155. Army of Death.

4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Jason Arnopp. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

The Doctor brings Mary to the planet Draxine, where he has promised a fun and peaceful time. He should know better by now than to make such promises. The city of Garrak has been leveled by a bomb detonated by its president, who was also the leader of an insane death cult. The city of Stormhaven still stands, but its new President, Vallan (David Harewood), is out of his depth in the current crisis.

Not that many people wouldn't be. Garrak's dead have risen as animated skeletons, and are laying siege to Stormhaven. If the Doctor cannot determine what intelligence is animating the dead and what it wants, then it may be the end for both cities!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: He is instantly intrigued by the skeletons. Instead of simply reacting to the threat of them, as the Stormhaven guards do, he thinks to let them through - an act which saves lives, and which allows him to see what their short-term goal is. When he learns the full extent of the force affecting the dead bones of Garrak, he cannot disguise his genuine fascination with the project. It repulses the moralist in him, but he is also a scientist who thirsts for knowledge and an adventurer who craves new ideas and adversaries, and he is excited at both the accomplishment and the spectacle.

Mary: Is taken aback by the Doctor's fascination with something she sees simply as an obscenity. This does not actually shake her faith in him, as she can also see that he works to save lives and that he is ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of strangers. Still, it is here that she finally sees how alien he is. This part of Mary's characterization works well. Less effective, however, is a strand of the story that sees Mary struggling with growing feelings for the Doctor - something only vaguely hinted at in the other stories of the season, and whose prominence here jars. This either needed to be explored in the previous stories or dropped from this one. Preferably the latter, as the Companion with a crush on the Doctor idea has been done before, and done better.


THOUGHTS

The 8th Doctor/Mary Shelley season ends with what I expected (and hoped) would be an all-out horror piece, with armies of walking skeletons assaulting a sole human city. A fantastic idea, to end a strongly horror-themed Who season on such a tale.

But there's no horror to be found in Army of Death. There's no real atmosphere, little sense of dread. Army of Death does not even seem to be meant to be frightening.

This is an odd choice for a story constructed around an army of the walking dead. But that's okay - I long ago promised myself I would not trash a story for what it is not. Army of Death largely ignores the horror elements and instead attempts to be an action piece, with a fast pace and multiple set pieces. Not the choice I wanted made, but it's not like I don't enjoy a good, fast-paced action story.

For just over three episodes, the story works on this level. The set pieces are strong and visually engaging, the pace is fast, the music is distinctive. The guest characters are a bit bland for the most part, with only David Harewood's flawed president making any real impression, but they're functional enough to carry the plot. And in a story like this, Plot Is All.

The downfall of a story that's made up largely of action set pieces, however, is that such a structure demands a climactic set piece that tops all that came before it. Writer Jason Arnopp attempts this, using the Hollywood "bigger is better" mentality.  But... Well... He applies that mentality a bit too literally. Because what happens after the army of skeletons reach their goal? What comes at the end of all this?

If you don't want to know, you should stop reading now.

Because at the end of the story...

We get...


THE MONSTER

Once all the human skeletons reach their objective, they combine, Voltron-style, to form one gigantic skeleton which calls itself "The Bone Lord" (yes, the giant skeleton can speak.  Unfortunately).

The Bone Lord is a major miscalculation. An army of skeletons = good. Skeletons are inherently creepy, in that they reflect us with all the surface polish and personality removed. An army of the walking, faceless dead - an army of what we will someday become - attacking us? That is effective.

But a Godzilla-sized skeleton that declares itself "The Bone Lord" before setting about the serious business of stomping Tokyo?  That's just another giant monster, in a series that's had no shortage of those over the decades. It simply isn't viscerally effective.  It's actually rather boring.

The climax is also weak in writing terms, much weaker than the rest of the story. Stray characters are squashed so that, Saward-style, the script doesn't need to worry about doing anything with them. There's not one, but two heroic self-sacrifices (TM) - both from the same character, at that! Oh, and the villain pauses to explain its motivation to the Doctor, just because sometimes a villain needs a good gloat. The explanation is... unsatisfactory.

Thankfully, this is a season finale, so there's a brief epilogue between the Doctor and Mary that allows things to end on a character-centric note. This scene is very well-written, and is wonderfully performed by Paul McGann and Julie Cox. This tag allows both story and season to go to credits on a grace note.

But it's not quite enough to wash away the bad taste of a narrative blunder that all but kills this story for me. For the first three episodes, I was leaning toward awarding a "6" to Army of Death. But the climax single-handedly squashes that score.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Story: The Witch from the Well

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154. The Witch from the Well.

4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Rick Briggs. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

An excavation at the village of Trenchard's Fell uncovers a well, blocked by stone and left undisturbed for centuries. Naturally, the workers remove the stone - and in so doing, free a witch who proceeds to butcher them all within minutes. 

Twins Lucern (Kevin Trainor) and Finicia (Alix Wilton Regan), the children of the village squire, have witnessed this massacre and appear destined to be among the victims - until the Doctor and Mary rescue them. The Doctor insists there are no witches, and that they are dealing with an alien life form. He sets the TARDIS controls for the 17th century to investigate the origin of the creature.

But there is more to Lucern and Finicia than meets the eye. Thanks to the twins' interference, the Doctor and Mary soon find themselves separated by centuries - Mary, evading the witch in 21st century Trenchard's Fell; the Doctor, probing the secrets of the 17th century village. But the Doctor's search for answers will meet a deadly barrier in the form of Master John Kincaid (Simon Rouse), the infamous Witch-Pricker!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Silver Turk saw the Doctor focused on destroying an alien being, so it is a good decision here to show his more compassionate side. From the very beginning, he refuses to judge the aliens as monsters. Determining that they are trapped on Earth, he focuses on helping, not destroying. This trait is shown particularly strongly in Part Two, when he discovers a dying creature trapped on the alien spaceship. Unable to free it, he insists on staying until it dies: "I'll stay with you as long as it takes. You won't die alone."

Mary: Spends the bulk of the story separated from the Doctor, running about the 21st century Trenchard's Folly with the hapless Aleister Portillon (Andrew Havill). Though her function in the story is very much that of "generic companion," writer Rick Briggs has woven in a lot of material from his research on the historical Mary Shelley. Particularly amusing is her reaction to Aleister's worship of Lord Byron and his scorn of Byron's contemporaries (including her). She deals effectively with the "witch" in the modern setting, even as the Doctor deals with the witch-pricker in the distant past. Julie Cox continues to impress, and I hope that the remaining story of this Big Finish "season" does not end up being the last we hear of her version of Mary Shelley.


THOUGHTS

Most Big Finish "seasons" have a traditional runaround in the middle, with more ambitious stories on either side of it. The 8th Doctor/Mary Shelley season seems to be following the pattern, with Marc Platt's atmospheric The Silver Turk followed by this more traditional pseudo-historical.

Thankfully, The Witch from the Well is not just a tedious retread of what some audio writer thinks the show would have aired in 1976 (as too often ends up being the case). Writer Rick Briggs, who previously penned a clever single-part story for the Demons of Red Lodge collection, continues to show structural ingenuity. Separating Mary and the Doctor in time but not in space allows both characters scenes in which to shine. And by giving each character one side of the story to investigate, the Doctor the beginning and Mary the ending, we get to see how the Doctor's actions may impact on Mary's predicament.

Briggs' script juggles the two strands effectively. The 17th century scenes are the primary focus, with Mary's adventures in the modern day being clearly secondary. The cutting between the two strands is done with care. We cut back to Mary often enough to keep her story alive, but at well-judged points so that her scenes don't interrupt the flow of the Doctor's story. Her scenes also tend to be shorter than the Doctor's, which means that her bits never keep us away from the main story for long enough to lose track of the plot.

This is a good thing, because the scenes in the past are much more effective than the ones in the modern day. 17th century Trenchard's Fell is a much better-developed setting, with several strong guest characters. Simon Rouse's Witch-Pricker is the most memorable of these. He's clearly villainous, lacking any compassion for any individual in the village. The Doctor reacts to him with all the disdain you would expect, in scenes that see Paul McGann in particularly good form - but in a nice turn, we discover that he is actually genuine in his belief in his work, even if he goes about his gruesome business with one eye on his Bible and the other on his own ambitions.

The Witch from the Well is a good, entertaining yarn, one which manages to avoid the curse of the "dull middle story" that has plagued so many Big Finish trilogies. It's largely pretty traditional, with superstitious villagers and aliens who are taken for supernatural beings. But it's presented in a way that feels fresh and clever, with solid performances from the entire cast and a satisfying resolution. Another good story, in a set of stories that I'm finding immensely enjoyable.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The Silver Turk
Next Story: Army of Death

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153. The Silver Turk.

4 episodes. Approx. 126 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

Having convinced Mary Shelley (Julie Cox) to accompany him in the TARDIS, the Doctor decided to take her for a quick hop to Vienna. He hopes to reunite with friends, but the TARDIS slips forward in time, bringing him and Mary to 1873. This is the year of the Vienna World Exposition, and the Doctor is all too happy to show it off to Mary. 

It becomes quickly apparent, though, that all is not well in this city. There has been a series of mysterious deaths, men whose bodies were found eyeless after savage attacks. All the victims had invested in Alfred Stahlbaum (Christian Brassington)'s creation, The Silver Turk. When the Doctor investigates, he discovers that the Turk is no man-made automaton. It is a Cyberman - crippled, but still dangerous. And it is not alone!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The instant he realizes that the Turk is a damaged Cyberman, he becomes intently focused on one goal: destroying it. He knows that even a crippled Cyberman is a killer-in-waiting, and recognizes the threat that the Cyber technology poses in this time and place where it simply doesn't belong.  The Doctor's most formidable trait remains his intelligence.  It's armed with nothing more than his wits that he defeats the surviving Cyberman at the end, confusing it with a peculiar blend of flippancy and philosophy.

Mary: It's worth remembering that The Company of Friends: Mary's Story had been released years before this title. This means that The Silver Turk doubles both as a first trip in the TARDIS for her and as a re-introduction to her for the audience. In this, the story is highly successful. It evokes Mary's Story at many points, with Mary's protectiveness of the deteriorated Cybermen recalling her empathy for the "monster" Doctor in that story - only this time, of course, she ultimately finds that the monsters actually are monsters.

Mary doesn't fully trust the Doctor yet, and her realization that she has just run off with a man she barely knows recalls a similar scene for 9th Doctor companion Rose Tyler in The End of the World. She also reacts to the walking monstrosities of the villainous Drossel (Gareth Armstrong) with genuine terror, actually abandoning the Doctor at one point and fleeing for her life. Moments like this make her believably human, and Julie Cox's acting ability is up to the task of keeping her sympathetic even when showing weakness.

Cybermen: Though a Tenth Planet Cyberman is prominently pictured on the CD cover, this really isn't a Cyber story. The Cybermen are as much victims as villains, one reduced to slavery by Drossel and the other shown off as a curio by Stahlbaum. Even when the surviving Cyberman reveals his agenda at the end, he doesn't come across a strong threat due to his poor condition. They are effective at evoking the Frankenstein story, however, and supplement the tale here very effectively.


THOUGHTS

The Silver Turk is one of those releases where everything comes together to create a splendid entertainment. Marc Platt's script manages to be literate while at the same time remaining accessible and fast-paced. Barnaby Edwards' direction is atmsopheric, but not so heavy-handed as to smother the sense of spontaneity, of events happening as we listen to them. 

Almost all of Platt's audios are very visual. His use of dialogue, theme, and setting tends to make it easy to summon pictures in your mind. The Silver Turk features some wonderfully creepy images. The badly-damaged Cybermen are memorable enough, one with one arm and dressed up as a Turk, the other with no legs but three arms it uses to propel itself (referred to by Drossel as "Dog"). Even more chilling is Drossel's army of walking, talking, murdering marionettes. The addition of human eyes, some of them plucked from the sockets of living victims, is a ghoulishly inspired detail.

The tone is set right from the start. A young mother (Claire Wyatt) sings a lullaby to her baby, the soundscape making sure to linger on the disturbing nature of the lyrics even as we dissolve to a man running for his life. The man believes himself safe when finds a taxi, but then has an eerie and odd interaction with the driver - eventually revealed to be Drossel. As Drossel's "dog" claims the hapless victim, we return to the lullaby, allowing the moment to sink in before the Doctor arrives and begins the story proper.

The production lends plenty of atmosphere, from use of echoes to the way one scene sometimes will dissolve over the start of the next, to the sounds of a storm. There's a chase between two horse-drawn taxis, a tricky thing to pull off on audio, which is edited with precision into a genuinely exciting sequence. 

The performances of the leads are splendid, the actors making the most of Platt's dialogue. Paul McGann is at his most energetic, moving easily from whimsical to grimly focused and back again. He and Julie Cox get a lot more time to play off each other here than in Mary's Story, and their partnership is off to an engaging start. Finally, Gareth Armstrong's Drossel manages to be imposing even as he indulges in just the right amount of ham to show that this villain is also a performer, one who loves an audience. Supporting performances are more variable, but there are no obvious "weak links" to disrupt the flow.

Well-acted, and scripted and produced with an eye toward unsettling atmosphere, The Silver Turk is a delight. Highly recommended. 


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Story: The Company of Friends: Mary's Story
Next Story: The Witch from the Well


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29. The Chimes of Midnight.

4 episodes. Approx. 116 minutes. Written by: Robert Shearman. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery.


THE PLOT

It is Christmas Eve, and the TARDIS has materialized inside the larder of an Edwardian mansion circa 1906. When the Doctor and Charley move into the house proper to investigate, they find all the rooms empty. Charley writes her name in the dust on a table, only to watch the dust blow back over it. Some force has locked them outside of time.

Has locked the Doctor out, at least. Charley is let in, just for a moment, and has a conversation with scullery maid Edith Thompson (Louise Rolfe). As they talk, Charley's name appears on the dusty table - and Edith abruptly tells Charley that there will be a murder soon. Hers.

It is an apt prediction. As the chimes of a grandfather clock are heard striking the hour, a woman's screams fill the air. The Doctor and Charley find themselves standing over Edith's body. The rest of the household staff also appears, with the stern butler Shaughnessy (Lennox Greaves) recognizing the Doctor and Charley as detectives who will surely solve this case. An hour later, another murder occurs. But the hour has passed in only half the time it should have, and the staff appears bizarrely unconcerned by the deaths.

Time continues to speed up, and the dead return to life only to be murdered again. As the Doctor comes to see that they are trapped in a time loop, Charley is visited by Edith's ghost, who tells her to remember her - And also one more thing:

"Edward Grove is alive..."


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: When the TARDIS materializes in a place that's completely dark, with no readings to indicate where and when they are, he is initially delighted at the prospect of a mystery. But once he realizes that there is an intelligent force at work, he attempts escape. "There are some mysteries best left unsolved," he tells Charley, readily admitting that he's frightened. He observes that they're being left far too many clues about the murders, and that the murders themselves are little more than red herrings. Paul McGann is superb throughout - doubly so in the final episode, as he attempts to reason first with the villain of the piece and then with Charley herself, in a scene that's a major turning point in their particular Doctor/Companion dynamic.

Charley: Though this house is larger than the one in which she grew up, she is very much a part of this culture. She instantly recognizes the servants' rooms for what they are, guiding both Doctor and listener through this confined space in Episode One to set the geography for the rest of the story. As they look over the Christmas preparations, she casually complains that "cook used to make far too much (plum pudding)," and it is evident from her comments that she never really picked up on the names of her family's own servants. The cook was just "Cook," defined by her role in the household just as the servants in this story are defined entirely by their roles. The force at work recognizes her as "belonging," and works her into a role as well: As the daughter of the Master of the House, a role she gradually finds impossible to resist.


THOUGHTS

"How can I be dead and alive at the same time...?"

Doctor Who's best Christmas story was not any of the new series' Christmas specials. It was not made for television at all, and it wasn't even released at Christmas. Which, in a story focused on paradoxes, seems oddly perfect - Much like the rest of The Chimes of Midnight.

Writer Robert Shearman's first Big Finish audio was The Holy Terror, a tremendously well-received story that helped raise the bar of what the audience expected of the company. The Chimes of Midnight not only doesn't disappoint; it raises that bar even further. It is surreal but not nonsensical, funny but emotional. It also features the most multilayered characterizations yet for the likeable Eighth Doctor/Charley team.

Shearman builds on previously established character traits, and uses those to fuel the story. Charley's privileged background makes her a ready-made guide to the basic layout of the servant's hall. Her intrinsic compassion also fuels the narrative through her connection with the murdered Edith - a connection that starts as Edith reacts to Charley's kindness, a trait she has encountered far too little of.  That connection grows over the story, and twists into something dark and sinister as the episodes progress.

The script doesn't forget to give the Doctor excellent material as well. It's a treat to hear Paul McGann's usually laid-back Doctor be genuinely afraid. He finds himself a step behind throughout: First genuinely trying to solve Edith's murder, then trying to prevent the next, before it occurs to him that the murders themselves are incidental. At one point he actually gives up, ready to abandon the servants to loop about eternally in their tiny circles. Only when the mysterious Edward Grove confronts him directly does he find an opportunity for victory - an opportunity that hinges on his own connection with Charley.

In a stunning speech, he lays out for Charley what she means to him, drawing a direct line between his solo existence and the loop in which they are all trapped: "Without you, I would just be a lonely old man, rattling around in the TARDIS with no one to talk to: My life going round and round without meaning, my life going around in circles." The speech, in its full length both emotional and poetic, is superbly delivered by McGann and is one that will go 'round and 'round within the listener's mind after the story is done. It marks the point at which his relationship with Charley ceases to be just a standard Doctor/Companion relationship. After this, they are almost equal leads for the next several stories and genuinely close friends.

The ending ties it all together with a lovely grace note, one that could have been cloying had it not been so very well earned by the time it occurs. In a more standard episode, the exact same scene with the exact same dialogue might have made me roll my eyes or groan. But coming at the end of a story that has built so well to it, the final fade out on a poor girl's humming of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing is remarkably effective.

With terrific performances (Lennox Greaves' Shaughnessy is a particular standout, and I wish I had space to give him the full praises due to him), and a wonderfully creepy yet authentic-seeming soundscape under the guiding hand of director Barnaby Edwards, The Chimes of Midnight is as close to perfect as a story can be. Well over a decade after the fact, it remains a strong contender for the title of best Big Finish audio, and is one of the best Doctor Who stories available in any form.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Story: Invaders from Mars
Next Story: Seasons of Fear (not yet reviewed)

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16. Storm Warning.

4 episodes. Approx. 116 minutes. Written by: Alan Barnes. Directed by: Gary Russell. Produced by: Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery.

THE PLOT

The R101, the ill-fated British airship that was to be the world's largest airship until the construction of the (similarly-fated) Hindenburg, sets off on its fateful voyage to Karachi. Lieutenant-Colonel Frayling (Nicholas Pegg), the ship's designer, is concerned about last-minute modifications imposed by the blustery Lord Tamworth (Gareth Thomas). Tamworth insists the ship is "safe as houses," all the while refusing to explain why it was rushed into this trip before testing was complete. He is similarly closed-mouthed about the exact role of his valet, the sinister Rathbone (Barnaby Edwards), or the nature of the mysterious passenger in Cabin 43.

The airship also carries two stowaways. Charlotte "Charley" Pollard (India Fisher) is a self-styled "Edwardian adventuress" who sneaked aboard by assuming the identity of a young steward. When Tamworth notices that the supposed boy is actually a girl, she flees - and runs straight into the second stowaway, the grinning and gregarious man known only as the Doctor (Paul McGann).

The Doctor smooths things over by passing himself and Charley off as German spies, sent by the Zeppelin corporation to uncover the secrets of the R101. Tamworth is pleased; he would have been insulted had no attempt been made, and the Doctor's obvious familiarity with the airship's workings make him an advisor with good reason to be cooperative. He reveals to them that the passenger in Cabin 43 is actually an extra-terrestrial: A member of a race known as the Triskele (Helen Goldwyn), whose ship crashed the previous year. Using a medium as a go-between, Tamworth was able to arrange a mid-air rendezvous with the Triskele mothership, in order to return this lone engineer and to negotiate with the aliens.

But that isn't the full extent of Tamworth's purpose. Should his negotiations fail, Rathbone has orders of his own. Orders that may just kick-start the Earth's first interplanetary war...

CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Storm Warning marks Paul McGann's return to the role of the 8th Doctor, for the first time since the Earth & Beyond audio book in 1998. McGann jumps in with both feet, showing the same enthusiasm and joy for life that made him so instantly engaging in the (otherwise very flawed) 1996 TV Movie. He has a disarming manner that makes it easy for Lord Tamworth to accept his cover story of being a German spy, and that encourages Charley to trust him even before she believes a word that he's saying. His sense of responsibility to the Web of Time forms a major building block of this narrative, and helps to cement the arc that will spring from this tale.

Charley: When Big Finish decided to create a plucky, rebellious, upper-class girl to accompany the Eighth Doctor on his new adventures, it is little surprise that they brought in India Fisher - The role is all but identical to Peril Bellamy in Winter for the Adept, and Fisher's performance was practically the only distinguishing feature of an otherwise relentlessly bland outing. The emphasis here is to introduce Charley's major characteristics: That she is resourceful, compassionate, and courageous. She gets to show all of these traits at multiple points, with her compassionate streak particularly brought out in her interactions with the injured Treskele. Her headstrong young English girl makes a good fit with this breathless, young-ish Doctor, though any real character depth would have to wait for future stories.

Lord Tamworth: Blake's Seven's Gareth Thomas makes him Big Finish debut in this story's major guest role, and he is a delight. Tamworth, a stand-in for Lord Thomson in the real R101 incident, is full of bluster and bravado. He's not above threatening to destroy Lt. Col. Frayling's career if he interferes with his mission, and avows that he'll have Charley's "guts for garters" when he discovers she has snuck aboard the airship. But Episode Three reveals another side to him, showing how haunted he is by his experiences in the Great War and how determined he is that such a conflict never be repeated. Thomas is terrific throughout, and his enthusiastic portrayal gives the story a considerable boost.

THOUGHTS

Storm Warning was Big Finish's first Eighth Doctor adventure, and in 2001 that was a very big deal not only for the company, but for Doctor Who as a whole. There was no new series at that time, not even a glimmer of one on the horizon. The Eighth Doctor was the current face of Who; and save for Earth & Beyond, the only performed McGann story was The TV Movie. It was here that the series began moving forward again, with the then-current Doctor getting new stories carrying him forward in a performed medium. Those stories were even presented as "seasons," at a time when that was not Big Finish's norm. In a very real way, Storm Warning marked the return of Doctor Who as a current series, if not yet one that was on television.

It also stands up as a rather good story.

A quick perusal of Wikipedia turns up plenty of ways in which the story deviates from history: The real R101 received a lot more testing than is indicated the story indicates, for example, including multiple short flights before the fatal trip to India. There were also a very small number of survivors of the real crash, something Barnes' script alters for dramatic convenience. Still, it makes an ideal setting for a Who story, with a physical structure that is very easy to visualize and a confined setting that naturally thrusts characters together.

Story structure is quite sound, with Episode One quickly sketching that Lord Tamworth is using this flight to complete a secret mission, that Rathbone is helping him, and that there is something unusual about the passenger in Cabin 43. It brings the Doctor and Charley together, then ends on a cliffhanger. Episode Two expands on this, as the Doctor interacts with Tamworth while Charley interacts with Rathbone and the passenger. Secrets start to be peeled back, and it ends on a note that shifts the story's tone for the second half. Episode Three provides the major exposition, and Episode Four resolves the situation and sets up the complicated situation with Charley for future stories.

Alan Barnes' script does intermittently suffer from the bane of good audio stories: Clunky visual descriptions. The opening scenes are the worst in this regard: The Doctor talks to himself nonstop, helpfully describing a crash in the Time Vortex (which a later story would revisit to good effect) and the vortisaurs picking over the debris of the crash. This eases off for most of the rest of Episode One, but returns for the Episode Two cliffhanger, in which the arrival of the Triskele is described in far too much detail. We could have been to fill in that the alien ship is big, for instance, without having a character describe its dimensions for us.

Overall, however, the Eighth Doctor's Big Finish audio debut does a fine job of reintroducing an incarnation who had been restricted to print for far too long. Paul McGann gives a spirited performance, and he and India Fisher make for a likable and energetic team. The story itself is satisfying - and even more important, it leaves you wanting to hear more stories with this team.

Overall Rating: 7/10.

Next Story: Sword of Orion

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