The Fifth Doctor and Turlough encounter werewolves at the carnival in Rio de Janerio.
1 Comment
Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 10:25 PM
LOUPS-GAROUX
After a season of Paul McGann audios that could best be described as “uneven” and more appropriately as “garbage,” Big Finish spearheaded its return to past Doctor plays with Loups-Garoux, an offering from Ghost Light and Lungbarrow scribe Marc Platt. Platt’s reputation as a writer is mostly unimpeachable, and he demonstrates why with this play, a strong (yet very imperfect) offering that gives Peter Davison his first truly successful Big Finish audio appearance.
This is a very strong play in a thematic sense, with various perspectives on the nature of love being contrasted against one another against the backdrop of a werewolf story. There’s the love by Ileana for her son, the desire for Ileana by Stubbe, the various competitions between Stubbe and Lichtfuss, the Doctor’s lack of comfort with women, and of course Turlough and Rosa. It’s all done hauntingly well, the impression of a tragic tale being given throughout and the ending delivering on that promise, however indirectly. Indeed, the entire plot is driven by characters’ personal relationships, delivering a sense of intimacy not normally seen in Doctor Who. It’s refreshing on its face but highly enjoyable besides.
Furthermore, Platt’s decision to involve werewolves — apparently a long time coming, according to The Inside Story — is itself excellent. It requires the author to give his werewolf characters both human and wolfen characteristics, and Platt does a fine job of constructing a pack mentality among the werewolves. The descriptions of the werewolves’ increased attachment to nature is fascinating, and the counterpointing of Rosa’s Native American beliefs against the physical nature of the wolves is similarly intriguing. Some of the foreshadowing — the pack of dogs near the start, for example — is a bit clumsy, but for the most part this is the same sort of nuanced writing seen in Ghost Light.
Peter Davison is absolutely superb as the fifth Doctor in this, his seventh appearance for Big Finish. This is easily the best capturing of his old-man-in-a-young-man’s-body characterization of the Davison releases to this point, and the actor’s matured voice lends perfect credence. In a way, the fact that Davison is much older than he was on television is perfect for the character — he can lend world-weariness to the role without having to worry about looking like he’s 28 again. His exchange with Turlough over proper behavior with women is a particular delight, while he frequently recaptures his somewhat helpless, desperate persona with ease.
Mark Strickson’s Turlough is the true revelation of this play, however. While true that he sounds very little like the young, hyperactive character seen on television, Platt has allowed the character to mature along with the actor, and Turlough is heard to be much more introspective and much less over the top. His reminiscences of his home planet nicely foreshadow Planet of Fire. It’s a shame that Strickson has not appeared as Turlough since Loups-Garoux, as this play reveals that under all the OTT scenery-chewing there’s a talented actor playing a decent character.
As an uncultured American, I’m afraid I know next to nothing about the apparently-famous trio of Eleanor Bron, Nicky Henson, and Burt Kwouk outside of their Doctor Who appearances. Despite this, their performances in Loups-Garoux are absolutely first-rate: Henson absolutely drips evil, Bron is commanding yet heartbreaking, and Kwouk’s desperation comes across perfectly. Jane Burke is decent as Inez, while David Hankinson is a bit over the top as Lichtfuss, but the side is really let down by Sarah Gale, both in performance and in character.
Why it is that Big Finish insist on stapling otherwise-talented actors to American (or other) accents is beyond me, as these almost invariably destroy their performances. To me, it’s not about whether the accent itself is convincing, it’s whether or not the actor can use the accent without thinking about it. For example, in the subsequent play Dust Breeding, Caroline John adopts an absolutely ludicrous accent, but she still acts the part convincingly. Why? Because she’s good enough with the accent that she can concentrate on the content of her lines rather than their pronunciation. Here, Gale is clearly struggling to produce an American accent, so much so that she mangles her lines, emphasizing incorrect words and delivering inappropriate emotions. Furthermore, I’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but this marks two consecutive plays with a quirky, sarcastic teenage girl that, through some sort of supernatural assistance/command, fights monsters. This may work perfectly in Buffy, but in both Loups-Garoux and Minuet in Hell it just sounds corny. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to give me more than jokey remarks plus some ramblings about a grandfather and the Great Spirit to convince me that a 110-pound girl can give a serious challenge to a pack of werewolves.
On the production side of things, The Inside Story tells of some terrible problems with the audio production. I believe I detected some of these problems, as some of the werewolf voices started to clip, making it very obvious that they were filtered human voices (and yes, I know they don’t record actual werewolves). Despite this, the sound design is, as usual, excellent, with special note going to the sounds of the train. Nicholas Pegg’s direction is demonstrated well in the pace and performances — this play uses every one of its 137 minutes without once feeling padded. And, lastly, Clayton Hickman’s cover design is great — has everyone noticed the wolf’s head in the upper right corner? It took me over a year to spot…
Issues with accents and production difficulty aside, Loups-Garoux is the first real home run for Peter Davison’s Doctor. It’s quiet, it’s thoughtful, it’s romantic, and it’s full of werewolf action — a success for Marc Platt and another testament to how good Big Finish can be when it’s on target.
LOUPS-GAROUX
After a season of Paul McGann audios that could best be described as “uneven” and more appropriately as “garbage,” Big Finish spearheaded its return to past Doctor plays with Loups-Garoux, an offering from Ghost Light and Lungbarrow scribe Marc Platt. Platt’s reputation as a writer is mostly unimpeachable, and he demonstrates why with this play, a strong (yet very imperfect) offering that gives Peter Davison his first truly successful Big Finish audio appearance.
This is a very strong play in a thematic sense, with various perspectives on the nature of love being contrasted against one another against the backdrop of a werewolf story. There’s the love by Ileana for her son, the desire for Ileana by Stubbe, the various competitions between Stubbe and Lichtfuss, the Doctor’s lack of comfort with women, and of course Turlough and Rosa. It’s all done hauntingly well, the impression of a tragic tale being given throughout and the ending delivering on that promise, however indirectly. Indeed, the entire plot is driven by characters’ personal relationships, delivering a sense of intimacy not normally seen in Doctor Who. It’s refreshing on its face but highly enjoyable besides.
Furthermore, Platt’s decision to involve werewolves — apparently a long time coming, according to The Inside Story — is itself excellent. It requires the author to give his werewolf characters both human and wolfen characteristics, and Platt does a fine job of constructing a pack mentality among the werewolves. The descriptions of the werewolves’ increased attachment to nature is fascinating, and the counterpointing of Rosa’s Native American beliefs against the physical nature of the wolves is similarly intriguing. Some of the foreshadowing — the pack of dogs near the start, for example — is a bit clumsy, but for the most part this is the same sort of nuanced writing seen in Ghost Light.
Peter Davison is absolutely superb as the fifth Doctor in this, his seventh appearance for Big Finish. This is easily the best capturing of his old-man-in-a-young-man’s-body characterization of the Davison releases to this point, and the actor’s matured voice lends perfect credence. In a way, the fact that Davison is much older than he was on television is perfect for the character — he can lend world-weariness to the role without having to worry about looking like he’s 28 again. His exchange with Turlough over proper behavior with women is a particular delight, while he frequently recaptures his somewhat helpless, desperate persona with ease.
Mark Strickson’s Turlough is the true revelation of this play, however. While true that he sounds very little like the young, hyperactive character seen on television, Platt has allowed the character to mature along with the actor, and Turlough is heard to be much more introspective and much less over the top. His reminiscences of his home planet nicely foreshadow Planet of Fire. It’s a shame that Strickson has not appeared as Turlough since Loups-Garoux, as this play reveals that under all the OTT scenery-chewing there’s a talented actor playing a decent character.
As an uncultured American, I’m afraid I know next to nothing about the apparently-famous trio of Eleanor Bron, Nicky Henson, and Burt Kwouk outside of their Doctor Who appearances. Despite this, their performances in Loups-Garoux are absolutely first-rate: Henson absolutely drips evil, Bron is commanding yet heartbreaking, and Kwouk’s desperation comes across perfectly. Jane Burke is decent as Inez, while David Hankinson is a bit over the top as Lichtfuss, but the side is really let down by Sarah Gale, both in performance and in character.
Why it is that Big Finish insist on stapling otherwise-talented actors to American (or other) accents is beyond me, as these almost invariably destroy their performances. To me, it’s not about whether the accent itself is convincing, it’s whether or not the actor can use the accent without thinking about it. For example, in the subsequent play Dust Breeding, Caroline John adopts an absolutely ludicrous accent, but she still acts the part convincingly. Why? Because she’s good enough with the accent that she can concentrate on the content of her lines rather than their pronunciation. Here, Gale is clearly struggling to produce an American accent, so much so that she mangles her lines, emphasizing incorrect words and delivering inappropriate emotions. Furthermore, I’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but this marks two consecutive plays with a quirky, sarcastic teenage girl that, through some sort of supernatural assistance/command, fights monsters. This may work perfectly in Buffy, but in both Loups-Garoux and Minuet in Hell it just sounds corny. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to give me more than jokey remarks plus some ramblings about a grandfather and the Great Spirit to convince me that a 110-pound girl can give a serious challenge to a pack of werewolves.
On the production side of things, The Inside Story tells of some terrible problems with the audio production. I believe I detected some of these problems, as some of the werewolf voices started to clip, making it very obvious that they were filtered human voices (and yes, I know they don’t record actual werewolves). Despite this, the sound design is, as usual, excellent, with special note going to the sounds of the train. Nicholas Pegg’s direction is demonstrated well in the pace and performances — this play uses every one of its 137 minutes without once feeling padded. And, lastly, Clayton Hickman’s cover design is great — has everyone noticed the wolf’s head in the upper right corner? It took me over a year to spot…
Issues with accents and production difficulty aside, Loups-Garoux is the first real home run for Peter Davison’s Doctor. It’s quiet, it’s thoughtful, it’s romantic, and it’s full of werewolf action — a success for Marc Platt and another testament to how good Big Finish can be when it’s on target.
Highly recommended.
8/10