7-8. House of Cards.

2 episodes. Approx. 57 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines.


THE PLOT

The Doctor decides it's time for a holiday, and so takes his companions to a casino in the distant future. Though Jamie and particularly Ben are thrilled at the chance to partake in some games, Polly does not like this place. She doesn't enjoy the gambling machines, she finds the sight of the transfixed gamblers downright disturbing... and that's even before she sets eyes on the snake-headed Sidewinder Syndicate, the gang that runs the casino's operations.

The Sidewinders work for a mysterious woman named Fortune, who has strict rules against time travelers. When the casino's alarms are tripped by a time travel device, Polly finds herself in the Sidewinder's sights - and escorted to Fortune's office. The woman is absolutely charming and utterly chilling as she gives Polly an ultimatum. It's a simple command: Push a button that will determine the winner of "The Game of Life."

It's no simple game, though. Two players sit in booths and, when the button is pressed, random chance will result in one being disintegrated. And much to Polly's horror, one of the players is Ben!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though sidelined for most of the story, the Doctor registers strongly at the climax as he gambles with Fortune for the welfare of his companions... playing with a tattered Happy Families deck! Anneke Wills continues to do a fine job of suggesting Troughton's tone and vocal mannerisms and, even if she can't hope to replicate the eerily dead-on audio resurrection of Frazer Hines' readings, it's more than good enough to help the listener visualize the Second Doctor. It is a shame, though, that he's in so little of this one.

Polly: Polly is very much at the center of this story, and Steve Lyons shows the same facility with her character that marked his first Companion Chroncicle, Resistance. Polly is quick-thinking and courageous, but she is also easily surprised by the darker side of humanity. She is immediately repelled by the Sidewinder Syndicate, but it takes a few minutes for her to realize that the attractive and soft-spoken Fortune is actually much scarier than the snake creatures. She is too quick to trust Lucky Bill, which leaves her vulnerable to him when he acts out of desperation in Part Two.

Jamie: Frazer Hines is not doing double-duty this story, as he voices only Jamie and not the Doctor (or Ben). But he does get a substantial slice of the action, the script cutting away to his observations of a time traveling gambler in Part One and of havoc on the casino floor in Part Two. Hines and Wills, who were actually together in the recording booth for this story (earlier efforts had them record their parts separately), bounce well off each other, and it's actually a shame Jamie and Polly have only a couple of scenes together. 

Ben: Is largely sidelined, as usual. He isn't forgotten, however, as he falls under the influence of the gambling bug and manages to get himself into trouble in a way that spurs most of Polly's actions in Part Two. 


THOUGHTS

I had high expectations for House of Cards. It reteamed the same writer, performers, and companion line-up as the wonderful Selachian Gambit, and the science fiction casino setting seemed like a sure bet to produce another fun piece. I knew this was the reverse of that one - with Anneke Wills as the primary reader, and Frazer Hines the secondary one. Still, Wills is a fine reader, and the Companion Chronicle Resistance - also by Lyons - remains probably my favorite of Big Finish's Second Doctor stories, so it's not like this was a concern for me.

I will say that House of Cards is enjoyable. It moves along at a good pace, there are several fun scenes, and the movement back and forth from the main action with Polly to the side action involving Jamie keeps it alive. The Episode One cliffhanger is terrific, and the showdown between the Doctor and the story's villain is cleverly done.

But while it's an enjoyable story, I can't help but find it a disappointing one. Something is missing this time, and the magic that happened in The Selachian Gambit just doesn't happen in this story.

The companion line-up is definitely not as well utilized here as in the earlier story, with Ben and the Doctor sidelined for the bulk of the story. The caricatured Lucky Bill, complete with American western accent, is annoying in a bad way, and the potentially interesting Sidewinder Syndicate never develop beyond their initial beat as James Cagney-like gangster snakes.

I also think Lyons' attempt to use the time travel element by telling bits of the story out of sequence is a flourish that doesn't quite work. Some of it is clever, as we see scenes laying groundwork for something just shown. Other times, the cutting back and forth between action happening to Jamie and action that had happened to Polly simply becomes tiresome. There's a twist involving the identity of a woman in a china mask that is particularly oversold. By the third or fourth time Jamie obliquely referred to the woman as "my friend," I grew irritated enough to snap at the CD player that "I got it already, move along!"

Wills and Hines keep things afloat with their spirited reading, and Lyons is too good a writer not to make sure that the various events all patch together in a way that works. The way the second episode pays off the (very good) first episode cliffhanger in a way that fits but is completely unexpected is quite satisfying. Fortune, wonderfully voiced by Wills, is an effective villain, and her scenes opposite Polly in Part One and opposite the Doctor in Part Two are the best two scenes in the story. 

More of Fortune, particularly more of her opposite the Doctor, and less of Lucky Bill and the Sidewinders might have given this story the shot in the arm that it badly needs. As it stands, it's not at all bad. House of Cards is narratively solid and pleasant enough to listen to. But it never quite manages to connect the way the best stories do.

It's a perfectly okay story. It's just also a perfectly disposable one, and not one I expect to revisit.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Television Story: The Macra Terror
Next Television Story: The Faceless Ones


Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

2nd Doctor Audio Review Index

2nd Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

6-8. The Selachian Gambit.

2 episodes. Approx. 54 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills.


THE PLOT

The Doctor and his companions at a bank in the distant future for the most innocent of reasons.  It's just a simple misunderstanding involving a parking fine... Just enough cause for the Doctor to actually need a bit of money for once. But it's enough to place the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and Polly in their usual position: The wrong place, at the wrong time. 

The Selachians are a race of aggressive, spacefaring sharks. Literal sharks, with fins and suits that preserve their acquatic environment as they move among the air-breathing plankton known as humanity. They are in the bank for the least innocent of reasons: To rob it. 

First they must breach the impregnable vault door, whose combination is changed multiple times daily. The vault is interdimensional, the combination setting the destination.  Enter the right combination and you can access the most valuable treasures of galactic civilization. Otherwise, even if you breach the door, all that you will find behind it is cold, empty space.

The Selachians are prepared to kill to get what they want, threatening to execute one hostage per minute. But the Doctor knows a thing or two about interdimensional locks, and he makes a deal with the aliens. If they agree to spare the hostages, he will use his considerable skills to break into the vault.

But there are secrets behind that door that even the Doctor isn't aware of - Secrets which make the lives of a mere twenty hostages insignificant in comparison!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: One of the joys of Big Finish's Second Doctor stories has been Frazer Hines' Second Doctor. Hines is able to make himself truly sound like Patrick Troughton, to such a degree that more often than not you would swear Troughton was in the recording booth delivering his character's own lines. It was breathtaking even in Hines' earliest Big Finish stories, and his Troughton has gotten better and better as he's done more of them. 

This story is perfectly suited to the Second Doctor's persona. He is thrust into a situation in which he appears completely helpless. Then he uses his apparent weakness and his knowledge of interdimensional systems to barter with the Selachians. By Part Two, the bank heist is being run more by the Doctor than by the aliens, and listening as he defuses one potentially violent situation after another until the story's climax feels perfect for both character and era.

Jamie: Retains his tendency to sometimes act before he thinks, as when he makes an ill-advised (and poorly-aimed) attack on one of the Selachians early in the bank heist. His fierce loyalty to his friends is shown when, having made a clean escape for himself, he runs back into a building facing imminent destruction to save the Doctor and the other hostages. In an amusing nod to Big Finish's own continuity, Jamie and Ben consciously repeat a method of escaping their guards previously used in the Polly Companion Chronicle Resistance.

Ben: Frazer Hines' Ben voice is almost as good as his Second Doctor voice, allowing Ben to come to life in this story in a way that just wasn't true of the previous Companion Chronicles. As is usual, Ben is the least-used of the companions... but he still gets a decent slice of the action, working with Jamie to overcome Selachian guards near the end. Even his crawling through the bank's ductwork, which largely shunts him out of the way in Part One, pays off, with Ben making an important discovery.

Polly: When she hears the Doctor soothing Selachians and hostages alike by talking about a calming cup of tea, she knows what will come next. Sure enough, the next scene sees her sent to the kitchen to put the kettle on. As in The Moonbase, she also actively looks around for things that might be used to turn the tables on the Selachians. With a helpful prod from Ben, she finds something. In Part Two, she is removed from the bank and mainly interacts with the police negotiating with the Selachians, which handily allows us to see both sides of the action. Anneke Wills continues to do a spirited job both in recreating her character and in narrating her portion of the story, and the switch back-and-forth between Hines' voice and hers helps to keep this serial alive and moving.


THOUGHTS

I've always enjoyed a good caper, which makes The Selachian Gambit a perfect fit for me. Writer Steve Lyons has concocted a textbook caper with the classic elements: A heist gone wrong, an impregnable security system, and a late-in-the-game twist that turns the story on its head. It's fast-paced and clever, making good use of its confined setting. 

The story also makes particularly good use of the regulars. The Season Four line-up of the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and Polly can be daunting to cover in an audio story that runs less than 60 minutes. Resistance and The Forbidden Time both sidestepped the large line-up by separating the Doctor and Polly from the others for most of the action, effectively removing half the cast.

The Selachian Gambit properly uses all four regulars, and writer Steve Lyons manages to make this achievement look easy. One way in which this is done is by putting the companions into "teams" that are constantly switching. Polly and the Doctor are together initially, while Jamie and Ben observe some of the guest characters elsewhere in the bank. Then the Doctor and Jamie carry the main action for a while, while Polly and Ben interact elsewhere. Then Ben and Jamie are paired, while Polly interacts with the police outside the bank. It's a simple thing - but the shifting of the character pairs goes a long way toward keeping all the characters alive in the story throughout, while at the same time contributing to the fast pace.

The story benefits from Big Finish's usual polished production, but its success is brought home by Frazer Hines. His performance is nothing short of remarkable, as he enacts full scenes in which he voices every character. There's a tense scene in Part Two in which the Doctor, Jamie, the Selachians, Ben, and the bank manager all interact, discussing and threatening and arguing... and it was only after I had finished listening to the story that I reflected that this scene, and others like it, were created with a single actor. Between Hines' dead-on imitations of Patrick Troughton and Michael Craze, his ability to recreate his own 1960's performance, and his distinct voices for the guest characters, the story often feels less like an enhanced audio book than like a narrated full-cast play.

An outstanding central performance, bolstering an already well-constructed and clever story. It's often easiest to lavish praise on serious dramas than on lighter pieces like this one. But when a light story is pulled off as brilliantly as The Selachian Gambit is, then it deserves just as much praise. 

This is an excellent little story, one I will certainly revisit in the future. 


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Television Story: The Macra Terror
Next Television Story: The Faceless Ones

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

2nd Doctor Audio Review Index

2nd Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

5-9. The Forbidden Time.

2 episodes. Approx. 62 minutes. Written by: "David Lock." Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines.


THE PLOT

When the TARDIS encounters a barrier within the Time Vortex, the Doctor becomes determined to investigate. "People shouldn't build walls in the Time Vortex," he declares, while admitting that he hadn't previously thought it possible to do so. He, Ben, Polly, and Jamie step out of the TARDIS into 1970's London...

...And they find themselves in a shadow world. The physical landscape of London is intact, but it all has a sort of a gray, dead feeling. The Doctor announces that they have travelled sideways in time. The four head back to the TARDIS. But they are too late. The Vist - a species of alien Time Walkers - block their retreat. Separated from Jamie and Ben, the Doctor and Polly flee the Vist across this surreal, crumbling landscape!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The defining moment of the 2nd Doctor's run is almost certainly his declaration that evil does exist and must be fought. That said, there's an arresting visual moment at the end of this audio story, one that also sums him up well. He is facing the Vist, trying to summon up some fragments of authority. The monster laughs at the 2nd Doctor's disgust at its immorality, at his pretensions of authority. The Doctor talks at a rapid clip, and seems to talk himself into an even worse position than he was in already. Until we see that he has actually woven a web with his words, trapping the Vist by leading all of the aliens to do the one thing that can lead to their defeat. The small, foolish, disheveled little man, who is also the smartest and strongest presence in the room. If that's not the Troughton Doctor, what is?

Polly: Is clearly distraught when it appears Ben has been killed by the Vist, and she even refers to Ben as "my Ben" a few times during the story. With her highly empathic nature, it's not surprising that she's the first to notice the wrongness of this gray London, devoid of life. Despite this being a Companion Chronicle narrated by Polly, though, this story doesn't really do that much with her. She largely exists within the Doctor's shadow in this story, simply observing as he drives the action.

Jamie: Listening to this not long after watching/listening to several stories from Season Four, it is clear how much Frazer Hines' voice has changed in the intervening decades. That said, he has little difficulty in summoning up Jamie's basic character - no surprise, given how many times he's played the role for Big Finish over the past few years. Jamie is genuinely frightened of the Vist, but he still confides in a message to his friends that for all the dangers they've faced, he "wouldn't have missed (their adventures) for the world."

Ben: A secret car enthusiast. Ben confesses that every time the TARDIS has brought them back to London, in any time period, he checks out car magazines, and he can fairly accurately judge Earth time periods by this point by what cars are on the road (he and my father would certainly get on, though they'd probably drive any non-car enthusiast in earshot crazy). When the Vist block the TARDIS and move in on the Doctor and Polly, Ben doesn't hesitate to leap into the fray, putting himself at risk to distract the aliens' attention.


THOUGHTS

Written by the pseudonymous David Lock (identified by Wikipedia as Andy Lane), The Forbidden Time is a perfectly fine story. It's atmospheric, with Big Finish's sound designers doing their usual sterling job of creating an audioscape. It's highly visual, with the image of a parallel Earth, devoid of people and gray with decay, as its backdrop. It evokes the sense of the characters runnng through a Salvador Dali painting - with Dali even getting a namecheck by the script at one point!

For a story set during the black & white era of the television program, it's almost surprising how much use David Lock's script makes of color. The grayness of this world tips Polly off instantly that it's "wrong," and when the real world reasserts itself it's noted that the characters are moving "between black and white and color." The Vist's fortress is also detailed in a way that makes use of vivid colors. All of this brings the story to life. But while I normally visualize 1960's-set audios in black & white, this time the story was definitely in color.

This isn't the first Companion Chronicle to be read by two companions, but it may be the most ingenious use of the "second Companion." Jamie isn't simply a random second voice, dropped in whenever he has a line, nor is he an equal to Polly in telling the story. Instead, he is a supporting narrator, telling us Jamie's side of the story. This has the effect of letting us "cut away" from the Doctor and Polly to Jamie's scenes, in such a way that it doesn't compromise Polly as the principle narrator. It's clever.

Unfortunately, The Forbidden Time never quite gets beyond simply being clever. For the first episode, and the first bit of the second, I had hopes that this would be one of the range's most memorable outings. But once you get past the setting, the clever narrative devices, and the atmosphere, there just isn't much to the actual story. The Vist are a potentially strong adversary, and Anneke Wills does an effective job (with a boost from the sound designers) of making their voices genuinely eerie, if occasionally difficult to understand. But their agenda, when we discover it, is so... small, and frankly downright uninteresting. And the ending sees them far too easily defeated by the Doctor's fairly transparent ruse.

Ultimately, I enjoyed The Forbidden Time. The narrative devices are genuinely creative. The characters feel right. The production's general atmosphere and the typically strong reading by Anneke Wills make it an easy story to visualize. It just feels like this story should have been more than it is. I enjoyed the ride; I just wish I didn't feel vaguely dissatisfied at the end.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Television Story: The Macra Terror
Next Television Story: The Faceless Ones

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

2nd Doctor Audio Review Index

2nd Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

3-9. Resistance.

2 episodes. Approx. 61 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, John Sackville.

THE PLOT

The TARDIS materializes in Vichy France during the waning days of World War II. The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie have barely had a chance to step outside before they are spotted by members of the Milice (essentially, the French Gestapo). They scatter and flee, but Polly does observe Jamie getting shot before she loses sight of him.

The Doctor and Polly manage to stay together, but they are cut off from Ben and Jamie, who the Doctor suspects have probably been captured. Their only hope to find their friends is to make contact with the French Resistance. With Polly posing as a French girl and the Doctor as an English spy, they manage to join a line of evaders being escorted at great risk to Spain.

Among these evaders is a British pilot, shot down over France two weeks earlier. As the man discusses his background with one of the suspicious Resistance leaders, Polly has a startling realization: This British pilot is her uncle, who was captured and eventually died in a German POW camp in 1944!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though there is no questioning his brilliance, Polly has severe doubts about his practicality. The Doctor's actual actions seem to belie these doubts. He spends most of the story keeping Polly's nerves calm. He concocts a cover story for them to satisfy the Resistance, and keeps Polly from giving them away when questioned by a Resistance member early in Episode Two. His skills as a forger come in handy, as well.

Mostly, we see this Doctor's strong capacity for compassion. He senses Polly's self-doubts, and takes the time to directly answer them in a wonderful scene at the story's end. Anneke Wills doesn't attempt to mimic Troughton's voice (a good thing), but she does imbue a certain gravelly quality to the Doctor's lines. This, and a deliberately slower and softer line delivery when the Doctor speaks, conjures up the gentler aspects of Troughton's characterization, making a good fit for this particular story.

Polly: Has significant doubts about her own usefulness. She sees Ben as the pragmatic one, Ben and Jamie as being useful in fighting the assorted monsters and villains they encounter, and the Doctor as brilliant. But she feels that there's no real role for her, and owrries that she hasn't truly made a difference. That's one reason she latches so firmly onto the hope of saving her uncle. Anneke Wills, whose voice has not aged much in the 45 years since she played the role regularly, recaptures her 1960's performance very effectively, making Polly's view of the story's events highly relatable to the listener.

Ben/Jamie: Each of the televised stories featuring this quartet reduces at least one of them per story to "glorified extra" status, so it's appropriate that Ben and Jamie become glorified extras here. They are really only glimpsed at the very beginning and end of the story. Polly does spend a lot of time worrying about them, though. Not surprisingly, most of her thoughts turn to Ben and his pragmatic streak, to the point that she invokes his voice when trying to convince herself to take some sort of action.


THOUGHTS

Resistance seems to be a story that splits listeners. Its detractors dislike it for the reasons historicals are usually disliked by some: It's slow-paced, with no real science fiction twists or elements and a fairly predictable narrative trajectory. Additionally, some have complained that a pure historical is out of place in Troughton's era. Never mind that this could be said of any Doctor other than Hartnell!

As my Who reviews to date have probably shown, I'm rather a fan of the pure historicals. I regret that they were curtailed so early in the series' run, and I'm glad that Big Finish have redressed the balance by producing several pure historicals for the various Doctors. It's therefore probably not surprising that I'm in the other camp with regard to Resistance: I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There are two things this story does very well. The story only really has time to sketch out the setting of Vichy France, but it's a good sketch. The pilot's narration lets us know that a British pilot seeking aid from a random French civilian is as likely to encounter a supporter of the fascists as a Resistance member. One Resistance member has a cousin who is in the Milice. When the pilot asks if her cousin would "turn a blind eye" given their family connection, the girl shoots down that suggestion with a single look. The Resistance members are paranoid with good reason, and there's a real sense of them being under constant threat.

The other area in which the story succeeds is Polly's characterization. She isn't given any over-the-top secrets or traumas - This is very much the Polly on view in the late Hartnell and early Troughton eras. But by filtering the story through her viewpoint, and by making that story so personal to her, it gives her character that extra dimension that was often lacking in the televised stories.

The pace may be measured, but it isn't dull. Between the details of the Resistance line and the sense of anxiety and paranoia among the Resistance members, there is plenty in the narrative to hold my interest. Writer Steve Lyons does an excellent job of pulling the historical and character threads together, and I found the final scene between the Doctor and Polly to be particularly touching. Finally, Anneke Wills does a splendid job of reading the story, effectively conveying all of the regulars without stooping to mimicry, and at the same time giving a restrained yet highly emotional performance as Polly.

Those who don't usually like historicals probably won't find their minds changed by this story. But I found it thoroughly satisfying, as enjoyable on this second listen as it was the first time around.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Television Story: The Macra Terror
Next Television Story: The Faceless Ones

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

2nd Doctor Audio Review Index

2nd Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads