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This was voted one of the best stories in the histry of Who, it is a great story and a great read as well and deserves not to be in this list.
| What: | Circular Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 31 August 2007 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
Circular Time is absolutely amazing. I am blown away.
Listening to the first two of the four parts, I was beginning to wonder about the high rating this production has received here. The first two parts were good, but not 'near a perfect 10' good. Then, as I continued through the third and fourth parts, the realization of just how special Circular Time is began to set in.
Each of the four parts is a short-story that stands on its own, and yet the simple concepts of linear time and 'circular time' bind them all together, linear time being what we consider to be 'real life,' and circular time being the kind of life that dies and is reborn... the seasons, the perennial flower, the yearly time of cricket matches, and time travel, in which people and times long dead are resurrected and experienced again.
Part One is about a Time Lord named Zero, who is exiled and finds himself getting quite involved with a society of avian creatures on an alien planet. Part Two is about a visit to Earth's past, in which the Doctor and Nyssa are imprisoned by Sir Isaac Newton (played magnificently by David Warner). Part Three is sheer poetry. It is a story that sees the Doctor and Nyssa spending a rather long period of 'linear time' in the English countryside, the Doctor enjoying his time in a cricket league, and Nyssa setting out to write a novel and finding romance as the time passes. And Part Four, ah... well, telling would spoil the most satisfying final episode ever. Absolute brilliance. I'll just say that Part Four is like an audio version of some of the best of the New Adventures book range, but featuring the Fifth Doctor. You'll just have to listen yourself. It was breathtaking.
Parts Three and Four particularly were so full and rich that they almost seemed like they covered the full length of an entire CD each.
I should also mention that the sound realization, music, and acting are all top notch here throughout the entire production.
In this listener's opinion, Circular Time is by far the best Big Finish monthly audio play that's been released in probably the last five years, maybe the best ever.
| What: | Minuet in Hell (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | carrma, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 August 2007 |
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| Rating: |  2 |
Ever wonder what it would be like to listen to an audio version of a direct to video b-movie? Now you can! All the key elements are there: stereotypical flat characters, bad dialog, bad acting, bad plot and retarded sexuality. Nicholas Courtney was nice to hear, wish he was placed in a better story.
| What: | The Savages (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I'm not entirely sure why, but I found The Savages to be a very satisfying, engaging story. On the face of it, there isn't really anything particularly spectacular about the story. I think the attraction here has to do with a few different things that worked really well, including the fact that the story is a tidy four episodes in length, and that it features Frederick Jaeger in a leading role (Jaeger is later seen during the Fourth Doctor's era in leading roles as Sorenson in Planet of Evil and Marius in The Invisible Enemy). It also features something rare for the aged First Doctor - the threat of technologically induced torture and bodily injury to the Doctor. Whereas getting strapped to a machine and zapped in some way was somewhat commonplace for, say, the Fourth Doctor, we really didn't see it with the First Doctor, who was much less physically involved with such things, most likely due to William Hartnell's (and thus, the Doctor's) aged state. And so perhaps this lends more gravity to the episode 2 cliffhanger, in which the Doctor has been forcibly placed into the humming machine that is getting ready to suck his life essence out of him. And finally, this is Steven's final story, and he has a very strong role that is fairly well-written. He gets sent off nicely here, staying on to be the new leader of the Elders and the Savages, and it's really sad to see him go. I realized that I had come to see him as being by far the best male member of the TARDIS crew of Hartnell's tenure, and quite possibly the best of the First Doctor's companions, period.
While perhaps not one of the more memorable Hartnell stories, The Savages does feature some rather interesting elements.
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 | Certainly Lived Up To It's Title... |
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| What: | Longest Day (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Piers, UK |
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| Date: | Tuesday 28 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I approached this novel with some trepidation after reading other poor reviews of it. Now I can certainly see why it has its reputation...
After a prologue that seems reminiscent of the far superior Anachrophobia, the novel falls rapidly downhill. It's certainly nothing new that the Doctor and his companion get separated, but in this case you really wish they hadn't. Sam's adventure is so mind numbingly dull you wish you could fast forward it. The rebels she falls in with are so cliched; it is very hard to care about them, or even remember who is who. The Doctor's story is slightly more interesting, and his pairing up with the prissy Anstaar is probably the highlight of the book. It's a shame that she get's written out at the end, it would have made sense to keep her until the Doctor finds Sam again. There's also no real resolution to her storyline: the Doctor promises to help heal her after she rapidly ages, but she seems to leave him without her youth restored. The one problem with the Doctor storyline was the appearance of Nashaad. It was implied we should know who he was, but I had no recollection of him from earlier in the book. Was this a case of bad editing? Either way, the character was just as pointless as many others in the book.
Two other aspects really let down this novel: the planet Hirath, and the Kusks. The former makes little sense. The planet is split into different time zones. Fair enough. But how is this possible? Planets move in their orbits around the sun, therefore each piece of the planet should be located in different places within that orbit if they are temporally separated. Hirath should not be able to exist intact. Perhaps I am reading too much into this...! As for the Kusks, they really scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to alien villans. Their physical appearance is terribly cliched, and as for the skirts... Collier may have been aiming for Giger, but he ended up with villians from a Butlins panto.
My final gripe is the violence. There is so much of it that it becomes unrelenting in some places. And what happened to the leader of the moonbase has to be one of the most gratuitously sick things I have ever read in a Who novel. If the violence helps the story, OK, but in that instance I failed to see what the point of it was other than to terrify Vasid (who then gets killed anyway).
This book is only useful in setting up the subsequent story arc. If you know what that is (i.e. the Doctor has to find Sam), then there is little here of interest. One to avoid unless you are a completist.
| What: | Immortal Beloved (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 27 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Immortal Beloved goes where many have gone before. The idea of switching bodies, the ethical questions that come with that, as the consciousness of the previous occupant is snuffed out, and the renewal of bodily vitality, are familiar concepts. Immortal Beloved throws a conjecture on human cloning into the mix. This is another exploration of identity, a search for the soul, and a questioning of traditional ways. While there's a lot of familiar territory here, there is also uncertainty about just how it will all come out in the end. That suspense, along with fine performances from all of the actors, makes for an entertaining 50-minute story.
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| Ambitious and Imaginative |
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Production of The Ark was a somewhat ambitious undertaking in its day. The setting the TARDIS arrives in is a huge spaceship that includes a large wild animal habitat and living areas for the last humans from Earth, who are leaving because the time has come (some millions of years in our future) for the death of the planet. They have with them the one-eyed alien Monoids, who are their servants. The slightly creepy, mop-headed Monoids are very intriguingly designed, with their single eye where a human's mouth would be, animated by the actor's tongue, apparently. They're rather fascinating to look at. The action all takes place beneath the vast dome of the ship, a nicely achieved effect.
The story is divided into two parts, the first two episodes having to do with a deadly outbreak of disease created by the introduction of Dodo's foreign cold virus, against which these people of the future have no resistance, and episodes three and four take place 700 years into the future, as the ship nears the end of its journey to the planet the humans and Monoids will be colonizing. The ability of the TARDIS to locate the ship again in a different part of space, at that particular point in the future, is rather interesting, as at this point, the Doctor still has no control over where his ship goes. When they arrive, they see that the colonists' giant statue has been completed. The plan was for it to be a statue of a human, but it now has the head of a Monoid, making for a fairly impressive cliffhanger for the end of episode 2. The visual effect of the completed statue is, again, an ambitious element for that period, nicely done. Other visual effects, such as the scenes in space and the Refusians' invisibility, were also nicely done, considering when this story was produced.
In some ways, The Ark deserves a very high rating, but points come off for some occasional sloppy work with the sets and costumes, and for some dumb script elements. At one point, the dome ceiling of the spaceship is seen billowing a bit in a breeze, and on a couple of occasions, we see the zipper on the back of a Monoid costume. These troubles could've been avoided with a just a little more care. As for the script, both the future humans and the Monoids are written to be pretty stupid at times, and that rankles a bit, considering that at least the humans should be a pretty intelligent bunch, if they have the ability to make such a journey across space.
But overall, this was an innovative story, nicely executed, and one that still holds up fairly well, over 30 years later.
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| Sleepy, Slow-Moving Historical |
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| What: | The Massacre (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Sunday 26 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
Some Spoilers Ahead
The Massacre starts out rather nicely, as the Doctor and Steven arrive in sixteenth-century Paris and decide to try to blend in with the populace and enjoy themselves. Having some knowledge of this period of France's history, the Doctor decides to seek out the famous apothecary, Charles Preslin, while Steven remains in a pub on his own.
When the Doctor doesn't return on time, Steven is forced to find a place to stay. This leads to him becoming entangled with political troubles between the Catholics and the Hugenots. The Doctor has disappeared, but Steven finds that the Abbot of Amboise, who is residing in the city, looks just like the Doctor. But is he the Doctor, or is he just his double?
After a nice first episode, The Massacre drags considerably through episodes two and three. In some respects, it's a nice period piece. It is largely character-driven, consisting mostly of dialogue, with little action, and very little incidental music. But it could've been better at three episodes rather than four. When Steven and the Doctor are finally reunited in episode four, they make a hasty exit when the Doctor realizes that they are on the brink of The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve. In the process, the Doctor sends a girl, Anne Chaplet, that Steven has gotten to know, off to a very uncertain fate. Steven believes that she died in the massacre, and that they could've saved her by taking her with them. As a result, he is determined to leave the TARDIS at their next stop, and does so, briefly. While the doors are open, the Doctor has a very interesting scene in which he soliloquizes on the fact that all of his traveling companions have left him, even his dear Susan. He considers the possibility of returning to his home planet, but states that he mustn't do that. Then, Dodo comes running into the TARDIS, looking for a police telephone to report an accident and call for help. Steven runs back in as well, telling the Doctor that he must take off because policemen are heading for the TARDIS. Dodo remains in the TARDIS, stating that no one would care if she went missing. The scene is quite odd, and is the most improbable introduction of a new companion in the show's history, in my opinion.
And so, while The Massacre has some nice moments and is well-acted by the cast, I really fail to understand how it merits a rating of 8.9 after 42 votes (the stats at present). And since it appears that no video footage of this story has survived, it seems that I'm not alone in this assessment...
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| Interesting. Groundbreaking. |
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Having had access to not only the audio portion of The Power of the Daleks but also the telesnaps and some bits of recovered video footage, I can say that this story is very impressive and a very unfortunate loss, since it no longer exists in video format.
As Patrick Troughton steps in here as the Second Doctor, the transition is fascinating. Traveling companions Ben and Polly are not sure that this is the Doctor, and his initial behavior is quite an odd change from what had become the familiar personality of the First Doctor. Troughton's first few scenes are rather shocking in this respect, but once the story set on the planet Vulcan begins in earnest, he hits the ground running, so to speak, and smoothly establishes the new character with impressive authority.
The sound effects and incidental music here create a very atmospheric feel that lends the entire production a sense of quality and importance. In other words, The Power of the Daleks was rather nicely produced. Once we get into the actual Dalek story, we have an interesting situation, in which a crashed Dalek capsule has been discovered and one of the Daleks is being reactivated. Since at this point, Daleks are still dependent on static electricity for power, the Dalek is inert unless it is fed power by the scientists studying it. The newly "renewed" Doctor comes along, posing as an Examiner, after lifting the real Examiner's credentials off of his corpse outside. The Examiner had been murdered in the course of an unfolding political coup taking place on the planet. This strange action by the Doctor was part of the general strangeness and often silent mysteriousness of his post-regenerative state, and so adds to the rather unusual feel of the story.
As the story progresses, the Dalek has persuaded key people that the Daleks will serve the humans, so they are given increasing power and resources, with which they secretly reproduce themselves, and we actually see a small Dalek production plant in operation, which is quite interesting. Another scene with interesting visual effects is the scene in which the Doctor is ultimately able to deal with the Daleks, which sadly is almost entirely lost. A bit long at six episodes, the story actually doesn't feel all that long, and works fairly well at that length.
The Power of the Daleks clearly set the program in a new direction, nearly recreating it, and taking a huge risk in the process. I think the production team pulled it off beautifully.
the best book I have read because of it's good description . I have got the clockwise man , I can't wait to read it I hope it is as good as this
great read good story with interesting plot
exciting read good story
| What: | Series 3 Volume 4: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Tim Baker, Utopia |
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| Date: | Friday 24 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Really enjoyed these episodes on the telly, especially Utopia, but the dvd's a bit like flat champagne. The Doctor gets to The Valiant towards the end of Sound of Drums but from there it's all a bit anticlimax.
The numerous scenes between the Doctor and the Master don't really have any substance or much drama and the sudden deification of the Doctor is a really clumsy moment for Russell Davies. Clumsy and a bit revolting.
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| Different - High Energy - Loved It |
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| What: | Horror of Glam Rock (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 20 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Horror of Glam Rock is really not a very good story. There's just nothing spectacular about it. But I loved it, because the success here is all in the delivery.
This is a very different kind of Doctor Who production. Like its joking namesake, Horror of Fang Rock, Glam is a very claustrophobic story - it all takes place in a very small, tight space. But in this small, hollow-sounding space, the dialogue continuously flows between the actors in a fun kind of high energy that reminded me of Firesign Theatre, which I haven't actually heard a lot of, but which has a very particular sound and direction to it. Every member of the cast here is superb for this production. Particularly noteworthy in this respect is Bernard Cribbins as Arnold.
As for the plot, it's very simple. I won't say much about it other than that it takes place at an expressway service station on a snowy night and features savage alien beasts (and glam rockers, naturally). Also, the resolution at the end is a bit too much like a combination of elements from The Idiot's Lantern and The Shakespeare Code, so it makes one wonder... But that can be overlooked.
Overall, Horror of Glam Rock is fun and refreshingly different. It was just too much fun to give it any less than an 8, but I can easily understand how a lot of fans may strongly disagree with such a high rating.
The third season made a welcome return on a newly installed "Prime" television channel in my country, so was able to watch this Christmas Special for free (regardless of the in-between advertisements) on my own set.
I am very pleased to hear that the slightly simple-minded but nevertheless feisty Donna is making a return appearance in the eventual fourth season, Catherine Tate's character deserves to be examined in greater detail. And here is hoping that David Tennant reconsiders his apparent decision to depart at the end of the aforementioned series, as the gossip mills are speculating. He was on theatrical fire, that particular Sunday night!
| What: | The Sensorites (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Sunday 19 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Wow. The Sensorites is really, really bad. Perhaps more than nearly any other story, The Sensorites demonstrates that Doctor Who was a children's series, but even a children's series has no excuse for being this bad. At times, it gets pretty difficult to keep watching.
The weird-looking Sensorites, with their floppy, circular gumdrop feet, are embarrassingly designed and characterized, and the human characters, with the exception of the regulars, give some really grotesque performances, due in no small part to the writing they were forced to work with. And everyone, including the regulars, flubbed their lines constantly. I just can't give this one more than a 2.
However, over the course of the six episodes, there are a few interesting bits (very few). In addition to Hartnell's eccentricity now and then, other points of interest include a clear indication that Susan is from the Doctor's home planet (still unnamed at this point, of course), as she demonstrates some advanced telepathic ability that she and the Doctor talk about at the end, as they discuss when they might return to their home. This same conversation also serves to make a little more sense of the Doctor's decision to leave Susan on Earth in The Dalek Invasion of Earth in the following season, as she states that she would like to belong somewhere again. And I must admit that the brief scene in which Susan describes her home planet, where the sky at night is burnt orange and the leaves on the trees are bright silver, is a classic that, if I'm not mistaken, is apparently the source of inspiration for one or two scenes much later in the show's history in which the Doctor gives a similar description.
If you feel an unquenchable desire to watch The Sensorites, make sure you're caffinated, and keep the fast-forward button handy.
| What: | The Ark (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | fluteflute, Southampton, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 19 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
'The Ark' is almost two stories stuck together. Set in a large spaceship the human race are escaping from Earth to live on the planet Refusis. In the first two episodes the humans are in control with the monoids as their mute friends. Due to the Doctor and his companions actions, 700 years later the monoids have taken control and have killed several humans.
I found it a great story to listen to. It works well on Audio and there is an interesting interview with Peter Purves.
The chemistry between Lucie and the Eighth Doctor begins to stand out as being fresh and interesting here, but it's good to be done with Red Rocket Rising. Let's get out of here. Hopefully we won't be back.
Please see my review of Part 1 for more detail on the story and production.
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| Nothing Like Death Comes to Time |
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Some Minor Spoilers Ahead
The idea of a reboot of the McGann range of audios intrigued me. Being a fan of the earlier McGann Big Finish stories moreso than the later ones, I had hopes that a fresh start might reinvigorate the Eighth Doctor line. Thoughts of a comparison to Death Comes to Time creep in here, because that story gave unimaginable new freshness to Sylvester McCoy's Doctor.
But Blood of the Daleks is nothing like Death Comes to Time. With the exception of cheeky new companion Lucie Miller, this is pretty much just more of the same. We get the same opening credits music, incidental music and sound effects as have been used in the main Big Finish line, and a pretty dreary story set in the apocalyptic environment of a planet recently devastated by an asteroid strike. And, not content with creating one new race of Daleks in Dalek Empire II, the powers that be at Big Finish create another new race of Daleks for Blood of the Daleks, to start off this series of BBC7 radio shows.
Having said all of that, it's still great to hear McGann back, and with a new companion who is somewhat more interesting than, or at least a change of pace from, Charley and C'rizz. And we have an ongoing mystery introduced here. For some undisclosed reason, Lucie has been dumped onto the Doctor by the Time Lords for safekeeping, in some kind of witness protection program. I do look forward to the development of that subplot.
And this is a decently interesting and well-developed story. Staying tuned for more.
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| Impressive Production, Too Many Episodes |
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| What: | Marco Polo (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Saturday 18 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I've had the opportunity to view a version of Marco Polo that supplements the audio with an abundance of still color photos of the action. The photos are amazing, and I feel that this story could've been, at least by some measures, one of the most highly acclaimed stories of the entirety of the original series, particularly if it were colorized. But there lies the problem. The sets and costuming for this serial are really rather exquisite and beautifully realized, but I wonder if they would be nearly as impressive on monochrome video. As it is, in this reconstruction, the abundance of color production photos in existence yield an almost scene by scene record, making it easy to visualize the action, and making this an entertaining presentation.
However, this story would have been much better at only four or five episodes. Episode five is nearly a complete waste and repetition, and episode six has some important flaws as well, bringing in some misplaced attempts at humor.
In general, the actors in Marco Polo give very consistently good performances, and this enhances the enjoyment of the serial, in which the TARDIS crew get caught up in a great journey with Marco Polo, who is traveling a great distance to reach the court of Kublai Khan in Peking. This is a very character-driven "historical" story that moves at its own pace, not conforming to a more typical science-fiction structure, and not involving any "monsters" or over the top evil megalomaniacs. And as in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, there is an issue with asian characters being played by non-asian actors, but as with The Talons of Weng-Chiang, I don't see this as detracting from the quality of the finished product.
Set immediately after The Edge of Destruction, the TARDIS materializes on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas and promptly breaks down completely. All power is lost, and this means no heat or water. This forces the Doctor and companions to seek aid and shelter, and Marco Polo's caravan is where they happen to find it. When Polo learns that the TARDIS, which he refers to as the Doctor's caravan, can travel "through the air," he seizes it to present it to Kublai Khan, hopefully in return for freedom to return to Venice, believing that Buddhist monks will be able to learn how to operate it. This sends the Doctor into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, as he comes to realize the fullness of the predicament they are now in - a great scene! In the days and weeks that follow, the friendship that develops between Susan and a young woman in Polo's caravan named Ping-Cho is a delight, and the interplay between Marco Polo and the villainous Tegana is well-played, in spite of a lack of subtlety in Tegana's character.
In spite of some significant flaws, Marco Polo remains a very enjoyable early serial, and it is quite regrettable that the video is forever lost. With colorization, tighter script-editing and at a shorter length, this story could merit a rating of 10, or certainly a 9.
