Review of Robin of Sherwood: Knights of the Apocalypse

Warning: Minor Spoilers!

Robin of Sherwood ended with a 3rd season cliffhanger, as a ratings hit on ITV that had weathered changing its leading man from Michael Praed to Jason Connery. Sadly the funding for a 4th season fell through, and later ITV foolishly turned down the offer of a reunion TV movie which would have seen all the cast (including by then massive movie star Ray Winstone) come back.

That was that until 30 years later the remaining cast reunited for a Big Finish style 2 CD adventure based on the TV Movie script by the show's now-deceased creator, Richard Carpenter. Via an Indiegogo campaign that funded in 24 hours, the entire cast came back, namely Robert of Huntington (Connery), Marion, Little John, Will Scarlett (Winstone), Much, Tuck, Nazir (the now-not-so-silent Saracen assassin that led to numerous copycat characters in nearly every subsequent iteration), the Sheriff, Abbot Hugo and the Earl of Huntington. They even got Michael Praed back, though not as a ghostly echo of Robin of Loxley.

Sadly Robert Addie, the actor who played Gisburne, a major player in Robin of Sherwood, passed away and the replacement actor sounds nothing like his distinctive voice. On the other hand Herne is played by the original actor's son ably and Terry Molloy effortlessly replaces the recurring rat-obsessed prisoner from the series. Anthony Head plays the suave Grandmaster of the Knights of the Apocalypse, while Colin Baker hams it up as a seemingly horse-obsessed sorcerous knight who faces off against the Merries.

Knights of the Apocalypse deals with a particularly nasty sect of templars who indulge in the worst excesses the templars were accused of - worship of Baphomet, sorcery and favouring the material rather than spiritual. The audio has the feel of some of the more memorable and supernatural episodes of the series, in particular the Baron Belleme episodes, the Seven Swords of Wayland and the finale, Time of the Wolf, though the Knights plan is a little unclear and the Sheriff feels a little shoe-horned into the later plot (though I love Nickolas Grace's definitive sheriff).

Knights doesn't resolve the Season 3 cliffhanger (though does briefly mention what happened), nor does it really use any of the dangling Season 3 threads (such as Robert and Gisburne being half-brothers or dealing with the final fate of Robin Hood and his Merry Men). The Earl of Huntington's interactions with Robert even seem to ignore the fact they made peace in the Season 3 episode Rutterkin (though I suppose years have passed).

The audio is great - all of the characters sound great, and while they didn't get the rights to all of the original Clannad soundtrack Spiteful Puppet managed to get a Clannad-style soundtrack that compliments the original nicely. There are also lots of nice character moments. One recurring character buys it in a rather permanent fashion, but there is scope for a sequel (and hopefully an interquel that resolves the Season 3 cliffhangers). However there's a lot of actors to get together, and this was a for-charity audio. I do hope they do another one (and not resort to some sort of talking-book Companion Chronicle style release that many audio series descend into, like the revive Blake's 7).

Some Radio Links

Dreadtime Stories are a series of horror audio dramas by Fangoria magazine that they make for free over the web for one month, and sell the back catalog for a pittance (~£1 for a download). They're very much in the vein of an anthology horror movie (like my dear beloved Creepshow, a cheesy horror movie I used to while away evenings watching) crossed with classic American old time radio. They feature Malcolm McDowell, an actor with a sci-fi career so distinguished that his characters have killed William Shatner (Star Trek Generations) and Mark Hamill (Wing Commander IV, if you lose) as the narrator at times putting on a bit of an American drawl, though perhaps that's because he's been over there so long.
 
The current one for streaming as of July, 'Mercy' isn't exactly typical of the stories but is fairly ghoulish if a bit obvious in its execution. Probably my favourite one is "A Fungus Among Us", which is a very nihilistic classic horror-thriller in audio format.

The acting is a little hokey (people don't speak naturally, perhaps it's because I'm a Brit, and seem awfully ghoulish) and there is quite a bit of gore for audio, but it's well worth a look. I've listened to all 10 of them now via the stream and Audible.

Also by the same repertory company is the Twilight Zone Radio Show. I was a little disappointed with this in the sense that the website said it was a reimagining of the Twilight Zone for audio, with modernised stories. Most of the stories are retellings of original Twilight Zone episodes and are not updated. They feel amusingly like 1960s period pieces.

Mind you it does seem a bit of a shame there isn't a Twilight Zone/Horror Short anthology show on television these days.

Demon Quest: Not So Good

Over the Christmas Break I listened to the remaining audios in the Demon's Quest series, a fourth doctor audio series the BBC brought out. I'd listened to part 1, but had tried to listen to part 2 several times and either fell asleep, lost concentration or just didn't care.

Sadly the latest five offerings slowly began to wear me down and it took a long drive back to Scotland to get me to listen to them. First a little background...

Two years ago Tom Baker surprised everyone by getting out the right side of bed and deciding he wanted to play the Doctor before. This was after years of refusing Big Finish's offers to lure him back, including one alleged incident where he may have made disparaging remarks about the scripts belonging in the bin. Incidentally the scripts he is supposed to have been offered were reworked for other doctors and were in my opinion universally good. They are the Holy Terror (now a 6th Doctor audio), the Stones of Venice (which became an 8th Doctor audio - one I'm relatively cool on to be honest) and the Spectre of Lanyon Moor (a 6th Doctor and Brigadier adventure).

Unlike the other Doctors, the audios featuring Tom Baker were to be made by the BBC, not by Big Finish. Given Big Finish have to pay the BBC for the license to make classic Doctor Who audios I'd be a bit miffed if I were them. (I also live in fear the BBC will decide Doctor Who is so successful they will overprice the license or refuse them the license).

One of the reasons Tom said he wanted to do audios as the Doctor was he wanted to work with Nicholas Courtney - the Brigadier. Sadly before recording Nick had a stroke and was unable to do the audios. The audios were rewritten to feature Captain Yates - a companion who betrayed the 3rd Doctor and thus was last featured in Pertwee's swansong. This was less than ideal as he'd never met the 4th Doctor, though it was said early in the first Hornet's Nest he'd met the 4th Doctor at one of the Brig's UNIT Christmas parties.

The Hornet's Nest featured Yates meeting a pre-Romana Doctor in a cottage in 2010 Surrey he owns - called Nest Cottage. He also runs into the mysterious housekeeper, Mrs. Wibbsey. The baton of narration passes to the Doctor narrates four stories to Yates relating to his current predicament relating to a race of interstellar hornets, with the odd additional cast members interacting with Tom. In the fifth CD the Doctor, Wibbsey and Yates go off and finally deal with the Hornets.

It worked on some levels, but failed on others. I thought the acting was at time wooden (occasionally from Yates), and the idea of the Doctor telling us what he's thinking does away with the whole Who part of Doctor Who.

Tom Baker sounds in both series of audios like he is playing an old man. He portrays sherry and brandy swilling 4th Doctor sat by the fireside in a cottage, walking the dog and complaining about his old bones. Personally I always saw Tom Baker's doctor as an energetic (mostly) tea-totaller.

Anyroads here is a review of the latest series of audios.

Here Be Spoilers!
Turn back if ye be not wishing to be spoiled

The Relics of Time: The Doctor loses 4 bits of his TARDIS thanks to Mrs. Wibbsey and traces one to Roman Britain via some artifacts a stranger swapped Wibbsey for the TARDIS parts. He encounters a figure from history who has the missing TARDIS piece and narrowly avoids being taken off in his dematerialisation chamber. This is sadly starts a theme of a character being the titular demon in disguise, the Doctor narrowly avoiding being taken in his dematerialisation chamber and a TARDIS piece being found at the end of the first 4 audios.

3/5

The Demon of Paris: This is where my attention really nodded off. This is a 19th century mystery featuring the Doctor and Wibbsey around the Moulin Rouge. They meet the artist Toulouse-Lautrec, an absinthe-swilling artist who may be committing atrocious murders under the influence of absinthe and who painted the famous bohemian art piece that the 4th Doctor's look is said to be derived from. Given the remaining cast consists of his cemetery trudging concierge, La Charlotte - a slattern both of whom seem to appear and disappear whenever the plot requires it I worked out they were the baddies and were trying to get the Doctor into a dispersion chamber. It failed to grab me or be as charming as say City of Death.

1/5 (Jeez!)

The Shard of Ice: Probably the best part of the series this features the Doctor and Yates (who they've recruited as he decided to come to Nest Cottage for no apparent reason and features in the 3rd artifact). They are in the mountains of Germany with Albert Tiermann, a literally cold-hearted story teller who has sold his heart to a demon in order to gain the inspiration to write stories. The majority of the story is Albie trying to steal the Doctor's book of his future-stories that lured them to the area.

This turns out to be a red-herring, as it's part of the Demon's plan to lure the Doctor into his lair and dematerialisation chamber. He escapes, finding another bit of the TARDIS and releasing Tiermann from the demon's influence.

4/5

Starfall: Wibbsey, Doc and Yates turn up in New York, lured by a comic cover featuring them and a girl getting changed into a superheroine by a meteor. This happens, with the girl becoming Miss Starfall and flying around New York, while the Doc and Yates get arrested for murders the demon is committing when they find some bodies. Wibbsey hangs around with Starfall's employer, an actress called Mimsy.

The whole superheroine plotline turns out to be a rather daft red-herring, as it's part of the Demon's plan (who is Mimsy) to lure the Doctor into its rooms and the dematerialisation chamber. There's also a cult of people dressed like 4th Doctor doing a ritual that can somehow weaken the Doctor, like Kryptonite. This again doesn't really lead anywhere. We also learn the Demon is from a place called Sepulchre and that this is probably where the Demon keeps trying to take the Doctor. It does capture Wibbsey though.

The story is narrated by Ms. Starfall's Stan Lee-esque boyfriend, who has to preface a lot of his narration with "I did not see this part, but the Doctor then..."

1/5 (3/5 until the whole creation of the superheroine was revealed to be the Demon's plan to lure the Doctor into its clutches, considering she uses her powers to save him).

Sepulchre: The Doc and Yates go to rescue Wibbsey on Sepulchre. This kind of makes the whole collecting TARDIS bits a little redundant since this was where the Demon wanted to take the Doctor for the last 4 CDs.

Unable to escape as the TARDIS disappears (d'oh) the Doctor is captured and hooked up to a machine to make a star atlas. The Demon turns up to be working for... a single surviving hornet from the previous CD series. Also GASP! Wibbsey was possessed by the hornet which is why she gave away parts of the TARDIS. The Doctor outwits the hornet, the Demon escapes and everyone else escaped back to Nest Cottage, for another Christmas. But then Wibbsey is captured, meaning there'll be a 3rd series of these...

3/5

Overall Arc: 2/5 (sorry - it makes no sense).

As a whole the arc between the 5 CDs is like a dreadful RTD arc. Large portions of the individual stories are red-herrings (namely the appearance of Emperor Claudius in CD 1, the paintings of Latrec, the fairy-tales and demon's persona Snow Queen in CD 3 and the superheroine in CD 4).

The whole story arc could have been 1 CD long - in that Hornet-possessed Wibbsey could have hit the Doctor on the head in his cottage or put a reefer in his tea/scotch thus knocking him out, called the demon, taken him to Sepulchre and he would've had to escape. Or it could've made an army of superheroines that were actually loyal to itself. Or any one of a number of things.

Yates's involvement was pointless - seemingly included just because he was in the previous series of stories. I wish they'd brought the Brig back, but at 81 I suspect he should take it easy.

Big Finish are still rumoured to be making finally 4th Doctor audios starring Tom Baker. His reservations about the scripts seem ironic given the problems with these scripts. Unlike Hornet's Nest and Demon's Quest these will most likely be full cast audio without linking narration. I suspect they will replace the seasons of Eighth Doctor adventures that are sadly coming to an end, though we'll likely not see them until 2012. Big Finish have a habit of announcing products a year before they come out to court subscriptions to fund productions. Given we've heard nothing official I suspect there'll be a wait.

I don't want you to think I'm down on narration in audios. One of my favourite 8th Doctor audios - Season of Fear - features Paul McGann giving linking narration in the vein of his monologues in the TV Movie. Given this was a 4 part story set across over 4 time zones (ancient Rome, the time of Edward the Confessor, the 19th century and 1930s Singapore) one can forgive them for cutting the story down to ~100 mins with narration, most of which gets the Doctor back to the TARDIS and on with the quest.

If they do a third series of BBC audios (which apparently will not affect Big Finish's ability to produce their own 4th Doctor audios) I, in my armchair quarterback capacity, would suggest they avoid hornets and remove the "talking book" parts of the scripts. I love the Wibbsey character, but ditch Yates. They should also ditch the arcs and try some one-offs, perhaps also throwing in some traditional Doctor Who elements. I'm loathe to suggest Daleks or Cybermen but something like that might revitalize the series. Also - rather than having 1 script writer, Paul Magrs (who has written some good stuff in the past, but seems a bit stretched to write 5 1 CD adventures) perhaps they might want to try some other writers.

Sadly this is my least favourite Dr. Who audio series in a while. They were only £6 a CD I suppose, so I got what I paid for.

Situation Vacant (Spoilers)

Episode 4.1 was out at Christmas. It involved the Eighth Doctor and Lucie parting ways sadly after the events of The Zygon Who Fell To Earth came to the fore. In many ways it was the bookend to Season 3 as that ended with the Headhunter dying, effectively ending Lucie's other arc.

Despite a bonus story featuring Susan and her son Alex, the Eighth Doctor was now companionless, which leads into Situation Vacant, or Doctor Who Meets The Apprentice (from the people who brought you Doctor Who Meets Top Gear and Doctor Who Meets The Office).

The genius is that the Doctor has been put in a situation where he has to choose a companion from four candidates who include:-

Hugh Bainbridge - an amiable public school type who, though perhaps not the brightest tool in the box, is happy to rush in where Time Lords fear to tread. James Bachman from That Mitchell and Webb Look and Bleak Expectations was cast.

Juliet Walsh - a tough cookie. A driven and highly successful career woman, there is nothing she won't do to close the deal. Juliet Walsh's is played by Niky Wardley who has appeared as Lauren's sidekick in The Catherine Tate Show; All the Small Things; Benidorm and Shameless.

Asha Qureshi - a no-nonsense, capable young woman with a tendency towards precociousness and a surprising ability to cope with the unexpected. Shelley Conn is Asha whose previous projects include the BBC's Party Animals.

Theo Lawson - Theo is King of the Geeks; an introverted and computer savvy teenager who knows more about gigabytes than he does about girls. Joe Thomas, who is Simon from The Inbetweeners plays him.

It's worth noting that each of the candidates is played by a 'celebrity' who you might have heard of. Just as Sheridan Smith (Lucie) had the cache of having been in Two Pints of Lager and other shows (including a stint with Paul McGann on Jonathan Creek) each of these potential companions has been in something you're likely to have heard from.

Spoilers...

Stop Reading

Lest Ye Be Spoiled

Hugh and Theo were sufficiently goofy that it was clear to me that they would never make it to companion status. At the end of the first part the Doctor dismisses Juliet for, quite fairly, a major cockup involving a bottle of orange juice. This of course made it clear she would redeem herself later.

However the episode keeps you guessing - at the end of the story the Doctor appears to offer Hugh a place in the TARDIS. Given James Bachman has a pretty cool voice (you'll recognise it if you listen in) this was a punch-the-air moment - until Juliet appears at the 11th hour.

It's hard to be tough on this story as it is quite cleverly written, explaining why the Doctor is in this situation. He's not actually the one who has organised the audition, but rather he's investigating the message that was sent to the candidates. He also learns that these 4 candidates were rejected for being evil or an actress. The thread of who was auditioning companions is left dangling for resolution elsewhere this season.

I'm not over the moon with the choice of companion. I was always going to discount both the lads as they were portrayed very bungly. Later we learn Theo and Hugh are both sadly evil (Theo is a megalomaniac who tries to take over every computer on Earth and Hugh is a vampire) and dispatched accordingly, Asha on the other hand is the wrong side of slightly nasty and Juliet turns out to be called Tamzin and is a slightly past her prime actress thinking she's appearing on a reality TV show.

Thinking about the companion it was pretty obvious. Sadly the Doctor never travels solely with a male companion these days. Poor Arthur Darville seems an afterthought in the 11th Doctor era, and I wonder if he'll last long during Matt Smith's 2nd season. Nicky Ward's status as Catherine Tate's sidekick makes her Doctor Who cache all the more obvious.

Part of me suspects we'll still see Lucie return this season. The Eighth Doctor adventures mirror the current TV series - which could include kitchen-sink finale. The Daleks will be back. Susan will be back. Presumably we'll find who the time traveller who was auditioning companions is.

There are 9 more episodes this season - which is the last Eighth Doctor Adventures season. Don't ask me why - the 8th Doctor will continue as his adventures are rolled into the regular releases again. Tom Baker is reportedly joining Big Finish, and perhaps they want to make monthly releases with him. It is also possible Big Finish's partnership with BBC7 is not paying off as much as they'd like - only half of Season 3 was aired with them to date.

However this year's special is going to be the Four Doctors - starring Doctors 5,6,7 and 8. Lots of McGann this year before the famine next year.

Dr. Stu on Dr. Who

No - not Waters of Mars. I'll maybe blog about that again at some point. For now move along if that's what you're interested in.

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I've not been blogging a lot recently - I'm twittering a lot more these days. One of the results of my twittering was that recently the lovely people at the WhoCast reviewed the Company of Friends, a Doctor Who audio play starring my favourite Doctor, Paul McGann. I felt it was only fair I reciprocate and make my thoughts known (particularly as one of the podcasters sounded in physical pain due to his experiences).

I personally was not too fussed about this release - I'd rather Big Finish had created 4 short McGann plays in keeping with their own continuity. In my mind the McGann audios are the canon eighth doctor era and creating a series of 4 short audios that link with the novels and comic books was a cluster-frak in terms of continuity. There are events in these separate continuities that invalidate the other continuities and at times don't even link with the current television series.

For example in the comics Ace dies, the 7th Doctor and Sarah-Jane hang out and Rassilon is a good guy who the Doctor has met time and time again. In the novels Gallifrey is destroyed, but not by the Daleks, Romana regenerates again and becomes an enemy of the Doctor and so on.

As for the novels there are dozens of 8th doctor novels, but I'm not that much of a fan to read them - especially as they did not conclude before the 2005 series came back.

It's also worth considering that the last time Big Finish explicitly addressed the separate 8th doctor continuities it was in Zagreus - and was (in my opinion) a bit of a disaster. With this trepedation in mind I did however listen to the plays over the summer break, whilst in darkest Exmoor and have finally got round to blogging about them. Here is a breakdown of the 4 plays:-

Benny's Story - I'm not familiar with the Bernice Summerfield range. I have some Benny novels, but they were given to me for free as the result of a botched order from Big Finish and currently take up space in my wardrobe rather than my bookshelf (don't ask!). She was a companion of the 7th doctor for a large portion of the pre-1996 novels and teamed up with the McGann doctor in another novel, and (in a wafer thin example of author-surrogacy) may have slept with him. This story is unremarkable and seems to play off the novelty of having McGann and Bernice in a fairly ho-hum corridor chaser. Sadly, not being a fan, the novelty is lost on me. 4/10 - but as Lisa Bowerman (Benny) has graciously added me as a friend on Facebook I'll up it to 6/10 and promise to one day listen to the Bernice Summerfield range.

Fitz's Story - I -really- liked this one. Maybe I miss the fact that the Doctor never seems to get a 'normal' bloke as his companion. Case in point, Captain Jack, C'Rizz and Turlough all having their own peculiarities. It's a light, comedic episode which is hilarious partly due to the infomercials that McGann's doctor performs against his will (and is that him doing additional accents?) and due to Fitz's comedic nature. The only problem is the continuity of Fitz's tenure coincided with another companion, Anji, who (suspending disbelief) spends the whole episode badly hung-over and unable to take part in the episode. 7/10

Izzy's Story - I actually bought the 4 volumes of the McGann Doctor's comic books - this is where Izzy comes from. Izzy, a very loud shouty girl, leads the Doctor off in search of a rare 2000AD-esque comic book. Hilarity ensues - though I was not taken with the actress playing Izzy. This was a reasonabble showing however - and weird enough to be an example of the daftness of the 8th doctor's comics. 5/10

Mary's Story - This was the one I expected I would like the most as it did not have to frak around with the 8th doctor era. I did like it the most, though the writers felt the need to have McGann list companions from all the different types of spin-off novel, audio etc. at one point.

Storm Warning, the first McGann audio, had a throw away reference about Mary Shelley (as did Shada if I remember correctly, though that also implied Chronotis was there). This personally annoys me slightly as I liked to assume Storm Warning was set immediately after the TV Movie.

A later McGann play (Terror Firma) made it clear it was not as it retroactively added two companions called Samson and Gemma who had been adventuring with the 8th doctor prior to Storm Warning. Interestingly the reason for this addition was because an earlier McGann play had referred to "Sam", a companion out of the novels. This was meant to allow the audios to exist in their own continuity as the Sam was retroactively made to fit "Samson", a male companion. Of course these plays have references to the novel-Sam as well as the audio-Samson.

Argh!

This episode shows Mary Shelley become a full blown companion and of course has some very clever Frankenstein allusions. As the WhoCast pointed out technically it's a multi-doctor story, and one that would be relatively easy to do in the TV show. It takes place both at the start and possibly near the end of the McGann era. It is very clever, aside from the unnecessary fanwank of having the Doctor feverishly name Gemma (retconned audio companion), Compassion (novel companion), Destrii (comic companion), Charlie (audio), Lucie (audio), Alex (unknown), Tod (unknown) and Retha (unknown). Tin of worms for table one!

It would be very easy for me to be harsh in my criticisms of this play but it is very clever, very well acted and despite its continuity headaches is the best of the bunch. I do hope we see more of Mary's saga however. 9/10

Fistful of Audios: Hornet's Nest 1

I listened to the first Fourth Doctor audio. Sadly I was underwhelmed by this audio - it wasn't bad, but sadly it was nowhere near as good as the first Eighth Doctor audios.

Tom refuses to work with Big Finish - the audios are from the BBC Audiobook team who up until now have only had Tom reading novelisations of old TV episodes. Tom has a habit of avoiding working in the same area as other Doctors. When offered scripts from Big Finish he unkindly mentioned he put them in bin - amusingly one of these scripts is by the guy who wrote all five of these new audios. Supposedly he suggested doing new material and is more comfortable working with his chums at BBC Audio than Big Finish. Perhaps he feels more comfortable with them than the Big Finish crowd (who are by all accounts nice people who make nice lunches).

The format is somewhat schizo - switching from audiobook to audioplay for certain scenes, but with dollops of narration (mainly from Tom). The basic story is that Retired Captain Yates has been lured to The Nest, a cottage the Doctor owns in Sussex. (Let's be honest it was never going to be outside the home counties). He proceeds to tell Mike about his recent adventures relating to a group of hornet-like aliens that he has trapped in his cottage - or have him trapped?

The Doctor is suspiciously similar to the 70 odd-year Tom Baker. He complains about his old bones, lives in a cottage and walks his dog (called Captain) in the countryside. There's the occassional witty remarks but most of his time is spent narrating his story to Mike.

The guy who voices Captain Yates is relatively flat. As the initial narrator he is competent but when he reacts indignantly to the Doctor, demanding to know what's going on, it does not sound so different from the tone he narrates with.

Truth be told this would be a reasonably good story but some of the really witty bits are narrated flatly rather than acted. There's still some good stuff from Tom when he's not in narrator-mode, but the only characters with voices are Mike Yates, the housekeeper and Mister Noggin.

Additionally this is 1/5 of the full story, and despite appearances to the contrary does not stand on its own terribly well. It ends with a cliffhanger of the Doctor preparing to tell yet another story to Yates. Will Yates survive? Probably. Will my interest survive? For now. I do hope this series is a success and leads to a proper series of audio plays.

Return of Tom Baker to Doctor Who

No Tom's not going to appear in the TV show in some kind of Time Crash event as he told Doctor Who Magazine he would not want to do that. Instead he is starring in a new series of Doctor Who audios, called Hornet's Nest, featuring his doctor post-Invasion of Time, travelling to 2009 and renting a cottage on the south coast of England and getting into all sorts of whacky adventures.

These are made by the BBC, not Big Finish, which is a little bit of a kick in the teeth to that company, but sadly Tom Baker seems to do things his own way, rather than associating with anything involving the other doctors. His reason for doing these audios is (very Tom Bakerish) that he was sick of saying no to the various reprisal offers he gets, and because he wanted to work with Nicholas Courtney (or more likely go down the pub with him after recording).

Interestingly his companion is Mike Yates, a Pertwee-era companion. Sadly it was originally intended to be a very old Brigadier, but poor Nicholas Courtney is not very well. I hope he has a speedy recovery and gets involved in a 2nd series of Tom Baker audios. I also hope people's bank balance can afford all these radio plays from Big Finish and the BBC.

A dedicated website is being setup by the BBC and it looks like just the thing before the next season of McGann audios start up in December again!

Highlander Audios

Big Finish, the guys who make Doctor Who audios, Stargate audios, Sapphire and Steel audios, 2000 AD audios and even audios for the recently cancelled Robin Hood have started making Highlander audios. Yay!

I recently purchased the first one with a view to listening to it on holiday it looks very cool and is explicitly set during Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source, even explicitly referencing significant events in Endgame (no - not that one - they reference the villain!) It's narrated by Adrian Paul, who has a bit of an accent, but with a 2nd voice typically as the villain of the piece.

I've bought the other 2 audios as well and hope to have the last one when it is released. Sadly given the dismal activity on their forums and the other Highlander forums I don't imagine a 2nd season being commissioned - I never thought of Highlander the TV Series as that popular in the UK - which is Big Finish's main market. However if I'm wrong I'll be queueing up to buy more.

Doctor Stu on Doctor Who

This year is apparently going to be the year of the McGann. As David Tennant is taking the year off and there's hardly any shows on TV Big Finish have ramped up production of the 3rd season of Doctor Who starring Paul McGann.

There are 9 episodes as part of the regular season - Orbis, Hothous, The Beast of Orlok (which sounds interestinh), Wirrn Dawn, The Scapegoat, The Cannibalists, The Eight Truths, Worldwide Web and a Christmas special called Death in Blackpool (which I hope will write Lucie out, not because I hate her but I'd rather she left before the doctor-companion relationship gets stale like with Charley).

As if 9 audio plays is not enough there are two more releases - Company of Friends is a series of audio adventures featuring the 8th doctor and a non-audio companion. The first one features Izzy, the 90s sci-fi geek he hung out with in the comics (which aren't half bad!). The second stars a guy called Fitz from the Eighth Doctor novels that never really concluded because of the new series (though to be fair with over 73 novels in that series they could've wound it up I'm sure). The third features Bernice Summerfield who appeared in other novels I've not read and really can't be botherred to. The last one however team McGann's doctor up with Mary Shelley, a story that has been referenced a lot in the Eighth Doctor audios.

I must admit I am quite meh about Company of Friends. It sounds interesting but in terms of Eighth Doctor continuity it's a cluster-frak. The novels and comics completely contradict the audios and TV show (Ace dies, the 7th Doctor and Sarah-Jane hang out, Rassilon is a good guy, Romana regenerates again and this time becomes evil) and at times are completely bizarre (the Doctor and Izzy meet the actor Tom Baker in one comic). I'm not so sure why they feel the need to do link the disparate continuities - I'd like a series of audios with new companions rather than ones taken from various spinoff sources.

An Earthly Child - this could be interesting. It's the subscriber special and it looks damn tempting. The 8th Doctor returns to Earth to check on his granddaughter Susan. Except she has had a son, played by Jake McGann, Paul McGann's son.

Orbis

Finally listened to the Eight Doctor audio Orbis. Despite some negative reviews I found this story to be quite fun and yet has the underlying darkness of the Vengeance of Morbius.

Basically after Morbius the Doctor was marooned for 600 years on the planet Orbis which is inhabited by peaceful jellyfish who are under attack by a race of evil oysters.

It does have some really nice bits like the Doctor being more pleased to see his companion is wearing tights than actually seeing her for the first time in centuries. The quote "Tonight we bury our dead, tomorrow we build stilts" is awesome BTW. Also it looks like an arc may be in store for this season which is good as season 2 really suffered from a lack of a coherent storyline.

Dr. Stu on Dr. Who Triumphantly Returns

Yes, it's been a while. I'm not going to blog about the new series, or the improved but still excessively-mincy 2^nd season of Torchwood. I've listened to a lot of Big Finish over the summer and winter and as you know I like the Eighth Doctor.

The Girl Who Never Was didn't quite get rid of Charley "Good God You've Been in 112 episodes – Call It A Day" Pollard, a companion who had lately begun to get very stale and rather annoying. Ironically it was her posh manner and voice that was beginning to grate. Anyroads the play, which is very good and harks back to the excellent 2^nd season of McGann & Charley audios, ends with Charley marooned in the distant future and the Eighth Doctor suffering from amnesia, forgetting all but the first five minutes of the play and assuming that Charley has buggered off and left him. Sadly the play ends with Charley being rescued by...

Colin Baker's Doctor.

Yup – somehow Miss Pollard now travels with the Sixth Doctor, trying to pretend she's never seen a TARDIS or travelled in time with such great bluffs as "Why don't you use the scanner or... err..."

Somehow the Sixth Doctor (whose TV persona I loathe, though in all fairness his audios are very, very good) is going to forget this Miss Pollard, making it a bit pointless. I'm personally not in favour of diluting McGann's seasons by moving his companion into Colin Baker's era. It seems a little fanwanky. However Big Finish seem to be very loathe to let the actress who plays Charley go. I guess they like her a lot. Despite listening to and enjoying Baker and Pollard's first outing I think they're eeking the Pollard character too much. There's even a near identical sister in one of the spinoffs for frick's sake!

Meanwhile it's time for a new season of Eighth Doctor adventures. Not with Charley Pollard (thank gawd) but with brash Blackpool lass Lucie Miller, played by Sheridan Smith (that girl off Two Pints of Lager).

Dead London is an interesting idea – a maze of interlocked chunks of London (where else) from various time periods – Roman, Blitz and of course 2008. This is something the new series has not done yet – an episode that spans multiple time periods in any great depth. It features the bloke who plays Lord Ashfordly from Heartbeat playing many many characters. It's pretty good.

It's not as good as Max Warp though. It's a Top Gear rip-off, with Max Warp being a suspiciously similar show presented by a Clarksonesque misogonist, "Timbo the Ferret" who is no way a riff on Hammond the Hamster, and the boring third guy who is voiced by the guy off the old Rory Bremner show that wasn't Bremner or the one with the goggle eyes. While showing off the new Kith spaceship, Hammond – sorry Timbo has a terrible accident that is a little close to the knuckle and appears to have died. This is bad as the Kith and humans have recently been at war and one side is keen to accuse the other of starting trouble. The Kith are a sponge like race with Somerset accents voiced by the guy who was Little John in that classic movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Add in a president advised by a spin-droid, an Agatha Christie style murder mystery and some good one-liners and it is quite fun.

As you might have guessed it's not the most serious Doctor Who story.

Brave New Town is an interesting idea – a village of Auton people being used by the Soviets during the Cold War to train for infiltrating the UK. Only it's 2008 and no-one's told the Autons that are trapped in 1991 listening to Bryan Ferry. Sadly not as fun as the previous two it does however feature the image of the Eighth Doctor rescuing people in a double decker bus.

A Study in Emerald

Watching TV's been difficult for a while, so I've been listening to a lot of audio drama. I listened recently to a Neil Gaiman short story called "A Study In Emerald". It's part of an anthology of HP Lovecraft meets Sherlock Holmes stories called "Shadows over Baker Street", a book I intend on buying at some point when I start earning money for unnecessary things like books, food and petrol.

Anyroads Neil Gaman made the short story available on his website here. It parallels the original Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, where Holmes meets Watson. Obviously Study in Emerald is somewhat different, but if you don't understand it (and you need to be up on your Holmes-mythos more than your Cthulhu) the Wikipedia page explains everything here.

By the way, does anyone think Neil Gaiman looks like David Schwimmer (Ross from Friends). I just don't see it, but my esteemed colleague, Dr. Steve thinks otherwise... you decide...

More McGann

I've finally got round to listening to the rest of the Paul McGann plays as I rest up. It has to be said that a lot of the radio play blurbs sounded a little dull and out there in the 8th Doctor, Charley and dull-as-dish-water C'Rizz range. I was surprised that they were at worst average.

Time Works - the TARDIS materialises in a place where the people are virtually slaves to a race of clockwork men that exist out of phase with time and effectively eliminate those workers whose usefulness is at and end. The doctor gets puts in prison immediately... something that happens a lot in all these audios... Decidedly meh.

Something Inside - the Tardis materialises in the Cube, a prison for psychics that resembles the Cube from the movie the Cube. They get chased by something called the Brainworm. Surprisingly more compelling that the crap synopsis I have just given - I really expected this to be rubbish, but it wasn't. It's good.

Memory Lane - the TARDIS materialises in a prison that takes the form of a 1980s suburban street that stretches forever, with an ice cream van that swiftly steals the TARDIS and where every house houses an old lady watching the snooker and her inexplicably child-like adult grandson. C'Rizz is actually useful in this one. It's very good.

Absolution - this one is as I expected, bye-bye C'Rizz. Charley accidentally unleashes all the souls C'Rizz has been carrying around with him, hurtling the TARDIS into some sort of purgatory world of lost souls (yup, you could argue it's a prison again). C'Rizz then proceeds to become all-powerful, go bananas (much like he did in a couple of other stories) and kill a lot of people before the Doctor persuades him to stop and commit suicide. And this upsets Charley into leaving. It's okay, and presumably sets up Charley's final story.

As I've said before I think C'Rizz is as dull as dishwater as a chameleonic humanoid in an audio drama. The actor's voice never sounded particularly alien and he had a slight penchant for seeming shifty and untrustworthy. As to Charley, considering she has been a companion for 28 stories, it's also time for her to leave.

It's worth noting another season of McGann stories featuring Sheridan Smith have been commissioned - Dead London, Max Warp, Brave New Town, The Skull of Sobek (sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons module), Grand Theft Cosmos (a brilliant name but doubtless not involve the TARDIS shooting pimps and prostitutes), The Zygon Who Fell To Earth (a sequel to the Horror of Glam Rock) and a 2 parter called Kidnapped / Vengeance. Unlike before they'll be going on to CD before BBC 7 get their hands on them.

Blake's 7 Remake

The new Blake 7 Audio is being streamed on the Sci-Fi website, which is a bit of an odd way to distribute a radio drama on a BBC franchise, but hey-ho. Never really got into B7 - though I watched a reasonable chunk of the first season. Plan on giving this a whirl though.

Dr. Stu writes Dr. Who

They never should've made that Comic Creator, but here is my epic little creation - Doctor Who and Dumbass Companion go to meet Freddie Mercury. A concept worthy of the master, RTD himself.

I've saved it here as I doubt my comic will survive the moderation process. :)

Now with Episode 2 - I didn't even submit this one. :)

Doctor Who Witterings 2

I listened to the entire season of Doctor Who that were on BBC 7. Highly recommended. Paul McGann as you may know is my favourite Doctor and Sheridan Smith from Two Pints of Lager is his assistant, and suspiciously similar to her Two Pints character.

It was a long journey from Dundee to Leicester, so here is my thoughts on all of them (except the Dalek 2 parter which I probably wittered on about anyway). If you only listen to 1, make it Immortal Beloved.

Horror of Glam Rock - Not as funny as the clever as the title suggested, this still got a chuckle off me. The Glam Rock version of the Doctor Who theme is on my want list however.

Immortal Beloved - Clever story featuring a group of humans posing as members of the Greek pantheon and effectively living forever via cloning and memory transfer. Sufficiently angsty.

Phobos - Very nice episode about a fear elemental feeding off the extreme sports fanatics using the moon Phobos as a holiday retreat.

No More Lies - Didn't really get this one. I think it tried to be too clever by jumping in mid-story for the Doctor and Lucy. I think if I'd paid more attention to it than the road I would've appreciate it more. However if I'd done that I might not be here to blog this.

Human Resources - Excellent idea and everything the TV show's relatively disappointing finales should be. The Office meets Transformers meets Star Wars. This two parter sees the Doctor trying to rescue his companion only to destroy a warmachine masquerading as a corporate office only to discover it was in fact hired to keep the cybermen in check.

I also listened to Scaredy Cat (very short, not bad, but not fantastic) and Other Lives (steampunk and very, very good if a little contrived). These feature McGann and his companions are jolly-posh Charley Pollard and dull-as-dishwater "whoo I can change colour, oh I'm on radio" C'Rizz, who has not gotten any more likable and is in fact a psychopath. This might get interesting but from the reviews I've read C'Rizz is relatively undeveloped after this point. However the next two audios to come out with McGann are:-

101 Absolution
· October 2007
· 8th Doctor,
Charley, C'rizz

103 The Girl Who Never Was
· December 2007
· 8th Doctor,
Charley

There is no C'Rizz in 103, and the Girl Who Never Was may be a reference to the paradox arc that Charley had in the halcyon days of McGann's Seasons 1 and 2. Charley was supposed to die in the R101 aircrash, but the Doctor saved her.

Seems to me they're "resolving" McGann's old companions in favour of Sheridan Smith. I just hope C'Rizz dies in some heroic and interesting way.

Listening

Up here in my palatial mansion I've been listening to some more of Paul McGann's Dr. Who. The new stuff is premiering on BBC7 rather than going to CD, and is thus broadcast in 45 minutes rather than the old series style serials.

The first one Blood of the Daleks starts with a strange woman appearing in the Tardis, which is a bit unfortunate as that's exactly how this year's Christmas Special began. However it differs shortly after that as it turns out the northern-accent woman is Lucie Miller, a girl from Blackpool (shock horror - not London, or Manchester - the default setting for 'the north' in England). They then take a trip to a planet that isn't Earth for some dalek related schennanigans and get involved in a war between Daleks and a character I call Mini-Davros. In two parts it's an excellent listen - much punchier than some of the bloated dramas (cough, Minuet in Hell). Very good stuff.

I'm looking forward to this week's one already - imaginatively titled "The Horror of Glam Rock", a play on an old Tom Baker episode, the second one, currently on Listen Again, sounds really, really Douglas Adamsy:-

The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way. But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?

Christmas Who

I'm taking a break from the pressures of mince pie and turkey to post my thoughts on yesterday's TV.

Dr. Who's Xmas Special seemed really disjointed, and while it was entertaining it was nowhere near as good as last year's. This may have been my folks constant moaning, chatter and fiddling with the TV, but it seemed the plot was really disjointed and simplistic, and certainly the science was utterly nonsense. "Drink these particles..." and the hole going to the centre of the Earth in particular made me do a double take. Apparently evil alien spiders from the dawn of time climb holes really, really quickly, either that or a certain villain would have died of terminal velocity long before they became an issue. I also really didn't take to Catherine Tate - she seemed to play to too much like her bovvered alter-ego. Or the robot Santas. I'd assumed that their appearance this Xmas would tie in to their previous appearance, but again it came across as being Santas purely for the sake of it being a Christmas special.

However the Doc was surprisingly dark and vicious for a Christmas special and the ending with the snow and fireworks seemed similar to the McGann TV Movie from 10 years back - right down to asking the companion "D'ya want to come with me?" "No thanks." Only this time the show won't be cancelled.

Speaking of my favourite under-dog Doctor McGann, given this trailer I am looking forward to streaming the BBC7 season starting on New Year's eve on Listen Again.

I also finally caught this week's Torchwood, Combat, and it was really, really good. The script was by the guy that played Mickey in Doctor Who, and while it did seem reminiscent of another Angel episode and Fight Club it was sufficiently dark. I really don't like Owen, but that's a reflection on how well rounded the character is in this show. He's perhaps the most realistic of the Torchwood crew. Though that isn't saying that much.

Dr. Stu on Dr. Who Audios

I've been meaning for a while to post reviews of the excellent Big Finish 8th Doctor audios. There's a new season coming on BBC 7 with a new companion shortly (her from Two Pints of Lager probably playing a similar character), so I've been catching up. I mostly listen to the McGann ones, but recently I started listening to the McCoy ones (the Harvest, Night Thoughts and Master are excellent), and one Colin Baker audio which wasn't too bad. I plan on listening to more McGann and Peter Davidson's Spare Parts, which apparently formed the basis for the Tennant Cybermen stories.

Listening to the Master on a trip to Nottingham reminded me to finish this post I started yonks ago.

Storm Warning acts as the pilot for the series, so the Doctor naturally picks up a companion, 1930s self-styled Edwardian adventureress Charley Pollard. The story starts out a bit like Titanic, set aboard the R101 airship but suddenly becomes very steampunk - with aliens and Her Britannic Majesty's forces clashing in an epic battle. In the end the Doctor is not able to save the R101 but he does save Charley, irreperably ripping the web of time and setting up 2 seasons worth of arc plots. Good stuff, definitely a good first play to listen to.

Stones of Venice on the other hand is very Shakespearean. It's set in Venice in the future and deals with a cursed duke and his lost love. Despite it's future setting there seems to be little technology and the dialogue is very Shakespearean, with many many monologues. It is quite a good play though.

Sword of Orion is set in a Bladerunneresque future, when mankind is at war with replicants. Both sides are courting the Cybermen for aid, with disasterous effects. The doctor and Charley transport into a lone human military vessel, cuing a claustrophobic alienesque story.

Minuet in Hell is where Doctor Who tries to do Buffy badly. The Doc has gone to the States and lost his memory (again!), and it seems his very identity is in question. In the meantime there seems to be this whole convoluted plot with demons, the Brigadier (back in the days when UNIT, not Torchwood were everywhere), Charley, an evil priest and a demon-fighting chick named Becky-Lee (guess what this is a rip-off of). It goes on a little too long. Quite weak and skippable.

The second season starts with Mark Gatiss's Invaders from Mars, a story a bit like the Idiot's Lantern in that it is set around Orson Welles's broadcast of War of the World. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevens from Spaced star, but with everyone doing similar mafiaesque accents it is difficult to tell who's who.

Embrace the Darkness is another alienesque claustrophobic adventure but much better than Sword of Orion. It also puts a twist on the formula however. Seasons of Fear is a romp through time, visiting Ancient Rome, medieval times, 19th Century England and beyond. Excellent stuff, though Time of the Daleks, where the time-ripples created in the arc plot cause Shakespare to disappear from the timeline, and the Daleks are involved. It's not particularly great, though the Daleks do quote Shakespare and it leads into...

Neverland, which is very Timelordy, but is excellent nevertheless. The Doctor, Charley and Romana discover what has been affecting time since Charley was rescued, and take on anti-time (think anti-matter). With much heroism the Doc seemingly sacrifices himself to save Gallifrey (a bit pointless now, given the new series, but hey) and returns infected with anti-time as...

Zagreus. This was meant to be the 40th anniversary story, featuring all the Doctors that Big Finish have on the payroll, namely Davidson (meh), Colin Baker (bad Doctor, though his audio stuff seems okay), McCoy (yay) and of course McGann. Pertwee returns via some sound-bytes he recorded for a fanfilm that was not released. Tom Baker on the other hand doesn't feature, but nearly everyone else who has ever appeared in Doctor Who also features. However rather than doing a multi-doctor story the 3 CD extravaganza follows a surreal narrative, using elements from Alice in Wonderland and the relatively insular Timelord lore RTD has trimmed from the new series. The surreal visions are meant to highlight the Doctor's battle with the anti-time infection, and all the cast play weird characters in the visions, even the ex-Doctors. Eventually it turns out Rassilon was behind it all, and the Doc exiles himself to a universe where time does not exist... and proceeds to have lots of adventures over... er... time? And Charley comes along despite her plotlines being ably resolved in Neverland. I recommend listening to the first 20 minutes of Zagreus, and then the last CD entirely.

Season 3 has its highs and lows. Season 2 is doubtless the best, as most folk seem to think Invaders is amazing (admittedly I was driving while listening to that one).

McGann Returns

Paul McGann is back as the Doctor (in more radio drama only sadly), but this time it's being exclusively put on BBC 7 rather than available on CD first.

It's due to be broadcast on BBC 7 at Christmas. McGann's new companion is Lucie Miller played by Sheridan Smith. Guest stars included Kenneth Cranham, Anita Dobson, Una Stubbs, Bernard Cribbins, Stephen Gately, Clare Buckfield, Ian McNeice, Elspet Gray, Timothy West, Nerys Hughes, Nigel Havers, Julia McKenzie, Tom Chadbon, Roy Marsden and Nickolas Grace. There seems to be a further recurring character called Headhunter played by Katarina Olssen (who occasionally doubles with another role, suggesting something a bit Sirens of Time.

There are six stories - two 2-parters, four 1 part, all 50 minutes. The first is a Steve Lyons Dalek tale - Blood of the Daleks, great title. 2 parts. The end is a 2 part Cyber story by Eddie Robson. Other plays by Paul Magrs (with the wonderful title Horror of Glam Fock) Jonathan Clements and Paul Sutton.

Paul McGann vs Angie from Eastenders and the Sheriff from Robin of Sherwood? You can bet your fern I'll be listening again (or trying to record the mp3s).

The original McGann run was fantastic but the posh companion began to grate after 3 seasons (ironic given my complaining about dat Rose chav innit?). It held my interest until they did the 40th anniversary special, Zagreus, which was incoherent to say the least. Then they picked up the most dull lifeless second companion ever - C'Rizz, a chameleonic humanoid (how great it was to have a character who could change colour on a radio drama).