Big Finish - Mistfall

Four blog posts in one day, I must be at a loose end. Having skipped the last Sixth Doctor trilogy from the Big Finish monthly Doctor Who range I dip my toe back in to find out what Peter Davison and the rest of his Tardis crew are doing in Mistfall. Written by Andrew Smith and directed by Ken Bentley.

From the Big Finish synopsis: Drawn off-course, the TARDIS passes through a CVE into a closed universe – a hugely improbable event with a tragically obvious cause. In order to escape inescapable E-Space, the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are forced to venture in the wilds of planet Alzarius. And immediatly I'm in trouble because this all refers back to TV episodes that I haven't seen, so the back story is a mystery to me. And yet again this story slipped past me while I was listening to it in the car.

There's the inevitable splitting up of the Tardis team, and there are some nasty swamp beasties who must not be woken from their hibernation, so of course that's what happens straight away. And in all of this the ever reliable Peter Davison does his best, while Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson rush around without very much to do. Four people is too many for one Tardis, and there are too many other characters so I lost what little grasp I had on the plot from the start.

I may need a longer break to get my Doctor Who bug back. At the moment I'm only interested in Dark Eyes, Sherlock Holmes and possibly the next installment of their Survivors series, but nothing more than that. I suspect Mistfall is pretty good but it got past me with a mere 2.5 out of 5 Marshmellow Men. Will I regain my Equilibrium with the next release?

Big Finish - Omega

Last of the £1 purchases: Omega by Nev Fountain, directed by Gary Russell, with Ian Collier as Omega and Caroline Munro as Sentia.

Let me quote from the Big Finish blurb itself: A strange telepathic message prompts the Doctor to travel to the 'Sector of Forgotten Souls', a place where, thousands of years ago, Omega's ship vanished whilst detonating a star. He's not the only one journeying towards it. 'Jolly Chronolidays' prides itself on giving its tourists an experience of galactic history that is far better than mere time travel.

And of course this is not just a holiday recreation of the legend of Omega, the big bag guy is going to make an appearance and we are set for a head to head debate between the Fifth Doctor and Omega himself. This is one of three stories Big Finish ran in their first fifty releases that dealt with three big bads, I have listened to the Seventh Doctor's encounter with the Master but have not yet bought Davros with Colin Baker as the Sixth. Now my big problem with this is that I have almost no familiarity with the character of Omega. Everyone knows Davros and the Master but I can't remember any of the television stories in which Omega appears. So I missed most of the significance of his rantings in this story. The head to head stuff was pretty good and there is a nice twist involved which set this apart from some other clashes with big bad guys. And, of course, there is the delectable Caroline Munro as Sentia. She doesn't look like she did in the 1970s when I was completelty smitten but she still sounds sexy to me.

So it's a bit of an oddity, as have been my other two £1 purchases. I'm going to be generous and swayed by the presence of Ms Munro and give this 3.5 out of a possible 5 hands of Omega. Perhaps I should get the Sixth and Davros story and complete the trilogy but in the meantime it's back to the main range because there's a new Seventh Doctor story to tee up next.

Big Finish - Loups-Garoux

Another £1 offering from the sale, Loups-Garoux by Marc Platt, directed by Nicholas Pegg.

The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are in Rio de Janeiro for the carnival but get caught up in a hunt for a Werewolf and a race to death on a speeding monorail train. Actually it's even more confusing than that and I can't really remember all the other stuff that happens and quite how the Doctor resolves it all in the end. This one felt very long indeed, like an episode of Thunderbirds with Jeff Tracy and Lady Penelope stuck on a runaway train while the Thunderbirds try to come to the rescue.

I was hoping for a creepy Werewolf tale (or tail even?) but it was all a bit confusing and dragged out for me. The cast are all fine, Eleanor Bron and Bert Kwouk are in it which was a surprise. As ever there is nothing wrong with the production values but it just didn't do it for me at all and I found my attention wandering. I confess I also miss not having the CD extras on the these earlier releases. Who would have thought that I would miss hearing the Big Finish actors waffle on about the terrific lunches they get while recording?

2 out of 5 Lupine antidotes and on to Omega we go.

Big Finish - Masquerade

Masquerade by Stephen Cole, directed by Ken Bentley.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa find themselves caught up in a seventeenth century French chateau full of dangerous liaisons, but because this is Doctor Who there is much more to this than meets the eye (or ear?). And there is a strange and threatening presence lurking in the wings known only as the Steamroller man.

The first chapter of this story is rather good with the Doctor and Nyssa slowly realising that their memories and perceptions are being manipulated. In fact I could have done with this going on a little longer but the constraints of the four act structure demand a revelation and a cliffhanger every twenty five minutes. Once the mystery of what is really going on is revealed then it just becomes a succession of techno babble explanations and a lot of shouting.

I have to say that the background music here also stood out for the wrong reasons. It was too noticeable to me and jarred somehow which is me being very unfair on the composer, and the huge amount of background music that Big Finish have to produce every month. On the plus side all the performances are good and Peter Davison is his usual relaxed self in the CD extra interviews.

I think Tomb Ship was the best of this Fifth Doctor trilogy. Masquerade gets a middling 3 out of 5 powdered wigs. Next month it's the turn of Sixie and some short stories.

Big Finish - Tomb Ship

Tomb Ship by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby, directed by Ken Bentley.

The latest from the Big Finish monthly range and it feels like I haven't done one of these in a while what with all the 2000AD reviews. I am only getting the main Doctor Who range  now and no others, although at some point I will probably return to the Jago and Litefoot series when time and money allow. In the meantime here is a stand alone Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story where they land on a mysterious ship, soon realise it is full of traps but when they try to return to the Tardis find it has vanished. Inevitably there are several other characters on board, all with their own agenda and  the Doctor is recruited to solve all the puzzles and try to negotiate safe passage to whatever treasure the ship is hiding.

Keeping with the 2000AD theme this is written by a pair of Tharg's script droids and there are some comic book elements to the puzzles. And I do like a Fifth Doctor series where he is conflict with the people he meets while still trying to save them from the desperate scenario they find themselves in. That was what made The Burning Prince so good. Tomb Ship seems like it is going to head down similar lines but doesn't quite manage the same sense of desperate urgency that story conveyed. Peter Davison is tremendous fun as ever, but I am still trying to feel some sense of connection to Nyssa who still seems naive and uninteresting.

Cast and crew deliver their usual high standard of production and the CD extra interviews are fun. I wonder who will organise these now after the sad death of Paul Spragg. Tomb ship feels like it would have been a fairly traditional Saturday teatime Doctor Who serial and that's no bad thing, and it was better than last month's Moonflesh. Four out of five pairs of cricket trousers and lets hope for a Jago and Litefoot sale soon.

Big Finish - Moonflesh

Hot off the press with the latest monthly release from the main Big Finish Doctor Who range. Moonflesh by Mark Morris, directed by Ken Bentley.

Doctor number Five and Nyssa arrive in a 1911 Suffolk wildlife park just in time to join a hunting party. But there is something strange lurking among the various artifacts collected by the owner, Nathaniel Whitlock, and before long they are caught up in a earlier version of John Carpenter's The Thing. Someone is possessed by the alien force but who is it and what is the alien's plan?

Some slightly silly voices from the actors in this one and that's before they start getting taken over by the alien energy force. In particular the two older male characters seem determined to outdo each other for British bluster and bravado. The idea of the hidden alien from The Thing, or John Campbell's original short story Who Goes There? on which the film was based is a terrific one and I rather hoped for more of that creeping paranoia in this story. Sadly they didn't really stick with this theme until it reappeared for the finale.

So a bit of a missed opportunity for me, and I still find Nyssa a bit dull. Peter Davison is splendid as ever but I struggled with the scenes that he wasn't in. A middling 3 out of 5 weird red meteorites. My main range malaise continues.

Big Finish - Son of the Dragon

Son of the Dragon by Steve Lyons, and directed by Barnaby Edwards.

Another quickie review for something I listened to ages ago. I believe this was cheap in a sale at some point. This is a purely historical story with the Fifth Doctor and Peri encountering the son of Vlad the Impaler. There are no science fiction or supernatural elements other than their arrival in the Tardis and in the tradition of Doctor Who historicals the events take place over weeks and months rather than days.

James Purefoy plays Vlad's son and Douglas Hodge is his opponent in battle Radhu. Both have great voices for a radio play and this all cracked along splendidly and I rather enjoyed it. Another 3.5 out of 5 star story.

Big Finish - Fanfare for the Common Men

Let me get this blog back on track with three quick Big Finish reviews. first up, Fanfare for the Common Men by Eddie Robson, directed by Barnaby Edwards. The first in the Big Finish 1963 trilogy.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are in 1963 to see the Beatles but no one seems to have heard of them. Instead the band that was mentioned in passing by Susan in the very first episode of Doctor Who have taken their place in history and the Doctor wants to know why.

On the plus side the music in this story is fantastic. Howard Carter has come up with some catchy pop tunes that sound just right for the period and he's helped by some great performances by Mitch Benn, Andrew Knott and David Dobson as the band members with those familiar Liverpudlian accents. Having said that the rest of the story rather left me cold. The Doctor and the Nyssa investigate and discover the inevitable alien who is meddling with time, and although it is the standard four episodes long it just whizzed past without leaving much of an impression on me.

Not a terrible story but the pairing of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa is one of the least interesting teams that have Big Finish currently have. Let me be generous and call it a 3 out of 5 mop top haircuts story.

Big Finish - The Light at the End

The Light at the End. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

It's the 50th anniversary special featuring the eight classic Doctors, a host of companions, the Time Lords, and the Master, and it's all fantastic. Everything about this production just hits the right spot for Doctor Who's birthday celebrations. The music and sound effects are superb. All the Doctors are on fine form with Tom Baker and Paul McGann really standing out. And there's a terrifically creepy performance from Geoffrey Beevers as the Master.

I won't go into details of the story and how all eight doctors end up drawn back to an important event on the 23rd November, 1963. However it's all masterfully done, there is nothing like a good multi-Doctor story and this is a real stand out. It even features incarnations of the first three Doctors here played by William Russell, Frazer Hines and Tim Trealor. They are trapped in some sort of Tardis time pocket so their voices are a little distorted which allows the actors some leeway in their recreation of the original actors.

As well as all this there are two CDs worth of extras which are well worth listening to. It's a tremendous package from Big Finish and it is impossible to give it less than 5 out of 5 classic Doctors. Highly recommended.

Big Finish - Prisoners of Fate

The latest release from the Big Finish monthly range Prisoners of Fate, written by Jonathan Morris and directed by Ken Bentley.

It's the Fifth Doctor with his full Tardis crew of Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough again, and it's the conclusion to a series of linked stories about the search for a cure for a deadly infection called Richter's syndrome. On the planet of Valderon it seems that an effective treatment has been found, but Nyssa meets a man who turns out to be the son she hasn't yet given birth to, in a strange Doctor Who timey-wimey way.

This is a terrific story for the Fifth Doctor and his companions. The twists and turns along the way, and the different timelines really kept me engaged and entertained. But it's the reveal of the villain of the piece that was the real surprise. This is a story that nods to the history of the Doctor and the Time Lords from the classic series, but also references events and stories from the new television series. I can't really say anymore than that without giving away the plot, but if you are looking for a good recent example of Big Finish's work then try this one.

Peter Davison is fantastic as ever, he has always been one of the most likeable of the Doctor's incarnations and that remains the case in this adventure. But this story really belongs to Nyssa and Sarah Sutton gives one of her best recent performances. In particular her scenes with her adult son who, in a neat touch, is called Adric are quite moving. Understandably Tegan and Turlough take more of a back seat role for this one but all of the actors were fine with no jarring notes. And as ever the sound design and music help this along nicely.

One of the best Big Finish Doctor Who stories I have listened to of late. Not quite up to the giddy heights of Spare Parts or The Burning Prince but still an impressive 4.5 out of 5 type forty Tardises. Good work all round, BF.

Big Finish - The Lady of Mercia

The Lady of Mercia by Paul Magrs, directed by Ken Bentley.

The Fifth Doctor is on the trail of a temporal anomaly and brings the Tardis crew to a university campus in 1983. There are budgets cuts, student protesters, visiting lecturers for a history conference, and of course, there is something strange going on in the physics department. Before long Tegan has been hurled back in time to the 10th century and finds herself caught up in the legend of Æthelfrid, the Lady of Mercia herself.

A completely historical adventure for the Doctor with the only science fiction elements being time travel itself. No aliens. no bug eyed monsters, and no super-villains. Just some good clean timeslip fun for The Doctor, Nyyssa, Tegan and Turlough to sort out. Tegan gets the most to do and, unusually, is not possessed by anything. She does what she does because she thinks it is the right thing to do, and this is a pretty good Tegan story. The downside is that everyone else just get the minor roles, Nyssa is merely there to ask the Doctor questions, and Turlough is back in his sarcastic, surly mode. I thought we were done with the unhelpful Turlough but apparently not.

I enjoyed Peter Davison's performance quite a lot. It's nice to have a more classic Doctor who doesn't have to run and shout all the while. Although it might help if this incarnation did stop and explain things every now and then. It would clear up a lot of misunderstandings but would probably reduce the running time by at least a quarter. Janet Fielding has a (pun intended) field day with her meaty role and manages to produce one of the least irritating attempts at a regional accent I have heard for some time.

The music, sound design and artwork are all top notch and really this was one of the best Big Finish Doctor Who stories I have listened to in a while. 4 out of 5 golden swords and now it's time to jump tracks and head back to Mega City One and more Judge Dredd.

Big Finish - The Haunting of Thomas Brewster

From 2008 comes The Haunting of Thomas Brewster by Jonathan Morris, directed by Barnaby Edwards.

The Doctor and Nyssa are adrift in Victorian England without access to the Tardis. The Doctor seems to have set himself up as a Gentleman scientist with a new companion, Nyssa is somewhat perplexed, and a young man called Thomas Brewster is being haunted by his dead mother.

Well, it has haunting in the title so I was expecting some ghostly goings on, and for a while it was pretty good. Eventually the Doctor has to explain that the mysterious events are due to the usual alien invasion and it all deflates somewhat. Why can't Doctor Who ever feature a real ghost? OK so there is no such thing as ghosts, but in reality there is no telepathy or time machines. We accept them as part of the Whoniverse but all the hauntings turn out to be caused by aliens. Hopefully someone will read this and point me to a Big Finish or original series story with a real ghost.

In the mean time this story is a fairly good Fifth Doctor adventure and I did like the idea of him spending one year living in Victorian London as a scientist and speaker at the Royal Society. As Brian my co-host on British Invaders pointed out it would be fun to hear further stories from that missing year without the Tardis at some point. I also enjoyed his new companion Robert McIntosh, and rather hoped that he would become a continuing character instead of Thomas Brewster. Peter Davison is very likeable as ever, Sarah Sutton doesn't have much to do, and the supporting cast of Leslie Ash, Christian Coulson and John Pickard are all good. The cover art is suitably atmospheric and there are some nice street noises from the Victorian setting.

There were two problems which rather spoilt this production for me. Firstly I don't like it when the Doctor is less intelligent than the listener. When someone starts stealing various items of scientific equipment it is fairly obvious to us what they are up to but it takes the Doctor ages to figure it out. The other problem was a repeated musical theme which really jarred with me as not fitting the time period. It sounded like it would have fitted a futuristic story fine but I didn't like it here, and every time it was used it threw me off.

As ever when I get excited by the title and cover art I can be disappointed and this was a little dull. A middling 2.5 out of 5 electromagnetic field generators. Let's press on to the Crimes of Thomas Brewster.

Big Finish - Eldred must die!

The latest release from the Big Finish monthly release range is Eldred must Die! by Marc Platt and directed by Ken Bentley.

A simple stroll on a beach becomes a desperate battle to prevent an old foe taking over the earth as the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Turlough and Tegan take on the crystalline maniac Eldrad who first appeared in The Hand of Fear. The silicon based life form from the planet Kastria is slowly taking over any humans it comes into contact with and the Doctor is running out of time.

By a coincidence of timing this was next up on my iPod playlist after The Cradle of the Snake, which was perhaps unfortunate  There are certain similarities in the stories about old villains who are slowly taking over the Doctor and his companions, so it felt like I was listening to a repeat. The usual tropes of the companions wandering off and getting into trouble, along with the same old suspicions about Turlough's character meant this one didn't really stand out for me.

As ever the cast were excellent and there was some pleasant music and sound design to make it a reasonably easy listen. I didn't have any major problems with Platt's script or Bentley's direction, I just wanted something a bit different. I will have to add Eldrad must Die! to the list of Big Finish releases that might deserve a re-listen if I can find the time.

For the moment it gets 2.5 out of 5 deadly crystals. Next up will be some short stories for the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in The Demons of Red Lodge.

Big Finish - The Cradle of the Snake

Completing the Fifth Doctor mini-series that began with Cobwebs and The Whispering Forest, here comes The Cradle of the Snake by Marc Platt and directed by Barnaby Edwards.

Tegan has been possessed (again) by the evil snake spirit the Mara (again). In order to save her the Tardis crew travel to the planet Manusa but when the Doctor drives the snake out of Tegan's mind it enters his brain. Have they unintentionally unleashed the evil that will go on to destroy Manusa?

I'm not familiar with the Mara from the TV show, and I should be. However the idea of a malevolent psychic force that can infect other brains is a familiar one from science fiction writing and this is a pretty good variant on that theme. There's some fun and suspense to be had from not knowing quite who is possessed at any one time, and having the Doctor as the bad guy is a nice twist which allows Peter Davison to do some convincingly evil acting.

Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding are all pretty good here, and it certainly sounds like they have fun together if the CD extras are to be believed. Strangely there isn't a full cast list on the Big Finish page but the other characters were all fine as well.

It wasn't quite as exciting as The Whispering Forest but at least an audio drama saves us from a dodgy giant snake special effect. 3.5 out of 5 snake tattoos.

Big Finish - Creatures of Beauty

This title was mentioned during one of the talks at Big Finish Day 3. It sounded very intriguing so I went straight to the sales desk and here, from May 2003, comes Creatures of Beauty, written and Nicholas Briggs.

The planet Veln has been ravaged by an ecological disaster, Nyssa is in an interrogation cell, an alien race called the Koteem are trying to interfere, and the Fifth Doctor must work out what has gone wrong and who are the real villains?

With a hero who travels in time it is perhaps obvious that some of his adventures might occur out of order as it were, and he might have a mixed up, "timey-wimey" way of looking at events. The clever concept of this drama is to tell the story in non chronological order. We jump straight in about half way through and only later discover how Nyssa and the Doctor got where they are, and the global events that have provoked the crisis. By the end of the fourth act we have all the pieces of the jigsaw and can rearrange them to solve the mystery.

Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton have to sell us the confusion and still deliver the key moments of the plot, and both are up to the task. I like Davison's Doctor and wish I had been watching during his television run. David Daker is very impressive as Gilbrook, although I thought he was Peter Sallis when I first heard his voice. I also enjoyed David Mallinson as the conflicted psychiatrist and interrogator Brodlik.

However the real star of this show has to be Nicholas Briggs who as well as writing and directing, also did the sound design and music. I liked his gentle but eerie musical cues which suited the mood of the piece perfectly. Mr Briggs also does the alien voices and plays half a dozen minor roles. He must have had a very busy couple of days back in 2003!

I confess I may not have got all the pieces of the puzzle straight yet but I did enjoy this story and its weirdly disturbing feel. 4 out 5 alien landing pods, but 5 stars for Nicholas Briggs himself.

Big Finish - The Whispering Forest

Through the back catalogue again with The Whispering Forest from 2010, written by Stephen Cole and directed by Barnaby Edwards.

The second of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough trilogy. The Tardis crew are looking for evidence of the deadly Richter's syndrome and land on a Forest world where they find a weird group of hygiene obsessed colonists who live in fear of infection, and of been snatched away by mysterious robots from the woods.

It's probably bad timing that I listened to this so soon after Spaceport Fear which has some similarities of plot. The idea of survivors from an earlier expedition who have developed a strange society and culture based on convoluted memories of their origins crops up here again. And the mystery of the threatening, robotic "Takers" also seems very familiar. At the heart of the matter there are no new stories, just newer versions of old ones so it is not surprising to find some repeated themes here.

Having said that the build up of the mystery of Purity colony and the robot Takers is pretty good. The weird sound effects of the forest give the first two parts a nice creepy feel. And the cast are all very good including another appearance from Hayley Atwell who was so impressive in Blood of the Daleks.

Despite the similarities with Spaceport Fear this one made more of an impact on me, and was more enjoyable, than Cobwebs. The story did seem a stretched out in the final part once the mysteries were solved but those are the constraints of the four act structure.

4 out 5 orange glowing Android brains. Let us see if the final part of this Richter's trilogy, The Cradle of the Snake can outdo that score.

Big Finish - Cobwebs

From the back catalogue of the Big Finish monthly main range series - Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris, directed by Barnaby Edwards.

The Big Finish synopsis: in search of a cure for a sickness that’s so far claimed six billion lives, scientist Nyssa arrives at an abandoned gene-tech facility on the toxic planet Helheim. ‘Hellhole’, more like. Nyssa’s not alone. The TARDIS has also been drawn to the Helheim base – and in its cobweb-coated corridors, she soon runs into the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, her travelling companions of half a century past. But who, or what, has engineered this strange reunion? The Black Guardian, perhaps? The answer’s here, in the dark. With the Cractids. In the cobwebs.

Oops, this one slipped by without a review. I listened to this a couple of months ago when things were a bit hectic and somehow never got round to writing it up here. This is the first part of a mini series of three stories which put the old Tardis crew of Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough back together with the Fifth Doctor. And there's lots in here to appeal to me, a creepy abandoned base, some nasty monsters, and what appears to be the dead bodies of the Doctor and his companions themselves. Plus there is the always likeable and engaging Peter Davison. But this one just passed me by. I listened to it, I enjoyed it at the time, but it hasn't left a lasting impression on me.

The solution to the puzzle was interesting although fairly obvious in retrospect and I do recall that Sarah Sutton was very good and the creepy crawly noises were fun but apart from that not much. Maybe I should give this story another chance when I've got some more time. In the meantime it gets 3 out of 5 middle of the road spiders. More detailed reviews to follow.

Big Finish - 1001 Nights

The latest Big Finish monthly release is 1001 Nights by Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie, Jonathan Barnes, Catherine Harvey. Directed by Barnaby Edwards.

This is one of Big Finish's releases which features four single stories. However this time they are linked by a back story which places Nyssa in the role of Scheherazade telling the stories to entertain a bored Sultan while the Doctor languishes in the palace dungeons. And there are stories within the stories and a deeper fiction which will be resolved by the end of the tale. The Doctor himself is involved in an escape attempt which reminded me of the Count of Monte Cristo.

Unfortunately the four stories in one format doesn't quite work for me. I have grown used to the four act structure of the monthly releases. There is nothing wrong with any of the adventures that Nyssa relates to the Sultan, they just seemed a bit short and inconsequential. The first is a variant of the Prisoner's Dilemma, the next puts Nyssa in a Victorian version of the Exorcist, and the last story does that inn at the end of the world where stories are currency that Neil Gaiman and others have covered in comics. I am getting quite picky about these audio dramas aren't I?

On the plus side Sarah Sutton is much better than she was in Castle of Fear, I could listen to Peter Davison's Doctor nearly all day, and Alexander Siddig and Nadim Sawalha have excellent voices. The music and sound design by Jamie Robertson are very good, particularly in the dungeons with the incarcerated Doctor scratching at walls and shifting large stones.

December is turning out to be a packed month of releases for Big Finish and I suspect most of the others are going to overshadow this one. Fairly middle of the road so 2.5 out of 5 regenerations.

Big Finish - Castle of Fear

Big Finish monthly release 127 - Castle of Fear by Alan Barnes, directed by Barnaby Edwards.

After the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa encounter a traditional Mummers play in 1899 they travel back to Stockbridge in 1199 to discover why the Doctor himself has become part of the George and the Dragon story. And to solve the mystery of the Castle of Fear itself.

Oh dear, oh dear. What a disappointment. The title itself had me excited, Castle of Fear is just a brilliant name for a Doctor Who story, and written by Alan Barnes himself. I was really looking forward to something spooky and unsettling, but instead I heard a weak attempt at recreating the humour of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There are puns, strange bits of word play, silly accents and scenes and lines that are either a knowing homage, or just a straight steal from the film. None of it worked for me I'm afraid. I once had the misfortune of getting stuck on a school bus next to someone who recited entire Monty Python sketches to me word for word, and this reminded me of that long and painful journey. The original sketches and films are indeed funny, but don't try to recreate them. They are what they are and any attempt to copy them has to be extremely good or it falls flat.

Apart from the title and the cover image I cannot find anything good to say about this one. Peter Davison is his usual amiable self but Sarah Sutton seems wooden and the rest of the cast just ham it up. John Sessions is in there and his performance is even more bizarre than anything he did in Gormenghast. Oh, it was all disappointing. Maybe Alan Barnes is better as a script editor.

Shudder. My current favourite Big Finish Doctor gets a mere 1 out of 5 electric knights. Here's hoping that the Sixth and Jamie can restore my faith.

Big Finish - The Chaos Pool

Released in March 2009 the final part of the Key 2 Time trilogy was The Chaos Pool, written by Peter Anghelides and directed again by Lisa Bowerman.

There's a spaceship crewed by evolved and highly aggressive Slugs. On another ship there is a President who looks and sounds just like Romana but isn't. The Doctor has two companions now called Amy and Zara, or possibly just one of them at a time. There's a weird old professor who spends a lot of time moaning about his hip. And somewhere in the middle of all this confusion there is a satchel holding the parts of the Key, and something called the Chaos Pool which may end the Universe, or save it, or something. I wasn't really paying attention was I?

Good points first: Amy is more interesting in this one, as is her evil twin Zara. Peter Davison sounds like he is having fun, Lalla Ward does good voice acting for someone who is more or less retired, and Toby Longworth does great monster voices. But I was not really engaged with the story or bothered about the outcome.

I prefer my Doctor Who stories on a slightly smaller scale with more human consequences from the action. If there could be some spooky stuff as well, or a good monster, then so much the better. These bigger stories with some cosmic quest and nearly invulnerable super-beings arguing about an artefact that does everything or nothing just don't grab me. It would be interesting to go back to the Big Finish forums and try and dig up the thread about these stories when they first came out. I know a lot of Doctor Who fans love stuff like this and I would like to read what they said at the time. I still consider myself somewhat of an outsider looking in at the Doctor Who universe, although I am getting pretty well versed in the Big Finish stuff. But I have seen so few of the original serials, and can't really remember the ones I watched in the 1970s that I still feel like a bit of a newbie here. And some of my views are clearly out of step with the majority. Love and War got rave reviews from just about everyone but I hated it.

2 out of 5 pools of chaos for this story. My decision not to buy Unit: Dominion is looking more and more dodgy. I may crack in the New year. Now I need something to cleanse my palate and relight my listening pleasure.