Big Finish Main Range
Oh my, where to start. Could Peri whine and carry on just a little more? Could she scream about Commander Zzarl promising not to hurt the Doctor? “Doctor? Are you alright?” And the Doctor has one of his less stellar episodes, too. I think this episode would’ve suited Paul McGann’s Doctor a bit better. In this audio, the Doctor knows all about the honor of the Ice Warriors but doesn’t really use it to get his way, except when he uses the sonic screwdriver against them. But he’ll say he understands then says something completely wrong in the next breath. I don’t know his history with the Ice Warriors but he doesn’t seem to totally understand or “get” the honor above all else thing. Or perhaps that’s the point?
Any way you put it, the bad guy of Paul Webster is just greedy and one-dimensional. The other crew members don’t really get to do much other than just cope with things as they happen. Susan Roberts dies pretty quickly but she’s the only one who is taking the initiative, it seems! Time of the Daleks is a much better Justin Richards audio. This audio is one I didn’t want to re-listen to but it was better than I remembered. But it is one of the bland ones from the first 10. Perhaps it’s because of the bad guys, who knows. Perhaps the Ice Warriors just don’t lend themselves well to being threatening on audio. I never felt like anyone was in any real danger, even as Peri, Tanya, and Paul were in the module taking off or even when Roberts is shot. The threat was never really that overwhelming, though the Doctor’s reactions made it more so because he just couldn’t seem to get things to go his way.
Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant
Writer: Justin Richards
Director: Gary Russell
Release: May 2000