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caz963The latest Eighth Doctor adventure (and the first since Feb/March) was released yesterday. It wasn't due out until the end of the month, but good ol' Big Finish put it out early, so I nabbed my copy and decided to save it to listen to when I'm in France next week.
Alas - I've never been very good at delayed gratification, and there was a large pile of ironing glowering at me last night, so...
The Silver Turk features a pre-Charley Eight and follows on from the end of Mary's Story in The Company of Friends. The Mary in question is Mary Shelley who meets the Doctor on a dark and stormy night in 1816. Or to be more precise, meets two of him.
Anyway, after the events on CoF, he invites her along with him and for a first journey, travels not in time, but merely in space - from Lake Garda to Vienna - to meet up with the companions he's travelling with at that time, Gemma and Samson (who appear in Terror Firma. But this is the Doctor and the TARDIS and of course things don't go to plan and they end up in 1873. The story is a fairly simple one and it's pretty obvious (especially if you've seen the CD cover!) just exactly what or who the "Silver Turk" is. But what I really liked were all the intimations of what's to come for Mary; she tries to help the damaged Turk and decries the Doctor when he calls it a monster; and later the Cybermen discover that they can be brought back to full strength by a massive charge of electricity. Perhaps this might feel somewhat heavy-handed to some, but it worked well for me.
Also - I liked the fact that the maker of the puppets was called "Dr Drossel" - it made me think immediately of Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker!
With the return of Eight to the main monthly series, his theme tune has had a revamp, clearly being modelled on what Murray Gold has done for the revamped TV show. As I didn't particularly like the old version of Eight's theme, I don't object to the change - but the jury's still out on this newer version.
But that's my only niggle with this release. It's a straightforward story, well told and Mary has the makings of an excellent companion. It's an interesting departure, to have an actual historical figure as the companion, and given Mary's incredible imagination and the fact that she was, in many ways, "ahead of her time", she's a good choice. There are two more releases to come in November and December which feature her; after that, I'm not sure, although I think I read somewhere that there will be an Eighth Doctor boxed-set in the new year, in which he will have to deal with the aftermath of Lucie's death in To the Death.
Alas - I've never been very good at delayed gratification, and there was a large pile of ironing glowering at me last night, so...
The Silver Turk features a pre-Charley Eight and follows on from the end of Mary's Story in The Company of Friends. The Mary in question is Mary Shelley who meets the Doctor on a dark and stormy night in 1816. Or to be more precise, meets two of him.
Anyway, after the events on CoF, he invites her along with him and for a first journey, travels not in time, but merely in space - from Lake Garda to Vienna - to meet up with the companions he's travelling with at that time, Gemma and Samson (who appear in Terror Firma. But this is the Doctor and the TARDIS and of course things don't go to plan and they end up in 1873. The story is a fairly simple one and it's pretty obvious (especially if you've seen the CD cover!) just exactly what or who the "Silver Turk" is. But what I really liked were all the intimations of what's to come for Mary; she tries to help the damaged Turk and decries the Doctor when he calls it a monster; and later the Cybermen discover that they can be brought back to full strength by a massive charge of electricity. Perhaps this might feel somewhat heavy-handed to some, but it worked well for me.
Also - I liked the fact that the maker of the puppets was called "Dr Drossel" - it made me think immediately of Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker!
With the return of Eight to the main monthly series, his theme tune has had a revamp, clearly being modelled on what Murray Gold has done for the revamped TV show. As I didn't particularly like the old version of Eight's theme, I don't object to the change - but the jury's still out on this newer version.
But that's my only niggle with this release. It's a straightforward story, well told and Mary has the makings of an excellent companion. It's an interesting departure, to have an actual historical figure as the companion, and given Mary's incredible imagination and the fact that she was, in many ways, "ahead of her time", she's a good choice. There are two more releases to come in November and December which feature her; after that, I'm not sure, although I think I read somewhere that there will be an Eighth Doctor boxed-set in the new year, in which he will have to deal with the aftermath of Lucie's death in To the Death.
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Date: 2011-10-22 07:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-22 10:35 pm (UTC)So, where in the sequence is the one that introduces Mary? It's all rather baffling to a newbie on the BF website.
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Date: 2011-11-01 10:31 am (UTC)The audio that introduces Mary is "Mary's Story" in The Company of Friends.
BF have made it available separately, for the princely sum of 99p! (http://www.bigfinish.com/1525-Doctor-Who-The-Company-of-Friends-Marys-Story-DOWNLOAD-ONLY)