A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 42.2.2 The Great White Hurricane Episode Two (The First Doctor Adventures Volume One, Big Finish, 2017)

The second part of this Big Finish Audio starring the actors who played the actors who played the first Tardis crew gets on with the typical team split-up.  Ian and Barbara help Rosalita to her home and hear her backstory just long enough to discover her abusive ex-husband has taken her son away.  Susan and Patrick continue hiding out and run afoul of the Alley Dogs, the rival gang his gang was fighting with in the first episode.  And the Doctor visits Patrick and Daniel's home, only to find out why the Alley Dogs are so insistent on finding Patrick...

That poverty porn feeling that I worried was going to overtake the serial is still pretty prevalent, and not just from the Rosalita storyline--the scenes in Daniel's room, with the Doctor tut-tuting away actually takes away from the wonderful chemistry David Bradley and Cory English developed in the first half hour.  The titular blizzard continues to be referenced, but it seems to be reduced to a backdrop for this leg of the story.  I never quite felt the concern I suspected I was meant to feel for Susan's safety in her thread of the tale, and the unique flavor the 19th Century New York backdrop gave the first episode seems faded away.

Pure historicals for me should either give us a vivid portrait of the time period or the culture.  The best of them tell an interesting story that weaves that portrait into the action.  This half hour (well, twenty-four minutes) seems to be at war with itself, as it wants us to be moved by the squalor of 1888 New York and tell a suspenseful story, and neither side meshes.

(To be fair, some of my discomfort might be from my familiarity with the source material Adams is riffing from...)  

I have confidence in Guy Adams as a writer, and there are hints in the later half of this segment that makes me believe there is a more compelling story waiting for me in the next two episodes.  I am still onboard, even though I am getting wary that this might be all there is.