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 | Reviews for Doctor Who Unbound: He Jests at Scars... |
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There are 3 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 6 April 2007 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
I'm really surprised that He Jests at Scars... has received such a low rating here. To my mind, it is by far the most unbound of the Unbound series so far, and it is fascinating. But I guess appreciation of it depends on whether or not you like Michael Jayston as the Valeyard.
The story jumps around a lot, moving backward and forward through time after an altered ending of The Trial of a Timelord. In He Jests at Scars..., the Sixth Doctor has lost and is no more, and the Valeyard has been let loose on the universe. The events at the end of The Trial of a Timelord and shortly after it are explained, and then we have the first of many paradoxes to come - Mel, though she has memories of adventures with the Doctor, has been prevented from ever meeting him by the Doctor/Valyard's new companion, Ellie. The Doctor/Valeyard then proceeds to wreak havoc on the established timeline, revisiting old foes and familiar situations, and changing them completely with reckless abandon, as he seeks to gain ultimate power and do all of the things he never allowed himself to do as the Doctor. And the threads of time begin to unravel, as it seems that Time itself has had enough of his interference and is attempting to eliminate him. It is apparent that there was a good reason that the Doctor avoided willfully changing established history, as seen for example in his reaction to Tegan's and Nyssa's request to go back and save Adric at the beginning of Time Flight. One of the first things the Doctor/Valeyard has done is to get the Time Lords out of the way, so now it is up to 'Lady Melanie Jane Bush' to stop him.
Michael Jayston's Valeyard is fantastic here, scripted in the same style as seen in The Trial of a Timelord, complete with the illustrious, lugubrious linguism harping on things such as spurious morality and such... that was his trademark there. Jayston and Langford both shine throughout this production, and the rest of the cast are excellent as well.
The heart of the story is an examination of the identity of the Valeyard. His actions seem to prove that he is not the Doctor, yet... he is still dependent on the Doctor's past for his own existence. And his denial of the Doctor's sensibilities is what ultimately threatens his own continued existence.
The one weakness I found in the story is the question of just how the Valeyard was able to draw creative power from the technically non-existant Matrix to contruct his monstrous Chronopolis at the heart of the time-space vortex. The explanation of its origin just doesn't quite make it, but then again, at that point, we are in a general state of such extremely fluid reality anyway that the end result, whether or not Chronopolis actually existed, is the same.
Making great use of the 'Unbound' format, this one comes very close to a 10 in my book.
| By: | Matt Saunders, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 28 April 2016 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This story is so very good and so very clever. Michael Jayston and Bonnie Langford work very well.
I particularly love the way the Valeyard goes through the Doctor's past and does the opposite of what the Doctor had done! The Valeyard is wonderfully sarcastic and rude - what a wonderful actor - and his nastiness knows no bounds.
We also hear a very different Melanie Bush - and a very enjoyable change to her character for a one-off. She gives Ace a run for her money!
It's now for sale at such a cheap price - do consider this one. Truly brilliant.
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| Surprisingly Good, If Depressing |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 4 September 2023 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This Doctor Who Unbound has the "what if" starting point of what if The Valeyard won at the end of Trial of a Time Lord? Big Finish uses a couple of their own regulars - Coordinator Vansell (Anthony Keetch) and Ellie Martin (Juliet Warner) from the Sarah Jane Smith series. The story revolves around how much The Valeyard is or is not The Doctor. Like The Doctor, he has nothing but contempt for the Time Lords. Like The Doctor, he seems to need a traveling companion (Ellie in this case). And, like The Doctor he feels compelled to meddle. Where The Valeyard differs is that he wants to undo all The Doctor's achievements, which The Valeyard regards as mistakes, collect all the powerful artifacts and weapons, and then remake the universe to fit some ideal that he does not really himself full understand. The problem is that undoing these events starts undoing both the entire web of time and The Doctor's entire timeline. The Valeyard is actually erasing himself from time, and thus becomes desperate to try to "fix" the problem with even more heavy-handed interference that ends up making the problem worse. Into this chaos, Vansell has sent Mel either to reason with The Valeyard and get The Doctor back, or to assassinate The Valeyard. Unfortunately for Mel, The Valeyard erases the Time Lords, so there is no going back for her. Michael Jayston portrays The Valeyard excellently. He is a character who cannot control most of his impulses, but is intelligent enough to know that what he is doing is wrong. Bonnie Langford does really well as a weary, jaded Mel who has left all her young enthusiasm behind and is now just dedicated to getting a job done. The story itself is told by jumping around in time, so it is a bit difficult to piece together. Also, writer Gary Russell has indulged the "what is reality" idea just a bit too much, especially toward the end. The story does provide the listener with a new way to see the virtues of The Doctor.
