Main Range 236: Serpent in the Silver Mask (spoilers O.R.)

His Maria hitting on an awkward Doctor was hilarious. Bet there was lots of corpsing during recording.

Good fun; a nice comedic murder mystery. Plenty of good material for the Doctor and it’s nice to not have him eclipsed in his own story by a large TARDIS team. I thought Tegan was quite out of character, but a minor issue. Great trilogy overall!

'I hope they don't play it for laughs,' I said in a previous post about this forthcoming audio. Me and my mouth! Ah, well. I enjoyed this nonetheless because a lot of the humour works - although some of it doesn't (for me, at least).

Highlights include the attempted seduction of a nervous Doctor in episode 2, and his conversation with 'Bernard' in episode 3. Peter Davison has a way of playing humour - and he and Janet Fielding have some cracking lines here - in a certain dry fashion, which makes it so much more funny, and it is a real shame he wasn't allowed to channel that much on television.

My only problem with this is reading in an interview (possibly Vortex) that the writer was inspired by giallo films to a certain extent. The fan in me has leapt on that and over-anticipated the connection. As the extras tell us, this has more in common with Kind Hearts and Coronets, and Sam West in particular is excellent in many roles. So yes, I enjoyed this because it was a good whodunnit with some interesting characters (and some irritating ones) and good use being made of the excellent regulars. It brings to an end a mixed trilogy, with Ghost Walk as the high-point and Kingdom of Lies.

The things I love about giallo films aren't necessarily what David Llewellyn loves, and that is absolutely fair enough. I have a huge liking for them (and I apologise for the following obsessive rambling). Usually, they involve an exotic location, and a young lady being terrorized by some rotter in a black mask/black gloves, ending in a twist-upon-twist ending. While there is humour in them, it doesn't take centre stage as it does here. Sometimes this comedy works really well in this, sometimes it doesn't and becomes a selection of silly voices ('totally'). Equally, giallo films come complete with a terrific, stylised, memorable soundtrack. Listening to these soundtracks is perfectly enjoyable (Ennio Morricone's Short Nights of Glass Dolls or What Have You Done to Solange, or Carlo Savina's The Killer Reserved Nine Seats are good examples). There's nothing remotely unique or comparable in Andy Hardwick's usual orchestral swirls, which are nice enough, but content to sound pretty identical to virtually everything else he's done for Big Finish.

Despite this production lacking many of the things I love about giallo films (with the exception being episode 4, where the inspiration becomes joyfully utilized), it strikes me much of Doctor Who (especially the classic series) is similar to that genre anyway. Doctor arrives, murder is done, Doctor gets blamed and much confusion arises as the real killer appears to retain the upper hand. I'm thinking of Black Orchid for some reason, which is very different to this story in many ways, but pretty similar in others.

Blimey, that was a bit of a ramble

That was a lot of fun and a cracking mystery too from David Llewellyn, as 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' meets Agatha Christie with a science-fiction twist for a great conclusion to the trilogy.

The Doctor is doing a 'Poirot' and we're left in no doubt about this; there's a name-check for Agatha Christie early on, and Superintendent Galgo sarcastically tells the Doctor to 'get back to playing Miss Marple' (perhaps he forgot she always solves her cases too!) And there's a vital and classically 'Christie' element of the story given a neat 'Doctor Who' inversion, but it's a big spoiler clue so...

I always enjoy it when Peter Davison has the chance to play the rather serious Fifth Doctor in comic situations and there are some priceless moments here - the Doctor being vigorously chatted up by Maria Mazzini has to be the comedy highlight of the whole story for me - especially when we remember that Maria is played by Samuel West! (No wonder they laughed a lot in studio over this bit!) He's absolutely brilliant as Maria, Angelo, Joe and the "Made In Argentia" twins (oh yah!), making all the characters different and distinct but clearly part of the same (mostly obnoxious) family.

The first two episodes are Mazzini-rich and I enjoyed the character comedy of this part of the story very much, before (inevitably!) we start to run out of Mazzinis as the plot thickens and (also inevitably) the Doctor is accused and locked up - but it took the Superintendent two episodes longer than usual, so that's progress!

This is about the most familiar situation in 'Doctor Who' but here it's used very cleverly in the structure and the plot. It gives the three Companions space to go investigating and have their own good scenes, always important with a busy TARDIS. And it gives the Doctor peace and quiet to "exercise the little grey cells" just like Poirot in his armchair - and when Tegan (exactly as Captain Hastings would) makes a seemingly obvious comment - that's the key! M. Poirot (I mean the Doctor ) has his solution and sets off to confront the killer - but (again in keeping with the best traditions of the genre) he doesn't reveal who the killer is...

Episode 3 is the heart of the 'detective story' and I was riveted to the plot, trying to work out where the clues were leading and who 'The Serpent' really was - and I failed completely, as usual! I'm always Hastings, never Hercule!, but as a fan of the 'Queens of Crime' and their classic 'Golden Age' 1920s/30s novels, I loved this clever homage and the cheeky way the Doctor (unlike Poirot and all the others) is open about his motive for being secretive - he does so because it's more fun!

And finally, after all the splendid nods to Ealing comedy and crime fiction, the solution is pure 'Doctor Who' science fiction, just as it should be. I always enjoy stories like this one that remember the Doctor isn't only a hero, but a Time Lord hero and has unique skills. As Adric says - the killer had the plan for 'the perfect murder' but they forgot one thing - they forgot the Doctor!

I've had high hopes of this trilogy since we got the first details and it fully lived up to them; I've loved each story and for me it has been the best run of Fifth Doctor stories since the wonderful box set duo.
We know there are changes coming in the MR/Monthly Adventures, but if the future MR/MA is as good as the last six months or so have been, I'll be well pleased.

Cheers @paz, feel free to snip away!
I was listening late in the evening and that scene had me almost choking with the effort not to burst out laughing and wake people up!

I enjoyed your review discussing the 'giallo' side of the story - I don't know that genre at all, so it was good to see where that influence did/didn't feed through here.

I wasn't expecting such a light, fun story to cap this trilogy. There's almost always a more serious "straight" story in a BF trilogy but this was another massively fun over the top delight. Maybe a bit on the nose when a murder mystery actually namechecks Agatha Christie but hey.

28/3

Script and Extended extras are now in our DL accounts.

What a delightful romp. Loads of fun. The 5th Doctor trilogies are on a roll three years running.