The Witch From The Well

 


The Witch From The Well by Rick Briggs

The Witch From The Well reaches Mach Eight very early on, and I feel like I never really caught up. There's a reason I've delayed on the Mary Shelley reviews, and well, it's been me relistening to this one, over and over, trying to get the Plot down. Three relistens, and I sort of figured it wasn't worth the effort to get beyond the broad strokes. Anyway, There have been quite a few stories like The Witch From The Well over the years. It's not ambitious, really, even if it opens up with such a volley of information you'll be struggling to keep track even at the end of Part Two - hell, if you really want to go pedantic, it bears a lot of similarities to the later Phillip Hinchcliffe play The Devil's Armada (which is better) and The Witchfinders. (which, I'm sad to say, is also better.) I feel a story like this should open up slow, atmospheric and methodical, and it loses a lot from the very, very, NuWho pacing it starts out with. But it's not free of good things. Most of which are Mary Shelley, continuing to add a beautiful gothic edge to these stories, even if she's relegated to a bit of a B-Plot here. The Eighth Doctor and the Witch-Pricker have some delightful scenes together, even if the Witch-pricker doesn't have much depth, he's excellent authority for the Doctor to pounce off of. The Guest cast are pretty good - Agnes Bates is entertaining, if undeveloped, and the oddly named Finicia and Lucern are a very creepy pair of twins, even if thanks to the plot being so goddamn fast, I did not comprehend most of their plan. Without a doubt though, the highlight of the story is Mary Shelley finding her biography in the TARDIS. This is the kind of bold move that you can only get from a companion who is actually an established historical figure - it's absolutely brilliant stuff, and really excellent character work for Shelley yet again. Maybe it's the fact that she is a real person, but the way she is written makes her actively feel like one of the most real companions. One of the greats, and I'm sad I'm 2/3s done with her. The title Witch From the Well is so evocative, the potential for this story is so vast, and the previous story was so good, perhaps I was expecting a bit much from (Not) Nick Briggs, but it's not the worst thing that I've ever experienced. It was fun. (On the relistens, I really got frustrated on the first ride through trying to follow it) If it really does feel similar to a lot of Witch stories we've had before. It's got all the right pieces, and it's not exactly rushed for time. If it slowed down at the start and let us catch up, we might have had something engrossing. Heck, a lot of people besides me like it, maybe If I followed it from the start, I might rest comfortably in that camp. I'll stop attacking the story now. 6/10 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs

Image
  Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris Now stop me if you've heard this one before...  The Doctor and Companions arrive in Location X where they discover evidence that something bad is going to happen in the future (i.e. their deaths, the TARDIS not working, etc) and have to fudge the rules of time so they live. It's a Doctor Who stalwart, I should think, I can't count how many stories I've done with it, but the Fires of Vulcan and the entirety of Matt Smith series 6 come readily to mind - and quite frankly, Cobwebs is no exception. It's a complicated time puzzle of a story that will never really surprise you (I figured out the twist a solid hour before it happened.) The story's chief selling point is that for the first time ever since like Mawdwyn Undead and Terminus for two seconds, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough are in the TARDIS together. It's other chief selling point is Tegan is in it - this was her second Big Finish audio ever, and she had previously said she would...
Read more

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us 2

Image
  Love Rat by Christopher Cooper Trust Big Finish to remake Day One, and not only make it good, but also make it somewhat heartbreaking. Of course, Day One is a terrible and horny bit of TV, and Love Rat is also sort of that way, but it makes up for it (in my book) by dealing with the aftereffects of what this kind of story would actually do to the team. Jack's actions in this episode, although prompted by the parasite, aren't even out of character, and the way he seduces Tyler and Ng and the fallout of that is dealt with in a surprisingly mature and emotional manner. Unlike Day One, which strives to be mature, Love Rat is actually mature, and the Gwen and Ng arc is actually a gutpunch to hear, especially the final few scenes with Rhys, as throughout this series, Ng has taken over Gwen's life and utterly ruined it. It's amazing what Eve Myles can do with just a few words, the emotion she can convey that this isn't what she wants, how horrified she is at not being in...
Read more

NCJDDAS: Dark Page

Image
NCJDDAS: Dark Page Cover by Arbrax  This episode of the NOW CANON Judi Dench Doctor adventures was Inspired by Robert Shearman listing a brilliant idea for a short story that wouldn’t work in Doctor Who. I say utter Rubbish. I’m taking that story and writing it in Who. Fight me. It also helps that I haven’t read the story he wrote that I’m utilizing, making this even more of a simple writing prompt thing. Featuring The Twenty Second Doctor, Elizabeth Olsen, as created by Arbrax Chapter One In the town of Broughstershire, at 5:27 AM, the postman came by every house in the neighborhood and gave every single person a letter.  The letter was different for each person. For instance, Mr. Layton got a letter that said May 5, 2027, and below that, in slightly aggressive font, Gangrene. Mrs Curbishley got a letter that said June 18, 2053, Car Crash, and Little Timmy got a letter that said October 9th, 2081, Natural Causes. Of course, these are merely examples, those people don't e...
Read more

(MAIN RANGE): Dinnertime Part One

Image
MAIN RANGE: Dinnertime Part One This Story Stars Judi Dench as The Twenty Sixth Doctor and David Tennant as The Tenth Featuring Danny Devito as Danny Devito and John Simm as The Master This Story Takes Place Between A Storm Is A Comin and The Countryfile Conundrum Chapter One "It is said that in the final days of planet earth, everyone had bad dreams. To the west...of the...north... of this world...everyone did...gather? What even is that sentence- um, Sorry, Ah, here we are. IN THE CELEBRATION, of a Pagan rite to banish the cold and the Dark. Each and everyone of those people had nightmares of the pretty mild (for the human race) terror to come (I mean, I think the Dalek invasion was way worse). Everyone except Fred. There's nothing special about Fred, he's not really important to the story, but all the same, he had a dream about shopping, and it was rather average. Okay, so, to sum up. Everyone had bad dreams on Earth, except Fred. They all forgot...Except for one....
Read more

Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers

Image
  The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers Ravagers is such a weird choice to start the Ninth Doctor Adventures with because in terms of plot, this really feels like an Eleventh Doctor story. It’s convoluted and “timey wimey” and quite possibly disorienting for newcomers. In fact, no, it seems definitely disorienting for newcomers. You think a River Song flow chart was required? Nahh, A Ninth Doctor Ravagers flowchart is required, man. As an audio fanatic, it was quite confusing, and well, perhaps indicative of NuWho Three-Parters, because like most of them, it borders on the shit. And one would expect, me, as not really the worlds hugest Ninth Doctor fan, that I’d hate it, right? Nope! I love it. Really do, I mean, it’s not perfect (first releases for Doctors never are: Sirens of Time, Destination: Nerva and Only the Monstrous are all trash, and Technophobia is just okay) But on the whole, I felt it was a consistent set and the quality never really went up or down much in either dire...
Read more