There's something to be said for the Classic Who formula. For all of the pitfalls of the classic serial (plodding storytelling, frequent kidnappings that amount to nothing, screeching companions and characters playing ping pong bouncing from one side versus another) the format has still remained intriguing even now in the twenty first century, compelling, and while Big Finish could have retired it long ago and simply done their stories without the cut in the middle of each hour and that cliffhanger sting- they've continued to utilize it, even in the face of the 1 hour long adventures of the Fourth Doctor that Big Finish has grown (strangely) accustomed to. That classic pacing, of sometimes slow but always purposeful has become all the more integral to Big Finish's way of telling stories, and the brilliance of the four-parter as a story concept continued to live on for all of Big Finish's 275 Main Range releases- even if they deviated from time to time. As such, there's always joy to be found in a well executed serial, the power of the cliffhanger sting still holds that vital energy, and while the classic formula can make stinkers unbearable, well. It propels the best stories to higher highs. Most of Modern Who's best stories are just classic who 4-parters wearing a different skin- you could split World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls into four even parts for instance...that structure still continues. I may be rambling on, but this is why I think it's brilliant for Big Finish to continue to utilize some of the people that helped propel this format, and Hinchcliffe's often called gothic era of the show has always been one that many have held quite dear. Phillip Hinchcliffe Presents Volume One on paper is a phenomenal idea (even if it may sound conceited to shove the man's name directly in the title)...but how does the result perform?
The Ghosts of Gralstead by Phillip Hinchcliffe and Marc Platt
The immediate result of how it performs is perhaps one of the best Fourth Doctor stories in an age. I listened to each part of Ghosts of Gralstead separately, as one would with the classic series episodes - only getting one episode a week back in the day, and the result was absolutely wonderous. Ghosts of Gralstead is essentially a similar story to Talons of Wheng Chiang, but without the racism, even more gothic and dark, and with a weird one episode trip to Africa out of nowhere (which isn't necessarily bad, just incredibly jarring.) The story is slick and absolutely perfectly paced - with each episode I truly felt all the more drawn into the story's setting and understanding each mystery a slight bit more. Ghosts of Gralstead is not flawless - it has the aforementioned choice for the Doctor and Leela to have to visit Africa for episode five which sort of messes with the absolutely hitherto flawless pacing and makes the threat seem less intense, but the character work is deft and the pace is returned to in the final episode. And yes - this is a 6 parter. And a damn good one. Ghosts exists in a familiar area to say Talons does, the darkened Victorian streets, and almost has a similar plot - of a socialite secretly doing the bidding of a monstrous alien, Gralstead expands in a different direction with the same idea. It's a dark and nasty story, there are many deaths and they are all quite vicious - even for audio. Yet Four and Leela, recipients of this gothic era so often slide in as excellently as they used to in this setting. What furthermore impressed me was Tom Baker's performance. Louise Jameson knocks it out of the park as per usual, but Tom was the highlight, actually showing emotion and depth beyond "haha funny scarf man." However even he was dwarfed by Carolyn Seymour's masterful turn as the villain Mordrega, a beautifully nightmarish and dark villain. Ghosts may not do absolutely everything flawlessly, even I notice that, but I'm hard-pressed to not give it a perfect score when the highs exceed pretty much every other Fourth Doctor story I've heard Big Finish produce. Since the three discs are at least somewhat distinct, and it's such a long story. I'll go by Discs then, out of simplicity. While I tend to hate six-parters minus a few scant exceptions (Shada, Power of the Daleks, etc) I can't help but be in awe by this enormous triumph.
Disc One: 10/10
Disc Two: 10/10
Disc Three: 9/10
The Devil's Armada by Phillip Hinchcliffe and Marc Platt
The Devil's Armada is essentially a better "Witchfinders" where The Doctor and Leela turn up at an ancient town where supposed witches are being killed at the ducking stool and Catholic Priests are being hunted down. It's a simpler story, much more similar to that which the 4DAs actually do regularly now, but it isn't without charm. Not that Witchfinders was bad either, but this one at the very least has more time to function properly. It is authentically of it's time, where Gralstead felt more like a modern adaptation of an old tale, and it does have the issue of getting a bit too big for it's britches. The Spanish Armada show up, another alien that could be "the devil" does too, and there's a bombastic final act. It is by the numbers, and perhaps would even benefit from being a pure historical. Yet all the same, it does still do atmosphere well, and Marc Platt as he has proven many times previous does do a few things exceedingly well, and his strengths as a writer partner well with the material Hinchcliffe has given him (thank god both of these were historicals!) The best scenes (or at least the most memorable) are some tense runarounds in the priest holes of a house while the Spanish Inquisition attempts to smoke them out. It's in these scenes that I think if Devil's Armada had fully submitted to it's setting and done a tense runaround with the Inquisition, it would be a triumph - but Satanic aliens arriving fits the themes perhaps better than mud people. All in all, It does feel like it's another serial out of the original run- for better or worse. So I don't truly think of Devil's Armada in a bad way. Slightly above average, which can be disappointing after that BEHEMOTH of a stellar opener, but one can't complain, especially when Baker and Jameson are at the helm:
Disc One: 8/10
Disc Two: 8/10
So, what did I think? It's my current favorite Baker set for one - and that's sharp competition when you compare it to the Fourth Doctor Adventure's Triumph of Season Eight, which it only barely edges out. A wonderful work of atmosphere above all else, get it while you still can, especially while it's on sale with DWM. A Brilliant Set, and I might just have to nab the other Hinchcliffe sets. I had only gotten this one because of the sale and that Hinchcliffe was returning with the God of Phantoms, which they had previously said wasn't going to happen. Yet the range persists, and well. If the other volumes are as good as this one, why did they ever stop with them in the first place?
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