Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49806 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-31
• Format: Audiobook
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Unlocking a New Dawn...
One of the most eagerly awaited Doctor Who audio adventures revisits an idea that was first seen in 1978, when Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor and his companion Romana were assigned the task of locating the six segments of The Key to Time; an endlessly powerful object which had been scattered throughout the cosmos by The White Guardian, and disguised; amongst other things; as a precious mineral, a princess and a planet!

The 2009 version begins to subvert the original idea by having Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor become an assistant to `Amy', an artificial creation sent to track down three of the segments after The Fourth Doctor scattered them once again at the end of the original series. This, the first in a three story `arc', brings the travellers to Mars, where The Doctor encounters an ancient foe...

To spice things up further, Amy has a `twin sister' Zara, who is searching for the other three segments; both of the sisters are hiding something from their respective assistants; exactly what will hopefully be uncovered in the next story...

Big Finish and writer Simon Guerrier have produced a great story which takes what seemed at the time like a closed-shop and injects new life into it. The Doctor and Amy make a fascinating team, with the usually in-charge Fifth Doctor given a companion who can actually teach him a thing or two; a bit like Nyssa but with a personality. The Ice Warriors remain the biggest classic Doctor Who monster not to be revived for the new BBC series, although it can only be a matter of time. The Martians are actually well-suited to audio adventures as their distinctive chilling hiss and deceptively lumbering gaits work much better in the imagination.

find the sssegmentsss
a new audio adventure for the fifth doctor who, and a sequel of sorts to the 1978 series of tv stories Doctor Who: The Key to Time (Limited Edition Numbered Complete 7 Disc Box set) [1978] where the fourth doctor spent a whole season searching for the segments of a very powerful artefact. If you've not seen those stories then you shouldn't have much problem getting into this, although there are a couple of continuity references where it does help to have seen them.

now it's the fifth doctor's turn to find the pieces once again. big finish have attempted to make this as different as possible from the original, and they've succeeded. a whole new alien race are on the trail of the key, and they have different motivations to the guardians who were after it on television. the fifth doctor is forced to team up with amy, a humanoid being created by the aliens to find the fragments. amy is only moments old at the start of the story and thus grows and changes over the course of the four episodes.

the quest for segments takes them to mars at a time before the ice warriors were hostile, and then to another strange alien civilisation.
also questing for the segments is zara, another girl created by the aliens who want the key. she isnt quite as nice as amy, and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

the first episode hits the ground running, gets in a lot of information and also a fascinating look at ice warrior civilisation. the next three aren't quite as good, getting a bit involved and moving onto another and not quite as interesting world. but it's an entertaining story all in all. peter davison's doctor gets some great dialogue and ciara janson is superb as amy, a character who learns and changes from moment to moment.

the first disc contains the first two twenty five minute long episodes of the story and a trailer for the forthcoming third season of eighth doctor and lucie miller audios.

the second disc contains the third and fourth parts of the story, running roughly twenty five minutes each. a trailer for the next big finish release Dr Who Destroyer of Delights (Big Finish Dr Who) which continues the story on from this one, is right after them.

both discs end with roughly fifteen minutes worth of interviews with cast and crew. these are good interviews but the sound quality on them is rather muffled at times.

this is a trilogy of release and it does feel like the first third of a long story rather than a complete four parter, but it's a very promising start.

and if you want to know the backstory of amy's sister zara, then listen to The Prisoner's Dilemma (Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles)