Thin Time/Madquake

 

Thin Time by Dan Abnett

Thin Time is a story that is pretty much perfect in terms of what I like - weird and fascinating concepts coupled with kooky atmosphere that immediately gives it an identity. It's rather complicated to describe out loud, but it makes sense as the story progresses naturally, and so it just generally works. It's placement into the Marc arc is unique, as despite it starring exclusively the Fifth Doctor, it doesn't really work without the knowledge of the past audios. I would have liked the character development in this one to have been spread throughout Time Apart as well a bit, but as it is it's organic enough and well written that's more of a nitpick. And that's what I have for this review, very minor nitpicks that keep it from an otherwise perfect score. For instance, the surprise guest star near the end of the audio, while excellently written, doesn't really feel quite right in terms of performance. It gave me some minor Uncanny Valley things you can sometimes get with recasts. Nonetheless, this is superb audio - these forty-five minute billings used to be utter shit but they have evolved into something beautiful indeed: 9/10 

Madquake by Guy Adams

While I cannot help but applaud the idea of giving Nyssa, Tegan and Marc a story all to themselves to develop the emotional impact of what has happened, Madquake loses me somewhat because half of it is bloody brilliant character drama and the other half of it feels like they just grabbed a bin with names in it, shook it about and the Slitheen was the name that they picked out of the bin. So Yeah, it's... a... Nyssa and Tegan ... Slitheen story. Whoopie. Yeah, it sounds unnatural to give Nyssa and Tegan a Slitheen story, and rest assured, it most certainly is. It's incredibly.... formulated. Produced. The Slitheen are back, no expenses are spared, and indeed, there are fart noises. It feels unnecessarily commercial for them to be here - I've long heard criticisms of Big Finish putting characters in certain ranges just to sell things, and rarely do I feel that is the case. Almost entirely I usually believe characters are there because the story mandates them - look at River Song's eloquent turn in Doom Coalition or the Fifth Doctor meeting VICKI AND STEVEN in the Secret History! But the two threads of this story do not fit together - a somber character drama on a peaceful world in the vein of Circular Time versus a Slitheen action comedy?? It's a good episode when it's a thoughtful one, but I'll probably dock it three points simply for the Slitheen not fitting thematically with what it's trying to do. Hey, more than half of it is great! 7/10