Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume One
Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume One
I feel I'm a bit of an idiot for never grabbing one of these volumes before now. After all, I think their mere existence is exceedingly wise. It's a set sort of specifically designed for NuWho fans who are just sticking their fingers into Classic Who and the EU, and exactly the sort of thing that you'd want to give them -- it lets you know what the Classic Doctors are like through a nice sample size. It's one of the things I always deeply respected the Diary of River Song range for doing -- or one of those fabulous short story collections BBC Books do every now and then -- introducing each of the Dr Who's to a modern audience by giving you a little taste of them. And for those fans who know them well, it's hard to complain when the stories are downright good to begin with. The novelty of having a variety of Doctors in a set in different self contained stories is always a very delightful thing. I love sets like Legacy of Time and Peladon for the sheer bang for your buck you get in the set. And Classic Doctors New Monsters, while largely just very competent -- at least most of these stories don't try anything too new -- is quite good in that capacity. While you'd initially wonder why these stories weren't sprinkled into the main range, it's fabulous to have them all here availible in one pop, a set filled with meaty drama and just plain brilliant Doctor Who.
Fallen Angels by Phil Mulryne
Fallen Angels is the opener of the series, and why I prefaced the thing with "most" of these stories don't try anything too new. For being practically faultless, you'd also think that it'd likely be the highlight of the set, but no, somehow it gets better later.
Fallen Angels is about, among other things, Michelangelo, who is commissioned to carve out a statue of a Weeping Angel by an unknown party. And of course, an Image of an Angel becomes an Angel. It's the sort of genius Doctor Who idea that practically writes itself. It's very much in a Moffatian vein, built around a lovely mixture of NuWho and Classic Who pacing and like most Weeping Angel stories on audio is exceedingly well constructed to make the Angels work in a medium it's very hard for them to work in. The extra attention that's paid to the Angels on audio always seems to pay off. There hasn't been a really bad Angel story on audio yet, but this is quite likely one of the best of the lot.
Davison is really on the top of his game here. He relishes the 50 minute format -- not only is he the most dashing and modern of the Classic Doctors except perhaps McGann, but it harkens back to some of the fun little two-parters of his own era. Couple this with an excellent one episode companion (played by Diane Morgan!! YES!!) and you have a real winner.
Judoon In Chains By Simon Barnard and Paul Morris
This one begins with the framing device of the Sixth Doctor at a Courtroom drama, where he is defending a Judoon. It works backwards from there, and we eventually find out how this Judoon was tormented in a travelling circus freakshow. It's a very sweet story about a Judoon learning to educate himself and then being put on trial for daring to step outside the boundaries of his species. I do love a good Judoon story and this one would be REALLY up there, like, it's fabulous, if not for two things which deeply irk me.
Thing number one: It is LONG. Like, surprisingly long, even for a big finish play, which tend to be way longer than television stories. It's eighty minutes long, which if you add ten minutes to, you're nearly in Scherzo territory. I don't have trouble with it being long, but I do have trouble with it being eighty minutes long without a cliffhanger or something to split it up. There's pacing issues. You could expand it more and make it a two-parter or you could trim it down, but it feels too long to be one part, it's not a movie or a special or anything. This is a mild complaint though, because it is a strong script.
The vastly more pertinent thing number two: The story gets you really invested in the idea that Judoon are people too and they should be treated kindly like everyone else, that they too, can have hopes and dreams, and you're like HELL YEAH JUDOON ARE PEOPLE TOO and a twist at the end reveals that this was only possible because the Judoon were effected by aliens that made them smarter, and this really defeats the theme that this one is going for. A nitpick, sure, but one that sort of needs to be considered when your whole story is about equality. It would be an easy line to edit out. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too far into it, it is very fricking good
The vastly more pertinent thing number two: The story gets you really invested in the idea that Judoon are people too and they should be treated kindly like everyone else, that they too, can have hopes and dreams, and you're like HELL YEAH JUDOON ARE PEOPLE TOO and a twist at the end reveals that this was only possible because the Judoon were effected by aliens that made them smarter, and this really defeats the theme that this one is going for. A nitpick, sure, but one that sort of needs to be considered when your whole story is about equality. It would be an easy line to edit out. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too far into it, it is very fricking good
Harvest of The Sycorax by James Goss
If you told me the Sycorax story in the set was an over the top farcial comedy about pill addiction before I listened to it, I might not have believed you. But Harvest of the Sycorax is not the gothic horror you may anticipate by the usage of these characters. The Sycorax are visceral figures, and on the scarier side of alien one-offs in NuWho. Sure, they're no Midnight Entity, but they have quite a potential for horror, which really makes me respect that James Goss took this in the absolute opposite direction.
It's a very over the top story, like I said, but the general gist of it is that in the future, when humanity has developed advanced medical pills for nearly every conceivable ailment, they also have developed emotional suppressing pills -- painkillers for your feelings, ostensibly. This is a concept that is usually once again, like I said, used in sci-fi's horror area, but Harvest of the Sycorax just goes so far with it that it loops into being quite funny. It feels a bit like a boomer idea, but the execution of no feelings pills are silly enough for it to work for the story's advantage -- minus the rare occasions it tries to play it for drama. It's nowhere near Goss's funniest script I think, but the sheer audacity of having your main character being called Zanzibar Hashtag is one I deeply respect. It's not going to make you shit your pants laughing, but the laughs aren't very typical, it's a strange piece, and the last place you'd think there'd be the Sycorax. I always respect when something uses vaguely scary things in quite funny ways, and funny things in scary ways, and while it doesn't do the second one of those, it's still something quite worth applauding. It may be the worst of the set, but this is such a consistent set that it would be near the standout of any other.
It's a very over the top story, like I said, but the general gist of it is that in the future, when humanity has developed advanced medical pills for nearly every conceivable ailment, they also have developed emotional suppressing pills -- painkillers for your feelings, ostensibly. This is a concept that is usually once again, like I said, used in sci-fi's horror area, but Harvest of the Sycorax just goes so far with it that it loops into being quite funny. It feels a bit like a boomer idea, but the execution of no feelings pills are silly enough for it to work for the story's advantage -- minus the rare occasions it tries to play it for drama. It's nowhere near Goss's funniest script I think, but the sheer audacity of having your main character being called Zanzibar Hashtag is one I deeply respect. It's not going to make you shit your pants laughing, but the laughs aren't very typical, it's a strange piece, and the last place you'd think there'd be the Sycorax. I always respect when something uses vaguely scary things in quite funny ways, and funny things in scary ways, and while it doesn't do the second one of those, it's still something quite worth applauding. It may be the worst of the set, but this is such a consistent set that it would be near the standout of any other.
The Sontaran Ordeal by Andrew Smith
If you told me that in a set where it really doesn't belong, the Sontaran story would end up being the highlight, I'd have two nickels. Which is funny, because that doesn't make any logical sense. Regardless, The Sontaran Ordeal goes unreasonably hard, like seriously, this is my favorite audio drama I've heard since probably Among Us 3 or The Return of Jo Jones, it's just fucking mindbogglingly good.
It's a feral little story about The Eighth Doctor having to face the utter destruction and ruination of a planet to the ravages of the time war, and really, the Sontarans being there, while being the brunt of the plot, isn't as relevant as you think it is, because before the story's even really begun, McGann's already lost. The whole story is just playing for damages, and I love that. The majority of the story is the building of an odd begrudging friendship between The Doctor, a woman searching for her children and a Sontaran outcast in this horrible wasteland. And it's so good -- everything I want out of a Time War story -- there's extreme emotional drama and impact here. The plot itself is already fun Sontaran stuff, and having the strange relationship between the Doctor and a Sontaran would be an interesting enough pitch anyway, but the story never avoids an opportunity to mine the earned drama of the situation out of the characters. The Ninth Doctor Adventures and the War Doctor Adventures would kill for side characters as strong as these. It makes me wonder the priorities of the company -- why wasn't this script given to the War Doctor range?? I'm sure Sir John would have killed it, but to be honest, McGann is such a stylish substitute, and this is such a good performance, it's more me wishing that that range was as good at this one.
I'd recommend the set on the strength of this one alone, but with three other bangers you'd have to be mad not to pick this up. This boxset more than earns the title of Classic and New -- why the FUCK did I not do this one before?
It's a feral little story about The Eighth Doctor having to face the utter destruction and ruination of a planet to the ravages of the time war, and really, the Sontarans being there, while being the brunt of the plot, isn't as relevant as you think it is, because before the story's even really begun, McGann's already lost. The whole story is just playing for damages, and I love that. The majority of the story is the building of an odd begrudging friendship between The Doctor, a woman searching for her children and a Sontaran outcast in this horrible wasteland. And it's so good -- everything I want out of a Time War story -- there's extreme emotional drama and impact here. The plot itself is already fun Sontaran stuff, and having the strange relationship between the Doctor and a Sontaran would be an interesting enough pitch anyway, but the story never avoids an opportunity to mine the earned drama of the situation out of the characters. The Ninth Doctor Adventures and the War Doctor Adventures would kill for side characters as strong as these. It makes me wonder the priorities of the company -- why wasn't this script given to the War Doctor range?? I'm sure Sir John would have killed it, but to be honest, McGann is such a stylish substitute, and this is such a good performance, it's more me wishing that that range was as good at this one.
I'd recommend the set on the strength of this one alone, but with three other bangers you'd have to be mad not to pick this up. This boxset more than earns the title of Classic and New -- why the FUCK did I not do this one before?
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