Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

The Quest of the Engineer                                     The Fourth Doctor Adventures 9.4                                               On a planet that reconfigures it surface, the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 are seeking info on a CVE. They encounter the ‘Engineer’ who is also interested in CVE’s, though there is more to him and the planet than at first seems. I had to check that I had started with part one, as it begins with Adic having been arrested for taking K9 though the streets where technology is forbidden. They meet Rigis Tel played by George Layton (perhaps more noted in DW circles as being the Space pirates) and go on to find the truth about the planet. As for the plot… Well it is tempting to say what plot. The planet is… mild spoiler… a giant space ship. Being a Hitch...

Murder At Moorsey Manor Jago and Litefoot 7.3 Moorsely manor is where this adventure takes Jago and Litefoot. Taking on the alias of invited guests at a meeting of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts, they hope to find someone who can help prove their innocence.  All would be well except that the guests soon learn that one of them will die on the hour, every hour, and there’s no escape. This is a pretty solid audio. Though I wasn’t bowled over by it, it is good, As usual for me I didn’t get a good shot at listing, a little distracted and tired and it doesn’t help. It’s no exactly an original plot, one by one people get killed. One death scene was a bit gruesome, getting squashed between walls, and hearing the screams, did make me squirm. Its low on the sci fi spectrum. Mild spoiler the house can rearrange itself. Suddenly finding the corridor you came from is no longer there. And rooms weren’t where you left them.  A little bit of a twist at the end. Good.

The Night of 1000 Stars Jago and Lifefoot 7.2 Jago, Litefoot and Ellie are holed up in Bakers Street, still fugitives. The arrival of Leela would seem to be a bit of a boon, yet there is something ‘other’ in the group. This is almost one long conversation between the four. There’s a picture where, at first glance seems to be normal, but then on second look there’s something closer to home. Remorse - as Leela names it, an entity feeding on the guilt and sadness from the past. The title allude to the fact that Jago presents each of the four as a theatre show, as they take turns in the ‘spotlight’ telling of their own buried secrets, the shame they hide, the things they’d rather forget. It is a chance to discover more about the background of the four, fleshing out the characters. It does remind me of the audio The Murder of Oliver Akkron. Whereas with most stories you can kind of pick up the plot when you come back to it, this you need pay attention. It is something best listened to in on...

Pandemonium The Ninth Doctor Adventures 4.5 Once again its the Powell Estate, this time the Doctor and Rose discove local historical figures are suddenly appearing. Though I would prefer something a bit more sci fi/spacey I’ll take what I can get. Its the Ninth and Rose. With Camile Caduri as Jackie Tyler its a not a bad combination. So Jackie has Edith Nesbit in her living room, writer of Five Children and It etc. also quite the protester, filling up the space with placards. So what is going on. This is by no means a deep or complex adventure. Leaning more to the comedy side of things. The people from the past are in no way phased by there current situation, the fact that they can remember when they died lead the Doctor to suspect that there’s something else behind it. It has all the classic hallmarks of the mid ninth Doctor and Rose TV series, Though I do feel that some of the relationship is a little clunky. As with all the other past Doctors, it takes a little time to get back into...

The Monstrous Menagerie Jago and Lifefoot 7.1 Once again its about remembering where things were left at the end of the last set. Litefoot was in court accused of murder and he and Jago went on the run. Luckily they have some help from an old friend (Professor Dark aka The Doctor) and they set themselves up in a house on Baker Street where the meet Arthur Conan Doyle and things get a little meta… One of the main jokes/reoccurring themes is everyone asking when Arthur is going to bing back Sherlock Holmes. Because… well there wasn’t any evidence that he actually died in the  Reichenbach Falls. Also with characters called Laura Lyons and Baskerville that are straight out of the Sherlock novels it does help to have some knowledge of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I’m not the most clued up but know enough to get the references in this.  Not only the Sherlock stuff but references to past J&L audios, and other Conan Doyle works - The Lost World. It perhaps isn’t the best jum...

The Dispossessed Doctor Who The Monthly Adventures 242 The Doctor, Mel and Ace arrive in a present day Earth setting, much like Ace’s or Rose’ home - a tower block estate. However they soon find themselves transported to a pocket dimension a tower block, zombies and no way out… With this set I Manchester it did give me 9th Doctor vibes, along with it feeling like Rose’s home. But also hints of Survival, and a reference to Paradise Towers so it does have a ring of treading old ground. Its not a complex story, with Mel and Ace having their adventure, while the Doctor has his. There’s also a couple that are managing to survive, and a comedic alien whose looking for the only other none zombie resident.  It kept me interested. There were some nice interactions between Ace an Mel which I enjoyed, nothing special but they worked well together. Though there was noticable evidence of this being an audio adventure with some clunky descriptions. At one point, in the dark, Mel says she’s dropp...

Frankenstein  Big Finish Classics Frankenstein’s monster is one of those things that seems to have always been around, lampooned and retold in so many different ways, that we know more about the fame than the original creation. I remember the Frankenstein Unbound film in the early 90’s with John Hurt. I do have a copy of the novel, though I’m not sure if I’ve actually read it or that its been so long since I did. As with the Invisible man last year, with this on sale its a chance to catch up on  a classic. This stars Arthur Danville as Victor and Nick Briggs as the monster, you’ll be familiar with the other names in the cast but these two do the bulk of the work. Its comprised of three hour long episodes.  A ship trying to find a passage between the ice rescues a man - Victor Frankenstein who tells a strange tale.  Destined to be a Doctor he leaves his home and the woman he is due to marry for  university. There he meets a likeminded man and together they set up...

The Dark Planet Doctor Who The Lost Stories 4.1 The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan are way back in the early times of the universe. On a strange planet with crystal structures and odd statues, and a fight between the light and the dark…. This has all the hallmarks of an early adventure. Much like the Senorites, it has that isolated, unknown element where the rules of Doctor Who had not yet been set. I do like those stories as everything was new and it really could go anywhere and do anything.  With only four cast members and narration, it does come across as an extended Companion Chronicle. William Russell plays Ian and the Doctor with Maureen as Vicky and Barbara. It was much easier to tell the Doctor and Ian apart - a ‘My boy’ here and there made it obvious. However there was little difference between Maureen’s Vicky and Barbara. So, other than sometimes not realising which character was speaking, I didn’t feel like I’d enjoyed a Barbara adventure. I listened to this mostly on a ...

Maelstrom The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Water Worlds 1.3 Another water world. Here the people share bodies. Things aren’t going well and the population was uploaded and held as data. When needed, their minds are downloaded into one of the few bodies that are left. Its an interesting situation the TARDIS crew find themselves in, especially since the arrival of new people also means three new bodies that can used… They also discover evidence that the marine life of the planet have been experimented on to see if minds can be downloaded into them. It is a standard adventure, I do feel that being more focused on one element of the story would have made it more interesting, but I was never really caught up in the plot. The body swapping element could have been used to produce a much more engrossing storyline - I remember Charlie and the sixth in the main range. The maelstrom - the marine life, also could have been developed into something more satisfying. This story as with this set I’ve foun...

The Tides of The Moon The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Water Worlds 1.2 With Hebe joining the TARDIS, and being a marine biologist the Doctor takes her to the nearest ‘water world’. Its nearer than they though - The Moon 2 billion years ago… Though it is our moon it could be any planet really. The local are plagued by some creatures full of teeth called the Sheega, as usual the Doctor and co are sacrificed, and there’s more to life on prehistoric moon than even they are aware of. There is some nice stuff with Hebe. In the fact she touches one of the aliens gills and realise how many times she’s taken offence when someone done that to her wheel chair.  I wasn’t that well when I listened, and there is stuff I missed. So this is written more out of completeness on my behalf than for how useful it is to others. Generally speaking an average adventure.