My second laptop post for today is a round-up of Big Finish audios I've been listening to during April. I revisited the Hitch Hiker's Guide from 1980 on BBC Radio 4 Extra (through my telly! So futuristic!) but even though I'm now no longer commuting anywhere, audios are still part of my state sanctioned exercise.
I haven't been out of this town for 65 days so I can identify easily with Steven and Sara, stranded on 1950s Earth in An Ordinary Life. This 2015 Early Adventure of Dr. Who is an interlude in the mammoth Daleks Master Plan and (naturally) the Doctor is off-stage until episode four.
Peter Purves is as dynamic as ever but Jean Marsh sounds rather frail. Her doomed, hunter-killer character is a misfit in a kitchen sink drama but Matt Fitton evokes Invasion of the Body Snatchers to tell a tale of prejudice and austerity with Windrush generation protagonists. 3/5 Talmars
2020's Main Range of Doctor Who stories began with widescreen Gallifreyan epic Dark Universe, which told thee story of the imprisonment of The Eleven. The next installment, The Psychic Circus by Stephen Wyatt , is a prequel to his 1988 Seventh Doctor tv adventure, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Some familiarity to that post-modern slice of psychedelia is essential, in order to follow the narrative of this audio, which revisits some of its central characters It departs chiefly in the person of James Dreyfus as the Master. This is the third appearance, I think, of what BF considers the earliest incarnation of the rogue Time Lord. He's also the seventh regeneration of the Master in the audios and he's about to be joined by an eighth- John Simm-next year. Dreyfus is just on the edge of ripeness here and is something of a contrast to the domineering and sinister presence of Ian Reddington's Chief Clown. Even though Sylvester isn't really a favourite Doctor of mine, I enjoyed this atmospheric, dream-like audio. To be honest, though, nothing very much happened. 3/5 Talmars.
Subterfuge, the final part of this year's McCoy trilogy, again features a returning Time Lord villain: Rufus Hound's braying, snorting, self-satisfied Meddling Monk. Gallifrey's own Boris Johnson is advising Churchill as the latter campaigns for re-election in 1945. Ian McNeice's performance as Churchill began on tv with Victory of the Daleks and has continued in the first Ravenous box set and in a brace of spin-off stories. I haven't heard them because I feel this is one of those instances when BF falls prey to England's preoccupation with its largely-imagined, glorious past.
Helen Goldwyn's story here features a pair of alien siblings, a Zan and Jayna duo with psionic talents, who are exploited by a German spy in a terror campaign. It's quite a pacy adventure and ends in a new status quo for Churchill and the Seventh Doctor. An interesting but inessential 3/5 Talmars.
Young Jacob Dudman, who read the poignant Goodbye Sarah Jane Smith last month, has added to his portfolio of modern Doctor impressions with the Twelfth Doctor Chronicles. His Matt Smith is phenomenal and his Tennant is impeccable but how would he fare as a 60-year-old Scotsman?
Remarkably well, actually. It's not quite as uncanny as his Eleventh Doctor but he seizes on the "dark L" and the slightly blocked nose sounds in four stories. Distant Voices is the weakest, in that the protagonist Cameron has a similar temporal fracturing problem like Clara Oswald. BF's Ghost Walk told this story more effectively, two years ago.
Petronella Osgood's spy adventure is a little hard to follow in a tale of alien rebels, terrorism and communications network, Danny Pink has a more interesting outing again in an alien war zone. His gruff, urban tones are a complex and effective contrast to Dudman, carrying a lot of the story. My favourite however is Charge of the Night Brigade, a story of alien infection at the battle of Balaclava. Mandi Symons gives a delightful Caribbean-flavoured performance as Mary Seacole and I rather wish she could have been a regular companion for the old punk magician- whoever voices him. 14/20 Talmars
Should Big Finish call time on the adventures of the Doctor's spouse? The seventh volume of the Diary of River Song suggests that the fabulous archaeologist might be ready for a rest, like the UNIT spin-off.
In her four latest exploits, the sometime-Melody Malone investigates a Scandi Noir take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers ( a very popular "go-to"); an alien iteration of Name of the Rose; a Coney Island freak show and a courtroom drama.
Barrister to the Stars was the most charming story of the quartet while Abbey of Heretics felt samey- we've seen River the nun in Doom Coalition. The Scandi accents- like the terrible "Scoattish" ones in "Barrister"-took me out of Colony of Strangers, which was, nevertheless fairly creepy.
A touching and understated gay romance in Carnival of Angels differentiated that story from the War Master's recent Coney Island Chameleon. While the Weeping Angels were probably the most memorable monsters in the Moffat Years, they don't strike me as very effective on audio.The Doctor himself- or herself- isn't present in this set, which highlights the point that there is really only one more story for River but one BF can't yet tell: an encounter with Doctor Jodie. 10/20 Talmars.
Finally, a deep dive on dvd to 1967 with The Faceless Ones. This six -part Troughton adventure deals with, yes, a body-snatching invasion- this time by deformed aliens, not dissimilar to the diseased Vidiians from Star Trek Voyager. The story was the second swinging sixties adventure and just as The War Machines had introduced the Doctor's Caranaby St. Companions, so The Faceless Ones wrote out Terry and Julie-er, Ben and Polly.
I didn't buy the Target book on its release in 1987,when I saw it in Hatchards on Gordon Street. I didn't buy any Targets after The Mind Robber until the following February, feeling far too old at 24 for children's books. I did see the surviving episodes on VHS in 2000, however and bought the audio soundtrack in 2002. It's a ponderous adventure, with the gimmick of cheap air travel for young people. Pauline Collins brings a late- in- the -day Scouse hipness to alleviate the airlessness. It would have been very hard work if it weren't in colour like The Macra Terror but I enjoyed the visual gags: wanted posters for Sacha Dhawan's Master and Peter Butterworth's Monk and adverts for Esgo and International Electromatics (companies from later Troughton adventures). I'm afraid it wasn't very engaging, in the long-long-run.
Coming soon: three more box sets, Tigra the Werewoman and Shade the Changing Man
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