Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #399257 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-01
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

RED, RED, RRRRRED!
This is the best Big Finish audio play for ages. There has been a recent trend to reflect the new TV series (very blatantly in "The Gathering" and "The Reaping") which I think is a bad move, but thankfully this play doesn't do that. I hated Mel on TV and loved Ace, but this is infinitely better than those early McCoy/Ace audios. Mel makes a decent companion and Sylvester McCoy is on great form (if a bit different from his TV days, I detect more of a New Adventures influence again). This is a dark adventure, which immediately sets it above from the lighter comic romps for me. It has a great atmosphere and pulls the listener in to a well-realised future society, laying on the tension and creating a desire to find out what is happening and what is going to happen. Plus it deals intelligently with the current issues of censorship and violence, making it a great slice of science fiction. It's that whole effective combination which makes this so good. In fact it's right up there with `...ish' in my estimation.

the beast within
The seventh doctor and mel arrive on a strange alien world. Not by choice. Typically separated and forced to investigate different parts of the society, they find a world where the privileged elite live in luxury, and have their behaviour controlled by a computer chip that is overlooked by a master computer.

The perfect crime free society.

or is it?

Bad things are happening. People are aware of them. And people are dealing with it their own way. Conflicts of interest are resulting.

Who or what is causing these killings?

And why does it seem to have a particular interest in the doctor?

This is set in doctor who's twenty fourth season, but it feels a lot like something from the two that followed, as it tackles interesting concepts. And like those seasons, it's effort is admirable, but the results don't quite come off. A lot of the play is characters standing round talking and you really have to work hard to keep your attention at these moments. And like several big finish stories, the episodes are a little too long for their own good, and would have been better shorter.

But it's not bad. When it works it works well, the events of the story are anything but predictable, and the alien world is a very original creation and well realised.

Not as good as it possibly could have been, but not bad

red...RED...RRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEED!
A totally awesome and powerful voice on the stupidity and wastefulness of violence. Well, one might think this wouldnt be a very nice subject to try and get across, but here Stewart Sheargold does a fantastic job of creating a believable story with real menace and horror. Red is the colour of anger, and Sylvester Mccoy is brilliant on this audio. And Bonnie again doesnt have to scream but instead is a good and strong character who gets plenty to do in a rip roaring tale that left me wanting a sequel straight away. This story has no let down moments at all, its strong from the start to the finish. Big Finish are aptly named...99% of their audios are brilliantly polished and well performed productions, and this story is up there at the top with the Reaping and The Gathering and Frozen Time...yet another brilliant story dripping with atmosphere....