The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Adventures Series Two Part One

  Note: I am one of the two people on the planet that doesn't really care for the Lucie Eighth Doctor Adventures. This does not mean that I'm being like. Mean for the sake of being mean. I really like and respect the people involved in these productions. These are just my opinions on the ultimate products.


The Eighth Doctor and Lucie series has been something I've been putting off for some time, as minus the magnificent Human Resources and No More Lies, I considered Series One to be utter treacle, and people said Series Two was worse. I mean, I'm only halfway done, and it's probably not worse? It's still mostly shit, I'll grant you, but I do so far think it's an improvement, and I have enough thoughts on the series halfway through to split this review into two sets - which I shall also do for the following series of the Eighth Doctor - I feel that the boxset length reviews remain the most manageable length, and it's probably best to stick to a four story per review format. I was gifted these series by a friend, "Grandfather," and so in a way I feel I will dedicate this review to him. In a way, this one and the following reviews of the series go out to him. But I won't be sappy, even if he's pretty great, as my job here is not to be sappy, but review stories!! I  am locked in a closet ,  , I must  review   ,,      and there is a  a man with a  gun to m y            head   help m e

Dead London by Pat Mills 

I know this may sound counter-productive, but right off the bat, I would immediately remove most of the plot of Dead London, and probably give it a second disc to boot. Dead London isn't an unenjoyable audio, which is already an improvement on half of series one, but it does squander most of it's potential (it's interesting concept) by being hardwired in a 45 minute slot. Granted, it's not like you can do anything about that when you have timeslots on radio four, but this could really do with an extra twenty minutes. It's got it's brilliant high-concept world that I really wanted to see explored - especially I wanted to see the periods of time interact more for starters, or even just spend more time in the individual atmospheres. There's a Jack The Ripper figure that is built up somewhat and then kind of is completely irrelevant for starters. The Doctor, Lucie, and the infinitely preferable one episode companion Sophie get locked up inside a giant wicker man, the whole thing has this breakneck pace to it that I would really like to see removed in it's entirety. I can't help but feel if this whole thing was a Main Range play I'd herald it as an absolute classic, but that's the 8DA style missed potential for you. And anyway, it's not a complete shitshow like most say it is - I was really preparing for the worst here. While it's breakneck, all of the individual beats are included where they need to be, they just need a little more runtime between them. Lucie for one is quite toned down from series one, and doesn't complain as much, mostly getting to explore the city separately from the Doctor and Sophie, which gives her a bit of an independent hardnosed edge to her that makes her much less incredibly annoying. I like Lucie most when I see a part of her that isn't just a worse Tegan, Rose and Donna fusion. I'm not sure what I can say about Paul McGann in comparison. He's not bad at all in it, he's rather good, it's just I don't have anything exciting to say about him. And that's the story really - bar the concept, it's good, just not very exciting for such a fast story. 5/10

Max Warp by Jonathan Morris

What was looking like a fond ribbing of Top Gear and what had the absolute best cold open to a Who episode in ages, quickly turned out to feel downright mean. Max Warp is a satire of Top Gear, and if you have no knowledge of Top Gear, it will probably be completely irrelevant to you as an experience, and if you do, it may start to feel rather mean-spirited towards the show it was satirizing, which I feel is a fine line. If you don't know Top Gear, well, what I'm going to say will make little sense to you (but then again, so will the audio.) The Opening Ten Minutes of Max Warp, and I mean this truly, and utterly sincerely, are utter perfection as the opening to a RTD style satire, and they're the highpoint of the 8DA's so far. And then we meet the Kith, who are unbearably dull, and the story starts feeling a bit meanspirited from there. Whilst I've heard people say that the characters in this story are Top Gear's hosts taken to an extreme, which is, almost true, it quickly feels too mean spirited to me. Clarkson's equivalent has his sexist side exaggerated to the point where it feels genuinely hateful, and I just felt really really uncomfortable with how they were portraying this parody of him, even if it's a parody. and also (SPOILERS HAHA YOU CAN PROBABLY GUESS THIS REALLY EARLY ON THOUGH) he's the murderer, and I just, really, do not like this. It just peaks so early, and then there's thirty five more minutes of utter dredge. May and Hammond's counterparts are less bad, but then again, Hammond dies in the first five minutes (in a frankly hysterical scene) and May is next to completely irrelevant. Lucie is irritating throughout, but I actually ended up sympathizing with her (surprising, I know!) when I saw how much they inflated the sexism of fake parody Clarkson. A few sexist remarks p would have been totally fair for a parody of Clarkson, but it's made to be his main characteristic (that and racism) to the point that even if it wasn't a parody character of a real person, and just a random fictional character, I was just too uncomfortable to enjoy it. Those who can get past this tend to love Max Warp, I've heard plenty rave about it online. And if you can get past it, and don't feel it's mean, yeah, you're gonna really fucking love this one, - but if I'm being honest, I really couldn't get past it. It's not the missed potential, it's just the misfire of an individual character as well as a really blobby subplot about some uninteresting aliens. What has the best individual moment of all the 8DAs (and yes, that includes Human Resources) quickly, quickly sinks. And honestly? I'm super sad about it. 4 or 5/10, but that's mostly due to me? like? personally? and stuff? Not sure how to rate this one honestly

Brave New Town by Jonathan Clements

Brave New Town cemented my opinion that the Eighth Doctor Adventures with Lucie are definitely 100% hit or miss stories, in that it's really, honestly, really good, and I have pretty much nothing but good things to say about it. It's a story that involves a lot of mystery as to it's central concept for you to see what's going on, a lot of the enjoyment is taken out of the process of slowly figuring out what the central thing of the town is, so I will speak in very cagey terms, just in case. I will mention this story does utilize a classic monster in audio in a very very good way however, and I was stunned as to how well it utilized a monster that isn't very suitable to the audio format. Lucie still complains a bit in this one, but I feel that it's a bit more Donna or Tegan in that it feels more friendlier than usual. Which granted, still doesn't make her original, but it makes her less annoying. She didn't detract from my experience in this one whatsoever - hell, very little did. The story reminds me a lot of the (also very good) Fourth Doctor Adventure The Shadow of London, so if you like this one, you may enjoy checking that one out. But Brave New Town is just, well, it's gorgeous. It's got the rarity of good pacing, good plot, good writing, sound direction, everything ties together into a nice neat little bow. It's not perfect, but I just found it to be an excellent forty-five minutes, plain and simple: 9/10 

Grand Theft Cosmos by Eddie Robson

(Hey! You Skipped One!) Ah, no. I'm going to get back to Skull of Sobek later. (When I'm not in a I-might-strangle-Lucie-depending-on-her-characterization-in-any-given-story-mood) So yeah. Let's stick with Grand Theft Cosmos for now, which I feel can be slotted quite easily in the "hit" section of the 8DAs once more, but I'm not willing to put it very high into that section. Grand Theft Cosmos is a heist story (oh no) and I do not like Heist Stories. So that right off the back is going to inform my enjoyment of it. But I will say that while it doesn't reach the level of Time Heist on television, it's so far above my enjoyment of A Life of Crime, which I heard recently, that I'm probably going to look on it a lot more favorably. Grand Theft Cosmos features the return of the Headhunter (yay!) and Karen (???) whose very existence kind of irks me due to her whole deal being that her existence is basically a way to make Lucie less interesting. (I still wish Lucie could have been a space dictator in an alternate timeline, but whatever) Grand Theft Cosmos works in that it's the Doctor and Headhunter going up against eachother in an interesting game of wits, and the Headhunter is still cool. So I'm into it. Christopher Benjamin, better known as Jago, guest stars as Tardelli, who gives a memorable performance, and Katarina Olsson is still good as the Headhunter. Seeing the Doctor and Lucie work more as a unit makes me more appreciate their chemistry, but ultimately I'm thinking the Headhunter and Karen would be a much better show. The thing is about Grand Theft Cosmos, that minus the appearance of the Headhunter, I find it very average. And I do like the Headhunter. But it is very average in terms of a who story. And I am quite possibly being nicer to it than usual because I really do prefer average to the bad that I have previously got from this series. But hey, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It is a Doctor Who story, and I enjoyed it. See. I'm being positive. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW COWARDS!??! 7/10