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shivverIt's been a while since I reviewed the first two audios in "Once and Future", Big Finish's 60th celebration series. I've listened to three more of them, so here are my thoughts.
Spoilers, of course.
A Genius for War (Seventh Doctor, The General, Davros)
Just to refresh your memory, the overarching story in "Once and Future" is that the Doctor in the Time War (I'm pretty sure it's the War Doctor, not the Eighth Doctor) has been hit by a "degeneration" weapon that is forcing him to change into previous incarnations, and he's trying to figure out how it was done and who did it.
To be entirely honest, it's been months since I listened to "A Genius for War", so I don't remember the details, but I do remember that I really enjoyed it. The Doctor, in his seventh face, is called back to Gallifrey because Davros has contacted the Time Lords, saying that he wants to work with them to destroy the Daleks, but will only do so if the Doctor is the one who helps him. Do you trust this man? No one does, of course, but on the other hand, if he's really willing to bring this war to an end, then they should at least talk to him about it.
Thus, as the story unfolds and as events change the landscape, you - and the characters - are never quite sure who to trust or if Davros is being truthful, or even if he had been truthful a moment ago but has shifted since. The Time Lords and the Doctor actually have very little to do throughout the story except talk and wonder, but it actually works - the total confusion about Davros carries the story and makes you eager for the next minute in the hopes you might get a clue as to what's really going on.
In my opinion, this is the best audio of the series so far.
Two's Company (Sixth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Jackie Tyler, Lady Christina de Souza)
Now, that's an eclectic mix of companions. I really wondered how they'd all get tied together. This story manages to do it, but not in a very satisfactory way.
The basic storyline is that the Doctor (not in his sixth face) approached Harry to help him set up a time portal, and they need a specific object as the key. Meanwhile, Jackie, on a tip from a blond, bushy-haired woman she met at last night's bingo game, goes to a blue-blood mansion to apply as a housekeeper, and the prospective employer, Lady Christina, who incidentally hadn't wanted to hire a housekeeper, hires her and they become fast BFFs. Lady Christina identifies Jackie's necklace (a piece from one of Rose's travels that she left behind) as an item highly sought after at an auction house, so they go to sell it. Of course, the necklace is the key that the not-sixth Doctor wants. Meanwhile meanwhile, the Doctor (in his sixth face) also decides he needs the key, so he goes to the auction and loses.
The Doctor meets up with the sellers, Jackie and Lady Christina, and determine that Harry had been the winner. They chase him down, and discover that the not-sixth Doctor is not the Doctor (surprise!), but instead the Time Lord called the Renegade (or, I think, actually, the Two - an earlier incarnation of the Nine).
It all felt a bit contrived. Poor Harry got duped by a Time Lord pretending to be the Doctor - I really wish that character would be treated a bit better. He's not stupid, but is always written that way. Having River tip Jackie toward Lady Christina rubbed me the wrong way. Does she already know what's wrong with the Doctor and what needs to be done to fix it? If so, that's disappointing, having her driving the events of this series. If not, then why would she think that getting Jackie employed by Lady Christina would help anything? Why isn't she taking a more active hand in the situation, like stealing the necklace and getting it where it needs to go? She's in the next audio on the list for me, so maybe we'll get some answers there.
The sudden fast friendship between Jackie and Lady Christina didn't work for me, either. The post interviews said that the idea was that Lady Christina, being a neglected child and a blue blood, was very lonely and jumped at the chance of having a female friend, but the audio itself didn't make this clear. It just felt more like, well, we need these two to trust each other and work together, so sure, they're soulmates from minute one.
I did really enjoy the interaction between the Doctor and the Renegade, even though I really had no idea of the Nine's history or how this audio feeds into it (since this is long before this character becomes the Nine).
The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 (Tenth Doctor, Missy, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax)
The first thing you are probably wondering is, "Wait, you said the Doctor was de-generating. What's up with Ten?" Well, they addressed this right off. The moment he becomes Ten, he says, "I don't remember this one. It must have pulled this from my future." Awesome! Now this explains Ten here as well Nine in the next audio.
I came into this one with a lot of trepidation. I don't really like Missy, and the Paternoster Gang can be hit or miss, depending on what they're being used for in the story. However, I'm going to say right now, I really enjoyed this one.
I am also going to say right now that it wasn't because the story was good. It wasn't. The Doctor arrives on Planetoid 50 and steps out of the TARDIS into Victorian London, which is currently being ravaged by tripods straight out of The War of the Worlds. The TARDIS is absolutely certain they're on Planetoid 50, but the people he meets are absolutely certain they're on Earth in London in the late 1800s. He investigates and discovers that Missy has enslaved Vastra by mind-controlling Jenny and blackmailing her into serving her, and that Missy has created this whole world. The Master in the Time War had also been hit by the degeneration weapon and he retreated to Planetoid 50 to try to fix the problem, and in the meantime, had kept himself entertained by reading The War of the Worlds and then recreating that London on this planetoid and transporting real Londoners to live there. By this time, she'd degenerated into the future (Missy) and lost control of the tripods, so she'd been waiting for the Doctor to arrive to fix everything.
Yeah. Pretty contrived.
However! Since there was really no actual plot to this story, the majority of it was character interaction, and Missy was amazing. Apparently, Michelle Gomez ad-libbed a lot of her dialogue (and Neve McIntosh and David Tennant both said in the post interviews that they had no idea what to do because she'd be going off on this inspired ramble and they couldn't tell if they should interrupt or not). Missy paired with the Tenth Doctor really well (maybe because they weren't trying to inject sexual tension like in the show?), and her interactions with Vastra were also fun - and yet Missy didn't dominate everything.
I also really liked Strax here. He had very little air time, but his time was not only comic relief. He actually behaved like a Sontaran and the humor came out of that, not out of the running joke that he's an idiot. (I do normally like Strax - he's hilarious in the show - but he's much better here.) The one disappointment in this case was the guest character, Jessamy Moore, the journalist that the Doctor meets on landing. She serves to convince him that yes, everyone does believe this is really London, and then does nothing significant after that other than travel with Strax across the city. The first few minutes of the audio set her up as an interesting character, and then she was more or less forgotten.
And then, in all three audios, just like in the first two, the Doctor basically arrives to find out about the degeneration weapon, gets caught up in the adventure, and leaves without finding anything out except the next place he should go look. So, in summary, I'd say AGfW and TMIoP50 are good stories worth listening to on their own and TC is skippable, and that I'm hoping we get some real story arc soon. There aren't many audios left in this series.
Spoilers, of course.
A Genius for War (Seventh Doctor, The General, Davros)
Just to refresh your memory, the overarching story in "Once and Future" is that the Doctor in the Time War (I'm pretty sure it's the War Doctor, not the Eighth Doctor) has been hit by a "degeneration" weapon that is forcing him to change into previous incarnations, and he's trying to figure out how it was done and who did it.
To be entirely honest, it's been months since I listened to "A Genius for War", so I don't remember the details, but I do remember that I really enjoyed it. The Doctor, in his seventh face, is called back to Gallifrey because Davros has contacted the Time Lords, saying that he wants to work with them to destroy the Daleks, but will only do so if the Doctor is the one who helps him. Do you trust this man? No one does, of course, but on the other hand, if he's really willing to bring this war to an end, then they should at least talk to him about it.
Thus, as the story unfolds and as events change the landscape, you - and the characters - are never quite sure who to trust or if Davros is being truthful, or even if he had been truthful a moment ago but has shifted since. The Time Lords and the Doctor actually have very little to do throughout the story except talk and wonder, but it actually works - the total confusion about Davros carries the story and makes you eager for the next minute in the hopes you might get a clue as to what's really going on.
In my opinion, this is the best audio of the series so far.
Two's Company (Sixth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Jackie Tyler, Lady Christina de Souza)
Now, that's an eclectic mix of companions. I really wondered how they'd all get tied together. This story manages to do it, but not in a very satisfactory way.
The basic storyline is that the Doctor (not in his sixth face) approached Harry to help him set up a time portal, and they need a specific object as the key. Meanwhile, Jackie, on a tip from a blond, bushy-haired woman she met at last night's bingo game, goes to a blue-blood mansion to apply as a housekeeper, and the prospective employer, Lady Christina, who incidentally hadn't wanted to hire a housekeeper, hires her and they become fast BFFs. Lady Christina identifies Jackie's necklace (a piece from one of Rose's travels that she left behind) as an item highly sought after at an auction house, so they go to sell it. Of course, the necklace is the key that the not-sixth Doctor wants. Meanwhile meanwhile, the Doctor (in his sixth face) also decides he needs the key, so he goes to the auction and loses.
The Doctor meets up with the sellers, Jackie and Lady Christina, and determine that Harry had been the winner. They chase him down, and discover that the not-sixth Doctor is not the Doctor (surprise!), but instead the Time Lord called the Renegade (or, I think, actually, the Two - an earlier incarnation of the Nine).
It all felt a bit contrived. Poor Harry got duped by a Time Lord pretending to be the Doctor - I really wish that character would be treated a bit better. He's not stupid, but is always written that way. Having River tip Jackie toward Lady Christina rubbed me the wrong way. Does she already know what's wrong with the Doctor and what needs to be done to fix it? If so, that's disappointing, having her driving the events of this series. If not, then why would she think that getting Jackie employed by Lady Christina would help anything? Why isn't she taking a more active hand in the situation, like stealing the necklace and getting it where it needs to go? She's in the next audio on the list for me, so maybe we'll get some answers there.
The sudden fast friendship between Jackie and Lady Christina didn't work for me, either. The post interviews said that the idea was that Lady Christina, being a neglected child and a blue blood, was very lonely and jumped at the chance of having a female friend, but the audio itself didn't make this clear. It just felt more like, well, we need these two to trust each other and work together, so sure, they're soulmates from minute one.
I did really enjoy the interaction between the Doctor and the Renegade, even though I really had no idea of the Nine's history or how this audio feeds into it (since this is long before this character becomes the Nine).
The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 (Tenth Doctor, Missy, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax)
The first thing you are probably wondering is, "Wait, you said the Doctor was de-generating. What's up with Ten?" Well, they addressed this right off. The moment he becomes Ten, he says, "I don't remember this one. It must have pulled this from my future." Awesome! Now this explains Ten here as well Nine in the next audio.
I came into this one with a lot of trepidation. I don't really like Missy, and the Paternoster Gang can be hit or miss, depending on what they're being used for in the story. However, I'm going to say right now, I really enjoyed this one.
I am also going to say right now that it wasn't because the story was good. It wasn't. The Doctor arrives on Planetoid 50 and steps out of the TARDIS into Victorian London, which is currently being ravaged by tripods straight out of The War of the Worlds. The TARDIS is absolutely certain they're on Planetoid 50, but the people he meets are absolutely certain they're on Earth in London in the late 1800s. He investigates and discovers that Missy has enslaved Vastra by mind-controlling Jenny and blackmailing her into serving her, and that Missy has created this whole world. The Master in the Time War had also been hit by the degeneration weapon and he retreated to Planetoid 50 to try to fix the problem, and in the meantime, had kept himself entertained by reading The War of the Worlds and then recreating that London on this planetoid and transporting real Londoners to live there. By this time, she'd degenerated into the future (Missy) and lost control of the tripods, so she'd been waiting for the Doctor to arrive to fix everything.
Yeah. Pretty contrived.
However! Since there was really no actual plot to this story, the majority of it was character interaction, and Missy was amazing. Apparently, Michelle Gomez ad-libbed a lot of her dialogue (and Neve McIntosh and David Tennant both said in the post interviews that they had no idea what to do because she'd be going off on this inspired ramble and they couldn't tell if they should interrupt or not). Missy paired with the Tenth Doctor really well (maybe because they weren't trying to inject sexual tension like in the show?), and her interactions with Vastra were also fun - and yet Missy didn't dominate everything.
I also really liked Strax here. He had very little air time, but his time was not only comic relief. He actually behaved like a Sontaran and the humor came out of that, not out of the running joke that he's an idiot. (I do normally like Strax - he's hilarious in the show - but he's much better here.) The one disappointment in this case was the guest character, Jessamy Moore, the journalist that the Doctor meets on landing. She serves to convince him that yes, everyone does believe this is really London, and then does nothing significant after that other than travel with Strax across the city. The first few minutes of the audio set her up as an interesting character, and then she was more or less forgotten.
And then, in all three audios, just like in the first two, the Doctor basically arrives to find out about the degeneration weapon, gets caught up in the adventure, and leaves without finding anything out except the next place he should go look. So, in summary, I'd say AGfW and TMIoP50 are good stories worth listening to on their own and TC is skippable, and that I'm hoping we get some real story arc soon. There aren't many audios left in this series.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-07 01:12 pm (UTC)Started the other two. The latter took me awhile to get into but it’s okay.
I agree I hope the next couple actually explain what’s been going on.