Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221950 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-30
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Tempestuous
Back cover blurb:
October, 1930. His Majesty's Airship, the R101, sets off on her maiden voyage to the farthest-flung reaches of the British Empire, carrying the brightest lights of the Imperial fleet as well as the hopes and dreams of a breathless nation.
Not to mention a ruthless spy with a top-secret mission, a mysterious passenger who appears nowhere on the crew list, a would-be adventuress destined for the Singapore Hilton... and a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
There's a storm coming. There's something unspeakable, something with wings, crawling across the stern. Thousands of feet high in the blackening sky, the crew of the R101 brace themselves. When the storm breaks, their lives won't be all that's at stake...
The future of the galaxy will be hanging by a thread.

Notable for being the audio story that introduced long-serving companion, 'Edwardian adventuress' Charley Pollard; this is a cracking story with strong performances from Paul McGann (The Eighth Doctor), India Fisher (Charley) and Gareth Thomas (Lord Tamworth). The 'Vortisaurs' could make superb television monsters in the right hands, and the Time Loop idea, although not a new one, is handled well by director Gary Russell. Good story, competitive price on here; essential listening if you want to make sense of any future Eighth Doctor audios.

No Warning Necessary
I am an avid Who fan that, for a long while now, has been sceptical of getting one of these Audio Dramas, fearing they would try and do something wrong with the classic Who formula. However, i took the plunge with Storm Warning. If i didn't like it, at least i could say i'd tried the Audio path.
I'll skip straight to the point: this was brilliant. The opening sequence in the TARDIS with Paul McGann immediately cleared the clouds on whether i would take to the purely audio situation and when the story really gets going i was hooked. McGann is excellent - bringing a new Doctor to light despite only one TV movie of screen time. He is instantly Who with new witticisms and a new enthusiasm for the role. The plot of the story itself - which i knew nothing of, discovering the hard way that blurbs ruin plot twists all too often. Don't worry - not on this CD. Everything that happens takes your breath away and the imagination involved is spectacular. This is a real treat. As is the voice cast. The new companion fits it like a glove, voiced enthusiastically by India Fisher, and the guest voice is a dream. Gareth Thomas, of Blake's 7, finally gets to be in Doctor Who and he is brilliant. Exclamation mark. I cannot recommend this one higher. Its a great place to start if you're unsure either of the Eight Doctor or of audio dramas in general.
Additional: the audio allows the imagination to create all manner of things to make it just that little more personal. Eg - just what does a Vortesaur look like? Its up to you.

I only give this four stars because its the first one i've ever attempted. Perhaps the others are better!

Paul McGann's return to his 1996 role...
Storm Warning marks the first Big Finish original full cast audio production to feature the until now underused eighth Doctor, played by 'Withnail and I' star Paul McGann. The play's plot revolves around the Doctor's accidental arrival on the ill-fated flight on the airship R-101 in October 1930 and of course wherever the Doctor arrives, extraterrestrial trouble is bound to follow. Scriptwriter Alan Barnes refrains from featuring any of the actual crew or passangers of the airship, instead presenting a highly fictionalized but very entertaining mystery, featuring Gareth Thomas, star of the cult 1980's television series 'Blake's 7' as Lord Tamworth; an operative of the British government on a secret mission.

The adventure begins well, bedazzling the listener with the mystery of the passenger in the locked Cabin 43, but as the story reachs its third episode (Big Finish adventures usually present two twenty-five to thirty minute episodes per CD) it begins to peter out and a few plot wholes emerge here and there, particularly in an instance where a brutal alien race appears more frightened by a bit of roaring from the Doctor than a troop of very heavily armed men. However the story's real strength is the eighth Doctor himself and Paul McGann shows why many Doctor Who fans hold him as a favourite to return to the role in the new BBC television series.

All in all this release represents the Big Finish productions very well and is a recommendation for fans of McGann's Dr. Who, who want to see (or hear to be more precise)more his adventures.