All Consuming Fire

 All Consuming Fire by Andy Lane and Adapted by Guy Adams

Whilst most of the novel adaptations that I have heard so far, (Nightshade for example) have felt that they were merely compressed and budgetary forms of the original tale, All Consuming Fire gives itself quite handily to the audio format. While of course, it is no doubt also a compressed form of the story, I felt, as I did with Love and War that it was a worthy one in its own right. All Consuming Fire is also very unique from the Doctor Who standpoint that it is legitimately a crossover with Sherlock Holmes and to some degree, the Cthulhu Mythos. Those waiting for an explanation shan’t get one, even if you wait after the credits for the story’s bonus scene, which instead of explaining the stories inclusion of fictional characters, consists entirely of Sylvester McCoy adopting some cats. It’s a bold move, to tell an essentially quite simple Doctor Who story from such an angle - and while the story is technically full cast, it also has in universe narration from the accounts of Doctor John Watson and Bernice Summerfield, giving the story yet another unusual wrinkle in its unassumedly plain fabric. It works remarkably well, allowing the novel’s purple prose to flow into the audio format in a way that kept the action scenes engaging, yet didn’t interfere with the dialog between the characters. One of my issues with the Early Adventures/the John Culshaw Novel adaptations is the obligatory “he said, she said,” at the end of every line, as all it adds is a slow to the pace. Luckily there’s none of that here, and the narration is kept sparse yet engaging, as it is literally Watson’s thought process, which once again works for the audio drama format a lot like the companion chronicles narration enhancing from the story rather than out of universe narration detracting from the immersion. Ordinarily I don’t care for Sherlock being transposed into supernatural stories (the Robert Downey Jr. film particularly pissed me off) or alien investigations - they turn the grounded mystery in Holmes to the result of “oh, it was aliens,” but the story makes the very smart choice of making it an unashamedly Doctor Who story, even if the bad guy is literally a Cthulhu copy (hand-waved by being “from the same breed as Fenric.”) Holmes and Watson are for the most part the Doctor’s companions for the majority of the runtime. Bernice Summerfield doesn’t show up until part three, and Ace doesn’t get a role of significance until part four. When Bernice shows up, she takes up the Doctor’s role for the most part of part three. This all works to the stories benefit, as Watson is of course, the archetypal assistant, literally being Dr. John Watson, and Holmes serving as a companion similar to Romana in terms of intelligence, make them a fabulous companion duo that play off very well on Sylvester McCoy (and later Lisa Bowerman.) I can’t say that I wasn’t utterly adoring their presence throughout, despite my apprehension to Holmes in a type of story so outside his own. Indeed, Nicholas Briggs is quite dignified himself in the role, reminding me in his best moments of the rare urgency you would sometimes get from Jeremy Brett (I know, I know, high praise) and at his worst moments, of a merely passable incarnation. Ultimately, this is a very assured crossover, and a production that knows exactly what it’s doing. I really wanna check out the book now: 9/10