The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa find themselves guests at a strange and isolated house in Alaska.
1 Comment
Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 10:08 PM
THE LAND OF THE DEAD
Big Finish’s fourth release, according to its liner notes, was written in barely over a week. Though the script by Stephen Cole is passable, much of the production is flawed in a similar manner, making me question whether or not the play was designed and recorded in the same approximate length of time. The Land of the Dead is not a particularly poor play, but it does seem hurried, labeling it as more of a missed opportunity than anything.
The plot heads in two somewhat related directions. First, it deals with the Permians, an ancient animalistic intelligence capable of animating and mutating nearby organic material. Conceptually, this is a fine idea, as it allows for giant skeletons to stomp around the sets, terrorizing the characters with their fearsome appearances. You’ll note, however, the visual nature of that description: the creatures simply do not carry over particularly well to the audio speakers, as they require the actors to use flat expository dialogue to describe them. The sound design used for the skeletons is intimidating, though, as their bizarre sounds and booming footsteps bear down on both listener and actor alike.
The second part of the plot examines the relationship between Brett and Tulung, including along the way the relationship between their fathers and their fathers’ experiences with the Permians. This thread is painfully obvious, especially given the writing time — does it surprise anyone at all to know that Tulung’s father was the hero and Brett’s was a coward? I suppose I should be grateful that this dramatic subtext even existed in the first place, but it’s somewhat unsatisfying.
The regular characters are, for the most part, well-executed. Peter Davison’s fifth Doctor carries his natural sarcasm coupled with enthusiasm, marking yet another high-quality return to the role. Sarah Sutton does less well, but she’s dealing with Nyssa-type lines; mostly involving being tied up and vaguely discussing latent psychic ability. It’s very apparent at the start how much older she sounds, but she recaptures the character well enough that this impression goes away after an episode or two.
The guest cast, however, does much less well. Shaun Brett, portrayed by Christopher Scott, is an excellent Doctor Who-type madman, and Scott’s performance straddles perfectly the line between sympathy and madness. Given her role, Lucy Campbell performs well as Monica Lewis, but the character itself is simply not a good one. She does nothing but complain and offer sarcastic remarks; while people like this are always amusing to start, after a couple of hours with them one generally wants to lay in a few punches.
Writing Native Americans into the script, though, was an absolutely awful decision. Tulung and Gaborik are the worst sorts of cliche, attempting to rationalize everything in terms of “the spirits” while stubbornly ignoring the evidence of their own eyes. Tulung adopts Nyssa as his own personal spirit guide, leading her to yell “Only you can distinguish between mysticism and rationality!” like an Arctic Smokey the Bear. What we end up with is the usual Native American portrayal: the “noble savage,” needing scientific enlightenment from the visitors. As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the performances of the two actors are absolutely diabolical, for one reason: American accents. Maybe they were aiming for realism (though Doctor Who never seems to make its aliens speak alien) but the actors struggle so hard to get the accents right that they forget to play their parts, leading to wooden, unconvincing characters, one of whom happens to feature in a central role. Good work, BF.
After something of a recovery with Whispers of Terror, The Land of the Dead represents another minor failure for Big Finish. According to Inside Story, the play was written around a Sylvester McCoy scheduling problem and a Sarah Sutton vacation, leaving one week for Cole to write it — maybe I’m blind to the economic realities, but wouldn’t it simply be easier to leave the spot open rather than cram something into it? As it happens, The Land of the Dead sounds exactly like what it is — an overly simplistic play written in under a week, with production to match. That it works as well as it does is something of a minor miracle, but that’s not to say that it works particularly well in the first place.
THE LAND OF THE DEAD
Big Finish’s fourth release, according to its liner notes, was written in barely over a week. Though the script by Stephen Cole is passable, much of the production is flawed in a similar manner, making me question whether or not the play was designed and recorded in the same approximate length of time. The Land of the Dead is not a particularly poor play, but it does seem hurried, labeling it as more of a missed opportunity than anything.
The plot heads in two somewhat related directions. First, it deals with the Permians, an ancient animalistic intelligence capable of animating and mutating nearby organic material. Conceptually, this is a fine idea, as it allows for giant skeletons to stomp around the sets, terrorizing the characters with their fearsome appearances. You’ll note, however, the visual nature of that description: the creatures simply do not carry over particularly well to the audio speakers, as they require the actors to use flat expository dialogue to describe them. The sound design used for the skeletons is intimidating, though, as their bizarre sounds and booming footsteps bear down on both listener and actor alike.
The second part of the plot examines the relationship between Brett and Tulung, including along the way the relationship between their fathers and their fathers’ experiences with the Permians. This thread is painfully obvious, especially given the writing time — does it surprise anyone at all to know that Tulung’s father was the hero and Brett’s was a coward? I suppose I should be grateful that this dramatic subtext even existed in the first place, but it’s somewhat unsatisfying.
The regular characters are, for the most part, well-executed. Peter Davison’s fifth Doctor carries his natural sarcasm coupled with enthusiasm, marking yet another high-quality return to the role. Sarah Sutton does less well, but she’s dealing with Nyssa-type lines; mostly involving being tied up and vaguely discussing latent psychic ability. It’s very apparent at the start how much older she sounds, but she recaptures the character well enough that this impression goes away after an episode or two.
The guest cast, however, does much less well. Shaun Brett, portrayed by Christopher Scott, is an excellent Doctor Who-type madman, and Scott’s performance straddles perfectly the line between sympathy and madness. Given her role, Lucy Campbell performs well as Monica Lewis, but the character itself is simply not a good one. She does nothing but complain and offer sarcastic remarks; while people like this are always amusing to start, after a couple of hours with them one generally wants to lay in a few punches.
Writing Native Americans into the script, though, was an absolutely awful decision. Tulung and Gaborik are the worst sorts of cliche, attempting to rationalize everything in terms of “the spirits” while stubbornly ignoring the evidence of their own eyes. Tulung adopts Nyssa as his own personal spirit guide, leading her to yell “Only you can distinguish between mysticism and rationality!” like an Arctic Smokey the Bear. What we end up with is the usual Native American portrayal: the “noble savage,” needing scientific enlightenment from the visitors. As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the performances of the two actors are absolutely diabolical, for one reason: American accents. Maybe they were aiming for realism (though Doctor Who never seems to make its aliens speak alien) but the actors struggle so hard to get the accents right that they forget to play their parts, leading to wooden, unconvincing characters, one of whom happens to feature in a central role. Good work, BF.
After something of a recovery with Whispers of Terror, The Land of the Dead represents another minor failure for Big Finish. According to Inside Story, the play was written around a Sylvester McCoy scheduling problem and a Sarah Sutton vacation, leaving one week for Cole to write it — maybe I’m blind to the economic realities, but wouldn’t it simply be easier to leave the spot open rather than cram something into it? As it happens, The Land of the Dead sounds exactly like what it is — an overly simplistic play written in under a week, with production to match. That it works as well as it does is something of a minor miracle, but that’s not to say that it works particularly well in the first place.
5/10