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Post by shallacatop on Sept 25, 2018 21:09:36 GMT
Finally got round to the finale. Kill the Doctor! is good. I could criticise it for being pretty much identical to 7.3; an ancient power is the big bad, set in a futuristic city and the technology is causing all the issues. There’s even a copper and the Doctor and Leela spend part one separated from each other and the majority of the cast! However, I actually thought this one was lots of fun, unlike The Mind Runners!
But it all falls apart in The Age of Sutekh, for me. I think Sutekh is a fascinating villain. I think this range relies quite heavily on nostalgia, but I was looking forward to this rematch. But it’s just dull. Sutekh goes from being an all powerful god in Pyramids of Mars, to a petulant child in this. It belittles the character and it’s just such a waste. I don’t buy into his plan being some time in the making, then the age of Sutekh being revealed and all of a sudden he’s struggling to keep control? I think that’s the wrong direction to take; he should have showcased his powers further. The fight between Sutekh and Leela is embarrassing, as is the fight between the Mummies and the people. There needed to be more emphasis on Sutekh’s power of mind control, particularly on audio, rather than turning the story into a battle that’s reliant on description and sound effects. For example, the scene in which Sutekh forces the guards to fall on their swords is fantastic. The ending is predictable, and because it came from characters who we don’t even know, without any prior depth, I just wasn’t all that interested.
It’s a shame, really. Pyramids of Mars is one of the all time greats. Tom Baker is at the top of his game as the Doctor. The showdown between him and Sutekh is great. Yet we get absolutely none of that in The Age of Sutekh. We get a Doctor that just seems mildly inconvenienced by it all and a powerless Sutekh. Oh dear.
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Post by Ela on Jul 18, 2019 5:00:29 GMT
I binge-listened to these stories on Monday and really enjoyed the set.
The Shadow of London had me thinking it was something different than it turned out to be. I thought the mystery of the place was handled nicely.
The Bad Penny was a fun little timey-wimey story from Mr. Starkey.
Kill The Doctor/The Age of Sutekh. Interesting way to handle the subject. Gabriel Woolf has a fantastic voice. There's a lot unexplained here, though. Why was Rania a vehicle for Sutekh to come to power? How did Sutekh get into her head? And why did he need her in the first place? In spite of those questions, I did enjoy this set of stories.
Great set of stories overall. I don't know how long ago they were recorded (my impression has been that most of his stories have been recorded a very long time before the stories are released), but I'm impressed by Tom Baker's ability to continue to do these (and glad of it). His voice is still fantastic, and listening to him you can picture the Fourth Doctor of the TV series doing all the things that happen in the audio stories.
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