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Post by omega on Dec 15, 2017 6:04:16 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES » 7.2. THE CROWMARSH EXPERIMENTReleased January 2018Synopsis(Note that this release is one of four collected together in Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 7A) When attacked on an alien world, Leela falls unconscious… only to wake in another time, another place. She is in the Crowmarsh Institute on Earth, in London, in 1978, and everyone is calling her Doctor Marshall. They tell her the world she has known is but a fantasy, a delusion, and that this place is the one that is real. Surrounded by familiar faces on unfamiliar people, Leela knows what is true and what is false. But how long can she believe when everyone around her says it’s a dream? What’s really happening here? Written By: David Llewellyn Directed By: Nicholas Briggs CASTTom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Cathy Tyson (Jennifer), Damian Lynch (Colin Marshall), Julian Wadham (Dr Holman), Dan Starkey (Linus Strang), John Dorney (Gary)
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Post by omega on Dec 15, 2017 6:11:17 GMT
Stories where the character is in a world where the fantastical nature of their life is just a dream can be interesting. A reunion between Leela and Marshall should be great, if bittersweet.
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Post by omega on Jan 18, 2018 10:25:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2018 17:19:29 GMT
Well, that was just brilliant, wasn't it? I mean, it's an instant favourite, certainly from the 4DA range. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, after all these years, play convincing - and in some times heart-breaking - variances on their characters. And the confusion is stretched out just long enough to entertain without being overdone. The characters go through a great deal in this and both, especially Louise, deal with events in a very human way. The story is deceptively simple - 'a man dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a man' and it works incredibly well, and is played to perfection. A great cast, and a really unnerving series of events for Leela - who story this really belongs to - and massively recommended.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 20, 2018 21:56:46 GMT
Well, that was just brilliant, wasn't it? I mean, it's an instant favourite, certainly from the 4DA range. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, after all these years, play convincing - and in some times heart-breaking - variances on their characters. And the confusion is stretched out just long enough to entertain without being overdone. The characters go through a great deal in this and both, especially Louise, deal with events in a very human way. The story is deceptively simple - 'a man dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a man' and it works incredibly well, and is played to perfection. A great cast, and a really unnerving series of events for Leela - who story this really belongs to - and massively recommended. I do think of the three audio companions the 4th Doctor has had, Leela has made out best as far as interesting things for her to do and interesting places for her character to go.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2018 22:43:42 GMT
Well, that was just brilliant, wasn't it? I mean, it's an instant favourite, certainly from the 4DA range. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, after all these years, play convincing - and in some times heart-breaking - variances on their characters. And the confusion is stretched out just long enough to entertain without being overdone. The characters go through a great deal in this and both, especially Louise, deal with events in a very human way. The story is deceptively simple - 'a man dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a man' and it works incredibly well, and is played to perfection. A great cast, and a really unnerving series of events for Leela - who story this really belongs to - and massively recommended. I do think of the three audio companions the 4th Doctor has had, Leela has made out best as far as interesting things for her to do and interesting places for her character to go. I'd not thought about it, but what you say is very true. Perhaps the most character development Romana has had is in Marc Platt's recent double-disc story. It would be good to see similar emotive situations for Lalla to get stuck into!
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Post by MayoTango131 on Jan 22, 2018 13:42:25 GMT
Stories where the character is in a world where the fantastical nature of their life is just a dream can be interesting. A reunion between Leela and Marshall should be great, if bittersweet. A little disappointed for that because the plot of this audio would have worked better with Amy Pond as the protagonist. All her life as a companion and being the mother of a woman older than she sounds more like the delusions of a lunatic that "real life companion". Not to mention that her entire childhood had to undergo therapies to convince her that the Doctor is not real.
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Post by Digi on Jan 22, 2018 20:19:43 GMT
Eh. The ‘main character isn’t sure whether this episode’s life or the main series’s life is the real one’ is a really, really tired trope. Didn’t much enjoy this, which is a particular shame given that it was Louise Jameson-heavy, and I tend to love everything Lou.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 25, 2018 0:43:37 GMT
This was really good. Dark and unsettling. Louise is so good in The Crowmarsh Experiment.
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Post by glutamodo on Jan 26, 2018 7:14:27 GMT
I was driving home from work listening to this tonight and not sure if I really liked this kind of mind-bleep going on while rolling down the highway in the dark. It was effective though, right up to the end I wondered if it would be resolved in 2-part form.
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Post by number13 on Jan 26, 2018 11:37:15 GMT
4DA 7.2 The Crowmarsh Experiment
A most unusual story for the Fourth Doctor and Leela by David Llewellyn - and a brilliant one, for me an instant classic of the range.
Louise Jameson is outstanding as Leela faces a most unusual battle: what is real and what is the dream? This is a 'Doctor-lite' story; the real Doctor is just a voice on the radio for most of the time - though, as usual, he's the only one who can show Leela the way out, if she chooses to take it. I thought placing the focus on Leela in such an unusual place was a great idea, giving Louise Jameson the chance to extend her character into new areas - the temptation of a stable, peaceful life with a family and a rewarding career. But the battles are still there to fight and this time mostly with Leela's mind, and partly against her own mind.
To create the fantasy world, a world individually tailored to convince and entrap its victims, the alien 'Sisyphus' has rifled through the subconcious minds of Leela and space pilot Jennifer, and also (telepathically rather than directly) the Doctor's mind. So Leela is tempted with 'an ordinary life' with Marshall, seemingly back from the dead, in a 1970s London-based research centre that must surely have come from the Doctor's mind. It's telling that when it wanted a suitable place to depict a safe scientific 'home', the alien seems to have picked out the Doctor's memories of his time at UNIT H.Q. and it gave his alter-ego authority figure in the illusion the reassuring name of Dr. Stewart...
I'm sure the Doctor's mind also provided the name Sisyphus (in Greek myth, a king infamous for being cunning and deceitful, condemned to struggle endlessly to complete a pointless task - thanks Google!) to describe both the character of the alien and the methods it uses to keep its victims busy until their minds are ready to be devoured...
Just for fun, it occurred to me that this excellent and very unusual Fourth Doctor and Leela story would have been easily at home as an episode of 'classic era' Counter-Measures. Imagine Rachel and Allison, investigating a mind parasite in their lab but entrapped by their specimen. Then unsure whether they had escaped from it or are were still trapped, slowly being consumed and only dreaming their escape. With Sir Toby in the Doctor(s) role of course - and Ian as Rachel's 'old flame' in the dream (this would all be created from Prof. Jensen's subconscious mind, so who knows?)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2018 19:31:50 GMT
Oh dear, a very overused idea. Dull episode.
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Post by elkawho on Jan 27, 2018 19:36:51 GMT
4DA 7.2 The Crowmarsh ExperimentA most unusual story for the Fourth Doctor and Leela by David Llewellyn - and a brilliant one, for me an instant classic of the range. Louise Jameson is outstanding as Leela faces a most unusual battle: what is real and what is the dream? This is a 'Doctor-lite' story; the real Doctor is just a voice on the radio for most of the time - though, as usual, he's the only one who can show Leela the way out, if she chooses to take it. I thought placing the focus on Leela in such an unusual place was a great idea, giving Louise Jameson the chance to extend her character into new areas - the temptation of a stable, peaceful life with a family and a rewarding career. But the battles are still there to fight and this time mostly with Leela's mind, and partly against her own mind. To create the fantasy world, a world individually tailored to convince and entrap its victims, the alien 'Sisyphus' has rifled through the subconcious minds of Leela and space pilot Jennifer, and also (telepathically rather than directly) the Doctor's mind. So Leela is tempted with 'an ordinary life' with Marshall, seemingly back from the dead, in a 1970s London-based research centre that must surely have come from the Doctor's mind. It's telling that when it wanted a suitable place to depict a safe scientific 'home', the alien seems to have picked out the Doctor's memories of his time at UNIT H.Q. and it gave his alter-ego authority figure in the illusion the reassuring name of Dr. Stewart... I'm sure the Doctor's mind also provided the name Sisyphus (in Greek myth, a king infamous for being cunning and deceitful, condemned to struggle endlessly to complete a pointless task - thanks Google!) to describe both the character of the alien and the methods it uses to keep its victims busy until their minds are ready to be devoured... Just for fun, it occurred to me that this excellent and very unusual Fourth Doctor and Leela story would have been easily at home as an episode of 'classic era' Counter-Measures. Imagine Rachel and Allison, investigating a mind parasite in their lab but entrapped by their specimen. Then unsure whether they had escaped from it or are were still trapped, slowly being consumed and only dreaming their escape. With Sir Toby in the Doctor(s) role of course - and Ian as Rachel's 'old flame' in the dream (this would all be created from Prof. Jensen's subconscious mind, so who knows?) A really good review of the story. You highlighted some subtleties that I I didn't even pick up on, like all the UNIT references. I feel silly.
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Post by number13 on Jan 27, 2018 23:14:21 GMT
4DA 7.2 The Crowmarsh ExperimentA most unusual story for the Fourth Doctor and Leela by David Llewellyn - and a brilliant one, for me an instant classic of the range. Louise Jameson is outstanding as Leela faces a most unusual battle: what is real and what is the dream? This is a 'Doctor-lite' story; the real Doctor is just a voice on the radio for most of the time - though, as usual, he's the only one who can show Leela the way out, if she chooses to take it. I thought placing the focus on Leela in such an unusual place was a great idea, giving Louise Jameson the chance to extend her character into new areas - the temptation of a stable, peaceful life with a family and a rewarding career. But the battles are still there to fight and this time mostly with Leela's mind, and partly against her own mind. To create the fantasy world, a world individually tailored to convince and entrap its victims, the alien 'Sisyphus' has rifled through the subconcious minds of Leela and space pilot Jennifer, and also (telepathically rather than directly) the Doctor's mind. So Leela is tempted with 'an ordinary life' with Marshall, seemingly back from the dead, in a 1970s London-based research centre that must surely have come from the Doctor's mind. It's telling that when it wanted a suitable place to depict a safe scientific 'home', the alien seems to have picked out the Doctor's memories of his time at UNIT H.Q. and it gave his alter-ego authority figure in the illusion the reassuring name of Dr. Stewart... I'm sure the Doctor's mind also provided the name Sisyphus (in Greek myth, a king infamous for being cunning and deceitful, condemned to struggle endlessly to complete a pointless task - thanks Google!) to describe both the character of the alien and the methods it uses to keep its victims busy until their minds are ready to be devoured... Just for fun, it occurred to me that this excellent and very unusual Fourth Doctor and Leela story would have been easily at home as an episode of 'classic era' Counter-Measures. Imagine Rachel and Allison, investigating a mind parasite in their lab but entrapped by their specimen. Then unsure whether they had escaped from it or are were still trapped, slowly being consumed and only dreaming their escape. With Sir Toby in the Doctor(s) role of course - and Ian as Rachel's 'old flame' in the dream (this would all be created from Prof. Jensen's subconscious mind, so who knows?) A really good review of the story. You highlighted some subtleties that I I didn't even pick up on, like all the UNIT references. I feel silly. Thanks very much elka, glad you enjoyed it - I am rather keen on the classic UNIT era (as you may have noticed me say occasionally!) so that helped! One thing that did go straight past me until I read the cast list was that Dan Starkey played Mr. Strang from the government, who was the main threat to Leela in the illusiory world. Clearly a memory of Strang, the menacing King of Sontar, also played by Dan Starkey... How did I miss that one?!
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Post by theotherjosh on Jan 29, 2018 20:14:27 GMT
I was reluctant to start on this one because I enjoyed Kaldor so much and I feared anything that followed it would suffer from the contrast. Wow! Such a story! Dazzling! I happen to enjoy this very specific type of story, so it held particular appeal to me. I’d like to see a companion introduced with something similar, so the audience wouldn’t know what the truth was. I already love the character of Sisyphus and Big Finish brought us a memorable villain of the same name. This story in particular made me think of Camus. “At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise . . . that denseness and that strangeness of the world is absurd.” I liked how the Doctor referenced Zhuangzi. If this had been a Third Doctor story, he would have instead told us how they were best mates I enjoyed the chilling manner in which they portrayed horror of lobotomy and loss of identity. This was one thing the new series stompy Cybermen did really well. When parallel-universe Jackie Tyler is taken and converted Pete and Rose hold out hope that she can be restored if only the can find her, but they can’t even do that, because she’s just the same as all the other Cybermen. The interviews were especially illuminating too. I think this is the best series of 4DA yet!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2018 16:58:16 GMT
I'm not too hypebolic by nature but I'm going to say this might well be my favourite ever 4DA release. I'm a sucker for "this is reality, what you've been living was the dream" stories be they in Who, Marvel or David Lynch movies. This was a superlative example where Lou was given so much in the way of wonderful material. I thought Tom did a nice take on Doctor Stewart. Anyone who has followed Tom's career in the UK must surely, as I did, think of his role in Medics. I'm almost sad I got this as part of the boxset as on it's own, completely standalone, it would I think, be reaching more people as the insta-classic. Instead some of us hear it on release in the box and some as a standalone so the discussion will not be as immediate. I really loved that the sci-fi trapping was such a tiny part of the story. We didn't need too much exposition just the story to unfold. Very economical. This would have been trickier in the 2 hour format of the MR.
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Post by elkawho on Feb 8, 2018 18:57:01 GMT
I'm not too hypebolic by nature but I'm going to say this might well be my favourite ever 4DA release. I'm a sucker for "this is reality, what you've been living was the dream" stories be they in Who, Marvel or David Lynch movies. This was a superlative example where Lou was given so much in the way of wonderful material. I thought Tom did a nice take on Doctor Stewart. Anyone who has followed Tom's career in the UK must surely, as I did, think of his role in Medics. I'm almost sad I got this as part of the boxset as on it's own, completely standalone, it would I think, be reaching more people as the insta-classic. Instead some of us hear it on release in the box and some as a standalone so the discussion will not be as immediate. I really loved that the sci-fi trapping was such a tiny part of the story. We didn't need too much exposition just the story to unfold. Very economical. This would have been trickier in the 2 hour format of the MR. I agree. I actually think this entire set had my top 4 4DA releases. While not listening to them once a month, I did try to spread them out somewhat and taking some space between each story was really beneficial. These have even spurred me to go back for a 4DA listen-through. Just to listen to how we got here from the good but somewhat limited place this range began.
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mbt66
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Post by mbt66 on Feb 17, 2018 10:42:25 GMT
4DA 7.2 The Crowmarsh ExperimentA most unusual story for the Fourth Doctor and Leela by David Llewellyn - and a brilliant one, for me an instant classic of the range. Louise Jameson is outstanding as Leela faces a most unusual battle: what is real and what is the dream? This is a 'Doctor-lite' story; the real Doctor is just a voice on the radio for most of the time - though, as usual, he's the only one who can show Leela the way out, if she chooses to take it. I thought placing the focus on Leela in such an unusual place was a great idea, giving Louise Jameson the chance to extend her character into new areas - the temptation of a stable, peaceful life with a family and a rewarding career. But the battles are still there to fight and this time mostly with Leela's mind, and partly against her own mind. To create the fantasy world, a world individually tailored to convince and entrap its victims, the alien 'Sisyphus' has rifled through the subconcious minds of Leela and space pilot Jennifer, and also (telepathically rather than directly) the Doctor's mind. So Leela is tempted with 'an ordinary life' with Marshall, seemingly back from the dead, in a 1970s London-based research centre that must surely have come from the Doctor's mind. It's telling that when it wanted a suitable place to depict a safe scientific 'home', the alien seems to have picked out the Doctor's memories of his time at UNIT H.Q. and it gave his alter-ego authority figure in the illusion the reassuring name of Dr. Stewart... I'm sure the Doctor's mind also provided the name Sisyphus (in Greek myth, a king infamous for being cunning and deceitful, condemned to struggle endlessly to complete a pointless task - thanks Google!) to describe both the character of the alien and the methods it uses to keep its victims busy until their minds are ready to be devoured... Just for fun, it occurred to me that this excellent and very unusual Fourth Doctor and Leela story would have been easily at home as an episode of 'classic era' Counter-Measures. Imagine Rachel and Allison, investigating a mind parasite in their lab but entrapped by their specimen. Then unsure whether they had escaped from it or are were still trapped, slowly being consumed and only dreaming their escape. With Sir Toby in the Doctor(s) role of course - and Ian as Rachel's 'old flame' in the dream (this would all be created from Prof. Jensen's subconscious mind, so who knows?) A really good review of the story. You highlighted some subtleties that I I didn't even pick up on, like all the UNIT references. I feel silly. I kept wondering why Leela should have chosen London in the 70s for her dreamland. So I was glad when that was explained, although I confess the UNIT references had passed me by. Any thoughts about the name of the organisation Crowmarsh? The only thing I can put together is a combination of the Stormcrow and Marshall. I can see why Marsh(all) would work as a safe place for Leela, but I don’t think she would find the (storm)crow safe and reassuring!?
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Post by kfbate on Feb 18, 2018 19:56:11 GMT
Entertaining as ever, as I did like the fact as stated by the writer that this time period was never visited by Leela and Tom when they graced our screens.
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Post by mrperson on Feb 18, 2018 23:04:04 GMT
I liked this very very much but in regards to this general sort of mental puzzle, I do have to say Brotherhood of the Daleks wins; this had a couple layers, that had layers within layers within layers within something.
But then, this one was only just the 2 parts, so only so much can fit.
I hope that if they stick with box sets for Tom, they stick to the 2-part, 2-part, 4-part format.
OK, I lied. I hope they move to three or four four-parters. But that's because I'm greedy.
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