|
Post by Hieronymus on Nov 10, 2016 15:35:09 GMT
I enjoyed it, but I have to say I found the Jospa reveal predictable and really found the character to be annoying. I agree with the predictability, but not the annoying part. I also felt there were a few points on which the script wasn't quite polished. However, the creative world, interesting characters and performances, excellent sound work, as well as steady tension in the plot made this a very good listen for me.
|
|
|
Post by kfbate on Nov 12, 2016 8:06:29 GMT
Mmmmm, I found this actually hard work, maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, I cannot say, but it didn't quite hit the mark, the sound stage is superb, it was mainly the story itself. It for me didn't flow, and, dare I say it felt overly long. But every release is a gamble I suppose, and for me personally, this was not quite there
|
|
|
Post by dastari on Nov 19, 2016 0:39:14 GMT
I liked this one. I don't know what it is, but Lisa Bowerman seems to get how to do a Hartnell story far better than Ken Bentley. This and The Bounty of Ceres have been the best Hartnell Early Adventures and they're both Bowerman stories. She seems to make them more interesting and pacier. The others seem slow and dry. The story was basically a retread of the 100,000 BC portion of An Unearthly Child, if the plot of that one had been that Kal wanted to rule the tribe because he wanted Za as his mate. I'm still surprised that Ian never uttered the line, "Remember, Gark is not stronger than the whole tribe." The reveal was as expected, but Philip Lawrence deserves credit for trying his best to pull to make it seem plausible that they might have another crew member in the ship. Still, he waits until we're towards the end of episode 3 before anyone mentions Jospa being on Vortis and it suddenly becomes a certainty that he's not just a new traveler. One thing that I should mention that excited me a lot was that for once in one of these EA's with Barbara they didn't write her or the Doctor out for a single episode! IF it is William Russell's BF swansong its very good clearly his strength is to stay performing in character rather switch back and forth from narrator , Jemma Powell's alright to keep the flow of the story going, but there's still a clear difference between her and Jacqueline Hill. I'd hoped that before Russell left we'd at least get a scaleback, maybe bringing in someone to play The Doctor, so that he could just concentrate on being Ian. Still, I'm hopeful that season 5 of the Early Adventures was announced so long ago that maybe they've already recorded a couple more stories with Russell before he actually quits. It's less likely, but I'm also hoping that we get a final CC from him in the upcoming box set. Jemma Powell is easily the weakest of the recasts. She doesn't sound a thing like Barbara. She gets some of Barbara's rhythms right occasionally, but I can't suspend my disbelief with her voice like I can with Treloar's or Chapman's. He's 92.... good lord, if I'm as competent and capable and clear as he is at 90 I'd be happy. Ninety-two?! Lemme check... Born 1924, wow... I... Just bravo to William Russell. That's amazing. Yeah, while I've found that his performances have been waning since The Dark Planet, it's still impressive that he was well into his 80's and still turned in some of the best vocal performances of the range. About halfway through I made this prediction: Jospa is the Vavidic agent, using the device to get control of the TARDIS on their behalf. The Doctor is forced to destroy the device to prevent this, and as a result cannot get Ian and Barbara back home. I thought the fact that he didn't know where Ian and Barbara were from despite his also supposedly being a human mighty suspicious, and I pegged him as a Vavidic agent as soon as he didn't want the Doctor to leave the Ship and wanted him to just sit back and tinker. Anyone who'd actually ever traveled with the Doctor would know that he'd never allow that. Ian also mentions trips to Byzantium and China, which occurred in the BBC Past Doctor Adventure novels Byzantium! and The Eleventh Tiger (in the latter Barbara comes out with the Kung Fu Fighting song). I thought that it was odd with all those references that Starborn wasn't mentioned. Of course, the planet in that story is never named, so it'd be hard to reference it... I put some more thoughts up on my blog, which can be found here.
|
|
|
Post by lidar on Nov 19, 2016 17:39:29 GMT
Very good story but kept thinking of the TW episode Adam the whole way through
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 0:54:43 GMT
Also, I'd just like to add: I really enjoyed Jemma Powell's take on Babara, a wonderful tribute to Jacqueline Hill. It's not a direct impression, but for me, she captures the essence of the character and Hill's performance wonderfully. I know Big Finish might be heistant, but I would love to see Jemma Powell lead a Companion Chronicle.
|
|
|
Post by nottenst on Aug 4, 2017 13:54:20 GMT
It was quite an interesting tale. I knew there was something up with Jospa from the start, but didn't know just quite what he was doing. It was more of a suspense bit wondering just when the our regular TARDIS crew were going to figure things out.
I thought it interesting that Jemma Powell, who played Jacqueline Hill in An Adventure in Space and Time, was called on to play Barbara here. I presume this is mentioned in the David Bradley thread, but it does make it seem more likely that he might be called to play the 1st Doctor in Big Finish at some time. I really need to watch that again.
|
|
|
Post by mrperson on Aug 4, 2017 19:43:51 GMT
I think they did a really great job with this one. The episode actually had me thinking the following for a while: "Jospa? Wait.....did I forget a companion? I must have done."
|
|
|
Post by nucleusofswarm on Mar 20, 2019 12:41:33 GMT
Tangential, but a nice little nugget: Phil just got his first TV credit on Easties.
|
|