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Before hearing the latest Big Finish audio adventure, I must admit that I had conflicting expectations. On the plus side, it stars Peter Davison, who's proved to be the best audio Doctor so far, but WINTER FOR THE ADEPT is also written by Andrew Cartmel, script editor during the McCoy era, one of my least favourite periods on the TV series. As usual, Big Finish have assembled a fine cast, including the obligatory former WHO guest star, as amongst those joining the TARDIS team of Davison and Sarah Bryant are Sally Faulkner (Isobel in THE INVASION), forthcoming audio companion India Fisher and BABYLON 5's Peter Jurasik. The story itself opens - and indeed closes - with a voice-over from an older Alison Speers (Liz Sutherland) recalling an adventure at a Swiss finishing school in - quelle surprise - 1963. Whilst the year, or at least decade, needs to specified in a TV story, there didn't seem to be any real reason why it had to be specified here, so why bother? It being three days before Christmas, the school is virtually deserted, so we only get to meet a handful of its usual occupants, including Miss Tremayne (Faulkner), Mlle Maupassant (Hannah Dickson), Alison Speers and Peril Bellamy (India Fisher). Also in the story from the start is Lt Peter Sandoz (Jurasik), who picks up the lost Nyssa - separated from the Doctor in a manner that seemed just a little too Seventh Doctor and Ace for my liking. As with the previous BF audios, the acting and productions are generally of a high standard, although I can't say I was convinced by Mlle Maupassant's French accent. There was also a tendency for some of the younger female characters to sound a little too similar, although India Fisher is excellent as Peril, which hopefully augurs well for her future role as Eighth Doctor companion Charley Pollard. The likes of Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes proved that it's possible for a writer associated with one particular era to successfully write for another one, and Cartmel more or less pulls it off here, although in places it does seem like a Seventh Doctor and Ace adventure that stars the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa instead. Nyssa doesn't seem her usual self and the Doctor's 'tea' seemed a handy replacement for the Seventh Doctor's fingers for knocking people out. With a male/female combination visiting an isolated setting with a handful of occupants there's more than a hint of SAPPHIRE AND STEEL about the story - ADVENTURE TWO in particular springing to mind - but that's not necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, the same can't be sad of the relevation of the truth behind the "malevolent poltergeist" (as the cover blurb puts it), which proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Not the best of the Big Finish audios but it is in the top half of the first ten releases and, if like me, you usually press 'stop' when the ad for the next release comes along then don't, there's an out-take tagged onto the end of the disc that is killingly funny. BACK TO THE TOP |
WINTER
FOR THE ADEPT |
