Doctor Who Tales from the Vault review

Like are good ideas, the one behind this story is a simple one.

It is similar to the comic strip series in the Judge Dredd Megazine called Tales from the Black Museum in that it is spinning stories out from the grisly (or not so grisly) leftovers from certain crimes.

This being Who, the crimes in question are naturally of a fantastic nature. Each is well written and well told.

Talking of which, the cast list… to say it is (from the perspective of a Who fan) impressive, is a gigantic understatement. There are four short stories, each of them is narrated by a different companion. So we have Peter Purvis doing one, Wendy Padbury on another and Katy Manning on a third and the amazing Mary Tamm on another. Which is all a bit awesome, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So, when I tell you that this is not all, and that the story that frames these shorts, and features two soldiers in the UNIT vault looking at the items, stars Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso from the Paul McGann TV movie, then I’m pretty sure your fan radar machine or whatever it is you have, will blow a bit of a fuse.

Of course, all this fan service would be nothing if the script was not up to scratch. Well, maybe it would. The actors assembled here are good enough that I suspect they could lift mediocre material enough to make it listenable. But this tale was written by Jonathan Morris, and he knows a thing or two about writing.

It is a very strong piece. I don’t mind admitting that I was wrong in predicting the ending, too. I had thought myself very clever to have worked it out from the first few moments of the audio, but was way off the mark.

To say any more would be too much. Just go listen to it.

And the best thing about this?

Well, they only tell the stories of a few of the items in the museum here, and it’s chock full of artefacts. Surely it can’t be long before Big Finish takes us on another trip into the UNIT archives..?

Doctor Who The Cold Equations review

You may remember that I enjoyed the previous Big Finish 1^st Doctor and Stephen adventure, and that it ended on a note promising more to come.

Well, that promise has been made good with this latest Big Finish release.

As with The Perpetual Bond, this is narrated by Peter Purvis and co-stars Tom Allen as new companion Oliver, who gets some meat character work to get his teeth into.

At the end of the last adventure (Minor spoilers here people! Stop reading if you haven’t listened to it yet and skip to the next paragraph) Oliver came on board the TARDIS, and we got a hint that he was running from some dark secret… well, hin this story we find out what that secret it. And it provides a wonderful twist which is simultaneously very modern and old fashioned at the same time. I also found that it cast an interesting  light on Oliver’s character in The Perpetual Bond.

Purvis is, as always, excellent. And I really have to draw attention to his impression of the 1^st Doctor, because it is pretty much spot on. There were many occasions while listening to this that I really thought I was hearing an unbroadcast story with Billy Hartnell himself.

It was also nice to see Stephen get to flex his astronaut muscles. The bulk of the second half of this story is dedicated to a fascinating and exciting scene where Stephen gets to actually be an astronaut. Pyramids of Mars is one of my favourite stories because the twist in the end works because of real science, and this one plays a similar trick, and, I have to say, does it just as successfully.

I loved this- in fact it is possibly one of my favourite Big Finish Whos ever. And when you consider the quality of the best of the previous releases from this company, you’ll know that this is no small praise.

Doctor Who The Companion Chronicles- The Perpetual Bond review

My recent emersion in the Lost Episodes recording has given me a newfound appreciation of both Peter Purvis as an actor and the First Doctor.

So it was a rather nice surprise to put this on the player and discover that this companion chronicle features both. Indeed, it takes place in the immediate aftermath of the tragic climax of The Dalek’s Masterplan- so I was in the fortunate position of being full aware of what they were all talking about.

There are a lot of clever things about this story. I like the nice touches of lightness that are peppered throughout, and lord knows that it needs them at times. I like the way it easily invokes the mid-sixties setting. I like the story itself- it feels like something from the era- maybe not a contemporary Who though- it feels like an episode of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone.

As well as the story itself, there is of course the message. And the message being set out in this story is done so with just the right amount of polemic. With subjects such as the ones addressed here, it would be all too easy to be unsubtle and to club the listener over the head, but it is just on the right side of this line. Indeed, the writer even does the ‘villains’ the service of allowing them to give you their side of the argument, and it is a testament to his ability that their argument is not entirely unconvincing, despite the horrendousness of what they are doing!

Best of all though, is Purvis. He exudes an easy charm and is effortless in his reading of the tale, and his ‘Doctor voice’ is very good. Special mention should also go to the second actor in this audio- Tom Allen. His is an interesting character and one who provides this story with its most unexpected surprise…

Available from Big Finish.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes review pt4

At last we reach the final part of the Audio Go Lost Episodes review!

We finish with The Savages.

And so this lovely collection comes to a close with this tale. We’ve had a monster story with The Dalek’s Masterplan, an historical with The Massacre and something else entirely with The Celestial Toymaker- so it’s nice that this final story is ticking the sci-fi story box.

There is a great sci-fi idea at the heart of this story. And as we have seen with other Who ideas (The Ark in Space/Alien and a computer virtual world called The Matrix, for example), this one has turned up- albeit in a slightly different form- in a blockbuster sci-fi movie many years later, but to tell you either the idea here or even the movie would be too big a spoiler.

As with the rest of this box set, the linking narrations by Peter Purvis are excellent and go a long way towards bringing this to life. However, I think this is the only one from this set where I did find myself hankering for some visuals whiles listening to it, but I think this was because the narration was so vivid, rather than it lacking in any way.

I would like to mention my favourite idea from the story, but again, I feel I’d be spoilering it too much to do so, but I will say that it does produce some excellent performances from Hartnell and Frederick Jaeger, who plays Jano, the human leader.

I do fear that the casual listener will go through this set and assume that all early Who tales were as strong and/or thought provoking as the ones included here- be warned they are not.

So, this is a strong story with some fine performances. In the end though, I’m not sure if I’m disappointed or proud of the programme makers for not hammering home the point behind the title…

And finally- there is an extra disc in the set which has an hour long documentary which was first broadcast in 2009 on Radio 4. It is an illuminating show, explaining how these audios came about and includes interviews with Peter Purvis and some of the team of dedicated fans and professionals around the world who make it their mission to track down the remaining missing Who episodes.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes review pt3

Audio Go have just released a boxed set of Lost Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Who where the video has been lost, but the audio track still remains. There are a few stories included in it, so rather than post one big review, I’ll be breaking it down and reviewing each story individually.

Today we'll be looking at The Celestial Toymaker.

Listening to this story, I could not help but imagine what would happen if it was pitched to a television executive today.

This story is so downright bonkers, out there and disturbing that I’m convinced there is no way it would ever be commissioned today.

Briefly- the TARDIS is pulled out of Space and Time by the titular Toymaker, and the inhabitants forced to take part in various strange games – the prize being their lives! As with The Massacre, this adventure also has The Doctor missing from the middle two episodes, but this time the rather delightful reason behind this (as told in the liner notes) is that Hartnell took a fortnights holiday.

So in the middle two episodes, the Doctor is nothing but a disembodied hand as he moves the pieces on the ‘trilogic’ board game he is playing for his life! Meanwhile, companions Steven and Dodo are encountering a series of strange characters. The best among them being the Billy Bunter ‘inspired’ Cyril. He is deliciously played by Peter Stephens, who positively oozes threat and menace, even in the most innocent of lines.

Meanwhile, Michael Gough sparks off Hartnell superbly in the rols of the Toymaker.

While I had been aware of this story, I had never read the it, so came into this blind, and I have to say, the construction of the piece- using Peter Purvis to provide descriptive narration for the action sequences- works perfectly.

This is crazy stuff. It is well worth seeking out and is a worthy addition to your Who library.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes review pt2

(I forgot to post this last night- sorry!)

Audio Go have just released a boxed set of Lost Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Who where the video has been lost, but the audio track still remains. There are a few stories included in it, so rather than post one big review, I’ll be breaking it down and reviewing each story individually.

Next up is The Massacre

This is one of the more serious of the early Who historicals. And with good reason. The real historical incident it revolves around is a terrible one. And one that, as a bit of a history buff, I was amazed that I had not heard of before I first encountered this story in the Target novelisation some years ago. But then- part of the remit of Doctor Who at the beginning was to educate- so job done there, I say!

One of the things that I didn’t get with this story was why the Doctor all but disappears for a couple of the episodes, but the perfectly logical and practical reasoning for this is explained nicely in the concise liner notes to the disc.
And if you really want to know- it was because it was technically very difficult, if not impossible, for Hartnell to play two roles in the show because it was filmed ‘as live’.

Yes, two roles. As well as the Doctor, Hartnell also takes on the role of the scheming Abbot, and plays it with some relish. One gets the feeling he was glad to be able to demonstrate his skill outside the persona of the Doctor for a change.

Peter Purvis takes centre stage for most of this story, and he does it very well, and is ably assisted by a strong supporting cast and some solid writing that conveys the time and place with great skill.

This is a particularly dark tale, with the ending reminding the viewer (or listener in this case) of the Doctor’s alien outlook on us humans in a stark and even a shocking way. There is also a hint of the scheming, all knowing Doctor Who would appear again in the Seventh Doctor era. Again I can’t help be amazed by just how brilliant and complex and scary a character The Doctor is.