STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AFTER THE BIG FINISH AUDIO DRAMA "INDUSTRIAL EVOL- UTION," AND SOME TIME PRIOR TO THE NOVEL "THE SHADOW IN THE GLASS."
WRITTEN BY PAUL SUTTON
DIRECTED BY LISA BOWERMAN
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE BIG FINISH 'COMPANION CHRONICLES' CD 5.05 (ISBN 1-84435-487-0) RELEASED IN NOVEMBER 2010.
BLURB Problems beset the Doctor and Evelyn as they travel by train to the Wild West town of Fortune.
A young woman is investigating the murder of her father nine years earlier, and a wanted poster indicates that the Doctor is the killer!
With the TARDIS lost to them and the law on their tail, can the travellers unravel the mystery or will Rachel Ann Donovan take her revenge? |
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A Town Called Fortune NOVEMBER 2010 (2 EPISODES)
Maggie Stables is enjoying something of a Big Finish renaissance at the moment. Having heard nothing from her character since May 2008s Assassin in the Limelight, this autumn has seen her play a pivotal role in the seventh Doctor audio drama A Death in the Family, as well as carry her very own Wild West adventure: A Town Called Fortune.
Its a joy to hear Evelyn telling her own version of a story here, as opposed to being swept up in a rolling one. Paul Sutton does a wonderful job of nailing her character in her narrative dialogue, capturing both the intelligent academic and the warm, aunt-like figure. After having listened to so many productions that saw her spar with Colin Bakers Old Sixy, its lovely to hear her recount such exchanges, loaded as they are with barbed - but nonetheless loving - jibes.
The story itself has the whiff of a Quick Read about it. Sutton makes no apologies for loading the piece with as many Western clichιs as hed dare - theres even an old goldmine! - yet at its heart sits one of his trademark twisted tales of love, and with all its twists and apparently timey-wimey turns, its one that keeps the listener guessing until right at the end. Exactly how he arrived at A Town Called Fortune from the brief write a sequel to Robot, however, Ive no idea.
The post-production work, as ever, is sumptuous. I get the impression that Nigel Fairs thoroughly enjoyed throwing himself into a suitably stringy spaghetti score, and the way that his sound design brings vibrant settings such as the saloon to life is marvellous. Kudos to director Lisa Bowerman and guest voice Richard Cordery too this production positively reeks of the genre.
In sum, A Town Called Fortune is hardly the most profound of Suttons works, but its almost certainly the most fun, and after the emotive weight of A Death in the Family, I dare say its just what the Doctor ordered. Auntie Evelyn always knows exactly what to give us.
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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010
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 storys blurb places it between the Big Finish audio dramas Thicker than Water and Pier Pressure. How this can be puzzles the will, however, given that Pier Pressure takes place before even the flashback scenes featured in Thicker than Water.
Even if we were to assume that the blurb should have read between Pier Pressure and Thicker than Water, the suggested gap would still be terribly wide. We have therefore, rather arbitrarily, placed this adventure after the audio drama Industrial Evolution, which was the last sixth Doctor release prior to feature Evelyn. It could not really be placed any sooner as Evelyn refers to her making a habit of jumping off trains (something that she recalled doing with Brewster as she reminisced in A Death in the Family).
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