to Ozzie ( Loves a Squaddie), however.
8/10 Talmars but Colin Baker is beginning to sound somewhat elderly, sadly.
Serpent in a Silver Mask by David Llewellyn, set on the planet Argentia is inspired by the glossy, campy Giallo movies. Although I loved the BBC2 Horror Double Bills (as we'll see as usual in a few months' time) I've never seen a Giallo film all the way through: I've only managed a few minutes of Suspiria, which may not even be Giallo.
Samuel West plays all of the Mazzini family in a parody of Kind Hearts and Coronets, His attempted seduction of Peter Davsion's Doctor (and his portrayal of nitwit hipster twins) is very funny. Highly original and refreshing- but not scary. 9/10 Talmars
Here's the link to the First DW Audio Annual. http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/atoms-infinite.html
Xmas 2018 came very early with The Second Doctor Audio Annual last month. Perhaps it could have been a summer special. The contents this time included:
The Equations of Dr. Who
Peril in Mechnistria
The Sour Note
Scorched Earth
Double Trouble
Planet of Fear
The Radio Waves
Most of the stories make no sense whatsoever and are tedious.
However, Peter Purves reads the cosmic gibberish of "Equations" with great verve and Anneke Wills invests Ben's "Go, man, go!" line from my first annual with affection. Matthew Waterhouse's impersonation of Peter Davison is astoundingly good. But the Sixth Doctor's angry outburst at Peri from the very last annual is a genuinely "sour note" on which to end. 4/10 Talmars
However, Peter Purves reads the cosmic gibberish of "Equations" with great verve and Anneke Wills invests Ben's "Go, man, go!" line from my first annual with affection. Matthew Waterhouse's impersonation of Peter Davison is astoundingly good. But the Sixth Doctor's angry outburst at Peri from the very last annual is a genuinely "sour note" on which to end. 4/10 Talmars
I think, however, that audio adaptations of the 70s Dalek annuals would be very welcome in a long, hot summer.
Coming soon: Marvel Rising, Star Trek, maybe, The Kandyman definitely.
All images are presumed copyright of their respective owners
No comments:
Post a Comment