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Post by omega on Dec 22, 2017 5:30:15 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - MAIN RANGE » 99. SON OF THE DRAGON Released September 2009SynopsisI am Prince Vlad III - son of Vlad the Great, and sovereign and ruler of Ungro-Walachia and the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras. But since my father's murder, I have had another name. I am Dracula. Written By: Steve Lyons Directed By: Barnaby Edwards CASTPeter Davison (The Doctor); Nicola Bryant (Peri); Caroline Morris (Erimem); James Purefoy (Dracula); Douglas Hodge (Radu); Barry McCarthy (John Dobrin); Clare Calbraith (Maria); Steven Wickham (Soldiers); Nicola Lloyd (Ayfer)
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Post by Timelord007 on Dec 22, 2017 6:50:27 GMT
I found this one to be a bit talky & lacked spectacle although James Purefoy was amazing as Dracula this just needed more action.
I'd rate it 6/10
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Post by mark687 on Dec 22, 2017 10:08:10 GMT
Love this one its daring because for a lot of it Dracula is almost the injured party that we can nearly sympathise with. The line between conmen sense and superior judgements over what's decent and merciful or cruel rule is blurred, and once again this would've been a good exit story for Erimen, either as a willing Queen curbing Vlad's more extreme tendencies, or killed by him in a fit or rage.
Regards
mark687
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Post by omega on Dec 22, 2017 10:20:02 GMT
Love this one its daring because for a lot of it Dracula is almost the injured party that we can nearly sympathise with. The line between conmen sense and superior judgements over what's decent and merciful or cruel rule is blurred, and once again this would've been a good exit story for Erimen, either as a willing Queen curbing Vlad's more extreme tendencies, or killed by him in a fit or rage. Regards mark687 Much like Kingmaker this story takes a historical figure it'd be easy to write as a moustache twirling villain and gives them immense depth. While we might not like Vlad's methods, we know how his mind works and why he does what he does. It's another one with incredibly effective cliffhangers that propel the narrative forwards instead of being false peril or just the point where the episode reaches 25 minutes. |
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Post by agentten on Dec 22, 2017 19:36:18 GMT
Hands down my favorite historical that Big Finish has produced. A very fine piece of drama.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2017 19:42:19 GMT
Hands down my favorite historical that Big Finish has produced. A very fine piece of drama. I agree with that 100%. Son of the Dragon is brilliant. |
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Post by Ela on Dec 22, 2017 20:03:01 GMT
Loved this one, great insight into a historical figure. This was one of those that had me running to the internet to look up more information about Vlad the Impaler. Fascinating piece of history.
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Post by iainmclaughlin on Dec 23, 2017 1:42:27 GMT
This was another really good one. I pretty much like everything Steve Lyons writes. He's on that list of reliably brilliant writers. I really like his stuff. This is a belter, a lovely fresh take on the story. Yeah, really good character work in here as well as a really well constructed story.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Dec 23, 2017 2:19:43 GMT
This was another really good one. I pretty much like everything Steve Lyons writes. He's on that list of reliably brilliant writers. I really like his stuff. This is a belter, a lovely fresh take on the story. Yeah, really good character work in here as well as a really well constructed story. I agree 100% Steve Lyons is one of Big Finish's best writers and we don't get nearly as much from him as I would like. |
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Post by barnabaslives on Dec 24, 2017 19:36:47 GMT
Excellent historical (and drama), and I love the way Steve Lyons works with Erimem here. I sort of felt like she'd been drifting a bit from the way I think of her from her strong start in Eye of the Scorpion - I think maybe several of the following authors might have sort of made imperious out of regal? Here, Lyons actually repeats both of the main things I thought were uncharacteristic (rashly committing herself into predicaments and reminding people she used to be a god), and actually makes it seem to me like it really is all part of her character. I really impressed with that and it makes for a wonderful listen.
It all works out that Erimem seems everything I thought she was in the first place, only with a passionate and impetuous streak that does happen to make for situations and adventures. It really seems to tidy up the loose threads of her character and make things seem back on track with this wonderful character, and the fact that this has to be my favorite performance to date from Caroline Morris shouldn't go without saying either. I give Son of the Dragon top marks, and long live Erimemushinteperem, daughter of Amenhotep II!
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Dec 25, 2017 0:50:29 GMT
I loved the use of the Doctor here, hands tied by history, despressed by his knowledge but fighting none the less for a small glimmer of hope and a happy ending for someone, somewhere. Peri was excellent to, she was every inch the audience substitute knowing all about Dracula because of modern fiction and legend and discovering the truth that’s worse than fiction but deeper and more complex as well. It’s also one of the ones that uses a “companion from the past” really well, she has neither perks prior conceptions about Vlad nor the Dcotor’s knowledge of what he was like to shade her opinion of him, which IMO, is why we need a “past companion” as part of the TARDIS team.
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Post by constonks on Dec 27, 2017 4:25:35 GMT
This was another really good one. I pretty much like everything Steve Lyons writes. He's on that list of reliably brilliant writers. I really like his stuff. This is a belter, a lovely fresh take on the story. Yeah, really good character work in here as well as a really well constructed story. I agree 100% Steve Lyons is one of Big Finish's best writers and we don't get nearly as much from him as I would like. Excitingly, we've got another Klein story coming from him next year. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2017 7:28:30 GMT
Steve Lyons was one of my favourite authors first coming into Doctor Who, The Stealers of Dreams being my first introduction into the NDAs. He's one of the writers I always come back to when trying to refresh the Who-ness of the stories I write. He's got tremendous skill, I'd have never thought a story about conventional morality coming to the world of Hanna-Barbera cartoons could work (with some genuinely terrible consequences), but he managed it rather splendidly in The Crooked World (think Farscape's "Revenging Angel" and you're very close). The Witch Hunters is often sung as one of the best Hartnell historicals you can find -- a genuinely powerful example of everything that made the First Doctor and his era -- and Son of the Dragon definitely fits that high quality. Relativity occurs in all things and there is no singularly objective stance that can be said to be "right". Particularly when you examine figures from history as they truly were. The discomfort of seeing that a supposedly evil man has his virtues and the likely good has his measure of sins. The Five/Peri/Erimem run was very good at that as a whole -- the historical domain characters are people, not proclamations. As a matter of fact... I... am going to go back and relisten to it because I forgot how much I liked it.  I agree 100% Steve Lyons is one of Big Finish's best writers and we don't get nearly as much from him as I would like. Excitingly, we've got another Klein story coming from him next year. I'd adore seeing another story in that gap between A Thousand Tiny Wings and Survival of the Fittest. |
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Dec 27, 2017 10:34:43 GMT
I agree 100% Steve Lyons is one of Big Finish's best writers and we don't get nearly as much from him as I would like. Excitingly, we've got another Klein story coming from him next year. Proper Nazi Klein or watered down 80s UNIT Klein? |
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Post by constonks on Dec 27, 2017 14:55:15 GMT
Excitingly, we've got another Klein story coming from him next year. Proper Nazi Klein or watered down 80s UNIT Klein? Don't know. Could be either, given that Big Finish has gone back and inserted more adventures for their companions in the past (even recently with Hex and Flip). But when I saw the listing, I thought it would be more of an epilogue for the character. |
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Post by Kestrel on May 31, 2021 20:23:50 GMT
Just finished listening to this one, and it was quite a ride. Started out pretty slow and, honestly, kinda boring--but it really picked up once Vlad appeared. I'm not sure I'd classify it as among my favorite MR stories, but it's certainly up there--and I'm definitely very fond of these pure historicals. I really hope we'll continue to get pure historicals in this new and uncertain boxset era....
As much as I enjoyed the story, it's really hard not to notice how often it reuses the peculiar tropes of this era. Oh no, zero em might leave the TARDIS. Oh no, the Doctor and companions are separated. Oh no, the Doctor might be dead. Oh no, the companion might be dead. Oh no, Eri's asking for permission to reboard the TARDIS.
Its not just me, right? This stuff just keeps happening in the 5th Doctor audios.
Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious as to whether or not they're deliberately doing some of that to build up tension for Eri's eventual and inevitable departure....
Anyway, the real highlight here is Vlad Dracula, the titular son of the dragon. I'll concede that Eastern European history is something I am very much ignorant of, and so I might be missing any potentially problematic aspects of this story in the vein of the (awful) Barbarians and the Samurai, but it certainly seemed to me that this story took a very even-handed and nuanced approach to the story.
I am, however, vaguely aware that there's some controversy regarding Vlad III Dracula's depictions in pop culture, and so would be very interested in hearing a Romanian's thoughts on this story.
Personally I think the character was very well-handled and made for one of the more dynamic antagonists--I hesitate to say villains--of Doctor Who. He's both sympathetic and sinister; kind and cruel. Vlad is depicted with a degree of humanity that makes him far more menacing than any. I also enjoyed how the Doctor was horrified by Vlad's actions, but didn't condemn them--as well as the underlying themes of the conflict between brothers being essentially pointless.
Though in retrospect it was perhaps a missed opportunity that they kind of just glossed over the religious component of the Turkish invasion.
All said, a very enjoyable story. Peri remains a bit of a weak link for me, but I am quite enjoying Erimem so far, even as her attitudes shift to more modern sensibilities (which I'm not sure is totally justified). Definitely curious to see where this team travels next.
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