Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400832 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-01
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

hospital of horrors
Another audio adventure for the seventh doctor who, with his companions ace and hex. In this story, the tardis arrives in the middle of europe during world war one. At a british military hospital, behind the lines, the doctor has to investigate a murder. That has yet to be committed. And what sinister experiments are taking place there?

Split into four episodes over two discs, this is a very long story, but it's compelling enough that it means the episodes never outstay their welcome. the almost total absence of incidental music for a lot of the tale adequately creates the atmosphere of a hospital. And the story benefits from having no aliens involved whatsoever. The only characters here are human. Some of whom are monsters in a certain way. And all are very well written and played, particularly by michael cochrane who plays the leader of the place.

Ace and hex don't fare that well in this story because the script does at times struggle to find things for them to do. A plotline involving hex rather fizzles out, and some of the big finish writers are better than others at writing this newer, older, ace. But she comes across quite well here.

Be prepared to suspend your disbelief in part four when there's a chase sequence. not something it's easy to convey on audio. As a whole, this is a good and compelling story that well describes the horrors of war and the effect they have on people. But be aware that the end will not make a lot of sense if you haven't been keeping up with the other seventh doctor audio stories

An excellent story.....
If only the original series could have had stories like these amidst them, then maybe the series wouldnt have been taken off our screens for so long. Stories that are so gritty and raw that it actually really makes you think about the subjects raised in the stories.

No Mans Land is an excellent audio story. A graphic and detailed take on what war is really like. Hell. Turns men into stone. Death and chaos for no reason whatsoever. The characters in this story are so realistic and believable as to be mistaken for the real thing. The emotion and sharpness of the dialogue really makes you think, yeah this is war and its horrible.

Sylvester Mccoy is brilliant as ever as the Doctor, with Ace and Hex getting some decent stuff to do for a change. And Ace and Hex are good companions. Ace has always been my favourite companion, wonderfully portrayed by Sophie who doesnt sound a day older from when we first saw her on screen in Dragonfire. And Philip Olivier is great as Hex too. Big finish know how to make brilliant new companions for the good Doctor to travel around with. I have been very surprised at how little of the audio adventures i dont like actually, out of the hundred or so done so far ive only not liked about 5 altogether, and that isnt bad going.

What I also like about this play is the dedication that Martin Day gives to the real men and women who died in the first world war. Yeah, we should remember what these people did for us and we should be grateful for their sacrifice, not just content to forget them as if they had never existed.

Doctor Who doesnt always have to have monsters to be scary and exciting, in fact, most historical stories are better than the wholly sci fi stories. And that goes for the big finish audio stories too. This is another in a line of excellent historicals that really gets to the point and wakes you up to the point it is trying to make.

For these reasons this is my list of my absolute favourite audio stories:

1 No Mans Land
2 Fires Of Vulcan
3 The Settling
4 The Council Of Nicaea
5 The Kingmaker
6 Night Thoughts
7 Son Of The Dragon
8 The Mind's Eye
9 The Chimes Of Midnight
10 The Holy Terror

None of these audios really have "monsters" in them. They rely more of great story telling with great casts. Cant wait for more and more historicals!

Good story could have been a two parter
This was a very good historical story which I enjoyed very much. In parts it was a bit slow and felt like it was buying time to fill the episode. It would have been better if it was edited into less episodes.