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Post by omega on Mar 3, 2018 5:51:04 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - MAIN RANGE » 5. THE FEARMONGERReleased February 2000SynopsisOne would-be assassin is in a mental ward. Another's on the run. Their intended victim is stirring up the mobs. Terrorists are planning a strike of their own. A talk-radio host is loving every minute of it. A Whitehall insider whispers about a mysterious UN operative, with a hidden agenda. Everyone's got someone they want to be afraid of. It'll only take a little push for the situation to erupt - and something is doing the pushing. But you can trust the Doctor to put things right. Can't you? Written By: Jonathan Blum Directed By: Gary Russell CASTSylvester McCoy (The Doctor); Sophie Aldred (Ace); Jacqueline Pearce (Sherilyn Harper); Mark Wright (Stephen Keyser); Mark McDonnell (Walter Jacobs); Vince Henderson (Mick Thompson); Jonathan Clarkson (Paul Tanner); Hugh Walters (Roderick Allingham); Jack Galagher (Alexsandr Karadjic); John Ainsworth (Hospital Tannoy Voice); Alistair Lock (Hospital Doctor / Heckler)
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Post by omega on Mar 3, 2018 5:59:57 GMT
Topical yet timeless. A strong script with excellent performances from Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and of course guest star Jaqueline Pearce. She says and does horrible things yet you cling on to her every word.
One thing I really like about this story is how the Doctor is showing his cards to Ace, and him and Ace divulging everything about the Fearmonger to Paul is a refreshing change. Seems the Doctor has learned that keeping people in the loop helps keep the plan afloat. He's not in conflict with Ace, or at least until the Fearmonger infiltrates her.
Incredible to think this is Jonathan Blum's only Doctor Who audio for Big Finish. He's written some novels for the BBC Eighth Doctor range (Vampire Science, Seeing I and Unnatural History, all co-written with his wife Kate Orman), a few short stores for the Short Trips books and a bunch of Benny stories for her book range with Big Finish. He's a writer I'd like to see some back for another Doctor Who audio.
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Post by mark687 on Mar 3, 2018 12:21:44 GMT
Its eerie to think this was probably done as an almost extreme bleak but unlikely future and its now almost the depressingly real present.
Nearly all the characters now have a real life counterparts.
But for all that its a brilliantly put together piece.
Dose anyone watch Council of Geek on YouTube?
Here's his take on it
youtu.be/Bfken_fiJFA
Regards
mark687
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Mar 3, 2018 13:07:17 GMT
I really enjoyed the twists and turn of this. I never knew what was coming next
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Post by mark687 on Mar 3, 2018 14:24:58 GMT
I really enjoyed the twists and turn of this. I never knew what was coming next The part 3 Cliff-hanger was BFs 1st great one I think.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 15:52:28 GMT
To be honest I didn't like The Fearmonger very much, sure it had a Virgin NA feel to it - and I did like the NA's - but the script leaves a lot to be desired. Jonathan Blum was never my favourite Doctor Who writer as he tends to get a bit over convoluted and things usually end up going all over the place. For me the interesting ideas in The Fearmonger mainly come from the sound side of it, but as this was the early days of BF they just about get away with this story, the first Big Finish Seventh Doctor & Ace audio. (I never liked the Dorothy McShane thing either!). After this things could only get better for them though, so not the worst Doctor Who story I've ever heard... and a 2/5 from me in the poll.
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Post by randomjc on Mar 3, 2018 16:15:37 GMT
I feel the need to confess. I know I've listened to this story a few times. and for the life of me, I can't remember a dang thing about it.
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Post by Tim Bradley on Mar 3, 2018 16:18:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 8:19:20 GMT
Its eerie to think this was probably done as an almost extreme bleak but unlikely future and its now almost the depressingly real present.
Nearly all the characters now have a real life counterparts.
But for all that its a brilliantly put together piece.
Dose anyone watch Council of Geek on YouTube?
Here's his take on it
youtu.be/Bfken_fiJFA
Regards
mark687
The 1990s were a very different beast to what the world is like now. You could do very grim subject matter like this and really meditate on it without any real-world allegory leaping up and slapping you sideways. The graphic novel version of V for Vendetta has some really, really nasty bits of unintentional foresight for a story written in 1987. Even Fearmonger's blurb ends up being rather disturbing: "Everyone's got someone they want to be afraid of." It's a very interesting story to look at from the point of reader inference, rather than authorial implication. The story ends up being almost a Rorschach blot for what people are spooked about at the time they're listening to it. What fascinates me is that on the other side of the spectrum -- away from dystopias far and near -- is Red Dawn, which was released the same year. Five, Peri and the Ice Warriors. It's ended up almost a period piece with its optimistic, Sagan-like approach to alien contact and other races. Put side-by-side, it's interesting to see how they've both aged. We've lost our optimism and willingness to explore, but there's a feeling of change in the air still... I'd like to see a world where The Fearmonger ends up the period piece one day. That'd be nice. A very good story all the same.
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Post by Timelord007 on Mar 4, 2018 9:04:07 GMT
Excellent story, the climax felt a little rushed but overall a entertaining audio drama, 7/10.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Mar 5, 2018 12:19:11 GMT
I really enjoyed the twists and turn of this. I never knew what was coming next The part 3 Cliff-hanger was BFs 1st great one I think.
Regards
mark687
Definitely.
I also love the idea of people using weapons that are soon to be banned
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Post by elkawho on Mar 7, 2018 5:59:10 GMT
To be honest, I didn't really like this audio when I first heard it. It was one of the first I had ever heard and it was so harsh sounding. I listened to it again a year or two ago, and I had a completely different response to it. I thought it was amazing, especially for such an early BF release. What a story for these times, whatever your political point of view.
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Post by omega on Dec 18, 2018 3:23:01 GMT
Revisiting this, some of the ideas and themes still resonate. You've got a politician with outspoken views that include an anti-immigration stance, and an openly opinionated media presence. What's scarier is how the Fearmonger entity is barely doing anything, it's an influence that makes an already volatile climate even more strained and closer to breaking point. The lines between black and white are blurred, with the Doctor able only to defuse the situation best he can while removing the Fearmonger entity from the situation (which is named by the characters, a nice touch on the Doctor's speech about giving the enemy a name).
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Post by tuigirl on Dec 18, 2018 8:26:09 GMT
I liked it. I think for one of the first Who audios, they did a really great job. And both Ace and the Doctor are great in it. And yes, when you consider how far ago this was released, it's clairvoyance towards the future that is today is quite scary. I think I also prefer darker stories more, where there are grey areas and nothing is black or white, as opposed to stories with butterflies and rainbows (which I find a bit boring).
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Dec 18, 2018 9:11:43 GMT
For the non-Australian fans, Pauline Hansen, upon whom Sherilyn Harper was based, is still part of Australian politics to this day. DESPITE having been sent to gaol in the interim!
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Post by eric009 on Dec 19, 2018 17:03:53 GMT
always like this 1
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Post by slithe on Dec 23, 2018 16:37:36 GMT
When I first listened to this, I thought 'interesting story' but rather fanciful and, if I'm honest, saw that it typified the problem with the Seventh Doctor - his era was very much stuck in the 1980s. Whilst I wasn't aware of the Australian connection with Hansen, the Harper character had striking parallels with Thatcher and some of the more right-wing elements of the Tory party (which would have fitted with the political angle of the late 1980s production team and the approach adopted by the NAs). In short, I thought it was a rather 'dated' story.
When I revisited this story in the mid-2000s (there were striking parallels between this and Live 34), I was a little bit less sceptical and thought it was slightly more relevant - the protests against the Blair government on terrorism had picked up and immigration was becoming a hot-bed issue (UKIP and the BNP were becoming more of a political presence). I was prepared to re-assess and thought it was a better story.
As of 2018, this one is probably far more relevant now than when it was originally written. The idea of a creature playing off of people's fear and hatred is incredibly clever - particularly as our political situation (especially in the UK, but not exclusively) has, for want of a better word, gone 'bonkers'. Brexit is ripping the country apart and fear is being stoked by both sides to make political capital. Sadly, for a story that I thought was rather dated in 2000, is far from.
Although not an outstanding story/production - it is an early success from BFs MR and is a better story than is probably remembered. It is also difficult for this story as it is the 'first' Seventh audio since 'Survival' and the whole catalogue of NAs that were published from 1990-1997. Understandably, the story has to try to balance between what the TV series did with McCoy and the approach taken by the novels. Whilst it is not one of the most sophisticated stories, it isn't bad. It also fits McCoy well and the novel approach to storying telling with the radio production works (although Live 34 is better and more subtle).
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Post by Kestrel on Mar 27, 2021 19:42:55 GMT
- This one feels very much like a proto-LIVE34. And while I don't dislike this story (at all) I'm really glad they revisted aspects of it for LIVE34, which I pretty much consider to be a quintessential 7th Doctor adventure.
- It's easy to see why: the opening scenes with the Doctor popping into the radio station are an absolute delight to listen to. You can really tell, despite the Doctor being in serious mode, that Sylvester McCoy is having a lot of fun here.
- So: this is a really fun, solid episode, but it has two significant flaws: its politics--both with regard to the humans and the Doctor themself.
- In terms of the Doctor's politics, this story lampshades the single biggest problem with the franchise--the Doctor's inability/unwillingness to interfere with contemporary or historical evils on Earth. "So why not this one?" They're asked--the Doctor freely fights against fascism all throughout time and space, but here, on Earth, in the present day, he can't be bothered. Why doesn't the Doctor care to help? All the writers can do here is have McCoy quickly read off a list of flimsy, half-baked, totally self-serving justifications--and then quickly change the subject. Don't lampshade such a big problem if you're not going to explore it! Most of the audience is going to be smart enough to understand that the Doctors' inaction with regard to Earth's history and present is not due to any in-universe variables, but is rather of a consequence of the necessity (or percieved necessity) of placing the Doctor within a setting resembling our own world as closely as possible. Which isn't to say that there are no potentially valid in-universe explanations (for example, the Doctor mainly focuses on existential threats, and as bad as Hitler was, he never threatened the entire human species) but this story is not interested in exploring them.
- And then there's the politics of the actual story. Big Finish, in general, really sucks at writing political stories set on Earth--in a desperate (and perhaps ill-advised) attempt to avoid offending anyone in their audience they seldom do more than vaguely gesture at various political concepts and social ideologies. They'll tell us one political group is bad and evil, but refrain from explaining just what it is, specifically, that is bad and evil. 'The Fearmonger' is better than most Big Finish stories in this regard--there are exactly two instances where the script makes it clear that Sherilyn Harper is a naked white supremacist trying to instigate a race war, but on the whole this aspect of the story is kept pretty subtle—yet another story about fascism that's afraid of the F-word; yet another story about racism that's afraid of the R-word.
- Speaking of Sherliyn Harper—she's voiced by the immediately-recognizable Jacqueline Pearce, perhaps better known for voicing Cardinal Ollistra. As always, hers is a commanding presence that steals ever scene she's in.
- Oh, wow, I really love the accidental irony of the Doctor's comments about having lived so long and seen so much that there's really nothing out there that frightens him. Someday I'll write (in full) about how brilliant the invention of the Time War was, but for here, specifically, it's deeply tragic hearing the Doctor say this—wearily, almost depressed—with the understanding that this incarnation of the
- Doctor is still relatively young, and has a great many horrors to see in the future. He's the equivalent of a cynical teenager affecting a world-weary attitude: so young, and so ignorant of the trevails and tragedies the future will inevitably bring.
- Finally I'd like to especially praise this story for sticking the landing—it's a complicated plot with no small measure of abstraction, but it all comes together beautifully at the end. This is definitely one of those stories that I'd probably refrain from including in a list of the "very best" Big Finish audios I've listened to, but it's certainly no more than one tier down. Fantastic story—I almost hate to say it, but I'm honestly enjoying the 7th Doctor/Ace stories more than the 7th Doctor/Ace/Hex stories—the smaller cast means a sharper focus.
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Post by Kestrel on Mar 27, 2021 22:50:12 GMT
It is for me! She has a great voice, and such a commanding presence as Ollistra.
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Post by mark687 on Mar 27, 2021 23:13:20 GMT
It is for me! She has a great voice, and such a commanding presence as Ollistra. i agree. A supremely commanding presence. 😃 LOL Regards mark687
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