The Land Of The Dead
The TARDIS materializes in mid-air over Alaska, 1964, and then vanishes again when a small airplane nearly collides with it. The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Nyssa to the same location in 1994, where British millionaire Shaun Brett oversees the construction of an enormous house. Brett’s employees include the half-Inuit, half-American Tulung, who acts as a mediator between Brett and the local Inuits who have labored on the huge project, and Monica Lewis, an interior designer who hopes that this house’s unique and sometimes macabre designs will enhance her resumè. The Doctor and Nyssa encounter savage creatures roaming the frozen wasteland outside the isolated house, and it soon becomes evident that the same beings are in the house as well. Tulung and the elderly Gaborik believe that the creatures are manifestations of angry spirits of the land, which has been defiled to create Brett’s house. The Doctor quickly discovers that the creatures have properties unlike any other creature on Earth, and yet they are native to the planet. It’s only a matter of time before something kills everyone at the house - the only question is whether it will be the increasing hoarde of ancient monsters, or the mad blood feud for vengeance that has tied Brett and Tulung together since childhood.
written by Stephen Cole
directed by Gary Russell
music by Nicholas BriggsCast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Lucy Campbell (Monica Lewis), Neil Roberts (Tulung), Christopher Scott (Brett), Andrew Fettes (Gaborik), Alistair Lock (Supplier)
Timeline: after Time-Flight and before Arc Of Infinity
Review: Easily the best of the Audio Adventures so far, The Land Of The Dead is more than just good Doctor Who - it’s good science fiction and it’s good drama as well. Those three elements don’t always converge seamlessly, so this is a good example. It’s also an excellent example of doing in the audio medium what could not be done on television - the sets for this story would have broken the BBC’s budget for an entire season of the television series, and possibly would have been too inherently gory to bring to life to begin with. (more…)
One of the Firesigns said it best in this CD’s liner notes when he noted that the Republican reign of the 1980s, along with the advent of yuppies and generally wide-spread consumer greed, was not the kind of atmosphere in which the Firesign Theatre could ever hope to flourish. He was absolutely right. The exact words used were anti-surrealist politics, and it’s certainly fitting. The Firesigns sounded hopelessly out of place as they grasped for an 80s perspective on things. Though they’re still amusing, the best material here are the musical interludes, not the sketch comedy, and even so, pieces such as the hard-rocking song “Violent Juvenile Freaks” and the hysterical swinging tune “Hey, Reagan” just aren’t up to the standards that I associate with the Firesigns. It was definitely time for a rest.