A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 36.2.4 Fightback (Domain of the Voord Episode Four, Big Finish, 2014)

Okay, I'm willing to call it--of the few audio productions I have heard featuring the Hartnell Doctor, including both full-cast plays and dramatized reading, this is my favorite.

Everything comes together, as Ian discovers both the Doctor's fate and the purpose of the dome full of the revolving blades (it's designed to amplify the Voord's limited telepathic range so that Tarlak can control his minions planet-wide), Susan is forced into participating in a Voord Harvest ceremony to flush the others out.  The Rebellion makes its move, leading to a big combat sequence, a surprising and unlikely ally intervening on Susan's behalf, and things work out.

This is the best example of Big Finish trying to capture the feel of the period of the series while also providing a scope that the series couldn't have achieved back in the early 60's.  Smith orchestrates a full scale battle between the Voord and the Hydran Resistant, contrasting it with the much more personal conflict between Tarlak and Nebrin over Susan's fate.  I felt the cutting back and forth between the big scale action and the smaller battle taking place on the ceremonial stage was very well handled, and I never lost track of what was going on.  And while I was not surprised at Nebrin's face turn, I was surprised at the reasonings behind it, as it makes sense within what we've learned about our villain species.

Even with the limited cast, I was super impressed and more than a bit surprised at how much fun I had with this story.  And considering Andrew Smith took what was just men in funky scuba-style suits and turned them into breathing, plausible and scary does, I am going to seek out his other audioplays.

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 61. Invasion (The Web Planet Part Five)

So here we get the equivalent of a Corridor Chase for this serial.  With their attempt to foil the control collars successful, the Doctor and Vicki escape the Animus (with a controlled Zarbi in tow that Vicki dubs 'Zombo') and eventually connect up with Barbara and what's left of the Menoptran Spearhead.  The Menoptrans have an implosion bomb that will destroy the Animus, and the Doctor volunteers to go into the Animus to plant it there.  Meanwhile, Ian and the...Opterans endeavor to escape the tunnels underneath Vortis.  Needless to say, it doesn't go off as planned....

The thing that struck me the most in this half hour is the information that could have been, maybe should have been imparted earlier in the serial.  There's a somewhat extensive monologue about Menoptran culture that I can't help thinking needed to be in the second or third episode to prevent that suspicion I had back then that the Menoptrans might've been the villains.  The plans--and the connected discovery of what the Animus is using to fulfill its dark purpose--should have been more spread out, as the mystery of the extra moons was mentioned in passing so far back we might not make the connection.  This is integral stuff to keep this six episodes flow better, and it's so packed in to this fifth episode that it feels overstuffed.  I once more come to the opinion that this serial should not have been as long as it is.

...and if you ask me, I'm positive that we just didn't need the Opterans.  So far they've contributed nothing other than giving Ian something to do--and I suspect William Russell knew it, as there's little moments where the camera catches him stifling a laugh at the ludicrousness of what he's doing.  A moment when one of the Opterans die has no impact, and there's nowhere in this serial that has any impact other than this whole sequence.  I'm sorry, but the felt-and-foam costumes of these third race just prevents me from seeing them as anything other than silly.

There are some good moments, especially with our female members.  I laughed out loud at Vicki's reactions in the opening scene, and I still take great joy in the way she gives a little sass to the Doctor when he's being crotchety.  And Barbara is in prime action heroine mode, devising a plan and acting strong in the face of mockery.  I know that my time with Jacqueline Hill is coming to an end, and I'm going to miss her steely resolve when she's gone.

So...yeah, a 'corridor chase'.  The cliffhanger seems very non-sequetorial, but I am taking some solace in knowing next episode is the last of this so well-intentioned but just isn't able to achieve its goal.

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 36.3 Rise and Fall (Short Trips Volume One, Big Finish, 2010)

This is the very dawn of the Short Trips range over at Big Finish, the first story in a collection of eight short stories, each one focusing on one of the eight doctors the company had licenses to produce stuff for (a little later, the BBC will extend the Who license to all NuWho material through Peter Capaldi).  The intent at that time was that Short Trips would be audio chapbooks, with each story designed to be listened to during a typical commute--this is the only story in this anthology that's over twenty minutes--and would be read by an actor associated with that Doctor.

...which brings us to this story by George Mann, read by William Russell.  It tells of how the Doctor and Ian stop for a brief respite and end up influencing the rise of an entire civilization...for, you see, said civilization is living in an accelerated pocket of time, which means a few minutes to our heroes means eons for them.

It's a wonderful, simple little story that shows what can be done with the Short Trips format--focusing not on the TARDIS crew but on how they influence those around them.  I felt a real sense of delightful awe at how this story played out.  Some of the best Short Trips I've experienced are like this (wait until we get to the Pertwee era and I get to talk about a little gem called 'Damascus'), little tales about people and how they are impacted by the Doctor's presence. Mann does not let the story outstay its welcome, and leaves the listener satisfied.

Later, when the Short Trips line becomes a monthly line, the stories stretch to sometimes as much as forty-five minutes, and I think a lot of them lose sight of the original remit.  But right now at the beginning, this (and many of the stories in this collection, which we will get to as we reach the other Doctors) is a satisfying, bite-sized little bit of science fiction.