Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5857 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-30
• Format: Audiobook
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

25 years lost in time...
In 1985, during Colin Baker's first full season portraying the Doctor, the "powers that be", more powerful than any dalek, decided that the series needed a "much needed" rest, which led to the cancellation of the proposed next series of DOCTOR WHO and its eventual replacement with THE TRIAL OF A TIMELORD (available on DVD). On-screen, this meant the final scene of that season (the end of REVELATION OF THE DALEKS) had the Doctor cut off mid sentence and instead of stating the location of his next adventure, we got a mysterious "?"...

However, the proposed next season was already being planned and scripts were already written which were then cast aside and never used. Former Producer Graham Williams had been commissioned to write a set of scripts set in Blackpool and written a rematch between the Doctor and an adversary who had appeared way back in the 1960s with William Hartnell's Doctor, the Celestial Toymaker.

Fast forward 25 years and BIG FINISH Productions, who have done some sterling work creating new stories for previous Doctors on Audio, dust off these scripts, adapt them to work better in sound only, and release them in a new series called "The Lost Stories" so that this classic confrontation is finally available to be experienced by everybody. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are back recreating their roles as the Doctor and Peri, with David Bailie taking over duties as the sinister Toymaker. 2 CDs contain the two 45 minute episodes in much the same format as the TV series was using back in 1985 and the style is very much of that period in the show's history. How much you enjoy this story does rather depend then on how much you like that era of the series, but I found it an enjoyable yarn with 2 likeable characters recreating very well the essence of the characters as they were played back then. The Toymaker is played with sinister relish by David Bailie and makes for a suitably menacing foe and there are one or two nice references back to adventures from an earlier Doctor which are a nice touch.

Both discs have a lengthy "behind the scenes" piece at the end which gives a nice roundness to the project in these days of multitudinous extras but the first one can rather break the momentum of the story if you're trying to listen to just that.

All-in-all, then, a fairly enjoyable piece of typical mid-eighties DOCTOR WHO, and certainly worth trying, especially if you're any kind of television Who completist. As to whether the rest of the range as announced does, however, feel quite so essential, remains to be seen. MISSION TO MAGNUS, another shelved script from that same season, is next up, but after that, the source material gets more obscure.

let the games begin
A new doctor who audio play, featuring colin baker as the doctor and nicola bryant as his companion peri. And it's first in a new series of these that takes stories which didn't make it onto tv and gives them a whole new life on audio. the nightmare fair would have been on tv in 1986 if not for the show being rested for eighteen months by the bbc. It was novelised a few years later, but now here's an audio version of the tale.

This runs for two long episodes, of forty and sixty minutes each, and there's two discs here with one on each. Plus interviews with cast and crew at the end of both. These are good listening but the sound quality in them can be a bit variable.

The story has the doctor and peri visiting blackpool, and having an enjoyable time at the fair until they run into the doctor's old enemy: the celestial toymaker. A being of great power, previously seen on tv in 1965 battling the first doctor and played by michael gough. The toymaker likes to play games. anyone who loses to him will be his. forever. and he has a few schemes on the go. can the doctor survive?

The script has been rewritten to make it work on audio and it works very well as such. but you can tell this was a doctor who tv story from the mid 80's nonetheless, because of the way it's structured. there are many scenes of the rather small cast wandering around what would have been sets in the bbc studios on tv, and the length of the two episodes being so different does make them feel a bit unbalanced.

And yet there are quite a few great little moments to be had along the way. The doctor and peri do acknowledge at points how their relationship has softened since their abrasive early days. David Bailie [taking the role of the toymaker as michael gough has now retired from acting] gives a superb performance. the toymaker is someone who can be charming but can also get easily bored. and the moments when he gets annoyed are really subtly scary. Added to which the characterisation of his servants - those who lost to him and are now condemned to do his will forever - is really quite superb. some embrace the opportunity but some don't. this leads to some memorable scenes for two of them in particular.

Had this been on tv at the time it would have been a good story, rather than a great one. But it's nice to get the chance to encounter it in this form, and for that I'm grateful.

Listen to the start of disc one for a trailer for Mission to Magnus (Doctor Who: The Lost Stories) the forthcoming second story in this range.