STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE
BIG FINISH AUDIO THE NOVEL "STATE OF CHANGE."
PRODUCTION CODE 6Z/A
WRITTEN BY JUSTIN RICHARDS
DIRECTED BY GARY RUSSELL
WORKING TITLES THE SOUND OF FEAR, SOUND JUDGEMENT & WHISPERS OF DEATH
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE BIG FINISH CD#3 (ISBN 1-84435-068-1) RELEASED IN NOVEMBER 1999.
BLURB The Doctor and Peri find themselves in the Museum of Aural Antiquities, where every sound is stored for posterity – from the speeches of Visteen Krane to security service wire taps and interrogation tapes. But they also find an intruder, mysteriously Changed recordings, and a dead body.
Before long the Doctor realises that there is more going on than simple break-in or murder. How can he defeat a creature that is made of pure sound? |
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Whispers of Terror NOVEMBER 1999 (4 EPISODES)
Big Finish’s third release turns its attention to arguably the least popular of their Doctors – Colin Baker. The sixth Doctor’s first Big Finish outing teams him up with Nicola Bryant’s Peri in a story set (presumably) not long after “Revelation of the Daleks.” The result is a suitably authentic recreation of the bickering relationship between the Doctor and Peri, which unfortunately when combined with Justin Richards' rather dull plot, does not take us anywhere new, let alone interesting.
Both lead actors give fantastic performances; neither’s voice has aged a day, both Baker and Bryant sounding just as they did back in their days at the helm of the TARDIS. I am a great fan of Baker’s very under-rated Doctor and also must be one of the few Doctor Who fans who thought that season twenty-two was a great season – “The Mark of the Rani”, “Vengeance on Varos”, and yes, even “Timelash” were all enjoyable adventures; I would even go so far as to say that “Attack of the Cybermen”, “The Two Doctors”, and “Revelation of the Daleks” were outright classics. However, although Justin Richards has captured the tone of those stories (bar the unusual length of their episodes), his story just is not anywhere near as compelling. And this is not due to the restrictions (or freedoms) of the audio format; rather it is quite simply a below-par story.
Richards' premise for the story was a sound one (pardon the pun). His tale about a murdered politician being re-born as a creature of pure sound seemed to be an inspired choice for the sixth Doctor’s Big Finish debut when considering the medium, but unfortunately the play soon becomes stale and predictable. Lisa Bowerman puts in a first class performances as the treasonous Beth Pernell, but even her character, quite easily the pick of the bunch, has motives so transparent that you can see right through her from the moment that she is introduced.
Like “The Sirens of Time” and “Phantasmagoria”, the sound design here is excellent, the performances are fantastic, and the production values are out of this world. These are early days for Big Finish, but even so they are showing an incredible amount of promise. To achieve their potential though, they will have to work a lot harder - particularly with Baker’s Doctor who will need some good, solid stories in order to win the naysayers over. I am confident that Baker is up to the challenge - he has always said that he planned to soften the character over the many years he expected to be in the role. Well now is his chance. I just hope that they do not soften him too much...
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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006
E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. |
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This play’s blurb places it between the television stories Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord. As the story offers no clues as to a more specific placement, we have made it the Doctor and Peri’s first post-Lost Stories, pre-Trial adventure. Whilst it was released second, it features a more antagonistic Doctor / Peri dynamic than the novel State of Change, release of which preceded it.
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