Between these covers, you will find seven tales of vice, exploring the dark places at the edge of the universe.
1 Comment
Styre
on May 8, 2016 at 1:39 AM
SHORT TRIPS: SEVEN DEADLY SINS
With the mostly excellent A Christmas Treasury behind them, Big Finish forged onward into 2005 with its twelfth short story anthology, the David Bailey-edited Seven Deadly Sins. A linking theme featured, along with seven stories that could stand alone — but did it come together in a successful whole?
The Duke’s Folly — Gareth Wigmore — Wigmore really knows his Hartnell regulars, and he throws them into such ridiculous situations here that are quite enjoyable to read. The “moral” of the story, though, is hammered into the reader’s head with no subtlety whatsoever, and the ending jars. Something of a step down from his previous three efforts, but readable nonetheless.
That Which Went Away — Mark Wright — The hardest thing about writing for Troughton is capturing Troughton himself, but here Wright does an absolutely brilliant job. The image of the second Doctor disconnectedly roaming the village, mournfully playing his recorder, is worth the price of admission by itself — and the story, featuring Jamie becoming involved with shapeshifting barbarians, is solid as well. Wright’s prose conveys the setting exceptionally well; you almost feel cold just reading it.
Angel — Tara Samms — Just as there’s a Rob Shearman formula, there’s a Tara Samms formula: you’ve got first-person narration either from someone with a physical or mental disorder or from someone close to someone with a physical or mental disorder, you’ve got a bleak atmosphere, and you’ve got a down ending. Oh, and you’ve also got yet another one of the best Doctor Who short stories. Good lord, Pertwee’s missing time travel equations manifesting themselves on the body of a dying woman in a nursing home?! Talk about your kicks to the gut!
Suitors, Inc. — Paul Magrs — We haven’t had any Magrs offerings in a while, and it seems as though he’s trying to make up for lost time. Iris is here, of course, along with the fourth Doctor and Romana being painfully self-aware, Magrs’ bizarrely out of character K9, Sarah and Harry, and an android Pertwee whose only use is to yell “AAAAIIIIIIYYYYAAAA!” and hit people. I laughed, a lot.
The 57th — John Binns — Binns works much better when he’s not trying to overreach himself and achieve something esoteric, and this straightforward story of the fifth Doctor and Nyssa investigating the mysterious “cloning” of a scientist is a very solid entry into the anthology. It conveys its framing sin much more effectively than some of the other stories here, and the uncertain resolution adds to its effectiveness.
Telling Tales — David Bailey — A little too post-modern for my taste, as here we learn that the Doctor always encounters misery on his travels because his history is being manipulated by aliens with some near-magical machine. This seems to exist only as a justification for the anthology’s framing device. The Doctor is a little too cliched.
Too Rich for My Blood — Rebecca Levene — So while the Doctor deals with Roswell aliens (Tzun?) in Las Vegas, Benny competes in a poker game with her life as the stakes, and Chris attempts to survive, pursued by a hot dog-eating champion with a horde of zombie followers and a taste for human flesh. It’s perhaps sillier than any NA not written by Gareth Roberts or Dave Stone, but Levene manages to keep it scary despite the ludicrous premise, and of course she knows the characters inside out.
The linking material — Jacqueline Rayner — I loved the individual tales of sin, as the showman eighth Doctor tortures each of the sinners with their respective vice. The conclusion, however, seemed rather forced, almost as if it had been written long after the rest of the material.
This is unquestionably one of Big Finish’s stronger short story anthologies, with no poor stories and only the conclusion really seeming to jar. Perhaps the shorter length helped? Recommended — this is well worth a look.
SHORT TRIPS: SEVEN DEADLY SINS
With the mostly excellent A Christmas Treasury behind them, Big Finish forged onward into 2005 with its twelfth short story anthology, the David Bailey-edited Seven Deadly Sins. A linking theme featured, along with seven stories that could stand alone — but did it come together in a successful whole?
The Duke’s Folly — Gareth Wigmore — Wigmore really knows his Hartnell regulars, and he throws them into such ridiculous situations here that are quite enjoyable to read. The “moral” of the story, though, is hammered into the reader’s head with no subtlety whatsoever, and the ending jars. Something of a step down from his previous three efforts, but readable nonetheless.
That Which Went Away — Mark Wright — The hardest thing about writing for Troughton is capturing Troughton himself, but here Wright does an absolutely brilliant job. The image of the second Doctor disconnectedly roaming the village, mournfully playing his recorder, is worth the price of admission by itself — and the story, featuring Jamie becoming involved with shapeshifting barbarians, is solid as well. Wright’s prose conveys the setting exceptionally well; you almost feel cold just reading it.
Angel — Tara Samms — Just as there’s a Rob Shearman formula, there’s a Tara Samms formula: you’ve got first-person narration either from someone with a physical or mental disorder or from someone close to someone with a physical or mental disorder, you’ve got a bleak atmosphere, and you’ve got a down ending. Oh, and you’ve also got yet another one of the best Doctor Who short stories. Good lord, Pertwee’s missing time travel equations manifesting themselves on the body of a dying woman in a nursing home?! Talk about your kicks to the gut!
Suitors, Inc. — Paul Magrs — We haven’t had any Magrs offerings in a while, and it seems as though he’s trying to make up for lost time. Iris is here, of course, along with the fourth Doctor and Romana being painfully self-aware, Magrs’ bizarrely out of character K9, Sarah and Harry, and an android Pertwee whose only use is to yell “AAAAIIIIIIYYYYAAAA!” and hit people. I laughed, a lot.
The 57th — John Binns — Binns works much better when he’s not trying to overreach himself and achieve something esoteric, and this straightforward story of the fifth Doctor and Nyssa investigating the mysterious “cloning” of a scientist is a very solid entry into the anthology. It conveys its framing sin much more effectively than some of the other stories here, and the uncertain resolution adds to its effectiveness.
Telling Tales — David Bailey — A little too post-modern for my taste, as here we learn that the Doctor always encounters misery on his travels because his history is being manipulated by aliens with some near-magical machine. This seems to exist only as a justification for the anthology’s framing device. The Doctor is a little too cliched.
Too Rich for My Blood — Rebecca Levene — So while the Doctor deals with Roswell aliens (Tzun?) in Las Vegas, Benny competes in a poker game with her life as the stakes, and Chris attempts to survive, pursued by a hot dog-eating champion with a horde of zombie followers and a taste for human flesh. It’s perhaps sillier than any NA not written by Gareth Roberts or Dave Stone, but Levene manages to keep it scary despite the ludicrous premise, and of course she knows the characters inside out.
The linking material — Jacqueline Rayner — I loved the individual tales of sin, as the showman eighth Doctor tortures each of the sinners with their respective vice. The conclusion, however, seemed rather forced, almost as if it had been written long after the rest of the material.
This is unquestionably one of Big Finish’s stronger short story anthologies, with no poor stories and only the conclusion really seeming to jar. Perhaps the shorter length helped? Recommended — this is well worth a look.