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| What: | The Faceless Ones (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 September 2007 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
The Faceless Ones seems to be a nearly perfect mix of writing, mood, pacing and suspense for Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor. At six episodes in length, it could seem stretched, but doesn't, and the present day setting of Gatwick Airport (in 1966) works quite well, giving the story a feeling of innovation at this point in the development of the series. This story sees the departure of Ben and Polly, and it must be said that this was handled a bit sloppily. They both disappear rather suddenly after episode 2, as it was apparently hastily decided that Michael Craze's and Anneke Wills' contracts would be ended then rather than a few episodes later on. Their goodbyes at the end of the story were shot out of sequence and inserted into the final episode, and that makes for a somewhat disjointed script there. But other than that issue, The Faceless Ones, with its eerily strange and unsettlingly realistic aliens covertly at work in Gatwick Airport abducting planeloads of young travelers is an intriguing, moody story that keeps one's attention fairly well.
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 | Son of the Dragon - Woooo! |
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This is the most eagerly awaited story of the year. Written by Steve Lyons this marks his fourth contribution to the range and Son of the Dragon proves to be his most successful attempt so far. In the past Lyons stories tended to be quite complex and difficult to understand but this story was quite simple compared to these stories. One of the biggest compliments that I can give to this story is that it has an epic feel to it like The Keys of Marinus.
The characters in this story are all very strong roles. Erimem returns to the type of role which she was best at in her opening story 'The Eye of the Scorpion' and more recently 'The Council of Nicaea. In this story she seems to sacrifice her future happiness and travels with the Doctor and Peri. I prefer the role when she is in this situation because she is been stubborn or sacrifices herself because she feels that is the right thing to do. The Doctor does feel like he is in the background and when he is resting then you forget he's there. In this story he becomes a victim of circumstances whereas in most stories you know this but it is never admitted, in this story he does mention it and at that point you begin to accept it. It falls to Peri and Erimem to pick up the story and Steve Lyons does this by putting a lot more emphasis on Peri. Peri is very good in this story as she spends most of the story trying to contact Erimem from Count Dracula but obviously she doesn't want to leave. The sisterly bond has been one of the main strengths of this combination but it is in this story that it shines as Peri has genuine distress when she thinks that Erimem is going to stay with Dracula. You genuinely think that Erimem is going to leave the TARDIS crew and even at the end you are still unsure but thankfully the writer didn't go down the shocked route.
James Purefoy is the guest star of this story and he is given a starring role. Like Daphne Ashbrook in The Next Life (2004) and William Russell in The Game (2005), Purefoy's presence is what stands out in this story. The way that he portrays Count Dracula is absolutely fantastic, his nice side and nasty rather gruesome moods are what strikes you most about the role. The way that he is willing to punish or torture someone without a moment of hesitation was quite similar to most bad guys in Doctor Who but yet is somewhat better than all of them. His role in the TV show Rome was Mark Anthony who was a man who did what he wanted to do and was able to snap for no reason but at the same time he manages to make the character of Dracula likeable. I had high expectations of James Purefoy from the moment that I found out that he was going to be in Son of the Dragon and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. Another credible role was Douglas Hodge who played the brother of Count Dracula Radu. The way that the role was written by Lyons made a perfect opponent to Dracula and the fact that their brothers only adds to the tension that both actors give to the role. Radu's friendship with the Doctor seems heartfelt but ultimately only does a little in helping the story move along. When the Doctor leaves the camp that Radu's men have temporally set up it then seems to lose momentum.
Whilst I loved this story there were a few things that could have been done. First of all there could have been a more obvious threat, the war between Radu and Dracula was good as a starter but after a while it just seems to lose a bit of momentum. There was no real menace, they could have done what they did in The Time Warrior and include a futuristic threat that didn't seem too much like The Time Warrior. The ending was also a let down, because they didn't have a attempt to change history or take over the world it seemed that the ending was a bit flat and it was like the Doctor and Peri turn up to the castle, rescue Erimem and give her the opportunity to stay with them or live a life with Count Dracula. Apart from those points there isnt really anything wrong with the story.
Overall this has to be one of the strongest stories of the year, not quite beating Nocturne or Exotron this is Peter Davisons second strong story in a row and it is proving to be his year for Big Finish stories with only The Minds Eye and Return to the Web Planet to come in 2007 this story has to go into the Top 3 of best 2007 stories.
| What: | Son of the Dragon (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 15 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Doctor Who and history have never really been well recieved by many people ive found out, and i cant understand why. History is often important and not without its horrors and atrocities. But I am a real fan of the historicals of doctor who, and here is an audio production with plenty to offer. Doctor who versus Vlad the impaler...a good idea, and this good idea is transformed into an excellent drama. a great character piece with pace and some good moments of horror. this drama also boasts genuine surprises. I wasnt expecting the doctor to be stabbed for a start. and Vlad is well portrayed i think. The characters are all interesting and the plot is easy to digest unlike some audio dramas ive heard. Steve Lyons always writes very good stuff, especially for doctor who. and i like the fact that Eirmem gets more to do in this story. I love her character, shes one of the best creations ever! I love Caroline Morris's portrayal of her, shes so good. This audio is well worth a listen. And another, and another...its that good!
| What: | The Macra Terror (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 14 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The Macra Terror features Troughton at his best, good scripting, and good acting on the part of both the regular cast and guest cast. There's a bold Orwellian style to the writing, which includes an ever-present voice and largescreen face of "Control" that issues frequent orders and attempts to dominate the thoughts of the colony dwellers. An interesting side note: The Macra Terror seems to share some elements of style with George Lucas' 1971 film, THX 1138, a shorter version of which was created by him as a student project in the same year that The Macra Terror was produced.
While there is much about the Macra that is left obscured and unexplained, such as how they took over control of the colony to begin with, and while there is the big question of what happened to the guards at the end, as Ben works toward the destruction of the Macra, the bold, trippy direction and writing have a tendency to minimize the importance of these questions, and serve to draw the listener/viewer into a kind of fascinating, immersive experience. The available telesnaps and photos of this production add much to the perception of high quality, the quality being evident enough even just in the audio. But I realize that the 9 out of 10 I'm giving this story could be artificially inflated due to the unavailability of the video here. The video could reveal some large flaws, but these existing remnants of this story give me a high appreciation of it, and make me wish very much that the video of it was still available. There are still more Troughton stories I haven't heard/seen yet, but I would say that The Macra Terror is the best Troughton material I have heard or seen so far, even including the complete, better-known stories from Season 6.
| What: | No More Lies (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Thursday 13 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
No More Lies starts out with the Doctor and Lucie in mid-adventure, dealing with Dr. Zimmerman and his time whip (lethal to the Doctor) on his massive timeship somewhere. Cue the inexplicable, rather lengthy violin interlude, and we are ahead in time, except that we don't know that yet, at a garden party somewhere. Then, abruptly, we go back to the mid-adventure on the ship, where time-devouring Tarmadok begin to materialize out of the vortex. And back and forth it goes for a while, with additional bizarre violin interludes.
Once all of the action gets moved to the garden party, we soon get a good idea of what's happening, and before much longer, it's all over. The most important, and briefest thing that happens here is that the final minute or so accelerates the backstory that's been woven through all of the episodes so far.
It appears to me that what happened here is that the production staff became enamored with Julia McKenzie and her singing voice, and just sort of found some other stuff to surround her and her song with. As the actors go, it must be mentioned that Tom Chadbon (Duggan in City of Death), makes a very welcome appearance here. His presence goes a long way toward redeeming the other aspects of this production.
No More Lies is marred by poor direction, especially in the early scenes (in which the dialog is very unclear), a confused and confusing script, and a very contrived title, as the one supposedly lied to, who gratuitously speaks the words, "no more lies" near the end, actually seems to have had a pretty good idea of what had been going on...
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| Flat, But Still a Good Listen |
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| What: | Nocturne (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 12 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Nocturne is a perfectly adequate production - well-recorded, well acted. Trevor Bannister as Korbin Thessinger is great, and the voicing of the robotic "familiars" is generally nicely done. But the story is nearly humorless and not very engaging. The deadly threat that has been set loose on Nocturne is very vague in nature, though the concept is intriguing. What kind of living presence would be created through some arcane art, in the midst of and as an amalgamation of the mass consciousness of a society involved in a decades-old war, discouraged and depressed by increasing numbers of bodies being sent back from the front lines, and generally saddened by what had become everyday existence? Nocturne tries to work with this concept, but the result is just kind of confusing. As Hex describes it, "Well, it wasn't really a noise - it was... it was a feelin' - it was the noise a really bad feelin' would make." Huh? Furthermore, the war and all that goes with it has supposedly stimulated a time of "High Renaissance" on Nocturne, producing great, inspiring music and other art. Yet, we really don't hear any great music, and we hear some really aweful poetry. The music is rather flat, like the story overall, and not inspiring.
Nocturne is a perfectly fine production on the surface, but lacks a certain depth or development, and is certainly a letdown after Circular Time.
| What: | Sick Building (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Philip, Catford |
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| Date: | Tuesday 11 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
Conventional sub-kooky plot, thin on invention and blandly-written. No characters only strident generics. 3 out of 10. Only actually bad on occassions and generally because the writer's English is so uninteresting and fitfully jarring.
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| Early, Experimental Troughton |
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| What: | The Highlanders (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 10 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I'm sorry to knock this one, but the rating I'm giving it is my honest opinion. It may have to do with being from the States and just not getting it, but The Highlanders just didn't make it for me.
It seems clear that this was a highly experimental story. It seems that the producer and writers were still feeling their way around how the new Doctor should be played, or alternatively, it could be that this was just a left-over story. In its structure, The Highlanders was very much a Hartnell story - a sort of yawny historical, though in this case, rather bad history, apparently. Supposedly, the Jacobite rebellion of the story was *not* an Anglo-Scottish conflict, as portrayed in this story, but one of a series of more internal power struggles that were attempts to restore the Stuart kings to power in Scotland and England.
Even aside from this criticism, this is just not a great story. But it does serve to make Patrick Troughton's new Second Doctor known as "the clown" - he does do a lot of clowning around here, which provides a few amusing scenes. Passing himself off first as a German doctor, complete with hammy German accent, then disguising himself in turn as an old wash-woman and a Redcoat soldier, the funny voices and dress-ups establish him as being a rather different character than his predecessor.
The Highlanders has the distinction of being the story that introduced the popular and long-running companion, Jamie. Unfortunately I'd say that it was a lackluster debut, though Jamie's character himself is well-handled.
| What: | Winner Takes All (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Monday 10 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
My summary kind off says it all. I had no intention of reading this book, I wanted to read them in order and I don't have The Clockwise Man yet. But I was hooked after the first ten pages.
Rayner did the main charecters very well and I could belive that it was the 9th Doctor and Rose. I loved the interaction between Mikey and the Doctor. I was thinking as i read this book that it would have worked well on TV, but for some reason i couln't see it working as an audio adventure.
The only critersisum i had was what Simon said about The last Starfighter Fighter, I was reading bits of it and thinking I've seen this in a movie (couldn't think of what one till i read Simons review). But didnt pick up on the Sonic the Hedgehog thing. The only other thing i wasn't convinced on was the aleins, I actualy found them anoying, i mean come on!! giant porcupines against giant praying mantices (if she had just had human vers human i think i would have given this book 10/10).
lastely the books look good. I like Hardback books (probable why i picked it up), and these books look very nice on my book shelf. I look forward to haveing a shelf full of them.
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| Gripping but Flawed Classic |
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| What: | The Moonbase (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
In The Moonbase, the TARDIS lands on the moon, just outside of, well, the moonbase. The Doctor and crew get suited up and head out. Jamie promptly misjudges the low gravity and conks his head, and everyone heads into the moonbase, where a strange and horrible illness is spreading throughout the personnel. The Doctor promises to find the cause, and sets out to do so, though he and his friends are under suspicion by the base personnel. It turns out that Cybermen, believed by the Earth crew to have been wiped out ages ago (in the events of The Tenth Planet) are covertly disabling the base crew, so that they can get control of the gravitron, which is being used to control the Earth's weather. They intend to use it to destroy life on Earth, thereby eliminating what they see as a threat to their own continued survival.
Episodes 2 and 4 of The Moonbase exist, but have not yet been used for a video release of the entire story.
The sequences on the surface of the moon are fantastic, and the TARDIS being parked there on the barren, airless, low-gravity surface of the moon is an almost mythic visual. The interior of the moonbase and the gravitron feature great visual, if not functional, design. The redesign of the Cybermen here gives a mixed result. They look much better than the Cybermen in The Tenth Planet, with nicely designed metal heads in place of the previous stocking-covered ones, and smaller, more practically-designed chest units. But the voicing has been degraded. Gone are the better, semi-organic voices of The Tenth Planet, replaced by a less-effective and less understandable, slurring, robotic, monotone voice. Incidental music and sound effects here are of a good quality, creating a suitably spacey/creepy vibe for the story. And lastly, the concept of the gravitron as being a necessary weather control device is quite interesting and seemingly prescient, considering the weather and climate troubles we are now facing in the 21st Century.
Now for the gripes. Jamie was clearly excess baggage to the scriptwriter, and is quite improbably incapacitated for much of the story from a little knock on the head, occasionally moaning from his sickbay bed about seeing the phantom piper (the grim reaper of his folklore), in reality a Cyberman who is lurking around the sickbay. We are also asked to believe that a Cyberman could hide under covers on a bed there for a considerable period of time without being noticed, and that a plague-infected man with dark veins all over him and strange headgear could just sneak into the centrally located gravitron control chamber unnoticed.
Aside from a few minor failings, The Moonbase is classic Doctor Who, and classic Troughton, the first of his four encounters with the Cybermen. If not for the few flaws here, this story could very well merit a rating of 10.
BBC - are you listening? Put together a reconstruction like you did for The Tenth Planet, and release The Moonbase on video!
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| A whole lot of airheaded fun |
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| What: | Deadfall (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Graham Pilato, Washington D.C. |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I'm not sure quite why the ratings are so low here for Deadfall. This may be the problem of coming right after the squishy profundity of Down. I must say that reading this one out of order due to convenience made for a pretty good afternoon of silly fun.
This is perhaps, along with Legacy and The Scales of Injustice, my favorite Gary Russell books. Ususally the man is so incredibly useless at creating anything like an enjoyable novel, for all of his tiresome filler text just trying to make a silly idea with some often moronic (though sometimes pretty funny) versions of our known and loved heroes stretch to a given page limit.
This book reintroduces Chris Cwej quite nicely and it features a none too displeasing adventure. It didn't offend my sensibilities one bit (rare for a Russell novel) and it actually was pretty damn fun. That's all I might need to say about that, as, genuinely, this is a pretty simple book, with a pretty simple set of priorites well attended to and enjoyed by me: bring back Cwej, give Jason something to do, make the intrigue that's been steadily building about some of the ongoing plot in Benny NAs amount to something. Check to all that.
So why the low ratings here? Lighten up, folks.
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| Nicely Written, Average Episode |
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| What: | Phobos (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 7 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Doctor and Lucy arrive in a snowy sports entertainment dome on Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. There are stories of dangerous alien creatures, but they don't keep the thrill-seekers from coming and enjoying their high risk sports. But now the threat is about to turn deadly...
Nicely scripted and well-acted, and having quality sound design, Phobos really doesn't try too hard, but ends up as a solid, entertaining episode.
| What: | The Underwater Menace (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Thursday 6 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
The Underwater Menace is silly, silly, silly. When the TARDIS crew stumbles into Atlantis, it's Dr. Who vs. Dr. Evil! Yes, Dr. Zaroff is like Dr. Evil with a full mop of frizzy hair and a Russian accent. Except he's about 1/1000th as funny. He has convinced the Atlanteans that he is working on a scientific way to raise Atlantis. But the Doctor (who signs a note as "Dr. W" in episode 1) realizes that Zaroff's plan will actually blow up the Earth! Atlantis will be raised all right - in a thousand pieces as it flies into outer space! Mwuhahahaaaa! Zaroff is able to provide power for sections of Atlantis and is able to rig up a drill that will penetrate down 15 miles into the earth's crust, but he can't build a refrigerator!
I must admit, though, that it is pretty cool to see Troughton on video here in the sole surviving third episode of The Underwater Menace, which I believe is the earliest video footage of his Doctor that has been found. But even he is not immune, and gets his share of over the top hammy silliness.
Even as intentional cheese, The Underwater Menace is little more than a rather embarrassing curiosity...
| What: | The Tenth Planet (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Tuesday 4 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Tenth Planet is another of those early stories that are difficult to do a critical review of. Watching it a second time, I found a lot more of value here than on the first viewing, though it should be mentioned that my first viewing of it was without any of the fourth episode except for a brief clip of the regeneration scene at the end. The Tenth Planet is now available with video of the first three episodes, and a specially reconstructed fourth episode that features the audio, still photos, and a few video clips - more than just the brief regeneration clip.
Arriving at the South Pole in 1986 near a space tracking station, the Doctor, Ben and Polly are spotted as soon as they step out of the TARDIS, and hauled into the base. A new planet has entered the solar system, and is disrupting two space flights that are under way and being coordinated by the tracking station. The planet is called Mondas, and is home to the Cybermen, who are cybernetic creatures that no longer have emotions. They soon begin arriving at various locations on Earth, including the South Pole base, and forcefully dominate these key installations. Mondas begins to absorb energy from Earth, and to prevent Mondas from being burned out, the Cybermen plan to take captives from Earth and then destroy the planet, the captives to become as they are.
The Tenth Planet is really kind of fascinating, in quite an odd way. In this first story to feature the Cybermen, the Cybermen are very primitive, and quite unlike any others that we see throughout the series' history from then on. Rather than having a solid metal head, these Cybermen have blank facial features on a sort of ski mask-like covering, making them much more organic than any of their successors. They also have human hands, rather than metal or silver-gloved ones. These are creatures more than robots, and bizarre ones at that. Their voices are superb here - much better than the voices the subsequent models were given during the Troughton years. Though the voices have a more organic sound to them, they also sound more emotionless than the more robotic voices that would come in many of the future stories, being delivered in a very strange, sing-song manner with oddly timed syllabic accents that are all wrong to normal English speakers. But there's a glaring problem with the way the Cybermen are voiced: when they speak, the actor in the costume simply opens his mouth, and this is very poorly synched throughout the story.
Of course, in addition to these strange and unique Cybermen, we get the Doctor's first regeneration at the end of the story. As I understand it, William Hartnell had become too ill to continue in the show, and he was absent from episode 3 due to poor health. When he returns in episode 4, he doesn't seem his usual self, though he does seem to have a final burst of energy, which becomes the same for the Doctor. The Doctor manages to be a significant presence in the situation once more, only to fizzle out quickly. The characters basically wrap everything up by stalling the Cybermen long enough for Mondas to be consumed by the energy transfer that has been taking place. When this happens, all of the Cybermen inexplicably collapse and shrivel up, and the problem is solved. A quick and dirty resolution to a storyline that had become problematic for the writers, probably due to Hartnell's deteriorating health.
Then we get the great final performance from Hartnell, "It's far from being all over!" as he staggers back out to the TARDIS, which starts to freak out as he sets it to dematerialize and then collapses on the floor, and the famous transition to Patrick Troughton takes place.
There are several little quibbles with this story, but it's quite an interesting spectacle. And the structure of this story would become the quintessential Doctor Who format: you have a small group in a small base or some other kind of place where all of the action happens, and a monster/threat comes onto the scene, and the story is about how to deal with it and save the day. The Tenth Planet is considered to be the first of the so-called "monster stories" that were so common during the Troughton period. They really weren't done before this, with the possible exception of The Celestial Toymaker, which had more or less the same structure, but without the actual "monster" per se.
Sadly to say, with the downward-sloping progression the show had taken over the course of the previous four stories, I really think the most interesting thing the First Doctor could've done at this point was to regenerate. The dramatic changes ushered in by The Tenth Planet were "not a moment too soon," to quote a future Doctor... This story itself, and some of the execution, just isn't good enough to merit a high rating, so again, I'm calling this a qualified 7 out of 10.
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| This was the Season 4 Premiere? |
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| What: | The Smugglers (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 3 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
The Smugglers really highlights how much things have changed since 1966. Placing this story at the very beginning of the season (Season 4) seems to me like a very poor decision indeed, and makes me wonder, particularly after Dodo, Ben and Polly, The Gunfighters, The Savages, and (to some extent) The War Machines, whether Doctor Who would have survived beyond 1966 if not for the radical changes that were about to come, five episodes after the end of The Smugglers, with the introduction of the first new Doctor. The Smugglers is an awefully weak start for Season 4.
The beginning of the first episode is a bit fun though, because Ben and Polly had only just wandered into the TARDIS using Dodo's spare key at the very end of the previous story. The Doctor had (somehow) not noticed them entering, and had dematerialized, whisking them away with him inadvertantly. So the Doctor's shock and dismay at this while in transit - "How dare you follow me into the TARDIS!" - makes for a few fun scenes, with Ben and Polly refusing to believe they had just traveled in time and space until exiting the TARDIS on the coast of Cornwall, in what they later determine to be the 17th Century. A bit too far to just catch a lift back to London (of 1966).
From this point onward, we get a fairly uninteresting historical, and I can only imagine the sound of thousands of channels being switched across England in September, 1966...
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| An Odd Mix... Seeds of the Future? |
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| What: | The War Machines (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 3 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
In The War Machines, The Doctor and Dodo find that they have arrived back in contemporary (1966) London, and immediately the Doctor senses something sinister at work nearby, in the Post Office Tower. It turns out that what he had sensed, in a manner similar to what he experiences when Daleks are nearby, was the supercomputer WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), which has artificial intelligence (i.e. the ability to reason on its own terms). WOTAN promptly begins to hypnotize people, taking over their minds to such an extent that they build 'war machines' for the superbrain that are meant to control or destroy humanity.
It's kind of difficult to critically review The War Machines. Some elements of the production are intriguing and work really well, while other aspects really do not work well. One rather interesting part of the plot is the Doctor's easy familiarity with high-level government authorities, as if he has been known to them and respected by them for some time. This is something the viewer did not see in previous episodes, and bears more similarity to The Avengers than to Doctor Who, as seen up to that point. Intriguing, but curiously inexplicable. Nevertheless, this works well and is one of the better features of the story, and seems almost a precursor of the Doctor's affiliation with UNIT that would develop and follow in future seasons.
On the other hand, Dodo, the companion who received what was arguably the single worst introduction into the series, back at the end of The Massacre, here receives what is arguably the worst sendoff any companion ever had in the series' history. After being hypnotized and manipulated by WOTAN, Dodo's hypnotic state is broken by the Doctor, who sends her away to the countryside in episode 2 to rest and recover, and this is the last we see of her. In addition to this, WOTAN repeatedly refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Who," which struck me as being totally absurd the first time I viewed this story, and now just seems amusingly strange (but still ridiculous, I guess). Other quibbles would include the impossibly fast reporting of the tramp's death and the highly improbable picture of him in the paper, the impossible 'W' labeling on the boxes containing the war machine parts (not to mention the ridiculous speed of the startup of the production operation), the lack of an explanation for how the war machine reprogrammed by the Doctor is able to reach the upper floor of the Post Office Tower, and the uninspired casting and introduction of Ben and Polly as the new companions.
Back on the plus side, being set in (the at the time) contemporary London of 1966 makes this story rather more interesting than many that had come before it; the visual style of the entire production, and the vocal effects of WOTAN are just cool; and the special 'War Machines' graphic intro to each episode is a fresh approach that gets one's attention and lends the entire production a sort of higher energy and attractiveness.
Overall, style and experimental elements make The War Machines too interesting to give a low rating, but the troublesome script elements significantly take away from what was in other respects a very nicely-executed production. A qualified 7 out of 10.
| What: | Lost in Time (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Now this is more like it, shame there arent any complete stories in the vaults to these adventures but what a collection. The great days of the Dr. Now if only they did a DVD of the dalek master plan or the 10th Planet with animation like they have done with the Invasion. Lets start the campaign eh eh what do you say....
| What: | Doctor Who (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This was meant to be the one to relaunch the series ... and they wouldve gotten away with it to if it wasnt for the American market not liking it.
P Mc was ok in this, the story let it down as did Eric Roberts (actor my behind). Shouldve been a lot stronger as P Mc proved in audio adventures to be a good Dr.
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| Good and bad points... ok maybe only bad |
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| What: | Dragonfire (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Dull script, stupid effects, Bonnie Langford.... what more can I say this is one that should have been frozen as well ARghhhhhh
One of the lamest, boring and visually dull Who stories. Not many are worse than this.... well maybe a few including Gunfighters andsome of the new series stories.
