Doctor Who Special: The Five Companions

Ian Chesterton meets The Doctor and Other Companions

Fifth Doctor, Ian, Steven, Polly, Nyssa, & Sara Kingdom

 
Cast:

Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
Ian Chesterton - William Russell
Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
Polly Wright - Anneke Wills
Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
Sontarans - Dan Starkey

Synopsis:

"Inside a cluster of fused-together derelict spaceships, four of the Doctor's oldest friends - and one of his newest ones - are lost and confused. They don't know how they got there or what they're meant to be doing - but as the place is infested with Daleks, Sontarans and dinosaurs, their first priority is staying alive.
To their collective relief, the Doctor turns up and has a reasonable idea of what's going on. If the six of them work together, they can escape this place and get home. But, unexpectedly, others may be working together to ensure they all die here..."

Review:

I enjoyed this, but not so much because of the story. The story had plenty of action with The Daleks facing off against the Sontarans, a few dinosaurs thrown in too, and The Doctor and his companions trying to escape the situation. It was a good fun story I guess but not exactly going to win awards or make you think or anything. The best part about this audio was having the five companions and The Doctor meet and interact with each other throughout the story. I did like the return of Dwarf Star Alloy and the performances from Nicholas Briggs and Dan Starkey were good as the Daleks and Sontarans respectively. There's a nice moment where The Doctor's talking to Polly about the times they travelled together

So, the story is fun, but the real treat here is The Doctor catching up with the companions and the companions w--king together. The storyline itself wraps up rather poorly but that can forgiven.

And of course, Ian was the star of the show here, and The Doctor practically said it himself. Four regenerations on and he still recogninses Ian as the awesomeness that he is.

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


Written by: Eddie Robson
Produced by: Big Finish
Directed by: Ken Bentley
Released: December 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

REVIEW: Doctor Who 148: Rat Trap

 Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, & Turlough

NOTE: This review contains spoilers for the first two parts.

A fairly eventful first chapter sets a nice pace that's full of good old Doctor Who tropes like The TARDIS not w--king correctly and the team getting split up immediately. Nyssa's character is further explored in this, appearing to be at the centre of the current Fifth Doctor's story arc. Some telepathic creatures also show up to provide running commentary as they monitor what's happening and the cliffhanger has Turlough seemingly get blown up by a grenade as he takes the time out to describe to the audience other characters that there's a grenade about to blow up. Despite the creatures seemingly wanting to talk over each other all the time in strange voices with weird alien sound effect music playing in the background making you miss the occasional word, it was an interesting start to the story.

REVIEW: Doctor Who 147: Kiss Of Death

Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, & Turlough

It may be a little unfair to review this one as I wasn't really in the mood when I was listening... or maybe I'm being too kind and it wasn't good enough to put me in the mood.

The first part seemed to go all over the place too quickly to follow but settles down by the second part where the more streamlined narrative held my attention more with more character interaction it seemed. The introduction of a character who was unintelligible however was quite annoying.


The only thing holding it together for me were the Turlough parts and what exactly his part in it all was. It was these smatterings of the story arc kept me listening as between the first part and the great mumbler, I couldn't keep track of what else was happening.

Score: 3/7

Publisher: Big Finish
Writer: Stephen Cole
Director: Ken Bentley
Release: May 2011

REVIEW: Doctor Who 146: Heroes Of Sontar

REVIE

The Fifth Doctor and his annoying companions land on a planet (Samur) covered in moss that attacks Nyssa. As they investigate they come across a bunch of idiots. Like the TV story The Chase which featured Daleks in training, this story features Sontarans that are equally as useless at being what they are. Steve (as I shall call him) Sontaran is always being corrected on his protocol.

In fact, I think Steve Sontaran makes a better Dalek and Dalek Steve (off of The Chase) would make a better Sontaran. Not that any of the Sontarans in this possess anything resembling intelligence.