All Consuming Fire

For a few year now this has been top of the wish-list for many fans. And its not difficult to see why – the idea of Doctor Who meeting Sherlock Holmes is pure gold.

What a lot of fans don’t realise is that it has already happened…

Lets rewind back to 1994 – the New Adventures are going strong, the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice are busy having adventures to broad and deep for the small screen – some fans minds are being expanded by possibilities of life beyond a TV show, others are sticking their fingers in their ears and crying into their scarves (I was 80% one half 20% the other I will let you decide the way the split falls) anyhow, in 1994 a rather special pastiche of Sherlock Holmes called “All Consuming Fire” by Andy Lane was released – written in the style of Conan-Doyle, mainly from the viewpoint of Dr Watson, but with some chapters from the viewpoint of Bernice Summerfield, it was, and remains today one of the highlights of Doctor Who in book form – imagine my joy when I found out that Big Finish were adapting it for audio – to say I was pleased is an understatement!

As details began to filter through it was announced that the one and only Nick Briggs would be playing Holmes and Richard Earl would be playing Dr Watson, and if you have not heard this duo before I urge you to check out some of Big Finish’s Sherlock Holmes range here they are pretty near the definitive Holmes and Watson – Briggs is aloof and cerebral, Earl is heart and manners, the chemistry between them is immense – you can close your eyes and be transported to Baker Street with just a few phrases from each of them.

Surely there must be a downside – it all just seems too good. Let me think – McCoy, Aldred, Bowerman, Briggs, Earl – adapted by arch Holmesian Guy Adams, directed by Scott Handcock, it definitely has all the ingredients, and unlike Eric Morecambe attempting to play Greig – they all most definitely are in the right order.

This is a very faithful adaptation of the novel – yes some sections have been edited for pace and decency but it feels like a Holmes story that the Doctor has wandered in to – let me elaborate.

It begins not with the Doctor Who theme but with the Sherlock Holmes theme – we really are in Briggs and Earl’s world – Holmes and Watson are charged by the Pope to recover some stolen books from the Library of St. John the Beheaded, a repository for banned and dangerous books hidden away in the squalor of the St. Giles Rookery. Whilst investigating they encounter the Doctor who decides to get involved in their investigations…

The first meeting of the Doctor and Sherlock is interesting – Sherlock cannot read the Doctor, he cannot deduce where the mud on his trousers is from or any other traits which would leave you or I an open book to the great detective – Holmes is immediately suspicious of the Doctor and pairs him off with Watson to investigate other members of the Library whilst Holmes himself takes his investigation to the criminal underworld who provide the Library’s security…

Like all good adventure stories there has to be a  villain and in All Consuming Fire the villain of the piece is Victorian Empire builder Baron Maupertuis and like all good villains he has a henchman – the seven foot tall behemoth Surd, who as well as having fists like hams is also enamoured of some pretty special powers. Maupertuis has a plan to expand the boundaries of the British Empire into the stars – but how is this connected to the thefts from the library and to an incident in the past of the Holmes family?

The story itself is a fast paced roller coaster of a boys own adventure involving not only stolen books, but Sherlock’s older brother Sheringford a trip to Bombay, a stay at an Indian Raj’s palace, a trip to another world, spontaneous combustion and Cats! And if that isn’t enough for you it has Bernice “going all Shakespearian” and pretending to be a man “Bernard Summerfield” complete with comedy man voice, Ace all dressed in rubber, an Elder God, Professor Litefoot being name-checked and again Cats!

You may just get the impression that I enjoyed this one, and you would be right – its not quite perfect, the ending is a bit muddled but that can be forgiven as the actual journey to get there the interplay between Holmes and the Doctor, the coy flirtation between Bernice and Watson, Ace’s reports are superb. Also the music evokes Holmesian London and Victorian India wonderfully really drawing you in to the story and losing yourself in the plot.

So, for all you fans wanting a meet up of Smith and Cumberbatch I say pah! to you… Bow-tie and mind palace cannot compare to question mark brolly and deerstalker – if you don’t believe me episode one is free here give it a go, you have literally nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Overall an All Consuming dream come true for Whovians and Holmesians.

10/10.

Theatre Of War

Where were you when Tomb of the Cybermen was recovered? If I remember correctly it was a dark night in January 1992, and a tiny stop press article was printed in Doctor Who Magazine. I cant really remember the months in-between, but I think it was released on VHS (remember them?) in May 1992, and I remember going to Woolworths (remember them?) in LLandudno (most assuredly still there) to purchase a copy and then going back to my home in Trefriw to watch this lost classic. And it was, well it was ok, it was good but maybe not the great holy grail we had been led to believe…

Then in 1994 a novel was released in the New Adventures range which consciously or unconsciously followed my Tomb odyssey, the novel was Theatre of War by Justin Richards and it involved a much heralded lost play called The Good Soldiers being discovered and a lot more to boot, because back in 1994 we didn’t realise what an important pivotal novel that this would be to the expanded Whoniverse.

This latest adaptation is an adaptation of Theatre of War and the story itself is part archeological dig, part mystery, part space opera and part foreshadowing of future events – no small feat for 4 episodes of less than half an hour each. The story begins with The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice (my all-time favourite TARDIS team) seemingly trapped in a production of Hamlet and once they escape they find themselves on the planet Menaxus where an archaeological dig from the war torn planet Helatia is excavating the remains of a Theatre, it seems that the Helatians have a culture which values theatre and when one of their number discovers a seemingly lost play “The Good Soldiers” by Stanoff Osterling the stakes are well and truly raised…

What follows is a classic piece of space opera and deception – whilst Ace and The Doctor are left on Menaxus to investigate the site, Benny visits the legendary Braxiatel Collection. I will pause here for an historical interlude…

Cast your minds back to 1979 – Paris, Scaroth, Tom and Lalla and a throwaway line about the “Braxiatel Collection” – this is the Braxiatel mentioned in that line.

And we are back in the room – Braxiatel has played a big part in Benny’s life and in the events on Gallifrey but this is their first chronological meeting – and what a devious piece of work he is. Played with urbane charm and just a little arrogance by Miles Richardson – Braxiatel out manipulates the arch manipulating Doctor Seven and allows Benny into his confidence about the real reason for the theatre and lost play being on Menaxus – because Braxiatel has been playing a very long game…

For such a complex narrative, it fits nicely into the four part structure – it never seems over complicated and all the pieces fit together nicely – it makes perfect sense and as the layers of the plot are peeled back rather than infuriating the listener feels rewarded and drawn into the confidence of the writer. This really is Benny’s story and she gets to flex her brain in solving the mystery of Menaxus whilst forming the basis of a very long acquaintance with Braxiatel – Lisa Bowerman is note perfect as Benny and really steals the show and her scenes with Braxiatel are the highlights of the story.

It is a story of contrasts with the more cerebral “talky” scenes of Benny and Braxiatel contrasting with the action packed space opera that the Doctor and Ace find themselves in – the scale is grand, an interplanetary war that one side is inevitably going to lose, a despotic tyrant who is no more than a spoiled child and a long seeded plan coming to fruition.

Clever but not smug, convoluted but not confusing, epic but still characterful and definitely no tragedy.

9/10.

TORCHWOOD - ONE RULE

Being both Welsh and a Councillor I really shouldn’t like this release. Really shouldn’t like it at all – because this story not only relentlessly lampoons certain traits of my nations capital, but also parodies Councillors as self serving parochial and small minded. If a story can succeed despite this then we must be on to a good thing, and with One Rule writer Joseph Lidster has crafted a great thriller that is combined with a fish out of water comedy and the return of the eternally beautiful Tracy-Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman (from the Doctor Who story Army of Ghosts/Doomsday).

Lets rewind a bit shall we – this story is set in 2005, a year or so before Torchwood launched on TV, so this is the pre Gwen Cooper era (even though she is very cleverly referenced at a bar room brawl) and Yvonne Hartman is on a visit to Torchwood 3 in Cardiff to retrieve a piece of alien tech but this sophisticated London Lady is about to end up in a completely alien situation – she is going to experience the horrors of a night out in Cardiff!

The Mayor of Cardiff is dead, killed in the Auton invasion seen in the TV episode Rose – and now the rivals for the position of new Mayor are being bumped off one by one, killed horribly by a seven foot tall blue alien, killed by having their heads bitten off – and when her hotel is burned to the ground Yvonne Hartman teams up with Councillor Barry Jackson (Gareth Armstrong) on a night out in Cardiff never to be forgotten. Yvonne has to try to keep Barry and Councillor Helen Evans (Rebecca Lacey) alive until the trains start again (last train to London leaves Cardiff at 21:30) so that she can get them to Torchwood One in London for safe keeping.

As I said earlier – I should be offended by this story – but it is hilarious, a parody of some of the less sophisticated, more provincial aspects of certain parts of Cardiff – from Yvonne having to down a pint of Diamond White, to her being mistaken for a drag queen, to being vomited on in the ladies of a seedy nightclub – this is new territory for Yvonne – (she has tea with the Queen twice weekly you know) but takes it all in the line of duty for Queen and Country.

Underneath it all, this is a story about identity – all the main protagonists – Yvonne, Helen, Barry are not the people they pretend to be – and it takes a night out from hell to strip away the facade they have created and for the real person to come out – Yvonne’s revelation, and her transformation from cool, calm, calculating right-wing people person to “something from Steven King” is shocking to behold. The public’s capacity for self delusion is again alluded to – an alien invasion a few weeks ago but all the citizens of Cardiff seem interested in is who is going to win Strictly (Obviously its going to be Anton and Katie) or maybe people just want to feel comfortable and not threatened so they retreat away from the horrors of the world into a safe place.

The performances are all excellent – Barry and Helen as parodies of parodies of local Councillors, the denizens of Cardiff’s more seedy parts all beautifully caricatured – but Tracy-Ann Oberman steals the show with her cut glass accent and withering barely disguised contempt for the situation she finds herself in – Tracy-Ann just has one of thosevoices like Nigella or Alex Kingston that make men of a certain age go weak at the knees – and I hope we hear more of her very soon as Yvonne’s story is nowhere near being told – any chance someone in Big Finish could commission a story about her rise to power?

Overall a rough night in a rough part of a beautiful City but a diamond performance from all involved and a polished script 9/10.

The Confessions of Dorian Gray Series 4

Where to start? where to start? Hmmm… The beginning was a long long time ago, Oscar Wilde wrote a book called The Picture of Dorian Gray, which went on to become a classic. In this book a young member of the upper classes called Dorian Gray, who is the epitome of male beauty, has a portrait painted – he muses that he would like to remain as un-ageing as the portrait, and he gets what he wishes for. As Gray leads a more and more debauched life it leaves no mark on him: the drinking, the indulgence in drugs, the womanising – all leave no mark on Dorian  - whilst his portrait bears the brunt of his excesses and grows more and more monstrous. The story is a fiction written by Oscar Wilde, but what if it wasn’t? What if Dorian Gray was real? What if he were a peer of Oscar Wilde and Wilde just wrote a sort of biography disguised as fiction? that is the theory that the Confessions of Dorian Gray presents and now in its fourth series we have another eight stories, another eight interludes from the immortal Dorian Gray.

Dorian is real, he lived and still lived and these are his confessions – and the title “confessions” is very apt – these audio stories are unlike any other series the Big Finish have produced.

First of all there is no title or closing theme music – now in itself that isn’t a big deal, but these stories don’t feel like stories – they are a lot more intimate than that.

Secondly, I have a feeling that Mr Gray is not the most reliable of narrators – that the stories he is relaying are merely his take on circumstances, that with hundreds, maybe thousands of years of hindsight from when these events happened to when he tells the story, certain embellishments may have been made.

No – this is a very unique series, in fact the listener is made to feel like a confessor or a psychiatrist as Gray relays his tales of terror and debauchery. The eight stories are in no particular order, they are not consecutive, they flit back and forth throughout Dorian’s long long life – it is almost like Dorian is in the room with you and is unburdening himself, and the stories all have one thing in common – they all deal with the theme of loss. Because as long and as varied as his life is, being immortal Dorian has to deal with loss – sometimes people die, sometimes they move on, sometimes assignations are only fleeting, people and times move on – parties, substance abuse, alcohol and womanising loses its lustre, but Dorian Gray goes on.

And bringing Dorian to life is the one and only Alexander Vlahos – narrating seemingly random tales from Dorian’s life he imbues Gray with a weariness of a man who has lived too long, a man trying to fill in eternity when life has lost its taste where people he has me sometimes become memories and then forgotten altogether – a man so bored of life that in one episode he books himself into “a very nice private hospital” to get his appendix removed just to remove the boredom of existence. Vlahos captures the weariness perfectly and at different points in his life he really does want to do the right thing (or maybe this is just as the unreliable narrator remembers it) but throughout his life he is plagued by demons of one form or another – metaphors for his guilt at the life he has led or literal monsters is up to the listener to decide but the demons are there.

Some audios are good to be listened to with friends or family – The Confessions of Dorian Gray demands  to be listened to as a solitary experience, because for the duration of the box set YOU the listener are the confessor and Dorian is talking just to you – give it a try episode one The Enigma of Dorian Gray is available free HERE and you will see what I mean.

I recommend that these reminiscences are accompanied by a glass of fine Shiraz, with the lights dimmed and for you to lose yourself in Dorian’s confessions – I for one will certainly be catching up with the earlier stories and I recommend that you do too. An uncomfortable, intimate and soul-bearing experience, superbly performed and leaving a feeling of loss and melancholy that maybe just one more glass of Shiraz may not take away… 10/10.

The Other Woman

The thing I like about the short trips is that they are just so characterful and this month’s release is no exception. In 38 short minutes it gives us a very Pertwee-esque “they come to us” story, but also examines the depth of the relationship between Jo and the Doctor. And who better to tell this touching story than Jo Grant herself, the wonderful Katy Maning.

Beginning with Jo reminiscing about a date she has been on (not with Captain Yates this time) and finishing with a reaffirmation of Jo and the Doctor’s relationship, this is another small story with big ambitions.

The “Other Woman” of the title is an alien called Callandra who has landed her escape pod in the Kent countryside – the home counties had a lot of that back in the 70’s (or 80’s depending on UNIT dating!), a striking woman with something of Circe about her, she seems to mesmerise all men into doing her bidding, and being stuck in the UNIT era, she has a lot of willing soldiers and a willing Third Doctor to do her bidding – it is only Jo that hasn’t fallen under her spell…

Is Jo jealous of an other woman becoming close with the Doctor or is there a hidden side to Callandra that only Jo can see?

Katy gives an assured, confident and convincing performance not only as Jo, but as The Doctor, Callandra and the Brig, her Jon Pertwee is rather good and she imbues Jo with such character that i forgot that her and Katy were the same person.

In strictly Who chronological time, this story is set prior to the Three Doctors so is many many years before River Song made her entrance in the Library – but the relationship the Doctor has with Callandra shows off his charm and his romantic side about seven (or eight) incarnations too early.

The Other Woman is another short trip that delivers a big impact and adds layers of depth to an already charming relationship between Jo and the Third Doctor.

8/10.

The Early Adventures 2.3 - The Black Hole

It’s not often I find myself lost for words when writing a review. This is one of those occasions. The Black Hole is a very difficult story to talk about unless the person you are talking about it with has already experienced the story. To quote Blackadder “it twists and turns like a… twisty turny thing” and covers several different types of storytelling while still remaining faithful to the ethos of the Troughton era and making you view a certain Colin Baker story in a completely different way. This is a really important story, and skirting around the “twisty turny things” I will try to give you a flavour of what its all about…

Simon Guerrier is a brave man – a very brave man indeed – because, lets face it, Who fans are a (small “c”) conservative lot when it comes to established canon (QI Klaxon alert!) and continuity. So, me being the radical rebel that I am take my reviewer’s hat off to Simon for not only for going against established canon, but for going against it and winning – you see The Black Hole introduces the Time Lords to Doctor Who, and in terms of continuity they are introduced at least 18 month earlier than in The War Games. Now before you all start building Troughton sized Wicker Men to hold Mr Guerrier, you may also want to consider his second crime of – CENSORED TO PRESERVE “TWISTY TURNY” ASPECT OF STORY! – that happens during episode three…

So, what can I tell you about The Black Hole? Well, it has a Black Hole and this is causing time to keep standing still on a research station. Being Time Travellers, The Second Doctor (amazingly realised by Frazer Hines), Jamie (Frazer Hines, again) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) are not affected by the phenomenon. They meet up with Commander Flail (Janet Dibley) and investigate the cause. And it’s during these investigations that they meet Constable Pavo (Rufus Hound) a Time Lord and Constable of Chapter 9, and after a false start, the Doctor and Pavo come up with a plan to stabilise The Black Hole.

And that is really all I can say without totally ruining the story – it starts as a mystery, transforms into a time travel story and finishes with, well… I will let you find out for yourselves.

The sound design is pure “Troughton”, close your eyes and the images in your head will be in Black and White – for all its radical ideas it is very much rooted in 1968. It was lovely to hear Deborah Watling back as Victoria, she is a character I would love to hear more from on Big Finish. Frazer Hines is uncanny as Troughton, all the pauses, throat clearings and vocal mannerisms are superb, and he can now play Jamie to perfection in his sleep, he just slips back instantly into character. Janet Dibley gives a no nonsense performance as Flail, but the real star of the proceedings is Rufus Hound as Pavo. Take a look at his picture on the cover, imagine the sort of performance that type of character would give, turn it up a notch, and you are there. Hound is wonderful, fruity, snooty, dangerous, manipulative and vindictive – a magnificent addition to the pantheon of Time Lords, I do hope he shows up in another story very soon…

So vaguery rules the day in this review, but my vaguery is well justified – there is a link below that says “BUY YOUR COPY HERE” and I suggest you do because The Black Hole is a corker of a story that will make you revise opinions of several eras and of one of the central aspects of Who Mythology, and there are not many stories that I can say that about.

Overall a Cosmically balanced and Twisty Turny 10/10.

206 - SHIELD OF THE JÖTUNN

Though they are commonplace in the revived post 2005 series, the “classic” series didn’t really do “blockbusters”. I mean they did, but they were very few and far between. The thing is the set up of the series was different then – a series of serials rather than (mainly) standalone episodes, with a linking theme leading up to the inevitable series finale. Classic Who didn’t really do event TV – in fact the only times I can remember it being an event was when Tom Baker regenerated and when The Five Doctors was broadcast. Things were different back then, not better or worse, just a different style for a different era. But then we have this months release – Shield of the Jotunn – on the one hand it follows the style and format of “classic” Who, it features Old Sixie, is a four part serial yes but (and it is a big but) the scale is huge - Hollywood blockbuster huge, and what starts as Old Sixie and Mrs Clarke looking for a restaurant ends with a battle of the Titans.

So the aforementioned trip to a restaurant doesn’t really go to plan – in fact the Doctor and Mrs Clarke materialise in a Viking burial mound. This is no ordinary Viking burial mound though (as if it would be) in fact it is in Arizona USA (yes you read correctly) in the year 2029. And so begins one of the most tense, frantic and down right action packed Who stories I have ever had the delight to hear. This is Doctor Who with a Michael Bay budget – in my mind it was all being played out on big budget super Hi-Def cameras and I was watching it on IMAX, not on 625 line VT on a 22 inch Panasonic as it would have been in the 1980′s.

The plot is a little bit base under siege and a little bit giant monster battle – think The Thing meets Transformers and you wont be far from the mark. Part one sets up the story and introduces Dr Hugo Macht (Michael J Shannon) and his team Professor Lisa Zetterling (Nell Mooney) & Major Vincent Da Costa (James Caroll Jordan) – Dr Macht has devised a plan to save the world from climate change by cleaning the atmosphere with nanobots, but the discovery of the Shield of the Jotunn puts a huge spanner in his good works as the shield is in fact an alien artefact brought to the USA by the Vikings – and this shield brings with a a whole load of trouble, from killer snow to Frost Giants. It also brings with is a Viking Saga…

Oh the Vikings and their saga – their tale is told by Mrs Clarke (Miranda Raison) who continues to excel and is fast becoming a classic companion and foil to Old Sixie – she discovers the TARDIS gift for translation and recounts their saga, the narration here being taken over by the Viking leader Herger (also played by James Caroll Jordan) and is an excellent piece of direction as Mrs Clarke’s cut glass voice fades out and is replaced by Herger’s gruff tones and then fades back as we return to the here and now. It’s little touches like this that raise this story, and the story has a very special director you all may have heard of – Louise Jameson makes her Big Finish directorial debut on this release and does not leave the listener wanting. From casting to scene construction, Louise does not miss a beat and crafts writer Ian Edington’s script into a tense, action packed and characterful blockbuster.

So far so epic – and that is only part of the story, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger (literally) and finishes in an explosive denouement; it does not miss a beat, does not put a foot wrong, the cast are uniformly excellent, Colin Baker is exceptional as always – he has a few melancholic speeches to deliver and there are a few scenes where he almost outdoes his successor for manipulation – just listen to the climax of part four – Old Sixie does something almost completely out of character and it is all the more powerful for it.

So three stories in and I am already chomping at the bit for more stories of Old Sixie and Mrs Clarke – a classic TARDIS team, they just go together like, well Old Sixie and Mrs Clarke really.

Overall a saga worth listening to – stunningly written and acted, a brilliant “Season Finale” an exceptional debut for Louise Jameson as director and another classic release from Big Finish.

Overall a blockbusting 10/10.