 |  |  |
 | Reviews for Year of the Pig |
|
| | |
There are 4 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | David Yates, Reading UK |
|
| Date: | Friday 26 January 2007 |
|
| Rating: |   4 |
One of the problems I had with this release was the dialogue. The story was perfectly adequate and a nice little sci-fi yarn. It was clear that the writer had done oodles and oodles of research on all the subjects covered in the play, but must he constantly cram it in to every line? Everyone spoke in a kind of knowing cod-Wildeian while dropping cultural references willy nilly. Yes, yes it’s nice to write that sort of dialogue but I feel the writer get more enjoyment out of doing it than we do listening it to. As a result all the characters sounded the same. The Doctor, Peri, the Nurse, The inspector even the Pig (though I concede that may have been the point with a couple of them). With some sharp editing this could have been a great play, instead it’s just average. Shame.
At first I couldn't help snigger at the idea of a pig in a secret room eating everything. However I was strangly drawn into the sillyness and came out of it enjoying the whole thing. Like no mans land it cast the reflection back on mankind out our own weakness. I enjoyed it.
| | |
| A pig of a story? No way! |
|
| | |
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
|
| Date: | Friday 28 March 2008 |
|
| Rating: | 10 |
This is where Doctor Who is unbeatable. What you do is get a great leading actor, in this term Colin Baker, then you get a great female actress as companion, hereby Nicola Bryant, you put these two with the likes of Michael Keating and Maureen O'Brien and finally round it off with Adjoa Andoh playing a nurse for a pig. And hey presto, you get the perfect story. Matthew Sweet really has done it on this, his debut script for big finish. May he bring more very soon. I had no problem with the dialogue in this story, after all, in 1913 i should think the language was a tiny bit more archaic. You get real character development for once as well. Really deep plotting and character isms that you pick up on and relish right from the start. And the meat falling from the sky was an unexpected disgusting moment too, if this was visual it would probably make me feel sick. Having steak all over the beach, yuck! The story steadily gathers pace and momentum, without being tedious and dull. This is yet another one of the filmic feel doctor who adventures, a little inspector morse mystery if you like. Where for once no one is really evil, just misled and not understood properly. This story comes with a highly recommended note from me. Paul Brooke is easily one of the best actors in the last 15 or so audio stories, and he really gets his teeth into playing Toby the sapient pig. Love the Doctor saving the inspector in the sea bit too, really great acting from Colin on this one. Peri almost being steamed to death is a nice little ending to part one too. Nice that there is a genuine happy ending to this story, all rather like a fairytale, but with not so much stupid big bad wolf to blow the house down, just confused memories that need rearranging. A great new direction for the audio adventures of doctor who.
| | |
| Stop, stop, this is just too silly |
|
| | |
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
|
| Date: | Friday 6 June 2008 |
|
| Rating: | 6 |
The "Year of the Pig" is 1913. The Great War is about to start, and well-dressed, well-mannered pig living like Proust in a secret part of a luxury hotel in Belgium seems to know all about it. This sort of thing is typical English fantasy of the Wind in the Willows variety, but just does not work for me in Doctor Who. Everybody acts waaaaaay over the top. I do not quite know why when Big Finish has former Doctor Who companion-actors as guest stars, it is almost always is some extravagant and flouncy and unbelievable personage. Maureen O'Brien, a very good actor indeed, gets reduced to over-prouncing big words. This is in line with Carolyn John's OTT performance in "Dust Breeding" and Deborah Watling's OTT performance in "Three's A Crowd." Katy Manning can be forgiven hers because, after all, what other kind of role are you going to give Katy Manning but Iris Wyldthyme? Only William Russell seems to have gotten a really good part, in "The Game." It is not that I blame the actors for this, but the producers for giving them nothing better to do. The origin of the all the events in this story, the who, what, where, why, are swiftly and rather vaguely passed over. Just who created Toby and Charly and why? What happened to him/her. For a while I though Miss Bultitude was really their creator busy trying to round them up again. But no. No rhyme or reason to it at all in the end. It would have made a good children's story, but just does not work as Doctor Who.
