‘Last Christmas’ Is This Christmas For the Docback!! Reader Reaction To DOCTOR WHO’s 2014 Yuletide Adventure!! + CosmicDolphin’s Docback Song, HornOrSlik Reviews Of ‘Dark Eyes 3’ and ‘Widow’s Assassin’ Big Finish Audios, And More!!
Published at: Dec. 23, 2014, 5:41 p.m. CST by merrick
The last official Docback opened in early November - nearly two months ago now - and was officially closed a few days ago (not by my doing - the mysterious and omnipresent Cyber Gods deemed it so). I don’t know why this happened yet, but I’m looking into it.
My hunch is that the Docback reached memory and technical limits for the chat mechanism thingies. In effect: World’s End. I view this as a startling and touching testimony to what’s still possible on the Internet when intelligence, courtesy, and cooperation win the day. For my money, this is the way every forum on the web should unfold: (theoretically) boundless discussion with infinite, non-alienating possibilities. Imagine such a reality…imagine what would be possible if common sense respect were the order of the day every day. Well played to those who helped manifest such a miraculous feat. Well played, indeed…
How long can this fresh and new Docback endure? Let’s find out…
Here are a few info-morsels to bring us up to speed with this week’s episode, as well as some thoughts from HornOrSilk on two Big Finish audio entries, a new Docback-themed (Docback Theme?) song from a longtime contributor, and more.
COSMICDOLPHIN PERFOMS DOCBACK WONDERLAND!!
Longtime Docbacker CosmicDolphin sent along this lovely little tune simultaneously celebrating the Docback, its Docbackers, and the most awesome Season of the year.
I’d like to extend profound gratitude for his efforts, and a sincere tip of the hat for a job well done. This is so much fun. Whether you’re a longtime participant here, or an observer from afar, this'll likely put a smile on your face. Which is exactly what should be happening during Christmas...
If the embed doesn't load, you can find the song HERE!
PUBLICITY IMAGES FROM LAST CHRISTMAS
BBC released a substantial number of promo images from this episode - 28 in total, I think? We didn’t post them - long and irrelevant story. You may’ve seen them elsewhere already, but in case you haven’t…or by way of refresher…here’s a selection of said photos.
Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Tim Chipping (Constable Wolsey/Mandrake), John Banks (Baron Pteratrark/Guard Two), Andrew Dickens (Reverand Flitamus/Guard One), FIona Sheehan (Princess Dirani), Glynn Sweet (Harcross The Ever-Patient/Pheen-Tu/Flunkey)
The previous Sixth Doctor adventure ended with a cliff-hanger: Flip Jackson appeared to be plummeting to her doom. This story takes place afterward, although some time has lapsed between the ending and the start of this adventure. What slow find out happened: did the Doctor save the day or did Flip really die? One thing is for sure, Flip appears to a companion of the past (which I am glad, because I never thought much for her character, though I wish Lisa Greenwood well and wouldn’t mind her coming back as another character, for I don’t think the problem is hers just the way her role was written)
.
And so we find the Doctor once again is alone. As we know, this is one of the worst things for the Doctor to be. He needs companionship, even if he does not always recognize it (one of the best scenes with Mel was when she left, not because she left, but because we got to see the Doctor recognizing this need). The Doctor is distraught and saddened by what had transpired. He thought it best to go back to where he began, that is with Peri, to see what has happened with her and to see if he might find himself once again with her companionship. Or at least, so he can end his time with her on a positive note.
Of course, we know there are many Peris out there, due to the Time Lords mix-up with the Trial. This time he decides to go to the Peri who married King Yrcanos, the Peri whom the Doctor failed to save. But he thought it best to go right before her marriage. She was not immediately married, as we find out, and so there was time for preparations for the wedding. For wedding invitations to be sent out.
The Doctor didn’t get one. And moreover, he finds out that this was one on purpose. His presence is unwanted. Peri has the Doctor jailed, with Constable Wolsey set to oversee him (with the help of Guards 1 and 2, who happen to have those names given to them by their mother).
Wolsey is an interesting character. He had been modified due to the genetic experiments started by Crozier to become a sheep-hybrid, which was believed to give him special gut instincts in his role as Constable. He, moreover, does not trust the Doctor because of what he had heard from Yrcanos. And yet he is going to have to learn to do so, as things start to go awry.
For this is a fairy story. It’s being told, in part, by Wolsey. It is for us to listen (and strangely enough, we will find similarities to Listen before the story ends, though here, we will find more menace than we saw in Listen).
The Doctor had returned to Peri, to the Princess. He wondered if he could play the hero once more. But instead, he had become a criminal, imprisoned and unwanted by Peri. That is, he was unwanted until the death of her husband a few days after her marriage.
Yrcanos had been poisoned.
Would the Doctor be able to solve the mystery? Or would the fact that he had forgotten to slay the dragon get him killed? This is how the story starts, and while more murders, another princess and her would-be suitors are all involved with this tale, the core lies with the Doctor and Peri and what has happened to Peri. The rest serve as the foundation for this to take place.
With Nev Fountain often providing some of the most humorous and creative Big Finish audios of late, I went in with this story expecting a great deal, especially because the story involved Peri. He had written Peri and the Piscon Paradox, and so had already written an ending for Peri, albeit one which allowed for many different versions of her coming out of the Trial. When Big Finish decided they wanted a more mature Sixth Doctor to return to pick up Peri, and have more adventures for her, Nev certainly was the right one to ask.
However, this story has less of the comic genius of my favorite stories of his than I expected. There are quite a few jokes, to be sure. Much of it is a subtle humor, some which are hard to appreciate the first time you listen to the story (you have to know who the characters are, and their qualities, to really appreciate some of the word plays going on). There is some broad based humor too, such as the guards being named Guard 1 and Guard 2, and although it works, the humor isn’t the core of this story. Instead, Nev is offering us his own version of a timey-wimey version of a fairy story, with the kinds of strengths such a tale can have (and because it is not over-extended, none of the weaknesses we have seen in some televised Who).
Indeed, this story really enters Moffat territory, and the further along the audio adventure goes, the more this is noticeable. Of course, being Nev Fountain, we get a more humorous approach to the timey-wimey nature of the Doctor’s activities, but it is also much more thought out for the sake of the story, so that in the end, it is more satisfying than what we have had with New Who of late.
And certainly, with the timey-wimey nature of the story, Nev Fountain is also working with and deconstructing the fairy tale element of the adventure. We find characters taking many different, often contrasting roles. The Doctor is the hero who is also the prisoner. Peri is the princess who needs rescuing even as she is the villain who locks up the hero. And the dragon is…. that would be telling (but I’m sure Santa, Robin Hood, the Monster Under the Covers, and the Dream Lord would be interested, nonetheless).
As mentioned above, there is more going on here than the Doctor’s tale. There are other characters with their own story. But they really are secondary to the Doctor, his plight, and his relationship with Peri. Before the story ends, the Doctor and Peri will get to see each other in a new light, with new eyes, which might be for the better, but nonetheless, will be an experience Peri is unlikely to want to re-experience.
Because this is more of a fairy tale than some of Nev Fountain’s other stories, the style differs from most of his other work, with even more broad-strokes for characterization than what we normally get with Nev Fountain (who often provides caricatures for the sake of his humor in his tales). It suits his work because it still allows for his typical touch to shine through, though I think the necessity of writing the story to bring Peri back sometimes got in the way and though this is a good story, it is not the best from Nev Fountain. I expect a re-listen will make it better, as some of the subtle aspects of the story become more apparent, but I can’t but wonder if this was the right way to end what was started in the Trial.
Maybe I just hoped for and wanted Brian Blessed in it.
Nicola Bryant really is the star in this one. She is given the most to do, allowing a range of personas to play, and she does it well. Colin gets a fair mix as well, and again, no surprise, he is up to the task. He defines Doctor Who on audio more than any other in my opinion and this continues here.
Nonetheless, as for a rating, I would say I give it a solid 7.5/10 for the first listen.
Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Ruth Bradley (Molly O'Sullivan), Alex Macqueen (The Master), Natalie Burt (Dr Sally Armstrong), David Sibley (The Eminence), Sean Carlsen (Narvin)
1: The Death of Hope Georgie Fuller (Hope Gardner), Geoffrey Breton (Leo Gardner)
2: The Reviled Sacha Dhawan (Jaldam), Sarah Mowat (Gajeeda), Laura Riseborough (Sharma)
3: Masterplan David Sibley (Professor Markus Schriver), John Banks (Captain/Lieutenant)
4: Rule of the Eminence Jonathan Forbes (Walter Vincent), Beth Chalmers (Casey Carraway), Georgia Moffett (Engineer Tallow)
Dark Eyes 3, while continuing where the story left off goes into a new side direction. The story now focuses on the struggle between the Doctor and the Master, although the Eminence is certainly central to the general plot. It is, in many ways, one extended story, with the Master’s plan being more in the tradition of the Pertwee Era Master, something we have not seen or heard for a long, long time. It is, moreover, all written by one author, and directed by one director throughout- allowing for Matt Fitton’s vision to be entirely played out with consistency. There is no pesky need to make sure everything fits together, which I am sure is a common problem with New Who arcs.
The Doctor left Molly and Liv Chenka, believing them to be safe in the 20th century. But he finds out how wrong he was. He is brought face to face with CIA operative, Narvin, who shows him what the Master has been up to: the Master, with the help of his “companion” Dr. Sally Armstrong, has taken Molly and has used her “dark eyes” to his own advantage. At first, it appears the Master has taken on the task of helping others: he landed on a world being attacked by the Eminence. Having found a way to use the energy behind Molly’s “dark eyes,” he set up a clinic which is supposed to help the humans fight off the Eminence and not become its slaves; however, as is typical with the Master, his help does not do exactly as he claims, and indeed, its real purpose is, as the story enfolds, quite typical of the Master.
Because this is one extended story, with a few twists and turns as each cd is played, that is probably the best description of the story itself. The Doctor has to find out what the Master is up to, save his former companion Molly from the Master, all the while fighting his own battle against the Eminence, making sure it does not win control over the universe even as he has to fend of the Time Lords and make sure their interference does not cost any more innocent lives. The twists and turns takes him to a few different locations and times; one time, it brings the Doctor and the Master apparently locked in together in a place where they have to get out quickly or they will die together, allowing for a rather good character piece between the two.
Being four cds, we have the equivalent of an eight-part Doctor Who story, and it has the advantages and disadvantages of such an epic. By the end of the story, it feels like it has gone one cd too long, that it would have been good as a six part story with an added extra short story put somewhere in the mix. Though the first cd sort of does this, because we have more of the Master’s story than we do with the Doctor, it serves as a prelude; while it is an interesting twist to have the first cd focus on the Master this way, I did feel it over-extended itself a bit much. But this is a minor quibble. I do like the fact that this story allows itself to develop over time, and not feel over-rushed like New Who.
What is really strong with this story is the characterization of the Master: Contrast to what New Who has done to the character, almost destroying it, Big Finish at least understands and respects the Master and his legacy. He is both friend and foe of the Doctor – not a lover --- a person the Master fights as if in a game of chess, which sometimes is more the point than the conquest the Master seeks to achieve. This incarnation of the Master, created by Big Finish, mixes some of the best elements of the Simm Master with Delagado’s. He is not as charming as Delgado; he is a bit more loopy and comical, like the Simm Master, but yet he maintains a sense of power and control, in the way the Delgado Master could and would (“I am the Master, and you will obey me!”). If anything else, there seems to be a bit of the Meddling Monk in this new persona. His plan here is, I would say, one of the better Master plans I’ve seen or heard; it is not perfect, but yet, he shows ingenuity with an attempt to follow the Seventh Doctor, by laying plans within plans, albeit without the full force of the Seventh Doctor’s ability to do so, allowing weaknesses and chinks to be revealed. Moreover, there is a sense that what the Master begins here are ideas which would eventually manifest themselves in The End of Time. I do not know, nor think, it was Fitton’s objective, but yet, after listening to the story, it sort of shows the Master is moving in that direction: all it takes is a bit more instability and his “resurrection,” and he can once again plan a conquest of the universe with the help of humanity. But because he is not so unstable here, the plan is much more thought out, and it almost works, in a way the universe populated by Master clones could not (they would eventually fight themselves for control).
The Doctor is returning to his old, adventurous self. His feeling of purpose has been restored, though the wounds of the past are fresh enough that when the Master brings them up, the pain is renewed and yet we see the Doctor has reversed himself from where he began with Dark Eyes 1. Now he feels he must live, must strive on, for the sake of the dead, that their sacrifices would be in vain if he did not push on for them, because they died so he could live and fight on. This beautifully ties in with the Eighth Doctor’s end, and adds depth to Moffat’s words: he is remembering his companions once again because they push him on, they keep him going, they give him strength in a way no one else could.
Molly is under-used in this story. She is central, less as a character, and more as a plot device. It is not that she has no part: she is used in the first cd the most, but eventually her presence diminishes, allowing more room for Liv Chenka, who I believe shines as the Doctor’s companion here. She has gone through a lot. She has witnessed a lot. She believes she is dying, which gives her a different kind of edge all the while showing her upright character combined with an acceptance of the Doctor and a better understanding of who he is, especially after she has witnessed other Time Lords in this story.
The Time Lords are shown to be a treacherous lot, and there is a sense that the Time War has begun, if only in the background; the Doctor seems somewhat aware it is going on, but he is fighting on his own side, the side of the people hurt in the crossfire. He does not know if he can or should trust Navin, because Navin is his connection to his people and the war which is under way. All in all, I like what is done with Navin’s character, and how he finally shows what side he is on. The Doctor is in for a surprise here, albeit when he finds out, I believe it also tells more of the stakes going on at this end of the Time War.
As for the Time War itself. It is quite clear that the Eminence, the Daleks, and the Time Lords all play parts in it. And, we find out here, how the Eminence began and how the Doctor himself is once again at the center of the Time War (if Genesis of the Daleks can be said to be a starting point for the Dalek entry into it, we find the Doctor is also at fault for how the Eminence play in it). It is only fitting that the Doctor is, in many respects, the cause of the Time War, showing why the Time Lords initially had a non-interference plan; but the question remains, if the Doctor did not interfere, would it have happened anyway?
Sad to say, one aspect I felt a bit weak was the way the Eminence was shown to be created. I think it would have been better to leave its origin unknown, while finding another way to have the Doctor drag it into the war. And this weakens the rest of the story, because I think it weakens the Eminence. It would have been better if it were far more alien in origin than what we find out.
All in all, this box set is good, but not as great as the first. I would give it between a 7.5 to 8 /10 stars. The Doctor, the Master, and Liv really are what keep it entertaining. I wish the story line was a bit different, and didn’t need the Eminence, which is a foe I have yet to find to be real engaging.
-- HornOrSilk
======================
DOCTOR WHO SEASON/SERIES 8 IS NOW OUT ON BLU-RAY AND DVD
Sadly, Robots of Sherwood features the softened version of the episode which skirts around Robin Hood’s decapitation of what was intended to be a robot Sheriff of Nottingham (a sequence shot, presented on workprint cuts, but deleted at the last moment in sensitivity to the recent trend of decapitating hostages overseas). This isn’t surprising, but it’s regrettable that BBC felt the need to soft-shoe content due to terrorist influence. Whenever we changes the way we express ourselves in answer to their actions, we’re letting them win.
In the Forest of the Night still doesn’t work terribly well, and I don’t think it ever will despite The Moff’s recent assertions to the contrary. I don’t have issue with what it was fundamentally trying to do, but I think it did it clumsily, illogically, and a failed to land its emotional payoff. An idea which should’ve totally worked, but messy, messy, messy in scripting.
Otherwise, as I’ve said before, Season/Series 8 plays remarkably well when revisited, if one can eek through a rather soft and strangely lifeless opening episode (Deep Breath). I enjoyed many episodes of S8 more than I’ve enjoyed WHO in a long time, and remain floored by Capaldi’s take on the Doctor character. For my money, he found his tempo around the fourth episode of the Season/Series (Listen) and evolved the role consistently, and in some breathtakingly nuanced ways, in every episode since. I can’t wait to see where he lets the Doctor take him in S9. He’s so alien, yet so human. So edgy, yet so trustworthy. So callous, yet so vulnerable. So arrogant, yet so filled with self-doubt. Capaldi’s Doctor is a walking contradiction, perhaps moreso than any Doctor before him. There’s a lot…a LOT…still to play with in terms of developing his Doctor, and his everlasting internal friction, more fully.
The S8 Blu-ray offers amazing 1080p transfers and thunderous, agreeably crisp sound. Those struggling to understanding some of Capaldi’s lines during the broadcast version may find the home video offering much more discreet and distinctive in its sound mix. I clearly heard lines which were muddy or indiscernible before.
Extras include:
** Audio Commentary on Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood, The Caretaker, and Kill the Moon
** the recent Peter Davison-hosted duo of specials (The Ultimate Time Lord and The Ultimate Companion). While neither feels highly insightful in the endgame, there are still some cool bits to be gleaned here. Davison is irresistibly charming, as always, and watching him explore the WHOverse in this way is both amusing and fascinating. Lovely moments abound as Davison interacts with WHO alum.
** Foxes’ Don’t Stop Me Now video (built from the song she performed on Mummy on the Orient Express this Season/Series)…
EARTH CONQUEST: THE WORLD TOUR (approximately 48 mins, rather interesting)
INSIDE THE NEW TARDIS (TOUR) - 1 min, 53 seconds
DOCTOR WHO EXCLUSIVE (subsections = Casting Peter, Writing the New Season, What is DOCTOR WHO, Why Watch Series 8)
DOCTOR WHO LIVE PRE-SHOW (Chris Hardwick Alert! Chris Hardwick Alert!). This is the thing BBCA ran before Deep Breath). 11ish minutes.
DOCTOR WHO AFTER WHO LIVE (expanding on the above - 43ish minutes)
LONDON POST-PREMIERE Q&A (Deep Breath) - 29:45 - Peter, Jenna, The Moff.
The amassed S8 BEHIND THE SCENES (aka DOCTOR WHO EXTRA). A poor man's DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL which is too short to be informative, and too long to be painless.
A very solid set representing a generally strong (and occasionally amazing) introductory Season/Series for our newest DOCTOR, the Blu-ray and DVD sets are available on Amazon, via Best Buy, and a variety of other retailers.
THE FIRST EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO SERIES/SEASON 9 IS CALLED…
The Magician’s Apprentice. So said Steven Moffat at recent a screening of Last Christmas. More HERE.
Let the speculation begin…
And with that, the 2014 Christmas Docback is open for business. Enjoy the discussion. Enjoy the show. May your Holidays be safe and filled with joy, and love, and laughter, and nutty Timelords with their hinky Time/Space Machines. And all the other things that are great in life…
1) a Docback should be about completely open and free discourse regarding all things WHO with, obviously, some variation on subject matter from time to time - the real world intervenes, discussions of other shows are inevitable, etc....
2) converse, agree, disagree, and question as much as you want - but the freedom to do so is NOT a license to be rude, crass, disrespectful, or uncivilized in any way. Not remaining courteous and civil, as well as TROLLING or undertaking sensational efforts to ignite controversy, will result in banning. Lack of courtesy may receive one (1) warning before a ban is instigated. Obvious Trolling or Spamming will result in summary banning with no warning.
