4 short stories with the Eighth Doctor and a selection of past companions.
5 Comments
Mr BHT
on May 9, 2016 at 2:46 AM
Friends Forever
Doctor Who: The Company of Friends
Written by Lance Parkin, Stephen Cole, Alan Barnes and Jonathan Morris
Starring Paul McGann, Lisa Bowerman, Matt Di Angelo, Jemima Rooper, and Julie Cox
Once again Big Finish try, and fail, to recapture the quality of Circular Time with a CD composed for four episodes linked by a theme, as opposed to a linear story. This time round the theme is friendship and the aim is to give characters first seen in other mediums a voice. Big Finish has tried this before with plays like Shadow of the Scourge and The Holy Terror. Sadly, despite having some great stories, the plays themselves have been unsuccessful. Despite this a small number of fans still clamour for ‘live action’ stories set within the timelines of the New Adventures, the eighth Doctor adventures and the comic strips. This release attempts to cater for them all!
Benny’s Story features the return of Lisa Bowerman’s Bernice Summerfield to the main range. It’s a light tale of anomalies and alternative dimensions and is largely played for laughs. As someone who has been anticipating the return of Benny to the main range, the big surprise with this play is it highlights how little Benny actually needs the Doctor these days! She’s mature, resourceful, witty and intelligent and can handle situations on her own now. Her friendship with the Doctor has truly become a meeting of equals – he’s lightened up and she’s aware of all the little tricks he can play. Both Bowerman and McGann play well off each other and whilst it would be nice to hear them together again it’s refreshing to realise it’s not such a big issue anymore.
Fitz’s Story by comparison is first time exposure for me. I stalled on reading the eighth Doctor novels around the Placebo Effect mark (I keep meaning to start again!), so have never been exposed to Mr Kreiner before. I have to admit to liking what I’ve heard so far though. He seems a likable, lovable rouge type character – a bit like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses; a jack of all trades but master of none. Matt Di Angelo brings just the right level of cockney charm to the role – the character could easily have become a caricature. His banter with the Doctor is pretty good and it’s nice to have a male companion in the TARDIS for a change – something that needs to be exploited more by Big Finish.
The story is centred around dodgy dealings on an alien world where images of the Doctor are being used to sell an alien detection service. Like the previous story it’s a light tale played largely for laughs, and is little more than a pleasant distraction. This is the main limitation of this audio. It’s nice to see these characters get some extra exposure but it’s a shame that there isn’t enough time to give them the demanding audio adventure that they deserve.
This is no more apparent than in the third tale, Izzy’s Story. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Doctor’s adventures with Isabelle Sinclair are the absolute highlight of the Doctor Who comic strip era. Grandiose story arcs, real character development, and twists that no one saw coming. Who can forget The Glorious Dead, Children of the Revolution, Wormwood or Oblivion? Once again, due to the limitations of the format what we have here is more akin to the filler strips that appeared in between the epics such as Happy Deathday or TV Action. Izzy is after the final issue of her favourite comic – an issue that disappeared off the shelves almost as quickly as it was released, and now she can finally find out why. Cue a few odd twists, a visit to Stockbridge and a little pre-empting of Izzy’s own future revelations.
It’s really sobering to think of a story set in the 90’s as a period piece with references to The Next Generation, Menswear, and Train Spotting aplenty. The story itself is manic, it’s over the top and Jemima Rooper plays Izzy with real gusto as the geeky teenager with issues. She bonds with Paul McGann instantly and whilst the combination won’t be to everyone’s taste I think they make a fantastic team – a 4CD set paying tribute to the epics of that comic strip era would be most welcome!
The set closes with its strongest tale. The Doctor has made several passing mentions of an encounter with author Mary Shelley, and it’s fitting their first encounter should be portrayed here. Mary, along with her contemporaries are enjoying a retreat in Geneva when a dishevelled, battle worn Doctor arrives at their holiday home during a stormy night. They tend to him, but he appears to die. Instead of doing the decent thing and informing the authorities these charming people decide to spear the body with lightening bolts from the aforementioned storm. This animates the body and he storms off in a monstrous rage. Mary, feeling guilty follows him to a burnt out TARDIS and they use the telepathic circuits to call for help. And help arrives, in the form of the Doctor!
Mary takes this Doctor on a stroll to fill him in on the situation. He realises the other Doctor is from his future and realises he can only be healed by repairing his TARDIS. Thus with a little green crystal from his TARDIS, he regenerates the future TARDIS. Returning to the Villa Diodati they find the future Doctor renewing himself and, in the style of all good multi Doctor stories, follows a row about crossing timelines and creating paradoxes. The future Doctor leaves and the present Doctor is left with only one option; to take Mary with him as his companion. Simple!
Julie Cox gives a lovely performance as the quietly frustrated Mary; a young woman craving for adventure but finding only decadence in her life. McGann’s two Doctors are opposites, the present Doctor is a dreamer, loving his adventures, whilst the future Doctor, even when recovered, seems bitter and tired. Quite where this future Doctor emanates from is not specified leading to speculation that he’s fighting the infamous Time War that preceded the 2005 TV series revival. As with the other stories in this collection a second outing would be more than welcome for this team.
To sum up this makes for pleasant listening. It’s well acted, it sounds good and it provides some interesting imagery. Mary’s Story is the most substantial of the four, especially giving McGann quite a lot to get his teeth into, but given a choice I’d want more Izzy. Unfortunately the other stories don’t really have much more going for them. Despite that I really hope the CD is a success and we get to hear more of Paul with any of the above. The potential is clearly there for all to hear!
Big Finish Productions, Main Range #123, Story 1. 1 episode. Written by: Lance Parkin. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
Many years after the end of her association with the Doctor, archaeologist Bernice Summerfield is participating in a dig inside the coal mines of a dead planet. It’s a freelance job for which she is being very well-paid, in exchange for “not asking any questions.” She is shocked when she quickly finds the object of her employer’s efforts: a TARDIS key. She is even more startled when her employer uses that key to summon the TARDIS in question – the TARDIS belonging to the Doctor!
Soon, Benny finds herself running with the Doctor from deadly security robots, through frozen coal mines and across time zones into a jungle filled with treacherous cliffs and ravenous green lions. With “her” Doctor – the 7th Doctor – she could have at least been secure in the knowledge that the Doctor had some masterplan. But this new Doctor has no more idea than she does what is going on, and no kind of plan at all!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Paul McGann seems to be having a terrific time in this story, infusing his performance with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. As in The TV Movie, he can shift from wild enthusiasm to deadly serious very quickly, and handles the Doctor’s genuine anger at the climax quite well (far better, I’d say, than his immediate predecessor could have done). This story sees him travelling alone, and he reacts with delight at running into an old friend, seeming eager at the thought of travelling with her again.
Bernice Summerfield: Lisa Bowerman has played Bernice for a long time now, both in a handful of Who audios and in her own long-running audio range, and she is likely at the point where she could play Benny in her sleep. It’s to her credit that she does not in any way phone in her performance. The story is very much told from her point-of-view, and as such it is up to her to carry the story. She does so with energy and good humor, and she plays so well opposite McGann that I find myself wanting to hear a full-length release with these two.
THOUGHTS
In the past few years, it has become standard for Big Finish to produce one “anthology” release per year, varying these among their Doctors. Last year was the 8th Doctor’s turn for such a release: The Company of Friends, in which the gimmick is to pair 8th Doctor Paul McGann with companions from the various 8th Doctor ranges – Virgin NA’s, BBC EDA’s, and the DWM comic strip. Benny’s Story, the first of the four stories featured, sees the 8th Doctor reunited with the New Adventures’ Professor Bernice “Benny” Summerfield.
When I first listened to it last year, I found this the weakest of the four stories, and I suspect that opinion will hold. That’s not to say Benny’s Story is bad. It’s an amusing trifle, with a great deal of pace and energy and spirited performances by the two leads. But it is very much a trifle, a quick runaround. Writer Lance Parkin does manage to squeeze in hops through multiple time zones and a bit of Time Lord lore, and some of the exchanges between Benny and the Doctor are a joy to listen to.
Unfortunately, the villain is weak, and the scenes in which she tries to take over the TARDIS simply occupy too much of the story’s brief running time. I wanted to hear more of the Doctor and Benny, and a lot less of the supremely uninteresting Countess Venhella (Su Douglas), whose only good scene comes when the Doctor confronts her at the end. Given that the cutaways to the countess don’t tell us anything that we wouldn’t have learned in the confrontation finale anyway, I would have preferred the story not keep cutting back to scenes in which Venhella and her hapless assistant fiddle around with Technobabble. The plot being just a thin clothesline for interaction between McGann and Bowerman is fine – but if that’s the case, then surely we should get as much 8th Doc/Benny as possible?
It’s amusing, and worth a listen. But it’s too lightweight to be fully satisfying as a story, and too overplotted to be fully satisfying as a character comedy. An OK bit of filler, but nothing more than that.
Big Finish, Main Range #123, Story 3. 1 episode, approx. 30 minutes. Written by: Alan Barnes. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
The Doctor’s companion, Izzy (Jemima Rooper), has asked him to take the TARDIS to her home town, the village of Stockbridge, at a time when she would have been a child. She wants to solve a mystery that’s been bothering her since childhood. No, not a murder. No, not lights in the sky. No, not even a crop circle.
The mystery? The identity of Courtmaster Cruel, the hero of a long-running and rather brutal sci-fi comic strip. His identity was revealed in the final installment of the strip… in a publication that only hit the streets once that Izzy knows of, with all copies having vanished without a trace. But Izzy knows that the magazine was in stock the morning of its release, and is determined that it will belong to her!
The Doctor is a bit exasperated, but indulges Izzy. Until androids come to the comics store and “pulp” the “proscribed manuscript” while it is in Izzy’s hands, then rearrange the memory of the store’s owner. That is when the Doctor finally gets interested, sensing a hidden hand meddling with the laws of time. But reality will be rearranged a few times more before he is able to get to the bottom of this!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Paul McGann does very well again in this story. Izzy, his companion for this outing, is a frenetic ball of energy. McGann counters this by increasing his Doctor’s cool, collected calm. The results are highly amusing, with McGann’s Doctor taking on almost a “long-suffering” quality opposite his overly energetic young friend.
Izzy: Jemima Rooper is Izzy, the 8th Doctor’s DWM comic strip companion. I’m not 100% sold on the character, who comes across as a bit too… enthusiastic to be entirely winning. Rooper, however, is terrific, bringing boundless energy to the part. She makes Izzy likable almost in spite of herself. Alan Barnes’ script helps by crafting a terrific pre-credits “intro monologue” for the character which captures Izzy’s whirlwind of (too) fast-paced energy in a way that makes her at the same time somebody we can identify with. If the actress hadn’t been as good, I’d have been quite happy to leave Izzy as a one-shot. Rooper is so purely wonderful, though, that I find myself very much wanting a full-length 8th Doc/Izzy story. Better still, a season of them, to allow the character more variation.
THOUGHTS
That was fun!
This 30-minute short story isn’t any more substantial than the other 30-minute short stories I’ve reviewed in this sequence. It’s a featherweight story, played entirely for comedy, and played out basically in two sets (well, if this had been a visual story). Like the other single-episode McGann stories I’ve reviewed, this is a pleasant diversion that is hardly likely to sear itself into anyone’s memory. But it’s a particularly enjoyable piece, which ends up scoring just a little bit above the other Company of Friends stories, and well above Earth & Beyond: Bounty.
One element that makes this so much fun is just how well it evokes the medium it’s celebrating. This isn’t just a story using a comic strip character, about comic strips… It feels like a comic strip come to life! The reality-warping, the overexaggerated characters (including Izzy), the story resting on a single high concept. Usually, when I listen to these stories, I envision the characters in live action. In this story, it is almost impossible not to visualize it all as a cartoon – and I mean that as a compliment.
Writer Alan Barnes keeps the story moving quickly, but also is very successful in filtering the story through Izzy. In this, Izzy’s Story is more successful in feeling like a story about Izzy than Benny’s Story was for Benny, and far moreso than Fitz’s Story was for Fitz. The Doctor is pulled into this story because of Izzy, and Izzy’s knowledge of the culture of these comics influences the Doctor’s actions and the story’s outcome. And while the Doctor’s judgment of the various characters is a purely moral one, Izzy’s very different reaction is clearly meant to be the one with which listeners will identify.
Anyway, there’s nothing very deep to analyze here. Suffice it say: Fun. Along with the usual final note of how much I’d like to see a full story with this teaming, only moreso in this case because of how adorably infectious Jemima Rooper ended up being.
Big Finish, Main Range #123, Story 2. 1 episode, approx. 30 minutes. Written by: Stephen Cole. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
The Doctor is on television (well, its sci fi equivalent), giving his personal endorsement to Alien Defence Incorporated, a private security outfit designed to battle an Earth-like planet’s frequent extraterrestrial invasions. This endorsement comes as something of a surprise to the Doctor, who has certainly never recorded TV adverts for private security companies.
So the Doctor and his companion, Fitz (Matt Di Angelo) decide to pay a visit to ADI’s offices. The Doctor breaks into the offices at night, determined to find out if the company is what it appears to be, or if it’s hiding some other agenda. Meanwhile, Fitz prepares to enact the Doctor’s backup plan, to insure against anything going wrong.
Naturally, everything ends up going wrong.
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: He is quite happy to make an appointment to talk to Commander Femor… but only after first breaking into her offices in order to determine whether or not her answers will be the truth. He continues to think quickly, and his rapid realization that the situation has changed when he and Femor end up facing a deadly alien helps to save both their lives (and Fitz’s). By his 8th incarnation, he has learned to come up with a “Plan B” before blithely charging in, which is an improvement – even he hasn’t quite learned how to make “Plan B” run entirely smoothly when it’s needed. McGann gives a spirited performance, seeming to enjoy his co-stars and the light-hearted nature of the material.
Fitz Kreiner: Matt Di Angelo makes his debut as Fitz. The 8th Doctor’s longest-running companion, Fitz ran through more than half of the BBC EDA range, gaining a fervent following among readers. To date, this is his only audio adventure, though hopefully the positive reaction to this release will inspire Big Finish to bring the character back. Di Angelo is quite good in the role, playing Fitz’s sarcastic side and his cheeky (and slightly cheesy) bravado to good, humorous effect. Di Angelo has good comic timing, which is a great asset to a primarily comic story. This paper-thin story doesn’t give much chance to go beyond Fitz’s surface, but there is at least the sense that there is more to the character than just what is on the surface.
THOUGHTS
And we’re back to single episode short stories, and also back to full-cast audio, for this light-hearted romp. Fitz’s Story works pretty well as far as it goes, because it does maintain an appealing light touch. Unlike the same release’s Benny’s Story, there’s no sense of anyone trying to overreach. Writer Stephen Cole has crafted a small-scale story that’s perfect for a single episode’s running time. The results are consistently entertaining and energetic. The whole thing is over almost before you know it, and I found it a fine way to make one day’s commute from work go by quickly.
Mind you, like pretty much all the other single-episode stories I have reviewed to date, it’s as insubstantial as a spider’s silk web. There’s nothing here to linger in the memory. There’s no sense of jeopardy, but the fast pace and strong energy keep that from mattering.
Mainly, the story works because Paul McGann and Matt Di Angelo play extremely well opposite each other, as do McGann and guest star Fenella Woolgar. The 8th Doc/Fitz partnership is an engaging one, and it’s not hard to see why Fitz came to dominate the BBC Books range to such an extent. As with the other “Short Trips” on the Company of Friends release, I find I would quite like to see a full-length story featuring Fitz. In the meantime, this teaser doesn’t compel me to go out and order a bunch of BBC books (I read a handful at the time, some of which were good and some of which… ah, weren’t, but the various Who book ranges simply never grabbed me). Still, it’s a fun piece, produced to Big Finish’s usual polished standards.
In 1996, FOX produced a Doctor Who TV movie featuring, in part, the regeneration of the seventh Doctor into the eighth, and the television debut of Paul McGann in the title role. But the movie was never picked up for a series, and the McGann era was over before it started. The Doctor Who community, however, would not let McGann become a forgotten Doctor, and so it was that hundreds of eighth Doctor adventures were written and produced across countless forms of media. From novels to comic strips, audio plays to internet productions, the eighth Doctor has had as many adventures as any Doctor before or since — but each medium kept to itself, maintaining its own continuity. Big Finish was guilty of this as well, giving the Doctor new companions in Charley Pollard and Lucie Miller while carefully staying away from other continuities — even going so far as to imply each took place in a different universe. But with “The Company of Friends,” the Rubicon has been crossed: in four stories from four separate authors, we see McGann in action with four different companions, none of whom have previously featured in a McGann audio story. These anthology releases are usually up-and-down for Big Finish; capsule reviews of each story will determine if “The Company of Friends” follows suit.
BENNY’S STORY
The collection begins with a familiar voice: Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, companion of the seventh Doctor in the New Adventures and star of her own successful, long-running audio series. Benny featured with the eighth Doctor in the final NA “The Dying Days,” and author Lance Parkin returns here to reunite the characters. “Benny’s Story” is slight, the plot existing incidentally to allow the leads to converse — but it’s enjoyable because McGann and Bowerman share an easy, witty chemistry. Yes, the scheme of the Countess Venhella (Su Douglas) is ridiculous — attempting to free a TARDIS from its Time Lord shackles like a futuristic PETA crusader — but the story hangs together, including an elegant time travel twist. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s simply enjoyable to hear two long-time Big Finish veterans working together with the benefit of a clever Lance Parkin script. The continuity is great, and the reference to “The Dying Days” in the opening monologue had me laughing out loud. A fine start.
7/10
FITZ’S STORY
Here, the anthology departs entirely from audio continuity and heads into the realm of the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures. Fitz Kreiner, who joined the TARDIS crew in “The Taint” and stayed to the end of the range, is brought to life here by Matt di Angelo. Kudos to director Nicholas Briggs and di Angelo himself for not slavishly adhering to the novels: this almost certainly isn’t how you envisioned Fitz in your head, but it works so well. di Angelo captures the essence of the character — the brash confidence, the inevitable slipups under pressure, the surprising moments of softness and vulnerability — but makes the role his own with a charming, engaging performance. He doesn’t get a ton of “screen time” with McGann, sadly, but Stephen Cole’s script puts him in a hilarious television interview which encapsulates Fitz’s best qualities. McGann is hilarious as well, especially when portraying his advertising duplicate and doing background voices in said advertisements. Again, the plot is incredibly slight, and it wastes the presence of Fenella Woolgar, but if you’re a long-time EDA fan like me, it’ll put a grin on your face.
8/10
IZZY’S STORY
From the EDAs, we move along to the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips and long-time eighth Doctor companion Izzy, a consummate comic book nerd who would eventually battle a very literal identity crisis. Author Alan Barnes also sets out to have fun, but this story doesn’t even bother to take itself seriously — and works even better than the first two as a result! The opening narration is a joy, with Jemima Rooper proving to be a revelation as Izzy. She’s witty, hilarious, and not at all self-conscious: someone who truly appreciates the opportunity to travel with the Doctor. And yet the plot revolves around Izzy returning home to track down a missing comic book — the Doctor may be along for the ride, but the way McGann plays the Doctor’s gentle humoring is delightfully warm. The dramatized comic sequences are hilarious, especially Anthony Glennon’s Courtmaster Cruel, while the “real life” sequences are effective as well. Barnes does over-egg the pudding with comic references, both in terms of continuity and behind-the-scenes work, but while I rolled my eyes a few times it was mostly with a grudging respect. But why shouldn’t it work? This is Barnes’s character, arising from his most effective medium — I’d have been shocked if this wasn’t good, frankly. Great stuff.
9/10
MARY’S STORY
The final entry in the anthology features Mary Shelley (Julie Cox), a real figure from history never actually portrayed with the Doctor — rather, this story is inspired by an offhand reference in “Storm Warning,” Big Finish’s first Paul McGann story. As a result, “Mary’s Story” starts with a completely blank slate: there’s no reward, there’s no pre-judging. This could be an advantage, but coming after three stories which openly celebrate the opportunity to present their central characters on audio, this story from Jonathan Morris seems disappointingly flat. This is a pre-Frankenstein Mary Shelley, and the script beats the listener over the head with influences. I’m fairly sure this was being played for laughs, but actually having a character declare “I am the modern Prometheus!” just made me roll my eyes. Cox is fantastic, despite this, as a woman desperate to escape the tedium of her life and embark on advanture — and naturally the Doctor is there to provide this escape route.
“Mary’s Story” does have a more substantial plot than its fellows, however, one which asks difficult questions. We see a horribly burned eighth Doctor with a damaged TARDIS — wounds suffered in an unexplained temporal conflagration — and the “other” eighth Doctor restores the TARDIS to health using a little green crystal. So that’s a direct reference to “Rise of the Cybermen” and a much more oblique reference to the Time War — and yes, this is fun, but knowing they’ll never be able to pursue references like this saddens me, because I’m a fan at heart. Really sets the mind going, though! Overall, “Mary’s Story” is the weightiest of the four stories, but it might also be the weakest. Never thought I’d say something like that.
7/10
On the whole, this is an excellent release. Anyone who followed the EDAs or the comics owes it to themselves to pick this up — otherwise, this is a delightful sampler platter of the various eighth Doctors. I salute Big Finish for finally trying something like this, and succeeding admirably in the process.
Friends Forever
Doctor Who: The Company of Friends
Written by Lance Parkin, Stephen Cole, Alan Barnes and Jonathan Morris
Starring Paul McGann, Lisa Bowerman, Matt Di Angelo, Jemima Rooper, and Julie Cox
Once again Big Finish try, and fail, to recapture the quality of Circular Time with a CD composed for four episodes linked by a theme, as opposed to a linear story. This time round the theme is friendship and the aim is to give characters first seen in other mediums a voice. Big Finish has tried this before with plays like Shadow of the Scourge and The Holy Terror. Sadly, despite having some great stories, the plays themselves have been unsuccessful. Despite this a small number of fans still clamour for ‘live action’ stories set within the timelines of the New Adventures, the eighth Doctor adventures and the comic strips. This release attempts to cater for them all!
Benny’s Story features the return of Lisa Bowerman’s Bernice Summerfield to the main range. It’s a light tale of anomalies and alternative dimensions and is largely played for laughs. As someone who has been anticipating the return of Benny to the main range, the big surprise with this play is it highlights how little Benny actually needs the Doctor these days! She’s mature, resourceful, witty and intelligent and can handle situations on her own now. Her friendship with the Doctor has truly become a meeting of equals – he’s lightened up and she’s aware of all the little tricks he can play. Both Bowerman and McGann play well off each other and whilst it would be nice to hear them together again it’s refreshing to realise it’s not such a big issue anymore.
Fitz’s Story by comparison is first time exposure for me. I stalled on reading the eighth Doctor novels around the Placebo Effect mark (I keep meaning to start again!), so have never been exposed to Mr Kreiner before. I have to admit to liking what I’ve heard so far though. He seems a likable, lovable rouge type character – a bit like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses; a jack of all trades but master of none. Matt Di Angelo brings just the right level of cockney charm to the role – the character could easily have become a caricature. His banter with the Doctor is pretty good and it’s nice to have a male companion in the TARDIS for a change – something that needs to be exploited more by Big Finish.
The story is centred around dodgy dealings on an alien world where images of the Doctor are being used to sell an alien detection service. Like the previous story it’s a light tale played largely for laughs, and is little more than a pleasant distraction. This is the main limitation of this audio. It’s nice to see these characters get some extra exposure but it’s a shame that there isn’t enough time to give them the demanding audio adventure that they deserve.
This is no more apparent than in the third tale, Izzy’s Story. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Doctor’s adventures with Isabelle Sinclair are the absolute highlight of the Doctor Who comic strip era. Grandiose story arcs, real character development, and twists that no one saw coming. Who can forget The Glorious Dead, Children of the Revolution, Wormwood or Oblivion? Once again, due to the limitations of the format what we have here is more akin to the filler strips that appeared in between the epics such as Happy Deathday or TV Action. Izzy is after the final issue of her favourite comic – an issue that disappeared off the shelves almost as quickly as it was released, and now she can finally find out why. Cue a few odd twists, a visit to Stockbridge and a little pre-empting of Izzy’s own future revelations.
It’s really sobering to think of a story set in the 90’s as a period piece with references to The Next Generation, Menswear, and Train Spotting aplenty. The story itself is manic, it’s over the top and Jemima Rooper plays Izzy with real gusto as the geeky teenager with issues. She bonds with Paul McGann instantly and whilst the combination won’t be to everyone’s taste I think they make a fantastic team – a 4CD set paying tribute to the epics of that comic strip era would be most welcome!
The set closes with its strongest tale. The Doctor has made several passing mentions of an encounter with author Mary Shelley, and it’s fitting their first encounter should be portrayed here. Mary, along with her contemporaries are enjoying a retreat in Geneva when a dishevelled, battle worn Doctor arrives at their holiday home during a stormy night. They tend to him, but he appears to die. Instead of doing the decent thing and informing the authorities these charming people decide to spear the body with lightening bolts from the aforementioned storm. This animates the body and he storms off in a monstrous rage. Mary, feeling guilty follows him to a burnt out TARDIS and they use the telepathic circuits to call for help. And help arrives, in the form of the Doctor!
Mary takes this Doctor on a stroll to fill him in on the situation. He realises the other Doctor is from his future and realises he can only be healed by repairing his TARDIS. Thus with a little green crystal from his TARDIS, he regenerates the future TARDIS. Returning to the Villa Diodati they find the future Doctor renewing himself and, in the style of all good multi Doctor stories, follows a row about crossing timelines and creating paradoxes. The future Doctor leaves and the present Doctor is left with only one option; to take Mary with him as his companion. Simple!
Julie Cox gives a lovely performance as the quietly frustrated Mary; a young woman craving for adventure but finding only decadence in her life. McGann’s two Doctors are opposites, the present Doctor is a dreamer, loving his adventures, whilst the future Doctor, even when recovered, seems bitter and tired. Quite where this future Doctor emanates from is not specified leading to speculation that he’s fighting the infamous Time War that preceded the 2005 TV series revival. As with the other stories in this collection a second outing would be more than welcome for this team.
To sum up this makes for pleasant listening. It’s well acted, it sounds good and it provides some interesting imagery. Mary’s Story is the most substantial of the four, especially giving McGann quite a lot to get his teeth into, but given a choice I’d want more Izzy. Unfortunately the other stories don’t really have much more going for them. Despite that I really hope the CD is a success and we get to hear more of Paul with any of the above. The potential is clearly there for all to hear!
3/5
The Company of Friends: Benny’s Story
Big Finish Productions, Main Range #123, Story 1. 1 episode. Written by: Lance Parkin. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
Many years after the end of her association with the Doctor, archaeologist Bernice Summerfield is participating in a dig inside the coal mines of a dead planet. It’s a freelance job for which she is being very well-paid, in exchange for “not asking any questions.” She is shocked when she quickly finds the object of her employer’s efforts: a TARDIS key. She is even more startled when her employer uses that key to summon the TARDIS in question – the TARDIS belonging to the Doctor!
Soon, Benny finds herself running with the Doctor from deadly security robots, through frozen coal mines and across time zones into a jungle filled with treacherous cliffs and ravenous green lions. With “her” Doctor – the 7th Doctor – she could have at least been secure in the knowledge that the Doctor had some masterplan. But this new Doctor has no more idea than she does what is going on, and no kind of plan at all!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Paul McGann seems to be having a terrific time in this story, infusing his performance with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. As in The TV Movie, he can shift from wild enthusiasm to deadly serious very quickly, and handles the Doctor’s genuine anger at the climax quite well (far better, I’d say, than his immediate predecessor could have done). This story sees him travelling alone, and he reacts with delight at running into an old friend, seeming eager at the thought of travelling with her again.
Bernice Summerfield: Lisa Bowerman has played Bernice for a long time now, both in a handful of Who audios and in her own long-running audio range, and she is likely at the point where she could play Benny in her sleep. It’s to her credit that she does not in any way phone in her performance. The story is very much told from her point-of-view, and as such it is up to her to carry the story. She does so with energy and good humor, and she plays so well opposite McGann that I find myself wanting to hear a full-length release with these two.
THOUGHTS
In the past few years, it has become standard for Big Finish to produce one “anthology” release per year, varying these among their Doctors. Last year was the 8th Doctor’s turn for such a release: The Company of Friends, in which the gimmick is to pair 8th Doctor Paul McGann with companions from the various 8th Doctor ranges – Virgin NA’s, BBC EDA’s, and the DWM comic strip. Benny’s Story, the first of the four stories featured, sees the 8th Doctor reunited with the New Adventures’ Professor Bernice “Benny” Summerfield.
When I first listened to it last year, I found this the weakest of the four stories, and I suspect that opinion will hold. That’s not to say Benny’s Story is bad. It’s an amusing trifle, with a great deal of pace and energy and spirited performances by the two leads. But it is very much a trifle, a quick runaround. Writer Lance Parkin does manage to squeeze in hops through multiple time zones and a bit of Time Lord lore, and some of the exchanges between Benny and the Doctor are a joy to listen to.
Unfortunately, the villain is weak, and the scenes in which she tries to take over the TARDIS simply occupy too much of the story’s brief running time. I wanted to hear more of the Doctor and Benny, and a lot less of the supremely uninteresting Countess Venhella (Su Douglas), whose only good scene comes when the Doctor confronts her at the end. Given that the cutaways to the countess don’t tell us anything that we wouldn’t have learned in the confrontation finale anyway, I would have preferred the story not keep cutting back to scenes in which Venhella and her hapless assistant fiddle around with Technobabble. The plot being just a thin clothesline for interaction between McGann and Bowerman is fine – but if that’s the case, then surely we should get as much 8th Doc/Benny as possible?
It’s amusing, and worth a listen. But it’s too lightweight to be fully satisfying as a story, and too overplotted to be fully satisfying as a character comedy. An OK bit of filler, but nothing more than that.
Rating: 5/10.
The Company of Friends: Izzy’s Story
Big Finish, Main Range #123, Story 3. 1 episode, approx. 30 minutes. Written by: Alan Barnes. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
The Doctor’s companion, Izzy (Jemima Rooper), has asked him to take the TARDIS to her home town, the village of Stockbridge, at a time when she would have been a child. She wants to solve a mystery that’s been bothering her since childhood. No, not a murder. No, not lights in the sky. No, not even a crop circle.
The mystery? The identity of Courtmaster Cruel, the hero of a long-running and rather brutal sci-fi comic strip. His identity was revealed in the final installment of the strip… in a publication that only hit the streets once that Izzy knows of, with all copies having vanished without a trace. But Izzy knows that the magazine was in stock the morning of its release, and is determined that it will belong to her!
The Doctor is a bit exasperated, but indulges Izzy. Until androids come to the comics store and “pulp” the “proscribed manuscript” while it is in Izzy’s hands, then rearrange the memory of the store’s owner. That is when the Doctor finally gets interested, sensing a hidden hand meddling with the laws of time. But reality will be rearranged a few times more before he is able to get to the bottom of this!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Paul McGann does very well again in this story. Izzy, his companion for this outing, is a frenetic ball of energy. McGann counters this by increasing his Doctor’s cool, collected calm. The results are highly amusing, with McGann’s Doctor taking on almost a “long-suffering” quality opposite his overly energetic young friend.
Izzy: Jemima Rooper is Izzy, the 8th Doctor’s DWM comic strip companion. I’m not 100% sold on the character, who comes across as a bit too… enthusiastic to be entirely winning. Rooper, however, is terrific, bringing boundless energy to the part. She makes Izzy likable almost in spite of herself. Alan Barnes’ script helps by crafting a terrific pre-credits “intro monologue” for the character which captures Izzy’s whirlwind of (too) fast-paced energy in a way that makes her at the same time somebody we can identify with. If the actress hadn’t been as good, I’d have been quite happy to leave Izzy as a one-shot. Rooper is so purely wonderful, though, that I find myself very much wanting a full-length 8th Doc/Izzy story. Better still, a season of them, to allow the character more variation.
THOUGHTS
That was fun!
This 30-minute short story isn’t any more substantial than the other 30-minute short stories I’ve reviewed in this sequence. It’s a featherweight story, played entirely for comedy, and played out basically in two sets (well, if this had been a visual story). Like the other single-episode McGann stories I’ve reviewed, this is a pleasant diversion that is hardly likely to sear itself into anyone’s memory. But it’s a particularly enjoyable piece, which ends up scoring just a little bit above the other Company of Friends stories, and well above Earth & Beyond: Bounty.
One element that makes this so much fun is just how well it evokes the medium it’s celebrating. This isn’t just a story using a comic strip character, about comic strips… It feels like a comic strip come to life! The reality-warping, the overexaggerated characters (including Izzy), the story resting on a single high concept. Usually, when I listen to these stories, I envision the characters in live action. In this story, it is almost impossible not to visualize it all as a cartoon – and I mean that as a compliment.
Writer Alan Barnes keeps the story moving quickly, but also is very successful in filtering the story through Izzy. In this, Izzy’s Story is more successful in feeling like a story about Izzy than Benny’s Story was for Benny, and far moreso than Fitz’s Story was for Fitz. The Doctor is pulled into this story because of Izzy, and Izzy’s knowledge of the culture of these comics influences the Doctor’s actions and the story’s outcome. And while the Doctor’s judgment of the various characters is a purely moral one, Izzy’s very different reaction is clearly meant to be the one with which listeners will identify.
Anyway, there’s nothing very deep to analyze here. Suffice it say: Fun. Along with the usual final note of how much I’d like to see a full story with this teaming, only moreso in this case because of how adorably infectious Jemima Rooper ended up being.
Rating: 7/10.
The Company of Friends: Fitz’s Story
Big Finish, Main Range #123, Story 2. 1 episode, approx. 30 minutes. Written by: Stephen Cole. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs.
THE PLOT
The Doctor is on television (well, its sci fi equivalent), giving his personal endorsement to Alien Defence Incorporated, a private security outfit designed to battle an Earth-like planet’s frequent extraterrestrial invasions. This endorsement comes as something of a surprise to the Doctor, who has certainly never recorded TV adverts for private security companies.
So the Doctor and his companion, Fitz (Matt Di Angelo) decide to pay a visit to ADI’s offices. The Doctor breaks into the offices at night, determined to find out if the company is what it appears to be, or if it’s hiding some other agenda. Meanwhile, Fitz prepares to enact the Doctor’s backup plan, to insure against anything going wrong.
Naturally, everything ends up going wrong.
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: He is quite happy to make an appointment to talk to Commander Femor… but only after first breaking into her offices in order to determine whether or not her answers will be the truth. He continues to think quickly, and his rapid realization that the situation has changed when he and Femor end up facing a deadly alien helps to save both their lives (and Fitz’s). By his 8th incarnation, he has learned to come up with a “Plan B” before blithely charging in, which is an improvement – even he hasn’t quite learned how to make “Plan B” run entirely smoothly when it’s needed. McGann gives a spirited performance, seeming to enjoy his co-stars and the light-hearted nature of the material.
Fitz Kreiner: Matt Di Angelo makes his debut as Fitz. The 8th Doctor’s longest-running companion, Fitz ran through more than half of the BBC EDA range, gaining a fervent following among readers. To date, this is his only audio adventure, though hopefully the positive reaction to this release will inspire Big Finish to bring the character back. Di Angelo is quite good in the role, playing Fitz’s sarcastic side and his cheeky (and slightly cheesy) bravado to good, humorous effect. Di Angelo has good comic timing, which is a great asset to a primarily comic story. This paper-thin story doesn’t give much chance to go beyond Fitz’s surface, but there is at least the sense that there is more to the character than just what is on the surface.
THOUGHTS
And we’re back to single episode short stories, and also back to full-cast audio, for this light-hearted romp. Fitz’s Story works pretty well as far as it goes, because it does maintain an appealing light touch. Unlike the same release’s Benny’s Story, there’s no sense of anyone trying to overreach. Writer Stephen Cole has crafted a small-scale story that’s perfect for a single episode’s running time. The results are consistently entertaining and energetic. The whole thing is over almost before you know it, and I found it a fine way to make one day’s commute from work go by quickly.
Mind you, like pretty much all the other single-episode stories I have reviewed to date, it’s as insubstantial as a spider’s silk web. There’s nothing here to linger in the memory. There’s no sense of jeopardy, but the fast pace and strong energy keep that from mattering.
Mainly, the story works because Paul McGann and Matt Di Angelo play extremely well opposite each other, as do McGann and guest star Fenella Woolgar. The 8th Doc/Fitz partnership is an engaging one, and it’s not hard to see why Fitz came to dominate the BBC Books range to such an extent. As with the other “Short Trips” on the Company of Friends release, I find I would quite like to see a full-length story featuring Fitz. In the meantime, this teaser doesn’t compel me to go out and order a bunch of BBC books (I read a handful at the time, some of which were good and some of which… ah, weren’t, but the various Who book ranges simply never grabbed me). Still, it’s a fun piece, produced to Big Finish’s usual polished standards.
Rating: 6/10.
THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS
In 1996, FOX produced a Doctor Who TV movie featuring, in part, the regeneration of the seventh Doctor into the eighth, and the television debut of Paul McGann in the title role. But the movie was never picked up for a series, and the McGann era was over before it started. The Doctor Who community, however, would not let McGann become a forgotten Doctor, and so it was that hundreds of eighth Doctor adventures were written and produced across countless forms of media. From novels to comic strips, audio plays to internet productions, the eighth Doctor has had as many adventures as any Doctor before or since — but each medium kept to itself, maintaining its own continuity. Big Finish was guilty of this as well, giving the Doctor new companions in Charley Pollard and Lucie Miller while carefully staying away from other continuities — even going so far as to imply each took place in a different universe. But with “The Company of Friends,” the Rubicon has been crossed: in four stories from four separate authors, we see McGann in action with four different companions, none of whom have previously featured in a McGann audio story. These anthology releases are usually up-and-down for Big Finish; capsule reviews of each story will determine if “The Company of Friends” follows suit.
BENNY’S STORY
The collection begins with a familiar voice: Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, companion of the seventh Doctor in the New Adventures and star of her own successful, long-running audio series. Benny featured with the eighth Doctor in the final NA “The Dying Days,” and author Lance Parkin returns here to reunite the characters. “Benny’s Story” is slight, the plot existing incidentally to allow the leads to converse — but it’s enjoyable because McGann and Bowerman share an easy, witty chemistry. Yes, the scheme of the Countess Venhella (Su Douglas) is ridiculous — attempting to free a TARDIS from its Time Lord shackles like a futuristic PETA crusader — but the story hangs together, including an elegant time travel twist. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s simply enjoyable to hear two long-time Big Finish veterans working together with the benefit of a clever Lance Parkin script. The continuity is great, and the reference to “The Dying Days” in the opening monologue had me laughing out loud. A fine start.
7/10
FITZ’S STORY
Here, the anthology departs entirely from audio continuity and heads into the realm of the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures. Fitz Kreiner, who joined the TARDIS crew in “The Taint” and stayed to the end of the range, is brought to life here by Matt di Angelo. Kudos to director Nicholas Briggs and di Angelo himself for not slavishly adhering to the novels: this almost certainly isn’t how you envisioned Fitz in your head, but it works so well. di Angelo captures the essence of the character — the brash confidence, the inevitable slipups under pressure, the surprising moments of softness and vulnerability — but makes the role his own with a charming, engaging performance. He doesn’t get a ton of “screen time” with McGann, sadly, but Stephen Cole’s script puts him in a hilarious television interview which encapsulates Fitz’s best qualities. McGann is hilarious as well, especially when portraying his advertising duplicate and doing background voices in said advertisements. Again, the plot is incredibly slight, and it wastes the presence of Fenella Woolgar, but if you’re a long-time EDA fan like me, it’ll put a grin on your face.
8/10
IZZY’S STORY
From the EDAs, we move along to the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips and long-time eighth Doctor companion Izzy, a consummate comic book nerd who would eventually battle a very literal identity crisis. Author Alan Barnes also sets out to have fun, but this story doesn’t even bother to take itself seriously — and works even better than the first two as a result! The opening narration is a joy, with Jemima Rooper proving to be a revelation as Izzy. She’s witty, hilarious, and not at all self-conscious: someone who truly appreciates the opportunity to travel with the Doctor. And yet the plot revolves around Izzy returning home to track down a missing comic book — the Doctor may be along for the ride, but the way McGann plays the Doctor’s gentle humoring is delightfully warm. The dramatized comic sequences are hilarious, especially Anthony Glennon’s Courtmaster Cruel, while the “real life” sequences are effective as well. Barnes does over-egg the pudding with comic references, both in terms of continuity and behind-the-scenes work, but while I rolled my eyes a few times it was mostly with a grudging respect. But why shouldn’t it work? This is Barnes’s character, arising from his most effective medium — I’d have been shocked if this wasn’t good, frankly. Great stuff.
9/10
MARY’S STORY
The final entry in the anthology features Mary Shelley (Julie Cox), a real figure from history never actually portrayed with the Doctor — rather, this story is inspired by an offhand reference in “Storm Warning,” Big Finish’s first Paul McGann story. As a result, “Mary’s Story” starts with a completely blank slate: there’s no reward, there’s no pre-judging. This could be an advantage, but coming after three stories which openly celebrate the opportunity to present their central characters on audio, this story from Jonathan Morris seems disappointingly flat. This is a pre-Frankenstein Mary Shelley, and the script beats the listener over the head with influences. I’m fairly sure this was being played for laughs, but actually having a character declare “I am the modern Prometheus!” just made me roll my eyes. Cox is fantastic, despite this, as a woman desperate to escape the tedium of her life and embark on advanture — and naturally the Doctor is there to provide this escape route.
“Mary’s Story” does have a more substantial plot than its fellows, however, one which asks difficult questions. We see a horribly burned eighth Doctor with a damaged TARDIS — wounds suffered in an unexplained temporal conflagration — and the “other” eighth Doctor restores the TARDIS to health using a little green crystal. So that’s a direct reference to “Rise of the Cybermen” and a much more oblique reference to the Time War — and yes, this is fun, but knowing they’ll never be able to pursue references like this saddens me, because I’m a fan at heart. Really sets the mind going, though! Overall, “Mary’s Story” is the weightiest of the four stories, but it might also be the weakest. Never thought I’d say something like that.
7/10
On the whole, this is an excellent release. Anyone who followed the EDAs or the comics owes it to themselves to pick this up — otherwise, this is a delightful sampler platter of the various eighth Doctors. I salute Big Finish for finally trying something like this, and succeeding admirably in the process.
Average score: 7.8/10 rounded to 8/10