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I, Davros: Guilt

Earl Green — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:01:12 +0000

As always, war rages on, ravaging the surface and the people of Skaro. The emphasis turns to espionage as a technological stalemate takes hold; so long as neither the Kaleds nor the Thals gain a decisive technological advantage, the war remains on a knife’s-edge detente that leaves the combatants with surgical strikes via conventional weapons. Davros is naturally working on new technology, but to the Kaled Supremo’s distaste, Davros is focusing solely on genetic engineering instead of devastating new weapons. Obsessed with the future of the Kaled race in the increasingly toxic and radioactive atmosphere, Davros - despite his debilitating injuries and being restricted to a mobile (but still very limited) life support base - is working toward providing a tank-like travel shell that will protect what he predicts the Kaleds will become, as well as allowing its occupant to defend itself. But the Thals are keenly aware that the best chance the Kaleds have of gaining an advantage in the war is Davros, and a commando unit raids the Kaled science dome to kidnap him. Separated from his life support chair, Davros is dying, but refuses to surrender any information, except the truth that he is not developing new weapons at this time. A Kaled strike team, led by the ambitious young Lt. Nyder, rescues Davros and brings him back to the Kaled capitol. Once recovered from his ordeal, Davros is finally ready to complete his rise to power…and all his people have to do is surrender their future to his great plans.

written by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Miles (Lt. Nyder), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), Lisa Bowerman (Colonel Murash), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston), Jennifer Croxton (Tech-Ops Ludella)

Review: The four-part I, Davros miniseries - based structurally on (would you have guessed it?) I, Claudius - paints an interesting picture of a troubled youth who might have been singled out for special help if not for his society being locked in an ongoing war. All that’s really required of I, Davros is that it meet up with Genesis Of The Daleks without violating any later developments in the charatcer of Davros himself. The only other character in this series that we ever see on television is Nyder, and while he’s a nice piece of connecting tissue in the storyline, he ultimately isn’t a major player in the story. Though each episode begins with a framing story in which Davros is being put on trial by the Daleks - presumably between Revelation Of The Daleks and Remembrance - the primary story, set pre-Genesis, doesn’t even give us the word “Dalek” until halfway through the fourth and final installment, translating it in the extinct Skarosian equivalent of Latin to “like a god.” It’s interesting how many callbacks and references we get to classic Dalek lore - not only from the Lake of Mutations and the vaarga planets, but mentions of the Dals (said here to be a species that once existed alongside the Kaleds and Thals before going extinct) and Davros’ sister being named Yarvell, both of which reference print fiction and comics written by Terry Nation and David Whitaker in the ’60s. Those stories claimed that the Daleks were once humanoids known as the Dals, and that a scientist named Yarvelling created the Dalek casings; canon freaks can now explain those tales away as misinformation passed into legend.

Even with the return of Davros on TV in the new series’ fourth season, nothing here violates his story. (The fact that the BBC licensed the entire I, Davros series from Big Finish for inclusion in the Davros DVD box set may or may not indicate that these stories are considered the official background of the character, which would be an interesting step on the road to legitimizing Big Finish Who for some.) The nightmarishly disturbing scene in which Davros addresses his mutated “children” in an almost loving tone fits in nicely with the new TV Davros, who would ravage what’s left of his own body to grow a new race of “pure” Kaled-descended Daleks. Terry Molloy, who played Davros on TV longer than any of the other actors in the part, does an admirable job of playing Davros both before and after he is left in his familiar twisted form. (Kudos also go to Rory Jennings, who guest starred in the new series’ second season episode The Idiot’s Lantern, as a young Davros whose forthright amorality is extremely disturbing in the first episode.) The rest of the cast has a lot of meat to work with, as the scripts are heavy on character rather than action and spectacle. It nice to hear Pertwee-era alumnus Richard “Mike Yates” Franklin as Daddy Davros in the first episode. Peter Miles effectively “de-ages” Nyder in the fourth episode, portraying his ruthless ambition without some of the political complexity that informed his original portrayal in 1975.

Overall, it’s very effective and consistently well-done, and there’s very little in the way of filler material. It all only confirms that Davros, even before the Daleks, was a tortured and troubled soul; with the opportunities afforded by the war and precisely the wrong kind of upbringing, you can believe by the end of the story that this has been the tale of someone who would willingly destroy his own species to achieve his ambitions, without remorse. It’s by no means essential listening to understand any of the television stories, but it’s one of Big Finish’s better spinoff series and helps to inform the character’s numerous TV appearances with a deep, layered background understanding of the character.

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I, Davros: Corruption

Earl Green — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:01:13 +0000

Older and a little wiser to the ways of the political world, Davros walks a knife’s edge as an increasingly senior member of the Kaled Scientific Corps: his government expects him to tend to research that will deliver devastating weapons for use in the war against the Thals, but Davros himself sees a higher goal: nothing less than ensuring the survival of the Kaled people in the radioactive aftermath of the war. As Davros sees it, leaving the Kaleds’ fate to evolution will produce too random a result, with little hope of surviving the merciless postwar ecosystem; he advocates research that will help direct the mutations that will carry the Kaled legacy forward. Davros’ mother, Calcula, sees far more immediate concerns, namely that Davros and his research are accumulating some political opponents, and she feels that he’s naive about politics in general. But when Davros’ mother is murdered, and the attack on her is found to be an inside job - the work of fellow Kaleds rather than enemy Thals - he proves just how well he learned the game of political maneuvering from her while she was alive, sweeping aside some of her enemies and putting others on notice as he consolidates his newly inherited power base. Mere weeks later, though, a Thal attack on the home base of the Kaleds’ Scientific Corps changes Davros - and his ambitions - forever.

written by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), John Stahl (The Supremo), Katarina Olsson (Scientist Shan), Daniel Hogarth (Section Leader Fenn), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Sean Carlsen (Councillor Valron), Daniel Hogarth (Section Leader Fenn), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston)

I, Davros: Purity

Earl Green — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:01:25 +0000

Nearing his 30th birthday, Davros is boiling with frustration that he’s a low-ranking tech officer testing weapons for the Kaled military, rather than a member of the elite Scientific Corps. But one meeting with the Kaled Supremo changes all that: if Davros will undertake a dangerous secret mission that takes him behind Thal lines to gather intelligence on a new weapons facility, his entry into the Scientific Corps is guaranteed. Davros eagerly agrees, but when he, a fellow tech officer, and a squad of Kaled commandos embark on their journey, he realizes it’s a suicide mission. Worse yet, the soldier leading the mission is weak-willed and proceeds to get most of his commando platoon killed before the Thal facility is even within sight. Davros insists on countermanding his orders and manages to breach the facility, discovering a vast automated weapons factory requiring no slave labor…but Thal soldiers are waiting there too, and they know Davros by name. The Kaleds manage to escape, and Davros once again assumes command, ordering the remaining Kaleds to make their escape via the wastelands between the Kaled and Thal borders. While this does prevent the Thals from giving chase, it also costs Davros the rest of his team - he’s the only survivor to make it back to the safety of Kaled territory, and is instantly declared a hero for completing his mission against terrible odds. But his first order of business is not to bask in the praise lavished upon him - he instead turns his attention to finding out who told the Thals he was coming, and the answer lies painfully close to home.

written by James Parsons & Andrew Stirling-Brown
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Sowerbutts (Magrantine), Daniel Hogarth (Section Leader Fenn), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), James Parsons (Major Brint), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston)

I, Davros: Innocence

Earl Green — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:01:54 +0000

War rages on Skaro, as it has for centuries, between the Kaleds and the Thals. Born to a mother who is an ambitious senator and a father whole military career is coming to an ignoble halt due to illness, young Davros leads a life of privelege, but is fascinated by the patterns of life and nature around him, almost to the exclusion of all else. His mother hires a tutor, Magrantine, whose scientific experiments on the effects of radiation on living tissue fascinate Davros. When Magrantine turns out to be out for revenge against Davros’ father - the soldier whose actions resulted in the death of Magrantine’s son - Davros traps his tutor in his own radiation experiment chamber - a torturous experience that he survives, but it leaves him horribly mutated. But his mother, far from admonishing him, sees something of her own ruthless ambition in her son - and quietly gives her approval.

written by Gary Hopkins
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Rory Jennings (Davros), Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Richard Franklin (Colonel Nasgard), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Sowerbutts (Magrantine), Sean Connolly (Councillor Quested), Sean Carlsen (Councillor Valron), Daniel Hogarth (Section Leader Fenn), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), James Parsons (Major Brint), Lisa Bowerman (Colonel Murash), Rita Davies (Tashek), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston), Jenifer Croxton (Tech-Ops Ludella)

Notes: Davros’ sister, Yarvell, has a name inspired by very early Doctor Who fiction: according to “The Dalek Book” by Terry Nation, released in 1966, the Daleks were created by a twisted genius named Yarvelling; Nation himself later rewrote the record, introducing Davros in Genesis Of The Daleks in 1975.

Doctor Who: Exotron / Urban Myths

Earl Green — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:01:22 +0000

Exotron: The TARDIS arrives at a distant human colony, and the Doctor is ready to be off again, but Peri is still sampling the local flora. When they meet their first exotron, however, both of the time travelers are ready to go. The enormous, remotely-operated mechanical men - or at least whoever is controlling them - takes a keen interest in the Doctor’s scientific knowledge. An exotron snatches up the Doctor and simply walks away with him in hand, while Peri encounters some human colonists and barely survives a meeting with the local fauna. The Doctor finds that the exotrons are powered by telepathy, or in this case, the machine-enhanced telepathy of a man who seems to have something to hide. The Doctor decides to use his own mental powers to level the playing field, but doing so may put his own survival, and Peri’s, at risk.

Urban Myths: The Doctor and Peri discover, at an opulent restaurant, that the Celestial Intervention Agency’s shady Time Lord operatives and the truth seldom dine at the same table.

written by Paul Sutton
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by ERS

Exotron Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), John Duttine (Hector), Isla Blair (Paula), Nick Brimble (Shreeni), Richard Earl (Corporal Mozz), Claire Wyatt (Weiss)

Urban Myths Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Steven Wickham (Harom), Douglas Hodge (Edge), Nicola Lloyd (Kettoo), Barry McCarthy (Palgrave), Clare Calbraith (Trooper)

Timeline: between Caves Of Androzani and The Twin Dilemma

Review: Perhaps the most telling measurement of Exotron as an exercise in storytelling is that, 12 hours later while writing the summary of the story for this review, I really had to struggle to remember what it was all about. I remembered that there were large animals and, for lack of a better way to put it, mecha involved. It was all competently performed, to be sure, but just not the most memorable of stories that Big Finish has ever put on a couple of CDs.

And, perhaps, it’s just as well that, as one of an experimental handful of Big Finish releases from 2007, Exotron is only a three-parter, accompanied by the amusing single-part story Urban Myths. Though it’s a little silly and predictable in places, Myths at least made more of an impression, with its dramatization of a blown-out-of-proportion retelling of the Doctor and Peri’s exploits. It’s amusing to hear Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant adjust their characters a little bit to make them ruthless, and the story then snaps back into shape and we discover what’s really going on.

Exotron isn’t the most memorable of Big Finish’s fifth Doctor stories, though I will admit that it benefits from not being The Kingmaker (okay, maybe I’m being a bit harsh there).

Doctor Who: I.D. / Urgent Calls

Earl Green — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:01:48 +0000

I.D.: Something has gone horribly wrong among a spacefaring human community. “Scandroids” have systematically eliminated anyone with the knowledge to shut them down, and the populace lives in fear at the machines’ mercy - at least until the Doctor arrives to tip the balance back in the favor of the humans. But the Doctor’s own arrival may have set the scandroids’ mysterious, murderous plans into high gear - and somewhere, among the humans, is one person who knows more about those plans than they’re saying.

Urgent Calls: The Doctor contacts a telephone operator, who he claims has contracted a potentially fatal disease. Through repeated calls, he discovers that one side-effect of this illness has been a run of the most extraordinary luck, and his newfound friend is eager to share that with him, but once she learns that she’s talking to an alien, she seems to develop a few hang-ups about her benefactor.

written by Eddie Robson
directed by John Ainsworth
music by Steve Foxon

I.D. Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Sara Griffiths (Claudia Bridge), Gyles Brandreth (Doctor Marriott), Helen Atkinson Wood (Ms. Tevez), David Dobson (Scandroids), Kerry Skinner (Lake), Joe Thompson (Gabe Stillinger), Natasha Pyne (Denise Stillinger)

Urgent Calls Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Kate Brown (Lauren), David Dobson (D.J.), Kerry Skinner (Connie)

Timeline: it is unknown if this takes place before or after the Doctor’s travels with Evelyn, so we’re left with “between The Trial Of A Time Lord and Time And The Rani“.

Review: The first in a series of experimental 2007 releases combining a three-part story with a one-part story, I.D. is a nice case of a tale that would’ve been stretched out too thinly at four parts. Urgent Calls, on the other hand, promises to set up a running story that other Doctors will have to deal with in one-part adventures spread across several subsequent releases. Aside from the new cover design, one certainly can’t accuse Big Finish of not trying to freshen things up a bit.

I.D. is a humans-under-siege story that works best with Colin Baker’s Doctor, as it gives him ample opportunity to rail indignantly against the plight of the (apparent) protagonists, and an opportunity to go off even more when he discovers that even in the face of disaster, human foibles are still very much part of the problem. It’s tailor made to the sixth Doctor’s strengths, and Baker plays it to the hilt. The rest of the cast is also very good, and even though it’s meant to be one of the story’s darker moments, I found myself chuckling a bit at the scene where one character wants to know what economic gain he can acquire from reporting that a scandroid has just killed his mother - chuckling knowingly, I might add, because one can imagine something not unlike that happening in the here and now.

Urgent Calls is a nifty little one-of that almost winds up being a two-hander play between Baker and Kate Brown, taking place largely over a series of telephone conversations. I was almost disappointed when other characters put in an appearance, though it is necessary to keep the story on track, simply because I was enjoying the rapport between the two lead actors. There’s also a hint of a gentle flirtation directed at the Doctor, which isn’t something one would ever imagine happening with his sixth incarnation, until you keep in mind that, like the listener, Lauren can only hear the Doctor and not see him, and has conjured up her own mental image that almost certainly doesn’t include an outfit that wouldn’t be out of place at a fairground. (Just like we probably aren’t imagining Colin Baker playing the part as he is now, for that matter.) Big Finish has tries numerous times to do stories, down through the years, that only work in the audio medium, and this is one of the cleverest takes on that notion.

I’ll admit to having been a bit disoriented at the sight, well, sound of a companion-less sixth Doctor, when the audio stories have given us Evelyn Smythe and a pitch-perfect reading of Frobisher, but after hearing it, I.D.’s sense of isolation is heightened without a time-traveling sidekick, and Urgent Calls simply would’ve left no room for a companion character, so it’s all rather nicely put together.

Doctor Who: Return To The Web Planet

Earl Green — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:01:17 +0000

The TARDIS is drawn again to the planet Vortis by a powerful gravitational force - the same circumstances which once trapped the Doctor and his timeship there in his first incarnation. Determined to find out what’s trapping the TARDIS now, the Doctor and Nyssa set out to explore, but are nearly trampled by a stampede of Zarbi. An eccentric Menoptera scientist and his daughter, living in isolation away from the rest of their kind as they study the Zarbi, whisk the time travelers to safety. As the scientist’s daughter tends to Nyssa’s minor injuries, the Doctor and his new friend set out to discover what’s still causing ships to crash on Vortis. But they find that much more is going wrong: a new breed of colonization has come to Vortis by accident, and it may change the planet’s entire ecosphere forever, unless the Doctor can stop it.

from a story by Daniel O’Mahony
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by David Darlington

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Sam Kelly (Acheron), Julie Buckfield (Hedyla), Matthew Noble (Yanesh), Claire Wyatt (Speaker)

Notes: This story returns to the setting of 1964’s The Web Planet. It was sent only to subscribers to Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio plays, and has not been sold separately at the time of this writing.

Timeline: between The Council Of Nicaea and The Gathering

Review: For some reason, perhaps by coincidence, Big Finish seems to have designated Peter Davison as the “Follow-Up Doctor”, with Return To The Web Planet and The Bride Of Peladon arriving close together. Perhaps this is a case where the audio producers are imitating their television counterparts of yesteryear a bit too closely: Davison’s Doctor was the Follow-Up Doctor on TV too, revisiting such adversaries as the Silurians, Omega and - repeatedly - the Master. So in a way it fits.

Now, why anyone would want to revisit The Web Planet, I have no idea. I’ve been known to praise that Hartnell-era six-parter for its ambitious attempt to do big-budget science fiction on a 1960s BBC TV budget, but in trying to chase that praise down with actual viewing, I find myself struggling to make it to part six. Return To The Web Planet isn’t quite like that, but it’s a good choice for a subscriber incentive special: at around an hour long, it doesn’t really have the time to wear out its welcome. Any longer, and that might’ve been a real danger.

Kudos must be given to the sound designer for actually recreating the wacky warbling Zarbi sound effect from the ’60s - as goofy as it sounds, it really does seal Return’s authenticity. But even more kudos should be offered for the awesome cover artwork, which hearkens back to the days of Chris Achilleos’ colorful-bordering-on-psychedelic cover artwork for the early Target Books Doctor Who noveliations. It’s a great touch for this story, and a huge surprise after months of feeling that Big Finish’s cover artwork has lost something with the new, Missing Adventures book cover-inspired design and layout. Return Of The Web Planet is the return of me wishing Big Finish sold big poster-sized prints of their cover art, a sentiment I haven’t felt in a long time.

Return To The Web Planet does exactly what it says on the box, and does it in less time than the usual two-disc adventure - and even more mercifully, it does it in less time than the original Web Planet. Not a bad gift to the faithful followers of the audio adventures.

Doctor Who: Red

Earl Green — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:01:00 +0000

The Doctor follows a psychic attack on the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits to a living city called the Needle, but the moment that he and Melanie step out of the TARDIS, they realize that their problems are just beginning - they stumble onto the scene of a grisly murder. The two time travelers are separated, Melanie barely surviving being ejected from the city’s walls, and the Doctor is brought before Chief Blue and the Needle’s central computer, White Noise. White Noise’s function involves the careful control of both the Needle and its residents, via chips implanted in their brains which allow the computer to prevent violent impulses from becoming violent actions. Rescued by a resident of the undercity beneath the Needle - people whose chips have been deactivated and whose crave the exciting sensation of violence with little thought given to its consequences - Melanie finds that she’s quite a sensation, as her rescuers believe she’s capable of anything, even extreme acts of violence…and her insistence that she isn’t likely to do any such thing seems to fall on deaf ears. White Noise is rapidly losing control of the Needle’s even more docile populace, with murders continuing to occur…only now, via his chip implant, the Doctor can see, hear and feel the thoughts and actions of the killers as they go into “red condition.” But with White Noise attempting to control him, is the Doctor capable of fighting whatever evil is stalking the city at random?

written by Stewart Sheargold
directed by Gary Russell
music by ERS

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Denise Hoey (Nuane), Sean Oliver (Chief Blue), Peter Rae (Draun), Kellie Ryan (Celia Fortunaté), Sandi Toksvig (Vi Yulquen), John Stahl (Whitenoise), Steven Wickham (Uviol)

Review: Red is one of those audio plays that reminds me of why I listen to the Big Finish CDs - it’s densely plotted, placed in an intriguing setting populated with interesting characters, and damned if it doesn’t have some downright unnerving concepts. The cliffhanger at the end of part two is one of the most disturbing things that Big Finish has yet coaxed out of actors in a recording studio, right up there with The Shadow Of The Scourge or any of the great Big Finish cliffhangers.

Another asset at Red’s disposal is Bonnie Langford’s Melanie. This is a seventh Doctor story that wouldn’t have worked as well with Ace, simply because Ace does have a violent streak. Mel practically oozes sunshine and goodness, and while that worked against her televised adventures. Big Finish has made it a habit of using that character and that trait very well indeed. With even the Doctor succumbing to some of the story’s violence, Mel stands out as just about the lone voice of reason in the wilderness here, and Bonnie Langford does a great job with her scenes. Unlike Mel’s brief tenure on TV, this story makes her seem like a real person. I’m always up for more Mel a la Big Finish.

There are lots of interesting concepts at the heart of Red - censorship by the state vs. relying on free will tempered by self control, the nature of real violence and fantasy violence, whether one causes the other, and so on. Red, intelligently, does not presume to try to give you the answers to these things on a platter. You can be sure that the Doctor will always come down on the side of free will, but numerous times we’re left to wonder if that’s necessarily the best way for things to play out. And even the Doctor’s own tendency to resort to violence, sometimes on a massive scale, is called into question, making one wonder if he needs White Noise’s help more than anyone else in the city (and keep in mind, this is the seventh Doctor before he starts going in for wiping out the Daleks and Cybermen en masse). Red doesn’t profess to have the answers (i.e. the writer’s opinion) ready to heat and eat by the end of part four, but it certainly makes you think about it.

And surely that’s the stuff that great Doctor Who stories are made of.

Doctor Who: Cuddlesome

Earl Green — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:01:45 +0000

The Doctor’s TARDIS literally crashes through a suburban greenhouse, and upon stepping out of the TARDIS he immediately meets the greenhouse’s owner, though she’s more worried about her boyfriend being injured than she is about the damage. The Doctor finds her boyfriend in a delirious state, with alien toxins in his blood and a pair of bite marks in his neck, which the man apparently suffered while searching for a relic of his childhood in the attic. Concerned about the strange developments, the Doctor tracks down the toy - a pink vampire hamster called a Cuddlesome with a voice recognition device - which was apparently all the rage in the 1980s. Now he finds that others are suffering from similar injuries, and there have even been deaths, with Cuddlesomes as the common denominator, all of them leaving the scene after attacking their owners. The Doctor follows the Cuddlesomes an abandoned toy factory, where their creator, Turvey, has activated his own kind of product recall - he has attracted the Cuddlesomes to his current location. But Turvey is at the mercy of someone else who is creating a new line of Cuddlesomes…and if the Doctor thought the 1980s models were deadly, he hasn’t seen anything yet. This attempt to cash in on childhood nostalgia could endanger the entire human race.

written by Nigel Fairs
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Nigel Fairs

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Roberta Taylor (Angela Wisher), Timothy West (Ronald Turvey), David Troughton (The Tinghus), Matthew Noble (John Dixon / New Cuddlesomes), Kate Brown (Miranda Evenden / Cuddlesomes / Dr. Cooper / Vehicle), Nicholas Briggs (Newsreader)

Notes: This single-part story, which shared a CD with a “director’s cut” of part one of the early Big Finish fifth Doctor/Dalek story The Mutant Phase, was included free with issue #393 of Doctor Who Magazine. Ironically, both Cuddlesome and The Mutant Phase are reworked versions of audio stories produced by Nicholas Briggs, Gary Russell and Bill Baggs in their late 1980s range of Audio Visuals plays.

Timeline: the packaging of Cuddlesome offers no hints as to where it falls chronologically, though it may occur during the same interval as The Gathering.

Review: A clever, single-part adventure distributed free with Doctor Who Magazine in 2008, Cuddlesome has a macabre sense of humor all its own, along with more than just a little bit of double-edged commentary on nostalgia for the ’80s (the real irony being that it involves a Doctor from the same time period).

Overall, though, while I’ve found that some of Big Finish’s free one-off adventures packed in with DWM are amusing but ultimately disposable, this is probably the best such story since Last Of The Titans. I’d say it has a real bite to it, but since we’re dealing with a (fictitious) line of toy vampire hamsters, that’d be cheesy. But even the occasional ’80s dialogue gag - such as the incongruous sight, well, okay, sound of Davison announcing “Hammer time!” - doesn’t come across as forced. I hate to say it, but Cuddlesome is better than some of the full-length stories that have made it into circulation as regular Big Finish releases.

There’s also an element to the story that’s more than a little metacommentary about hanging onto childhood enthusiasms and hobbies. I probably need to stay out of that discussion since we’re talking about a new audio story based on a character and series I first watched when I was eight years old, but the story makes it clear that there are healthy reasons and healthy ways to hang on to such enthusiasms…and then there are unhealthy ones. Perhaps not a bad little pill of a message to slip into fandom’s aural drink there.

Quite enjoyable - and I guess I’m an Anorak, because while I didn’t have a Cuddlesome (and good thing, too, since they’re an entirely fictional creation), I’m still nostalgic for the toys, and the Doctors, of the 1980s.

Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless - Part 1

Earl Green — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:01:09 +0000

On the backwater planet of Talis Minor, Salus Kade has a decent life; he helps to bring home the food that feeds his people, he has a wife and daughter - and he wants absolutely nothing to do with the war raging between the Earth Alliance and the Dalek Empire. When he finds Earth soldiers holding a recruitment drive in the middle of his home town, he’s not pleased, and he’s not afraid of them until he discovers that the “recruiting” is just for show and it’s actually a forced conscription drive. Even as he rallies his own people around him by denouncing the Earth Alliance’s tyranny, the Daleks themselves arrive - and a catastrophic attack helps to change Kade’s mind. He enlists, along with many other men from his community, and ends up leading a battallion of Earth and allied soldiers in the Alliance’s newest gear: a sealed, self-contained armored spacesuit which is practically its own interstellar vehicle and weapons platform built around one man. Designed specifically to combat the Daleks, these suits are worn only by the Earth Alliance’s elite troopers, code named the Fearless. But Kade’s latest mission into the teeth of the Dalek war machine is enough to strike at least a little fear into his heart…

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Noel Clarke (Salus Kade), Maureen O’Brien (General Agnes Landen), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks), Sarah Mowat (Susan Mendes), John Schwab (Lt. Carlisle), Oliver Mellor (Egan Fisk), David Yip (Kennedy), Ginita Jimenez (Lajitta), Colin Spaul (Colonel Baxter), Ian Brooker (General Croft / Shuttle Pilot), Sean Connolly (Computer / Pilot / Aide), Alex Mallinson (Gaz), Esther Ruth Elliott (Flight Control)