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Post by omega on May 5, 2018 10:58:01 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - MAIN RANGE » 84. THE NOWHERE PLACE Released July 2006Synopsis2197. The fighter-carrier Valiant has just crossed Pluto's orbital path. Its captain is expecting trouble from alien raiders. She is not expecting the Doctor and Evelyn. She does not believe members of her crew when they say they can hear an ancient bell ringing. A bell that strikes terror into their hearts. 1952. The Turret Class locomotive Ivy Lee is hurtling through the night. On board, there should only be two passengers: both of them carrying documents from the War Office. But now, there are also two unexpected visitors on the train. One is the guard with ill-fitting trousers, the other is an excessively dotty old lady. The Doctor and Evelyn have arrived and 'Time's End' is approaching. Written By: Nicholas Briggs Directed By: Nicholas Briggs CastColin Baker (The Doctor); Maggie Stables (Evelyn Smythe); Nicholas Briggs (Trevor Ridgely); Martha Cope (Captain Oswin); Stephen Critchlow (O'Keefe); Andrew Fettes (Master-at-Arms); John Killoran (Palmer); Benjamin Roddy (Operations); John Schwab (EXO Moore); Andrew Wisher (Armstrong); Philip Wolff (Hayman)
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Post by omega on May 5, 2018 11:00:42 GMT
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,813 
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Post by lidar2 on May 5, 2018 14:00:36 GMT
Enjoyable enough yet somehow inconsequential / unmemorable.
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Post by Hieronymus on May 6, 2018 5:06:35 GMT
One of Nick Briggs' bold and innovative scripts. By all rights, the combination of elements shouldn't work together, but they do. I loved the story, but there is one bald gaffe in the script that irked me. I'd elaborate on this point, but I cannot recall what the irksome point actually was. How do I know there was one? Because this fact is noted in the list of stories I've listened to. I know that one of the other points marked on my list is the Doctor discussing "President" Benjamin Franklin in Seasons of Fear, so it's likely some gross factual or scientific error that smashed my suspension of disbelief. I may give the story another listen to remind myself what it was. If so, Ill come back and mention it. I'm giving this a "5", but it's not a solid 5 because of whatever the irksome issue was. Addendum: Found the irksome point. {Spoiler}
It's the age of the Earth that's the issue. The Earth is less than 5 billion years old, not 50 billion. |
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Post by fingersmash on May 6, 2018 14:20:33 GMT
I find this Nick's literal vanity project before The Prisoner. Wrote, directed, sound design, music, along with playing a character who was a Renaissance Man. Yeah. it leaves a sour taste in my mouth in a way that The Prisoner doesn't.
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Post by Hieronymus on May 6, 2018 18:43:48 GMT
I find this Nick's literal vanity project before The Prisoner. Wrote, directed, sound design, music, along with playing a character... I assumed a planned script fell through, and that this story was a quick cost-saving replacement. |
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Post by Ela on May 6, 2018 19:29:57 GMT
I find that I do not have a good recollection of this story, even though I know I listened to it at some point in the past.
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Post by omega on May 6, 2018 23:31:55 GMT
I find this Nick's literal vanity project before The Prisoner. Wrote, directed, sound design, music, along with playing a character who was a Renaissance Man. Yeah. it leaves a sour taste in my mouth in a way that The Prisoner doesn't. Nick's main anecdote about this is that he was warned against making a mistake, yet he made it anyway. |
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Post by Ela on May 7, 2018 2:49:27 GMT
Really? What mistake does he think he made?
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Post by Timelord007 on May 7, 2018 8:07:52 GMT
Great story, very intense & at times surreal, great performances by the cast & the mystery elements work well & held my interest.
4/5.
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
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Post by ljwilson on May 7, 2018 8:45:28 GMT
I find this Nick's literal vanity project before The Prisoner. Wrote, directed, sound design, music, along with playing a character who was a Renaissance Man. Yeah. it leaves a sour taste in my mouth in a way that The Prisoner doesn't. Nick's main anecdote about this is that he was warned against making a mistake, yet he made it anyway. I thought it was pretty good, a solid 7 out of 10 and very creepy in the first half. And as for BF's Prisoner, it is outstanding. |
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Post by mrperson on May 8, 2018 17:07:11 GMT
I liked this one quite a bit, but the set-up outshined the explanation/resolution for me. That was one hell of a set-up.
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Post by number13 on May 21, 2018 19:35:55 GMT
I liked the first 3/4 of this one a lot and all that part was an easy 5* for me. The final episode made it 4* overall, but still an enjoyable story with excellent and very atmospheric sound design and Colin Baker and Maggie Stables on top form.
The first two episodes on the spaceship crank up the tension and the growing impossibility and horror of the situation brilliantly - a door on a spaceship which leads nowhere, irresistibly calling its victims to eternity and Time's End with a ringing signal bell and screams and a sense of appalling horror. It's wonderfully creepy and well played, building to that moment (which we all knew must come) when Evelyn hears the bell chime for her... A bell which has no place in space and time beyond one obscure station where most trains don't even stop, on a branch line in Yorkshire, 1952... This was all excellent and unfathomable and capped by the revelation that the door was 50 BILLION years old, four times older than the Universe! Even for the timespans of 'Doctor Who' that's impressive and I was duly impressed and expecting a major timey-wimey payoff. But first, episode 3, Yorkshire, 1952. This side-step took me completely by surprise, not for the visit, which I knew the Doctor would have to make while solving the mystery, but the style. After that science-fiction future of spaceships, tension and death I wasn't expecting a mostly comedy interlude, but that's what we got - and I loved it! There's one tense moment where the 'alien power' (as yet unexplained) puts Evelyn in danger, but otherwise it was all fun as 'Detective Inspector Doctor' (in disguise, with unusual accent  ) and his redoubtable assistant Evelyn run rings round a visionary 'boffin' and his War Office guard dog on a night train to somewhere. The tie-in with the rest of the plot is the daring (and in time, feasible) starship idea that's the boffin's hobby, but mostly this episode felt like the chance for all concerned to play some lost scenes from a film like 'The Lady Vanishes' (which Evelyn does, stuffed into a suspiciously handy Police Box!) and I enjoyed it very much. Sadly, for me the final episode didn't live up to the others. The resolution was OK - spacefaring alien lost in Time (and mad as a result) wants to drag all other spacefarers in to share their fate. Captain Oswin tries to destroy the Door (and the Nowhere Place - Time's End) with nuclear weapons but only provides the energy to create it (there's the timey-wimey bit I'd hoped for.) The Doctor makes one small change which means the missiles do destroy the source of the Nowhere Place instead of powering its creation. But for me there were two problems. Firstly, I thought too large a game was being played on too small a field; humanity is just the latest of many species to fall foul of the Nowhere Place - and all of them supposedly evolved independently on Earth. If the scale had been made the Galaxy not simply our one planet, this would have been far more credible, when it has long been established that humanity is just the second civilisation of Earth history. (*Silurians all nod in agreement* ) Secondly, to allow time for all that independent evolution, not only is the Door 50 billion years old, but so we are told is the Earth, when it isn't. I take it that was the 'mistake' that earlier posts mention. I'm fine with dimensionally trancendental Police Boxes and their regenerating occupants, but the ages of Earth and the Universe are known science facts and altering them to fit a script doesn't convince me. So there was no mystery around the impossible age of the Door, it's just wrong. A pity. However, although that final episode was let-down in some ways, I still enjoyed the story overall; the mystery and tension of the first half was excellent and episode 3 was an unexpected comic gem. 4* |
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Post by mark687 on May 30, 2018 9:34:23 GMT
Oh Nick Briggs and his Paradoxes.
2 crucial flaws in it for me
1. The action's set too soon in the future (mid 22nd Century) and countless space travel stories have been set at later times so there's no real sense of threat.
2. Cast performs it seemly with next to no interest (including the Leads) so the whole thing seems dull.
Regards
mark687
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Post by chareth on May 31, 2018 18:45:09 GMT
One of Nick Briggs' bold and innovative scripts. By all rights, the combination of elements shouldn't work together, but they do. I loved the story, but there is one bald gaffe in the script that irked me. I'd elaborate on this point, but I cannot recall what the irksome point actually was. How do I know there was one? Because this fact is noted in the list of stories I've listened to. I know that one of the other points marked on my list is the Doctor discussing "President" Benjamin Franklin in Seasons of Fear, so it's likely some gross factual or scientific error that smashed my suspension of disbelief. I may give the story another listen to remind myself what it was. If so, Ill come back and mention it. I'm giving this a "5", but it's not a solid 5 because of whatever the irksome issue was. Addendum: Found the irksome point. {Spoiler}
It's the age of the Earth that's the issue. The Earth is less than 5 billion years old, not 50 billion. In Neverland it's mentioned that several anachronisms were created as a result of the Web of Time being messed up, so I thought the President Franklin thing was some deliberate foreshadowing to that. It could also be a result of the events of The Time of the Daleks. It's also possible though that the references to anachronisms later on were an attempt to retroactively explain away the Franklin mistake, or that I'm trying to connect two unrelated things. |
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Post by mrperson on May 31, 2018 21:15:12 GMT
One of Nick Briggs' bold and innovative scripts. By all rights, the combination of elements shouldn't work together, but they do. I loved the story, but there is one bald gaffe in the script that irked me. I'd elaborate on this point, but I cannot recall what the irksome point actually was. How do I know there was one? Because this fact is noted in the list of stories I've listened to. I know that one of the other points marked on my list is the Doctor discussing "President" Benjamin Franklin in Seasons of Fear, so it's likely some gross factual or scientific error that smashed my suspension of disbelief. I may give the story another listen to remind myself what it was. If so, Ill come back and mention it. I'm giving this a "5", but it's not a solid 5 because of whatever the irksome issue was. Addendum: Found the irksome point. {Spoiler}
It's the age of the Earth that's the issue. The Earth is less than 5 billion years old, not 50 billion.
I probably am not remembering correctly, since it has been quite some time since I listened but I could've sworn
the only reference to the number 50 billion was when he scans the door and finds its age: 50 billion, which is impossible in a universe only 15 billion years old and which he makes some similar remark about.
But then, it's been long enough that I don't remember what happens with the plot after the first half of the story.
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Post by Hieronymus on Jun 1, 2018 14:08:46 GMT
I listened to this again to verify my initial reaction. It's not just the door.
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Post by tuigirl on Sept 21, 2018 9:14:31 GMT
I have been listening to this and I have to say this might be the biggest letdown of a story ending that I ever experienced with Big Finish.
The first two episodes are great and atmospheric and very enjoyable.
But the ending kills it for me completely; plus the ridiculous mistake with the age of the universe.
To say I am very disappointed with the ending is an understatement.
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 2, 2021 15:00:45 GMT
E-Vy-Lyn! For-The-Win! There's something about hearing Colin Baker and Maggie Stables together that gives me a certain euphoric high. God, I love this pair. This was a pretty fun story, but I can't help but feel there was something missing. Maybe it needed a bit more revision? It feels like it could have been one of my favorites, but just isn't quite there. The whole notion of this random door popping up at the edge of the solar system, driving people insane? Good god is that one hell of a hook. But it didn't quite land. For a couple of reasons: - I think they tried a little too hard to make the situation "scary." The door and the psychosis was sufficient, I think, without them acting as though a random train bell were equally terrifying.
- The ultimate explanation at the end was very convoluted, far too big in scope and scale, and kind of ruined the mystery. What makes this kind of existential, Lovecraftian horror work, really, is the mystery--the inexplicability. The revenge of a species that never existed wrought upon an infinite number of species that also never existed is just... too much.
- Mouths.
The best part of the story was definitely the 1950s trains segment. I really love it when the MR takes advantage of the Classic four-episode structure in ways that the TV show seldom (never?) did -- to go off in wildly different directions. The train scene was just... incredibly fun. And can we pause for a moment to appreciate just how perfect Evelyn is in these situations? She's basically the best companion for information-gathering -- no patience for bullshit, and as utterly nonthreatening as they come. And it's always such a delight to see any companion, but Evelyn in particular, assume a more proactive role rather than playing sidekick.
That said, the train scene was maybe a little too segregate from the rest of the story. Maybe the space captain should have gone back with them?
And the last comment I had... did anyone else get super distracted every time they said, "Nothing Nowhere?" I kept thinking of Nobody Noone -- the Word Lord -- and expecting him to somehow tie into all of this. Not sure if such a crossover would have improved the story, or diminished it. |
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) and his redoubtable assistant Evelyn run rings round a visionary 'boffin' and his War Office guard dog on a night train to somewhere.
