The Power of Kroll

I was never a fan of season sixteen. I enjoyed The Ribos Operation and The Pirate Planet but I felt the others were a bit to slow and dull for me. I rewatched The Power of Kroll recently and my opinion of this story changed dramatically. I think the pacing is slightly off, it is fine but it could be a little bit more pacey.

The acting in this story is top notch. Mary Tamm is phenomenal as Romana, Tom Baker's performance has clearly been toned down and therefore this story is not another Tom Baker comedy half hour which some of this season could be accused of. The other performances are strong including Phillip Madoc's latest classic performance. The Kroll effects are brilliant in this story. To me this rivals some of the effects they were doing in Season Twenty Six with The Destroyer.

The rest of the production is brilliant. The location shots add another dimension to the show. The sets seems of a much higher standard than what they were the season before. I do not normally comment on this but I found the costumes in this very good. Mary Tamm's costume is very good and I am impressed by the outfits worn by the Swampies.

Robert Holmes produces another strong story, enhanced by very strong production values, just a little more pace would have made this a great story.

8/10

The Girl Who Waited

A powerful moving story at the heart of series six part two - The Girl Who Waited. Series Six Part Two is probably my least favourite part of the Matt Smith era but there are a few really good stories in this era, this one being one of them.

The Girl Who Waited begins with an ingenious idea and uses it to create a compelling story. The writing is very strong in this story, which is key to the stories success. The writing is then brought to life by some great performances. This story is about Amy and Rory, so much so that there is practically no guest cast and The Doctor is sidelined for much of the story. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill both give the performances of their lives making the final few scenes very emotional. On top of this you get the debate on which Amy would you choose. We know that the young Amy will be saved but it is interesting to watch the characters debate this.

The Handbots were an interesting creation for this story. It is very unlikely that we will see the return of the handbots but they were a good enough creation to add menace to this story and were beautifully designed. Finally this story looks visually amazing, some of the visual effects used in this story are some of the best ones scene in series six.

In summary a compelling moving piece, beautifully made, beautifully performed.

9/10

The Macra Terror

Last year Doctor Who fans were blessed by the return of nine completely missing stories from The Second Doctor era back to the BBC. The lesser known of the two was The Enemy of the World. The Enemy of the World had never received much appreciation from fandom due to the fact it is overshadowed by everything else in that season and that five parts were missing. In the recent DWM poll it was the most improved Doctor Who Story which is such a testament to how under appreciated the lost stories of this era are. I had always loved The Enemy of the World, even before it had been discovered and I was only really able to listen to the soundtrack; The Macra Terror comes into a similar category as The Enemy of the World.

The Macra Terror feels forgotten by Doctor Who fans. The only thing people really remember from it are The Macra, namely due to their surprise (and welcomed) return in Gridlock. These were the third monster (following the Daleks and the Cybermen) to feature in the series and then come back. They are interesting monster and it is a shame we cannot see the original story as despite the fact they probably may have looked quite clunky they are actually a very good monster.

The story sees the TARDIS land on an Earth colony (like The Power of the Daleks three stories before this). The first episode portrays this happy jolly perfect place where the companions are very willing to stay at. However as we delve deeper into the story we realise that the place is too perfect and that there is something deadly going on. By episode three we learn how The Macra had infiltrated the workings on the colony and now are controlling the entire thing. There is a funny scene in Episode Four were the narration between segments of the soundtrack states that the Macra control buttons and controls with grace - I suspect it would not look like that but I leave that up to my imagination.

This is probably the best story for the Polly, Ben and Jamie trio as Jamie feels forced on in all the stories prior to this (as he was) and in the following story Polly and Ben are hardly in it. It is this story however we begin to see the transition from the nervous Scot to the Jamie which we know of from seasons five and six. Ben is very good in this, despite being controlled for a couple of episodes. All three serve a purpose and work well here. Patrick Troughton is now firmly comfortable in the roll now and it seems like The Moonbase has calmed this Doctor down into the typical Second Doctor.

Unfortunately I cannot add much more since we do not have the complete visuals to be able to analyse production and direction but this is a thoroughly enjoyable story bringing about an interesting monster and giving the companions very good treatment. It is so good to listen to them having so much fun in episode one whilst The Doctor investigates. It is this and Fury from the Deep I want back next. Both these stories I suspect will jump up greatly in fandom and will receive the respect they deserve.

9/10

State of Decay

About a month ago I ran a poll on the blog where I listed the last few stories which I am yet to see and I promised that the winner will be reviewed and the winner was State of Decay. I have to say Season Eighteen is a weakness of mine, I have seen a couple of stories but not all. I have however seen Logopolis and this story firstly highlights how little the production team probably knew about the show. Logopolis is unlike any other Doctor Who story from the Tom Baker era. It is not celebration but a funeral. State of Decay on the other hand would have been the best choice to end the Fourth Doctor's tenure. It combines all the main elements of the three producers eras from gothic horror to cold hard science. What a shame!

One of the strongest features of this story is the script. Terrance Dicks knows how to write a good solid Doctor Who script and this is what the eighties seemed to lack.  The script feels like a very traditional Doctor Who story, especially that first episode. This story could have very easily slotted in during season thirteen or fourteen. The first episode is excellent, I cannot fault the script there at all. Various interesting threads are set up whilst evoking a compelling atmosphere and tone. I am glad that the director got rid of Christopher H Bidmead's rewrite of State of Decay and kept Terrance Dick's original since I do not want to know what this story would have been like if Bidmead had given it an unnecessary scientific and mechanical edge to it.

The problems to me with the story are not from the script point of view but the way State of Decay has been brought from script to screen. Some of the performances are not great. The rebels are a bit dull, totally pathetic. The vampires become totally melodramatic by part three. Some of the effects are not well realised such as The Great Vampire and personally the direction is not great. If this had been produced in 1976 with Robert Holmes script editing the script, working with Dicks, alongside the direction of Douglas Camfield or David Maloney, I suspect we would have had a great story but unfortunately the production does seem to let it down here.

The primary cast are very good in this. The scenes and exchanges between The Fourth Doctor and Romana are particularly compelling in this story. K9 is sensational in every scene - as usual. Adric is not really given a chance, almost like the script had been written without him and he had to be added in later. This is a shame as having watched Logopolis I realise the potential that there was between The Fourth Doctor and Adric but this was not the case in State of Decay.

In summary, this is a story with bags of potential! It is such a shame that this script was produced for season eighteen not season thirteen as I suspect we would have had a much greater story back then. The production and direction do let this story down but it is such a relief to have such a traditional script after Season Seventeen and the seasons to come. This should have been Tom Bakers send off but alas not.

7/10 (Some very good bits but let down)

The Mutant Phase

I was planning to review Eye of the Scorpion which I am currently listening to but I am only halfway through it at the moment so I am going to review The Mutant Phase which is another older Big Finish story which I have listened to recently.

I did not know what to think of this story during the first two episodes. It seemed to me a story that I could take or leave. It set up a lot of mysteries and threads, so many I believed that the story would fail to answer them. Episode Three was a massive change to me however. The story began as this pretty small scaled story featuring a base full of humans fighting for survival due to some mysterious events which had happened on Earth but when the story began to tie things together and moved onto Skaro I was really impressed. The scenes of Skaro, especially those featuring The Emperor Dalek totally gripped me and I was so desperate to hear what happened next.

The actual super mutant Dalek idea I found was quite interesting. The idea that the Daleks are evolving into something new and they do not like the new form foreshadows Robert Shearman's Dalek which was to come. The story also moves into morality territory which I really liked. It felt so reminiscent (but I do not think that is the word) of the current Eight Doctor Adventures. The Eight Doctor probably has the greatest morals of all The Doctors, he will not throw away the life of another to stop something, to him it is not a 'numbers game' which many other Doctors were more like (The Seventh Doctor, The War Doctor). The Fifth Doctor is very similar in this. He works with the Daleks reluctantly to stop a greater force. Having listened to both this and Dark Eyes Two: The Traitor one may think that Big Finish are running out of ideas but this does not bother me.

The performances overall are very good; the characters are quite bog standard, nothing special or particularly memorable about them, they are just there. The Daleks are good in this.

In summary slow start which sets up so many threads which tie together beautifully in a timey wimey morality story featuring some cracking scenes and ideas which come into being in the second half.

7/10

(PS. 7/10 means to me a pretty standard Doctor Who Story, this is why so many of my reviews have resulted in the stories resulting in seven. In future use this as a guide, anything above seven is great in my opinion but anything below seven is not so great in my opinion)

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Personally this story is revolutionary. Firstly Terry Nation secured the future of the Daleks - up till this point the Daleks had been seen as these racist entities living in their city but now they are an all conquering galactic superpower, the Daleks here are the template for all Daleks afterwards. Secondly this story saw the first ever companion departure which I will comment upon later. Thirdly I think this story marked a massive change in tone for the series. For the first season and Planet of the Giants it felt like the Sydney Newman Master Plan but this story was the first story personally where the Doctor Who which we know and love came into being. Season Two was the transition between the original intentions of the show in Season One to good old Doctor Who of Season Three.

Now onto the story. There is something about this story as there are constant references to it (Remembrance of the Daleks, The Stolen Earth...). Furthermore Big Finish have gone to this period on several occasions and it seems that they are going to return once again to the 22nd century occupation in Masters of Earth.

This was the second time I have ever watched it and the first time I watched it I hated it. I thought that there was so much potential but it was wasted by poor performances and an overlong boring script but I am pleased to say that on this occasion my opinion has changed...

There is a lot of scope to this story. There is a constant change of location as the characters (like a normal First Doctor Dalek Story) are chased out of the original location into another (this time without a TARDIS). I have a lot of respect for the set designers who had so little money and produced this!

Overall there are a lot of good characters, the performances are not quite there but are fine for the most part. The Robomen are an interesting creation and I like how they have in recent years returned firstly during Dark Eyes Two and Lucie Miller/To The Death along with the Dalek puppets in Asylum of the Daleks and Time of the Doctor (these are essentially the re-imagining of the robomen). William Hartnell is spot on as usual but I am not totally convinced by his companions but in all honesty I think they all give some of their best performances. The story is possibly one episode too many but unlike the original Dalek story, I am not bored. 

7/10