The Demons of Red Lodge
by Jason Arnopp
A long, dark night in 17th century Suffolk for the TARDIS travellers – when they find something nasty outside the woodshed.
The Entropy Composition
by Rick Briggs
A lost prog rock symphony is unearthed from the vaults – with catastrophic consequences for the entire cosmos.
Doing Time
by William Gallagher
On the planet Folly, justice catches up with criminal mastermind ‘The Doctor’ – but can he endure a year in the jug?
Special Features
by John Dorney
At last, the cult 1970s horror anthology Doctor Demonic’s Tales of Terror is set for release on DVD, complete with a commentary from director Martin Ashcroft, leading actors Sir Jack Merrivale and Johanna Bourke, plus the film’s historical adviser – the mysterious ‘Dr John Smith’!
THE DEMONS OF RED LODGE AND OTHER STORIES
The 2010 main range release year closed with “The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories,” a collection of one-part stories similar to “100” or “Forty-Five.” Unlike its predecessors, “Red Lodge” does not have a linking theme – the only commonality between the stories is the presence of the fifth Doctor and Nyssa.
THE DEMONS OF RED LODGE
The anthology opens with a horror tale from Jason Arnopp. The opening is fantastic – the Doctor and Nyssa wake up in a dark room with no idea where they are or how they go there, and Sarah Sutton’s terrified acting is disturbingly convincing. From here, it becomes a fairly typical story. The clone elements are telegraphed from a mile off, though Susan Kyd impresses playing what are, in essence, three separate roles. This is the third release in short order with Davison and Sutton playing villainous versions of themselves, which is starting to tire, though at least it’s kept to a couple of minutes here. Lastly, I like the ending: Nyssa manipulates the aliens into mass suicide, and the Doctor doesn’t wholly approve of her methods. It makes him a hypocrite, of course, but that’s hardly a new character beat. A solid, if uninspiring start.
6/10
THE ENTROPY COMPOSITION
It’s an audio story, so making it about a creature that lives in music has to work, right? Obviously not, but that’s the sort of superficial thinking that mars this script from Rick Briggs. The Doctor is impressive here, always one step ahead of the action, but unfortunately the portrayal of Nyssa is insulting to the intelligence. She’s impatient, whiny, uninformed, and generally about as far from the character as normally portrayed as possible. The nadir comes when, with mere seconds to live, she defies the Doctor’s life-saving solution with “You seriously expect me to put cheese in my ears?” The idea of a massive musical archive is interesting, and the Doctor taking Nyssa there to hear a lost composition from Traken is heartwarming, but the characterization is so shocking it’s hard to hear anything else. While researching this review, I discovered this story won a Big Finish new writer competition, so I’ll refrain from sarcasm – but it’s easily the worst of the four.
4/10
DOING TIME
Better! It’s awfully simple, much like the first story, but the concept of the Doctor in prison is an interesting one that hasn’t been seen outside of the books. Author William Gallagher gets audacious by trapping the Doctor in solitary for a solid year – and then taking another year off his life in a time field – but respects the idea that this amount of time means little to the Doctor. Less convincing is Nyssa, who also spends a year passing the time and doesn’t seem to change from the start of the story to the end – but poor characterization of Nyssa seems to be a running theme in this anthology. Susan Kyd reappears and impresses again as Governor Chaplin – the part as written is boilerplate insane politician but she wrings an appropriate amount of drama from it. Again, nothing inspirational here, but it’s an entertaining way to pass half an hour.
7/10
SPECIAL FEATURES
Now this is more like it! Author John Dorney takes a unique approach to his story, presenting it as the commentary track to a cheesy B-movie horror. This is clearly coming from a committed Doctor Who fan; the commentary is an outright mockery of those found on the classic series DVDs, from the collective love-in to the poor memories of the participants to the lamenting of the countless dead cast and crew. I also love the Doctor’s awkwardness and refusal to contribute despite his status as historical adviser to the film. In what has now become a running gag, Nyssa basically isn’t present in this story at all, but at least the story is quite effective without her involvement. James Fleet is hysterical as Sir Jack – “I’ve got a BAFTA!” probably his funniest line. And while the ending is overly wordy and possibly incomprehensible, it’s confident enough to paper over the cracks. This is the sort of thing the 25-minute stories should be doing – Dorney understands that they allow more freedom than a condensed 90-minute tale. I can take or leave the other three, but this episode is excellent.
8/10
As there isn’t a linking theme, there isn’t much to be said in the way of summary. The sound design from Richard Fox and Lauren Yason as well as Ken Bentley’s direction are all well-received. Overall, “The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories” is solid yet totally unspectacular. It’s inoffensive filler – certainly not bad, but not something to make a special effort or financial investment to hear.
Average 6.25/10, rounded to 6/10.