REVIEW: Doctor Who 153 - The Silver Turk

Eighth Doctor & Mary Shelley




 SYNOPSIS:

"Roll up! Roll up! To the great Viennese Exposition, where showman Stahlbaum will show you his most wonderful creation, the Silver Turk – a mechanical marvel that will not only play for you the fortepiano, the spinet and the flute, it will play you at the gaming table too!

But when the Doctor brings his new travelling companion Mary Shelley to nineteenth-century Vienna, he soon identifies the incredible Turk as one of his deadliest enemies – a part-machine Cyberman.

And that’s not even the worst of the horrors at large in the city… "

CAST:

The Doctor - Paul McGann
Mary Shelley - Julie Cox
Dr Johan Drossel - Gareth Armstrong
Alfred Stahlbaum - Christian Brassington
Ernst Bratfisch - David Schneider
Count Rolf Wittenmeier - Gwilym Lee
Countess Mitzi Wittenmeier - Claire Wyatt
The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs


REVIEW:

Here we are, the welcome return of the Eighth Doctor to the monthly range. Now we get full four part stories rather than just the two of the Eighth Doctor Adventues. What we don't have though is either Lucie Miller or Charlie Pollard. Instead, The Doctor has a brand new toy to play with, this new toy coming in the form of new regular companion Mary Shelly.

I love the first part of this with The Doctor excited to show his new companion the delights of travel through space and time and Mary Shelly not being quite as impressed as others would be. The first half of this story not only has the joy of getting to know a new companion relationship, but there's also a Cyberman who is performing for its human master - playing piano, challenging people to games - as he takes it on tour. Nothing much really happens in the first half but it all gels together into an interesting narrative.

Eventually The Doctor and his companion split up so we lose their chemistry from the story, but we do gain an interesting twist to the Cyberman's story. The writer, Marc Platt, does a great job of making you care for Cyberman. If you're looking for action, there's very little of it here but there are plently of great character pieces in this story.

Score:

0/7 - Non-existant
1/7 - As bad as you can get
2/7 - Poor
3/7 - Quite poor / too many poor points / didn't like it
3.5/7 - Neither good nor bad / undecided
4/7 - Quite good / plenty of good points / liked it
5/7 - Good
6/7 - As good as you can get
7/7 - Impossible perfection

Writer: Marc Platt
Director: Barnaby Edwards
Produced By: Big Finish
Released: October 2011

Doctor Who Companion Chronicles 3.07 - The Transit Of Venus

Ian Chesterton

Cast:

Ian Chesterton - William Russell
Joseph Banks - Ian Hallard


Synopsis:

"The year is 1770, and daring explorer Captain James Cook and his crew on the Endeavour are navigating the Pacific Ocean.

Into their midst come strangers: the Doctor and Ian Chesterton, who are believed to have come from Venus. But the TARDIS is lost to them - along with both Susan and Barbara - and Ian makes an enemy of the ship's chief scientist, Joseph Banks.

Why is Banks acting strangely? Could it be that the travellers are not the only visitors from the stars?"

Review:

The first time I listened to this was before I'd even watched any Classic Doctor Who and this is the very tiny review I gave it at the time :-

"The Transit Of Venus (Ian) - 4/7 - Reasonably entertaining but lacked any action or tension and had a rather poor conclusion."

Lets see how it holds up now I know the characters involved and the storylines referenced.

I think I can say that my previous review pretty much sums it up. Ian and The Doctor are stranded on Captain Cook's ship Endeavour while Susan and Barbara are lost with the TARDIS. The scientist Joseph Banks has an apparant evil side to him and only Ian can see it but nobody believes him.

The story itself was quite entertaining despite the lack of action or any real tension. It was like a battle of witts almost between Ian and the Evil Banks, with a build up of suspense trying to find out exactly what Banks is up to and what his plan is. He was positively menacing towards Ian at points and that nobody would believe Ian due to being delirious made it all the more interesting till the "Oh, it was all a joke?" conclusion. That's not how it ended by the way, but suffice it to sy, I found it highly disappointing and didn't entirely make sense. It also negates and makes pointless the whole build up to it, it's like an equivalent of "and then he woke up" in the satisfaction stakes, and then they all laugh it off. It's like they had an interesting idea for a story, wrote it, and then just threw together a conclusion without caring.

It seemed rushed, brushed over quickly, and I feel cheated.

Score:

0/7 - Non-existant
1/7 - As bad as you can get
2/7 - Poor
3/7 - Quite poor / too many poor points / didn't like it
3.5/7 - Neither good nor bad / undecided
4/7 - Quite good / plenty of good points / liked it
5/7 - Good
6/7 - As good as you can get
7/7 - Impossible perfection

Writer: Jaqueline Rayner
Director: Nigel Fairs
Produced By: Big Finish
Released: 31st Jan 2009