Big Finish Main Range
The motivations of the characters are a bit off in this one. The Doctor is busy trying to understand what’s going on while Professor Mors (Metacarbilus? hehehe. no, no, nevermind) is busy just ignoring the problems. His faithful assistant/ex-wife Danika is just running from danger to danger, sounding tough and in charge one minute and vulnerable and indecisive the next. It’s a very odd combination. Without the one-part story, this would probably be a 3 jelloid adventure as it’s borderline 3 or 4 jelloids. There is just a crazed confusion of who is the bad guy amidst all of the running around and arguing with Sister, er, I mean Nancy, the onboard computer that controls everything, naturally. Guess Sister/Eve didn’t quite disappear when she should’ve, eh Doctor?
I have to admit that the story overall is good but the cliffhangers are pretty weak. I didn’t really feel like the Doctor was in any danger and since they only killed the Dar Traders, who they never describe, the danger part of the story was a bit ephemeral. When Decay is the bad guy, how threatened do I honestly feel? Or feel that the Doctor is in danger from? That isn’t every day decay and entropy anyway. So this story is a 3.5 but Spider Shadow brings it up to a 4.
Spider Shadow
This story is a bit confusing the follow at first as the Doctor tries to solve the mystery of the time loop. Alison and Louise are influenced by the Doctor and the time loop self-destructs. This story is a companion, to a certain extent, to the first story and the solution is dependent on the first story. I rather enjoyed the confusion or it would’ve been too easy and not interesting enough. The story is very simple overall, otherwise. I rather enjoyed it!
Sylvester McCoy
Writer: Stewart Sheargold
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Release: June 2008