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Reviews for The Nowhere Place

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back on track

By:steve., devon
Date:Tuesday 15 August 2006
Rating:   8

fans may be pleased to hear this is not the usual sad sack story of poor evelyn,dicky ticker,sob weep hankies out, but a return to the old days.
Good plot,fast paced,could do with a tad more humour.
[but thankfuly no singing, or penguins...lols]



An average / poor Horse Flog release

By:Phil Ince, Up Jessica Simpson's crack
Date:Monday 18 September 2006
Rating:   5

Horse Flog have - it is generally agreed - lost their way. This release confirms that, as yet, they haven't recovered any sense of direction.

There's insufficient story to merit this long-ish Flogging and the characterisation is painfully poor. Besides the regulars, a young and (judging by her manners and speech) over-promoted space captain is just about it. Short of asking, "What the hell ...!" she serves no purpose besides taking up time.

The story itself substantially repeats aspects of previous releases.

To all intents and purposes, it retreads the Divergents from the 8th Doctor series and Briggs (an ordinary writer who nonetheless compelled with Creatures of Beauty) repeats his cause and effect trick from that story.

Stables and Baker are good enough but all the signs are that Doctors have finite life spans because - as Tom Baker so astutely pointed out 30 years ago and has been pointing out in fan doicumentaries ever since - they don't really develope.

Is it time to kill of these releases?

Better men that the Horse Flog crew couldn't come up with good scripts for Baker after 5 years. How could this lot hope to provide worthy material for his successors indefinitely?



Goes Nowhere

By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Wednesday 1 November 2006
Rating:   6

This is one of those stories that is all setup and no payout. A mysterious bell, a door to nowhere, people compelled to jump over the edge like Disney-fied lemmings all make the first two parts genuinely spooky and compelling. Alas, like The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, the answer to the mystery is a let down, a kind of easy out that gives us very little of the why. Additionally, for some reason, in the 2005-6 crop of Colin Baker CDs, it seems a requirement for him to say "I'm sooo sorry" at least once in the story. A script editor, please.



Behind the chair stuff

By:writingbluebear, Jersey
Date:Tuesday 3 April 2007
Rating:   9

It's been a long time since I have not had a really good idea of what the outcome would be. The atmosphere was great, good sound track which pulled you into the story. Winning but with great loss and acknowledging the cost is rare in todays stories but more of this please.



Brilliant and Bizarre

By:Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA
Date:Friday 4 May 2007
Rating:   9

"Time's end. I am always here. Now you will be too."

This is top-notch writing and design from Nick Briggs, who delivered a masterful production here in his roles of writer and director, as well as in the role of Trevor Ridgely in the drama itself. The Nowhere Place features fantastic sound effects, incidental music and overall sound design, and the story, in my estimation, is brilliant, tightly constructed, and very imaginative, even if a major plot point bears some incidental similarity to what we've seen in the Eighth Doctor's "Divergent" storyline. I do not agree that this can be written off as a retread.

How can I summarize the story without major spoilers? One thing I'll say, unlike the other reviewers, is that the resolution is not a let-down. This is another one of those stories that really messes with your mind, involving a wicked time paradox, and placing the Doctor in a role of astounding importance. At the beginning of the story, as the Doctor and Evelyn are about to materialize on Earth a few centuries after Evelyn's time, the Doctor gets scared so badly that he immediately throws the TARDIS backward in time and back out into space. Yet, the reason he became so afraid is vague and uncertain to him. They then begin to hear a mysterious, impossible bell sound. Investigation of it leads them to warship in space, in the future, on which they discover an impossible door, and on which the crew members begin to hear the bell as well. The next step takes the Doctor and Evelyn back to 1952, to the source of the sound. By the end, there is a revelation of just what it was the Doctor had sensed that caused his fearful reaction, and I must say, the concept is brilliant.

The theme of the story is essentially reason vs. fear, rationality vs. primal energies. It is also an excursion into eternity, playing with the idea that all of time is happening in the same moment. The Nowhere Place is essential listening. Highly recommended.



SHEER FLIPPING BRILLIANCE

By:Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom
Date:Wednesday 27 February 2008
Rating:   10

If there ever was a Doctor Who story that was as entertaining yet both a good mystery and a ghost story, then The Nowhere Place would take the crown in this department.

Nick Briggs is a great Doctor Who writer. His stories have ALL been worthwhile and exciting with many good ideas floating about. The other thing is the great casting for some of them.

Ive noticed that Nick seems to have a penchant for hard yet likeable female characters, what with Deeva Jenhsen in Sword Of Orion and Elenya in The Sirens Of Time. Now we get a brilliant performance from Martha Cope as Tanya Oswin. Man, i would have loved to have seen what would have happened if she had become a companion. A very strong character that Martha delivers brilliantly. A rock hard captain!

The story is so spooky too. The sound design of this story is one of the best of any story, tv or anything. And I love the change of scenery from part three, it gives the story more interest than some overlong productions in one planet or place.

Colin Baker is as brilliant as ever as the Doctor. But the end of this story is not totally white and black. It poses a question of if for once. The Doc is good but he doesnt always win, which is totally natural and fresh. Maggie Stables is as strong as ever as Evelyn Smythe.

I think this is a great story,w ith the threat actually still largely unexplained at the end. It makes you want more. If there is a story that deserves a sequel, then its this one. Mr Briggs has done it again! A top class story with a top class score and plenty of scary and entertaining moments. Put this onto tv instead of Voyage Of The Damned any day. The big finish scene is far riper than the new series at the moment.



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