The Second Doctor Adventures: Beyond War Games
The Second Doctor Adventures Beyond War Games
I don't know what to say.
Um, first off, it's delightful that #2 finally has his own proper recast, even if Frazier Hines was doing a pretty good job with it. In terms of a recast, yeah, he's quite good. You can tell they put a lot of thought into the decision and didn't just cast Michael Troughton because he's related, he puts in a genuinely pretty great performance. Michael Troughton is a great recast, this is clearly a labor of love to him, and over the course of the set he gets more used to the role, while at first in the Final Beginning he's slightly shaky, by the end of the set he's pretty much exact. I don't care much for being exact, it's not important to me, what is important is the performance, but being exact does indeed help.
What doesn't help is almost every other choice made during the production of this set. This is supposed to be a new era, a new storyline for The Second Doctor that offers a massive playground of content for him to work with. What we get is an Evil of The Daleks sequel and a really overlong Ice Warrior story. It's slowly occurring to me that I may be in the minority or something when most of what interests me in a Big Finish release isn't some recurring monster returning or something. I don't want to go back to the planet Ribos or Peladon or whatever. Sure, I'll take a Wirrn story or a Cyberman story or whatever, but what interests me is ideas, and a story needs to have ideas that haven't been done to excite the audience. What excites me in terms of Doctor Who is the idea of new. Beyond War Games is frustratingly not new by any sense of the word, and I think part of that is it's death kneel.
The Final Beginning by Nicholas Briggs and Mark Wright
There's a sense of restraint in The Final Beginning in that it doesn't shove the kind of stupid Dalek plot into it at least until halfway through. The problem is that suddenly half of the story is grotesquely unappealing after the first half of it is pretty decent. The first half of The Final Beginning consists of a confused and groggy Two waking up in a snowy wasteland with a strange woman named Raven, and I was rather pleased at the idea of Two having Raven as a companion and a new status quo. This first half of the story, while not amazing, is certainly passable. It's got good atmosphere, excellent sound design, it almost works. The shock reveal of the story is that Raven is not his new companion, however, she's actually a Time Lord Ollistra-like character who just sort of sneers at Two a bit is less engrossing. The fact that we're on Skaro and the whole deal is actually about the Dalek Emperor or something I didn't really pay that much attention is even less so. There's something incredibly empty about The Final Beginning. It's coolest thing is the flashbacks the Second Doctor gets to other events and the reveal that Big Finish's 6b takes place concurrently to the Third Doctor's era. The side characters of Catriona and Silas, who's names I only know because I just looked them up, are just frustrating. Raven could have been quite good if she wasn't stuck in the Ollistra character archetype, which works best when the villainous in command character has The Doctor and a companion to rub up against. Raven's actress is quite talented, and I do like her viciousness though. If only she could have come with Two permanently, constantly monitoring him or something. It would have been the best of both worlds. In terms of positives, I do like the format. It's pacy, with a cliffhanger every fifteen minutes. That works. It works a WHOLE lot better than the modern Big Finish "thirty to forty minute part" format, which utterly kills the following story, and I would have liked to see both stories done in this format. Scherzo had twenty minute long parts and it's considered one of the best Doctor Who stories ever! There's really no reason to extend parts for any reason other than quantity over quality. The Final Beginning is disappointing and vacuous, but it's kinda fine, and a third through the set I was still optimistic. Of course, I also wrote my opinion on the next story three sentences ago, so you know what happens next: 5/10
Wrath of the Ice Warriors by Andrew Smith
Wrath of the Ice Warriors is an INCREDIBLY slow two and a half hours long, and I really just wanted the sweet release of death three parts in. The story has the idea of The Second Doctor and The Brigadier fighting the Ice Warriors. Decent idea, except for the fact that it's not an idea. It's a baseplate. It's something you build upon. The Second Doctor and The Brigadier versus the Ice Warriors is a good way to pitch a story to the company, I can see why they wanted to make it, but that's the thing. There isn't anything else. There isn't like, some super good idea or anything. It has a starting off-point, and a very typical one. The performances of the cast are very strong, they're trying so hard. Michael Troughton and Jon Culshaw both work REALLY well together. Katy Manning is EXCEPTIONAL as the Ice Warrior Queen, with a glorious panto brilliance that I really wasn't expecting when I saw her name on the cover. She hisses the dialogue so wonderfully, I really didn't see it coming. However, so much of the story just drags and nothing happens in it. I have so little to say about Wrath of the Ice Warriors because it is the exact sort of thing I just don't like in my Doctor Who, plain and simple. It feels like an action story without the action, and it doesn't utilize it's overly talky nature to get some cool drama like ranges like the Gallifrey or Sixth Doctor ranges might. It's just the most empty and stupid Doctor Who that I've done and I really regret doing it. All three points I'm giving it are for Troughton, Culshaw and Manning, who deserve credit for making me not shut it off five minutes in: 3/10
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