DWM12: The Revenants

This has been a thoroughly enjoyable listen. William Russell is on particularly fine form, even by his standards. It occurs to me that this is the earliest story in which he has had to portray Barbara for any length of time. Cross-gender impersonations are always problematic, and indeed he sounds nothing like her - but he does manage to get across some of Jacqueline Hill's calm, measured delivery. Sharon Small also does well with the limited amount of material she's been given, and Toby Hrycek-Robinson has excelled on the sound design - certainly the best and most immersive I've heard in this marathon so far. I'm still not clear on the director's role (beyond selecting actors and guiding their vocal performances), but whatever Lisa Bowerman did works. I must investigate further what that entails! Perhaps she works with the sound designer on arranging voices, in which case I can compliment her on their spacial positioning.

I've said quite a bit about Ian Potter's writing already, and haven't much to add. I only know of one other Hartnell story he's written and I won't be getting to that for quite a while (if at all - it's in a Short Trips collection not available from Sheffield libraries), but I'd be very happy for him to do some more audios. The characterisation and "period feel" are excellent, with little details like Barbara's guarded distrust of the Doctor's motives and Ian's geographical knowledge or scientific explanations for Will-'o'-the-Wisps keeping things on track without taking up too much air time. As mentioned, I think a bit more editing of part two to cut down on the verbiage would have helped, but still a fantastic freebie.

DWM Freebies
Speaking of which, I may as well take this opportunity to talk a bit about freebies. Quite a few Doctor Who audios have been released for free with newspapers and magazines. It's a good idea, commercially - people who haven't tried the audios get to see if they suit them, in which case they may buy more; and the same works in reverse for those who haven't tried the magazine. The downside is that a free story that can act as a good advertisement costs just as much to produce as a similar-length item sold for money.

This is the 12th Big Finish story given away free with Doctor Who Magazine, roughly annually, though it's been two years since the last. I'm not sure quite how well this works as advertising given the overlap between the customer bases, but it's definitely a bonus: I buy three or four DWMs a year (new) and probably wouldn't have bought this one if it weren't for the audio, so DWM got an extra sale. The next one I'll be reviewing (unless more are released in between) isn't until the third Doctor's era, so there'll be quite a wait!

A Confused Chronology, part 5: Mind the Gap
Let's talk a little about the gap in which this is set. After writing the two episode reviews and making notes for this one, I decided that my opinions were well-formed enough to see what other people thought. I'm not too far out of line with general opinion, but interestingly, the thing that most people complained about - that the Doctor spends years here, yet Susan's departure seems fresh at the start of the next televised story - only crossed my mind briefly. The reaction was strong enough that Potter felt he had to defend this aspect of the story in his blog.

The thing is - and this is something I thought about before reading his response - the gap's already been blown wide open. Five adventures set in this interval had been published earlier, and one of them covers several months; so where's the crime? Of course, "he did it first" has never been the most elegant of excuses, and this isn't the main thrust of Potter's argument. He's being lighthearted in saying there's overwhelming evidence for a long gap in the Doctor changing his cravat, but actually this is a key point.

This is a change of production team. The last filming for the previous story was on 23rd October; barring some model work, the next episode won't be shot until 4th December. This is an unprecedented gap, and despite rehearsals and meetings it's a chance for the actors, at least, to recover from the first block's gruelling schedule. It's only natural that there should be some changes; but from the viewer's perspective there's only the usual week gap, so it also makes sense for the writers to simply carry straight on. We'll review how well the fictional gap of the "expanded Whoniverse" matches the production gap when I begin the run of stories with Vicki...

Published:
Date: 31st May 2012

Rating:
8/10.

Next Time:
The Nine-Day Queen, most like.