Alien Heart/Dalek Soul

 

Alien Heart/Dalek Soul

I've long had a love for the solo Five/Nyssa adventures, since their early triumphs - Circular Time, Winter for the Adept, need I even mention Spare Parts... and although I have been enjoying the recent Fifth Doctor trilogies immensely, they do tend to do the television thing and skew the appearances of Nyssa completely as soon as Tegan or Adric is present. On paper, these "double releases" are one of the best ideas ever commissioned by later Big Finish, and it's downright cruel how rare they are in the grand scheme of things, because whilst the Main Range affords great freedom, perhaps it does so slightly too much. Stories like Zaltys or Absolute Power remind me regularly that the Main Range is a fickle thing, and while it can reward you immensely, in the hands of the wrong writers it can be miserably dull. Alien Heart/Dalek Soul is funny, because it hits both demographics perfectly. 

Alien Heart by Stephen Cole

Alien Heart is the dull one. While it's at the very least, not two hours long (I was unsure if I could stomach that) it is however, everything the most plodding main range stories are. Running around and doing nothing as time goes on at the expense of character. Very little interesting in it at all. At all. It's got a brilliant hook of the Doctor and Nyssa just seeing a fucking galaxy explode, which really draws you in for some high stakes tension, and the concept of a Lunar Base that shouldn't be there is also heavily intriguing - and then the rest of it is this weird base under seige nonsense with "cell-spiders," alien spider creatures that look like cells, and they think they're fighting the Movellans but there aren't any Movellans because that would be more interesting than dull cell-spiders, who evidently, have...warped time? Just outlining the plot in general is not only difficult but the entire story is just, I'm not sure how to describe it. It's sort of drippy. Like syrup. Slow, monotonous, and really, I'm not sure what can be got out of it whatsoever minus some fun concepts at the start and the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa being nice I suppose. Five is wonderfully intense, I will give him that, and he does fit this format. But not much does, really, and by the time the Daleks show up, this syrupy story has turned into a pile of gelatinous molasses, and you're so bored it's near incomprehensible. 4/10

Dalek Soul by Guy Adams 

The best usage of Nyssa in an Age, Dalek Soul is unbelievably good, clear and concise, whilst being original. It's a bit of a "wow! how did this happen!" story, where much of the hook and tension revolves around you trying to place your head around what the hell is going on, but it allows our leads (especially Peter Davison) to shine as versions of themselves with key differences that make the story all the more fun. Dalek Soul just feels electric, whilst having this magnificent conspiratorial energy to it that keeps the tension at a fever pitch. Dalek Soul has a lot of twists to it which make it difficult to discuss, but be assured that it's a brilliant tale about Nyssa at her very best, and one of Sarah Sutton's best turns in the role. It's well paced in the forty-five minute slot, without any flabby scenes or missed opportunities in sight. It fleshes out a unique story that fits well into the Whoniverse, and it has a heartbreaking conclusion. While this could have been a boring as hell Dalek Runaround like Alien Heart, Dalek Soul focuses on it's killer duo of regulars, and the result is electric. When Nyssa can serve tales like this on her own, you start to wonder why we even need Tegan and Adric to come along: 9/10