Shield of the Jotunn (#206)

   Big Finish Main Range

 

I absolutely adored this story. The villians are two-fold – the alien and the humans, though the humans come around and are just complex characters. There is an exchange between the Doctor and Dr Hugo Macht inside the TARDIS that was absolutely fantastic! This is a gritty story with some amazing, witty lines and characterizations included. I could gush all day about how this is a great 6th Doctor and Constance Clarke story. Mrs. Clarke is coming into her own and though she’ll never be Evelyn Smythe in character and class, she has some of her own and is quite perceptive in her own way. I’m really starting to like her and she is well matched with “old sixy.”

The story opens with the Doctor and Mrs. Clarke “hitting” a huge wave from a source of artron energy. So they land to take a look and find themselves in a Viking burial barrow in 2029 Arizona. Yes, Arizona, the state in the USA. And according to the interviews, they actually used US actors! So the accents aren’t at all wacky or strange, no odd pronunciations of words that sometimes occurs when British actors are doing the US accent. Nicely done that! And a machine breaks through the wall into the Viking burial barrow, exposing the Doctor and Constance to the machinations of Dr. Hugo Macht, a rich man trying to make his legacy through cleaning up the atmosphere. And thus it begins… Just fantastic!


Colin Baker (The Doctor), Miranda Raison (Constance Clarke), Michael J Shannon (Dr Hugo Macht), Nell Mooney (Professor Lisa Zetterling), James Caroll Jordan (Major Vincent Da Costa/Herger), Ryan Forde (Bryce/Talessh) (Other Parts Played by the Cast)

Writer: Ian Edginton

Director: Louise Jameson

Release: November 2015

© Laura Vilensky 2019