 |  |  |
 | Reviews for The Lost Stories: The Macros |
|
| | |
There are 5 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
|
| Date: | Wednesday 29 September 2010 |
|
| Rating: |  10 |
1: The Nightmare Fair began this series on a rather high and interesting note.
2: Mission To Magnus was such fun, with Sil and the Ice Warriors together for a story of the battle of the sexes really. But so very amusing.
3: Leviathan was the nit and grit of this run, like a Bob Holmes tale this one, so very many good elements in it.
4: The Hollows Of Time had a really twisting plot but was highly entertaining.
5: Paradise 5 was a creepsville tale, with many bold script points. A particular high of this run of stories.
6: Point Of Entry was the horror story of the series. Full of grimness and brilliance and subtlety.
7: The Song Of Megaptera was a real space opera. And it worked. The idea of the space whales was awesomely realised.
8: And now here we are for the finale.
Colin Baker leads a really good cast in this finale, written by none other than Ingrid Pitt with her partner. Really, what were the BBC thinking of, not publishing this script? For goodness sake this script as with all the others of this lost season boasts so much that is enjoyable.
Linda Marlowe is frankly excellent as Osloo. She seems to play the tyrant with relish and her demise is brilliant too. It may be a little similar to Pangol in the Leisure Hive, but it is done great here. She is as good as any of the actors to act these sort of parts in the original series.
And the plot is easy to follow but innovative and different. This could have fitted in perfectly into the Colin Baker era of Doctor Who. And there are some very good scenes, such as when the deck of the ship is disintigrating. And there is some nice moral pointers along the way too.
So all in all, this first lost season of adventures has been of a very high standard indeed.
| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
|
| Date: | Wednesday 8 December 2010 |
|
| Rating: |  7 |
So, we reach the final story in the Sixth Doctor's Lost Stories season. The Macros starts off nicely, visiting the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment - a great story for Who to finally explore. The first episode's scenes on the USS Eldridge are intriguing and atmospheric - this part of the story works well. But then we get taken off to the planet Capron in what it seemed was a micro-dimension of some sort, and this part doesn't go as well. The tyrannical Osloo is a truly vile character; so much so that this actually pulls down the story on that side, as this character is actually quite unpleasant to listen to, and adds nothing of interest to the story.
Another quibble is with the title. It is fairly unclear just who "The Macros" are supposed to be, as the people of Capron should be "The Micros," coming from their micro dimension. But then, it could be that the Eldridge had generated its own micro-dimension... but this still doesn't make the people of Capron "The Macros." Well, it's confusing.
Then there's some poor writing for Old Sixie. As he might put it, he looks like a real blockhead here as he attempts to adjust past events and believes that what is a very weak attempt will surely work. Peri too gets herself dim-wittedly into a couple of pretty bad spots, but this isn't quite so out of character for her, actually...
Still, in spite of these issues, The Macros remains an interesting end to this "lost season." Well done, Big Finish!
| By: | Jeremy Matthews, Brisbane, Australia |
|
| Date: | Sunday 29 January 2012 |
|
| Rating: | 7 |
The Macros is a funny one; it's overall fairly enjoyable, but some bits of it are a bit lifeless, and had they had more energy to them, this story truly could have been something excellent. The sections of this story set onboard the USS Eldridge are great. They're atmospheric, well-characterised, and just genuinely interesting scenes which draw the listener (ie, me) in with consummate ease. However, the other half of the story takes place on the planet Capron, and while these portions of the story have some good moments (Peri posing as a singer is laugh-out-loud stuff) the overwhelming impression I get from those bits was that Capron is a dull, one-dimensional world, which I was gonna forget about the moment Episode 2 finished. And yet... it feels like it should be so much better. Osloo should be a brilliantly pathetic villain, a woman who has her horizons expanded exponentially, and as a result just decides to conquer the universe. But as written, the character is a not-very-interesting matriach, with a line in pompous put-downs. Linda Marlowe does some good work, but she can't overcome the shortcomings of the script. With a few more drafts, to truly convince me with regards to Osloo's development, and to add more life to Capron's other inhabitants, I would happily rant about this one all day. And yet, it doesn't quite get there.
| | |
| Another that is probably a 7 1/2 |
|
| | |
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
|
| Date: | Sunday 2 April 2017 |
|
| Rating: | 7 |
The Macros has many interesting ideas, and takes a distinct approach on the Philadelphia Experiment conspiracy. The TARDIS gets trapped in a time conundrum involving the USS Eldridge trapped between dimensions and a micro-universe leaching energy from it. The story at this point moves along as a fairly typical "technical problem" kind of science fiction story, the kind that Doctor Who could successfully do more of. This part of the story works well. What drags down the story to some extent is the travel to the micro-universe, which plops us into a routine "mad dictator" plot, and a not very interesting or compelling one at that. There are also some conceptual problems not worked out, such as that time flows at different rates on board the ship versus in the micro universe. Therefore, it would seem that in the space of a conversation, the entire society of the micro universe would have been and gone. The only time this time difference seems to have relevance is for some artificial aging. So, we have a conceptually intriguing story marred by some clumsy plotting.
| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
|
| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
|
| Rating: | 6 |
This is a fine enough story that somehow turns the idea of parallel universes, tyrannical rulers, and an alien coup into something that can only be described as "meh."
The two-part finale to Colin Baker's Lost Season isn't the most epic, but it is very grandiose. It starts out as a neat little horror story set on a rusting military ship stuck in a time loop. Think of the first part of "Carnival of Monsters" without the blue people and with more of a horror atmosphere. Then, we get hit with the idea that the time around the ship is being drained by a different universe. The Doctor and Peri hop between alternate realities to try and stop a tyrannical ruler from destroying a ship and killing its crew. While that concept may sound great, the actual execution of it was boring. It somehow felt "last-minute" even though it gets introduced within the first half-hour. Not only that, but the majority of the time is spent exposition dumping and waiting for characters to do stuff. The second part gets things moving along, but even then it doesn't feel exciting. There are no real action scenes to speak of and it's mostly just sneaking around two worlds we are never properly introduced to.
I don't hate the episode, though. The music is great, the sound design was the best of the season, and the acting from both the main and guest cast somehow shine through the bland script. If only the episode itself stuck with one theme all the way throughout instead of smash cutting us into something completely unexpected. Honestly, I only finished listening to it yesterday and it's hard to remember any details for this review. It's just a bit of a forgettable stand-still. Though, I would be lying if I said I didn't at least enjoy myself. It nails the vibe of Colin's TV era in the best ways. So, even when nothing of consequence was happening, I can immerse myself in the feeling of an 80's Colin Baker episode that doesn't aggravate anyone to death.
Like I said in the beginning, it's a fine enough story (in fact I'd say it's perfectly innocent) but that also is kind of its downfall.
