Stranded 2

 

Doctor Who Stranded 2 

A long time ago, I applauded Stranded 1 for it's bold and impressive new direction, something that fervently appealed to me after the bombast of Doom Coalition and Ravenous. Character pieces set entirely in Modern day London. It seemed to me almost a waste, for the end of that set to immediately restore the TARDIS - although legally speaking, it still can't travel in space...it does seem to me like the issue of being Stranded feels pretty much resolved. The Doctor has always been a huge fan of humanity, and bouncing about the ages...London is not a prison to him anymore. So stepping into Stranded 2, I was cautious of how the series would continue, after the majority of set one had been positively steeped in set up, and one of the main, if not the most important plot thread was resolved. I was surprised to discover that in fact, that despite the awkward change of setting...Stranded 2 felt like a lot more of the same. 

Dead Time by Matt Fitton

Now that Matt Fitton isn't struggling to hold up half the sets, he can pitch in some of his better efforts...after all, the man consistently surprised me as of late, especially with stories like Quicksilver, The Destination Wars, or even Lost Property from Set One. But on the whole, in terms of what Dead Time is, is it does feel quite a bit like Classic Who in modern's skin, where the large cast of characters scampers around the ruins of a planet (all too easily visualized as a quarry) for an hour. To aid to the Classic Who comparison, Adric is back! Wait, no, his name is Robin! Adric, like Mel or Peri is a character that has received a lot of work from Big Finish, and he is actually not intolerable anymore. But it seems like Matt Fitton forgot that, and just poured a lot of Adric's worst traits into Robin...although perhaps that pays off better later on, it does make him more annoying in the now. So, we have the large cast split into groups of two, as The Doctor and Tania investigate the ruins, Helen and Robin try and stay put in the TARDIS to little avail, and Andy and Liv go off and check out a spaceship. Andy and Liv's thread is by far the most enjoyable, bringing to mind the very thing that made Andy so popular against other character's in the Torchwood range, like Yvonne, Owen or Norton. Andy reacting in such a wonderful fashion to the supposed ruins of our planet which only makes him all the more endearing - and his optimism plays off against Liv's hardboiled personality in much the way it would play off Owen. Alas, this is but one thread, and it is the most interesting, the set up giving us absolutely 0 in terms of answers, and pretty much feels like the middle two parts of a classic who serial. A lot of running about in a quarry, interspersed with some fairly good character stuff occasionally. So, about on par with the usual standard. 7/10

UNIT Dating by Roy Gill

Roy Gill being an author I'm fairly unfamiliar with at Big Finish, he sort of melded into the background of writers that didn't really stand out much rather than put out decent enough enjoyable audios. But I have discovered with UNIT Dating, and looking back on his prior work for the company, (Creeping Death, for instance) the man's strength as a writer...is gay fluff. UNIT Dating is an incredibly heartwarming piece of just plain old fashioned romance, set front and center while an almost Third Doctor serial goes on for a bit in the background. It's difficult to describe how good UNIT Dating is, because it is simple, and yes, it is fairly sappy, but this sort of content is so damn rare, and it is even more of a treat to see it done well. Liv and Tania quickly became the iconic forefront for LGBT characters in Who (a much sought after title) in Stranded 1, and I'm quite glad to see that level of representation continue as the Doctor and Andy meet Ron and Tony's past selves in the 70s...or 80s. Even without this angle, it would be a fun time travel story involving the Doctor and Andy meeting the Brig and an Ogron and getting stuck in a time loop - but the levels of farcical misunderstanding, and also the heart wrenching opening and stellar emotional beats throughout elevate UNIT Dating to another level of extraordinary content. The moment of McGann really admitting how he never valued the Brig enough is a brutally strong moment, but the story just doesn't stop with them. UNIT Dating is really something that while not flawless, really feels personal and wonderful...and that does make it flawless. The Brig says gay rights, Helen and Liv have such good moments, and the song at the end left me in glorious, glorious tears: 10/10 

Baker Street Irregulars by Lisa McMullin

Welcome to the land of the filler! We have not come upon this land for quite some time, but yea and verily, it indeed hath some fairly okay side characters from set one take thine forefront. The verdict? Well, it's fine? Stronger than Dead Time at least. Indeed, Baker Street Irregulars initially seems like it has balls to it. It has a fake out involving a Nazi and a woman that I legitimately was not expecting to see in modern Big Finish - it felt straight out of Big Finish's early days or even Torchwood, and had me filled with horror for a few swift moments. Baker Street Irregulars also threatens to develop Liv and Tania's characters, and how they are really dealing with "Asking no questions and telling no lies," but alas, it is another road not taken (probably so it can be used all the more for drama later) and instead of Tania opening up to Liv or anything, they get a Cat. Aww, how domestic. This being said, it isn't a bad story, merely one of missed opportunity, for it's emotional and character beats it does have are excellent, and the Tania and Liv content is all quite good until the moment where Tania really should tell Liv about Torchwood doesn't really happen...(DRAMA MUST BE SAVED UNTIL LATER OR THE SCRIPT EDITORS GET SAD) and Aisha and Zakia have a really quite fascinating twist surrounding them that comes out of nowhere but does make sense - made all the better by the Doctor even mentioning "No one saw that coming," and good performances all around...Especially from Helen, the star of the episode in my eyes, who really gets some quietly powerful moments about living through WW2 again. Yet, while this episode could have felt much more necessary, it doesn't really. So, well, yes. Baker Street Irregulars nearly had some heft to it, but as it stands, it's at least enjoyable secret agent fanfare that gives Tania another trip in the TARDIS. 8/10

The Long Way Round by John Dorney

Hi, John Dorney! Are you going to make another really damn strong episode that's expertly experimental and incredibly intriguing? Ooh! Hooray! Is it going to be shameless arc bait as well?? ...John? John! 

In fairness, The Long Way Round is a format that is quite fascinating...initially composed by Dorney (as he said in Vortex) as a play that would in fact, be improved by being made in lockdown. As it is, it bears a heavy resemblance to another Eighth Doctor favorite of mine, The Natural History of Fear, and...Well, there's no copying The Natural History of Fear. The Long Way Round is a story that delves deep into the supposed alternate timeline established in Divine Intervention and Dead Time, and yet, by merely bringing up Divine Intervention, it did make it incredibly easy to guess the twist. But all the same. The Long Way Round is essentially a bunch of two-handers spliced together, as the admittedly incredibly intimidating and intriguing character of Houlbrooke intimidates the cast into answering things about the Doctor one by one. In fact, it almost even manages to trick you with some incredibly interesting ideas (that go unused, but that's all the better, they're more interesting presented in this fashion) about our perception of the Doctor. The nearness of being able to trick us into thinking that the villain of the piece is some kind of Valeyard is inspired levels of writing, as we're well used to from Dorney. As the cast gets interrogated, this is also interjected by scenes of a girl named Gemma talking to the Curator on a bench in Camden Park...still as exquisitely played and ambiguous as before, although he's used as a wonderful red herring in bits. But I do wonder... why is this girl named Gemma being inserted in - Yeah, it's fairly obvious it's Houlbrooke. Nonetheless, me nitpicking holes in a John Dorney story is fairly foolish of me. There's excellent usage of our five leads - (yes, all five!!) And the ending leaves the followup for Stranded 3 all the more intriguing. Perhaps I wasn't as invested in this dystopian alternate timeline of Dead Time and The Wrong Way Round due to the events of this past year, and that does make me grade those two stories slightly more harshly...but all the same. It's a John Dorney script, and it's him playing with the format as he does best. While it's no Wild Animals, it does leave me quite needy to hear more... 9/10

Overall: Stranded 2 takes some of the strengths of Stranded 1 away, but it also does add it's own, and I think it's pretty much identically on par with set 1, which sets this series at two boxsets in, miles better than pretty much anything before it. Yet I am starting to see flecks and scratches in the paint, and there is still opportunity for all of these stories to be better. But who's to complain with this incredible cast? A worthy addition to the series. Average Rating: 8.75