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Post by omega on Nov 5, 2017 6:10:21 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - MAIN RANGE » 38. THE CHURCH AND THE CROWN Released November 2002SynopsisA nation divided. A Queen's life at risk. A net of conspiracy closing in... Sometimes being a time travelling adventurer just isn't easy... For a start there's a temperamental TARDIS that lands a few thousand years off course in 17th Century Paris. But why shouldn't the Doctor, Peri and their travelling guest Erimem take a look around the city on the morning of King Louis's annual State Ball? As Peri becomes embroiled in a plot to kill Queen Anne and smash the unity of the Church and the Crown, the Doctor finds himself duelling Musketeers on the streets. With Peri missing, Erimem catching King Louis' eye and a Musketeer's sword at your throat, could things get any worse? Probably... Written By: Cavan Scott and Mark Wright Directed By: Gary Russell CASTPeter Davison (The Doctor); Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown/Queen Anne); Caroline Morris (Erimem); Andrew McKay (King Louis/Blind Maurice); Michael Shallard (Cardinal Richelieu); Marcus Hutton (The Duke of Buckingham); Peter John (Delmarre); Andy Coleman (Rouffet); Robert Curbishley (Captain Morand); Wendy Albiston (Madame de Chevreuse); Mark Wright (Crow); Gary Russell (Pierre); Mark Wyman (Passerby) Doctor Who - Main Range
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Post by omega on Nov 5, 2017 6:11:27 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 9:14:48 GMT
One of my all-time favourites, it's so physically dynamic for audio and a wonderful little bit of turnabout in regards to story of The Three Musketeers. The Doctor's duel with the Duke is an absolute highlight, particularly his flippant switch of a similar line from The King's Demons. It's night-and-day, those two halves of Five's life and it's lovely to hear him and his companions so completely in their element. Here he's the Androzani Doctor with wit, care, poise and a lovely, gentlemanly approach. Erimem reminds us with little effort why bringing her onboard was such a great choice and Peri gets to indulge in a great, almost Roman Holiday subplot with her alter ego, Queen Anne. If you want to start or continue with Five, I cannot recommend Eye of the Scorpion and The Church and the Crown together as a bundle highly enough. (As a side note: Nicola Bryant has recently showed up in Star Trek Continues's two-part finale playing a terrific role. Well worth the look.) |
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Post by mark687 on Nov 5, 2017 10:48:09 GMT
I really enjoy this pseudo-historical great one-liners, Nicola Bryant's double role is very good, Erimem fits right in, "Blind Maurice" very good indeed.
Regards
mark687
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Post by rran on Nov 5, 2017 14:31:53 GMT
The plot as such was quite interesting - though somewhat predictable, I still liked it. The sisterly chemistry between Erimem and Peri and the way they gang up to tease the Doctor  Ofcourse his sword-fight scene  I could actually picture it. |
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Post by iainmclaughlin on Nov 5, 2017 16:58:34 GMT
This is my favourite BF story for this team and one of my favourite BF stories altogether. It's just joyous.
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Post by eldersensorite on Nov 5, 2017 22:08:32 GMT
For some reason, I always go into historicals thinking 'I generally don't like historicals, so hopefully this doesn't go too badly', and I expected this to be somewhat mediocre. I was, of course, wrong and I loved it. There isn't much for me to say that isn't just gushing over how good this was so I will limit myself to commenting on Erimem - she (and Caroline Morris) are brilliant here (well, not just in this audio). I don't know how to describe it, but Erimem just 'fits' into this story so perfectly, and it was after listening to this that I thought... yeah, she is exactly the kind of companion you'd want to have a spin-off (I really need to catch up on that, I've still only read the first 2 books).
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Post by iainmclaughlin on Nov 5, 2017 23:09:25 GMT
For some reason, I always go into historicals thinking 'I generally don't like historicals, so hopefully this doesn't go too badly', and I expected this to be somewhat mediocre. I was, of course, wrong and I loved it. There isn't much for me to say that isn't just gushing over how good this was so I will limit myself to commenting on Erimem - she (and Caroline Morris) are brilliant here (well, not just in this audio). I don't know how to describe it, but Erimem just 'fits' into this story so perfectly, and it was after listening to this that I thought... yeah, she is exactly the kind of companion you'd want to have a spin-off (I really need to catch up on that, I've still only read the first 2 books). I hope you enjoy the rest of the books when you read them. I'm having a blast, working with some really good writers on the series. Incidentally, before I started the books I pitched an Erimem spin-off box-set to BF. At the end of this listn-through, if anybody's interested, I'll dig out the pitch and share. |
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Nov 6, 2017 12:47:58 GMT
For some reason, I always go into historicals thinking 'I generally don't like historicals, so hopefully this doesn't go too badly', and I expected this to be somewhat mediocre. I was, of course, wrong and I loved it. There isn't much for me to say that isn't just gushing over how good this was so I will limit myself to commenting on Erimem - she (and Caroline Morris) are brilliant here (well, not just in this audio). I don't know how to describe it, but Erimem just 'fits' into this story so perfectly, and it was after listening to this that I thought... yeah, she is exactly the kind of companion you'd want to have a spin-off (I really need to catch up on that, I've still only read the first 2 books). I hope you enjoy the rest of the books when you read them. I'm having a blast, working with some really good writers on the series. Incidentally, before I started the books I pitched an Erimem spin-off box-set to BF. At the end of this listn-through, if anybody's interested, I'll dig out the pitch and share. Look Forward to it |
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Nov 6, 2017 12:49:26 GMT
Following after Eye of the Scorpion was always gonna be tough, but this story just flows effortlessly. The interplay between Peri and Erimem had me in stitches at times and Its like Erimem had always been in the Tardis
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Post by Ela on Nov 6, 2017 19:43:05 GMT
I love historicals. After hearing one, I always go back to dig into the actual history.
This was a story that I enjoyed a lot.
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Post by Timelord007 on Nov 7, 2017 7:35:51 GMT
Pulpy, action, adventure, great drama & interesting plot, Cav & Mark always deliver quality stories & i think this was there first Big Finish story & what a corker it is for the boy's debut.
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Post by omega on Nov 7, 2017 7:40:02 GMT
Pulpy, action, adventure, great drama & interesting plot, Cav & Mark always deliver quality stories & i think this was there first Big Finish story & what a corker it is for the boy's debut. They previously did Project: Twilight for the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn. Actually, until 2014 besides this story their only Main Range contributions as co-writers were Projects Twilight, Lazarus and Destiny. |
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Post by Timelord007 on Nov 7, 2017 7:45:09 GMT
Pulpy, action, adventure, great drama & interesting plot, Cav & Mark always deliver quality stories & i think this was there first Big Finish story & what a corker it is for the boy's debut. They previously did Project: Twilight for the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn. Actually, until 2014 besides this story their only Main Range contributions as co-writers were Projects Twilight, Lazarus and Destiny. Of course they did, how could i forget they wrote Project Twilight one of my favourite Sixth Doctor stories  |
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Post by omega on Nov 7, 2017 7:54:44 GMT
They previously did Project: Twilight for the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn. Actually, until 2014 besides this story their only Main Range contributions as co-writers were Projects Twilight, Lazarus and Destiny. Of course they did, how could i forget they wrote Project Twilight one of my favourite Sixth Doctor stories  The only other Main Range story besides the Project trilogy and this one is Masters of Earth (where they are credited as Mark Wright and Cavan Scott, instead of the usual other way round). The Project storyline has appeared in other stories like Project: Nirvana for the Companion Chronicles, Twilights End for the Short Trips and the novel Project: Valhalla. |
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Post by number13 on Nov 7, 2017 23:49:21 GMT
Oh brilliant! A wonderful pure historical by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright with nods to the novels of Alexandre Dumas - and a dashingly good, funny and exciting one, filled with one-liners and fine character writing too. There's virtually civil war on the streets of Paris, there's death by sword and gunpowder, attempted invasion and the Doctor gets tortured again, poor chap. But it's all passed off with a light tone and entertaining dialogue, in a story where the Doctor asks 'how does one swash a buckle?', tries and fails to get two mostly gallant Musketeers to go 'the full Dumas' with 'All for one!' and - err, no they won't say it, and Peri does the Principal Boy bit, disguised in men's clothes and moaning about the boots. There is an historical mystery to solve too, about an invasion of France that never was and a good twist on the 'can't rewrite history' line of the classic historicals. No, you can't - but if you're the Doctor you can write history and that's what he does here with able assistance from Peri and Erimem. Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and Caroline Morris make a splendid team for the comedy and the adventure and it almost seems they've always shared the TARDIS, so well do their characters work together - Peri and Erimem are a great match and their friendship is one of the bonuses of an excellent story. We're skilfully kept waiting a long time for another inevitable highlight moment, but when it finally comes, the Fifth Doctor shows he's still the finest blade that Gallifrey has ever produced! The guest cast and their characters are excellent, especially petulant King Louis and his Prime Minister Cardinal Richelieu, trying to keep a lid on his impatience, and the villainous Duke of Buckingham who, this being audio, I was free to imagine with a moustache of twirlable length. And best of all, the two (usually) gallant Musketeers Delmarre and Rouffet - M. Dumas would have been proud of them! And of course, Her (suspiciously familiar) Majesty Queen Anne of France... 'Doubles' might seem overdone in historicals, but this is a clear and enjoyable homage to Dumas' use of doubles (e.g. 'The Man in the Iron Mask') and it's great to hear Nicola Bryant playing her with right regal style. Great fun, I loved it; a Fifth Doctor story everyone should hear. All for Five! And Five for all!  |
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Post by omega on Nov 7, 2017 23:56:35 GMT
It's nice for the Fifth Doctor to have a companion who shows respect for him without recourse to shouting and sarcasm. Even Nyssa had her moments as skeptic. You can see the Doctor's mind whirring when he says there's so much he can show Erimem, that he'd be happy to keep her on as companion.
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Post by iainmclaughlin on Nov 8, 2017 0:15:03 GMT
It's nice for the Fifth Doctor to have a companion who shows respect for him without recourse to shouting and sarcasm. Even Nyssa had her moments as skeptic. You can see the Doctor's mind whirring when he says there's so much he can show Erimem, that he'd be happy to keep her on as companion. One of the things I really like about the way this TARDIS crew was written was that the affection between them was genuine and never felt forced. I had no idea how Gary would take things but I really like what he did. These are people who genuinely like and care about each other and who relish each other's company. There's nobody who doesn't want to be there or who's trying to kill the Doctor. I like the warmth of the crew. I listened to tCatC again today... it really holds up well to repeated listens. Just gorgeous. |
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Post by sherlock on Nov 24, 2017 22:54:38 GMT
Catching up on the Erimem listen-through I've been missing.
A nice light-hearted historical, with a great dynamic between the TARDIS crew emerging.
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Post by Tim Bradley on Jun 21, 2018 20:31:59 GMT
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I could actually picture it.
