Customer Reviews:
 Mathematically Excellent! November 24, 2008
Is this a dream come true for many Doctor Who fans who remember the early 80s with mixed feelings? Adric, the obnoxious wooden boy; transformed - not into a real boy - but into a senile, vindictive old man!
The initial shock of discovering that a character, memorably killed-off in the TV story `Earthshock', is alive and well, is compounded by his transformation from sullen know-all to decrepit 500 year old with a giant spider as his pet and a society of scorpion-people who worship him as their god.
Paul Magrs has created a fascinating tale of simmering bitterness and misjudged vitriol; Victorian adventurers mix with alien creatures and the TARDIS crew are stranded after their craft was hijacked at the end of the previous story. Andrew Sachs excels as you'd expect, as the barely-sane `abomination' Adric, as the Doctor pronounces him. Sarah Sutton reprises Nyssa's cool and slightly sardonic parity with The Doctor and Peter Davison oozes slightly bewildered charm as the Doctor's Fifth incarnation.
The story opens with a scene that appears to be homage to H.G. Wells' Time Machine: A group of atypical Upper-class Victorians discuss the possibilities of time-travel and are led into using Block Transfer Computations to enable them to travel far back into the Earth's past, without the aid of a time machine...
Whilst original Adric actor, Matthew Waterhouse, would no doubt be intent on instructing Sachs in the finer points of acting for audio (despite never having performed in this medium himself), for the listener this is all the better for not having the young Alzarian in its cast. The aged Adric's unreasonable hatred of The Doctor for what he sees as the Timelord's abandonment of him is superbly manifested by Sachs; The Doctor himself appears to feel that he is deserving of this and despite Nyssa's protestations, he seems determined to shoulder the blame for the death of the young Alzarian.
The CD extras are highly enjoyable; Davison makes it abundantly clear how little time he has for Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton displays thinly-veiled dislike of the actor as well. One has to feel sorry for Matthew, and his absence from the audio bearing his most famous creation is more than a little intriguing.
With the recent news that Big Finish have had their publishing licence renewed, it is an exciting time for fans of the monthly audio series - one wonders whether the newly retired Tenth Doctor will add himself to the audio canon; anyone who has listened to `Pest Control' must surely be relishing the idea - come on David; step forward once more...
the very lost world August 6, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
another audio story for doctor who. This one features peter davison as the fith doctor, and sarah sutton as his companion nyssa.
as usual this runs for four episodes each of twenty five minutes in duration. It is spread over two discs, two episodes a disc. the first begins with a trailer for the forthcoming audio story the doomwood curse, the next in the range, and both discs end with roughly fifteen minutes worth of interviews with cast and crew. the ones on this are really very good, peter davison especially being an excellent interviewee.
the story actually follows on from an earlier fifth doctor audio called the haunting of thomas brewster, which ended on something of a cliffhanger. this story picks up the doctor's efforts to deal with what happened there.
as a result of a scientific experiment that he instigates, the doctor and nyssa and a man and a woman from the 19th century are stranded in prehistoric times. but theres's something not quite right about the land and the beings where they end up.
and that's all because...
and that's all I can say without spoilers. please don't give me an unhelpful vote for that [although that won't stop the person who gives all of these unhelpful votes, but that's their problem] you'll thank me for it as the end of episode one is a brilliant cliffhanger, and not one you will forget in a hurry.
and whilst you don't need to have heard the haunting of thomas brewster to hear this place, as it gives enough information about the previous story at the start, a lot of this story will not mean anything to you if you're not familiar with some events from tv stories in which peter davison played the doctor. it does help to know your continuity to get the most out of this.
but if you do, you will be rewarded with quite an enjoyable adventure. a deliberate pastiche of films like the lost world and at the earths core, with victorian adventurers battling ancient monsters, the supporting cast and characters are all very good, there are some real surprises on the way, and there are some emotional moments in part four that you won't forget in a hurry.
not the best release of the year, but a very good one and well worth a listen
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