Big Finish Lost Adventures, Season 1, May 2010
Perhaps I’m just a bit jaded and cannot appreciate the sound effects and production ethics of the 80s stories like I should. The music and sound effects definitely take you right back to the 80s for this one! Very classic 80s story indeed. Reminds me a lot of Slipback but just not as fun. The one-liners fall flat and though it’s generally a good story, it just wasn’t up to the usual romp standards I’ve come to expect of the Sixth Doctor and Peri. If I was listening to this in the 80s, perhaps I’d give it 4 jelloids. Prior to the rewrites, that is. Pat Mills explains the rewrite process because this was initially a Tom Baker’s Doctor story, then a Peter Davison story, then Colin Baker story. So something may have been lost in between there as everything seemed a bit calm, despite the microbes and Caller character.
Everything’s resolved very strangely, right at the end, in a very Sherlock Holmes-esque moment. The Doctor deduces these particular things in a chain of events then there’s no real way to confirm these deductions before the “bad guy” is dead. And though the characters are given personalities, everything just falls flat for me. And Stennar is a bit of a mystery – why so obsessed with the rules? Why is he in charge of the finances instead of the captain? Interesting idea but it’s just never really explained where the line is and who’s in charge of what. He can override the captain? Really? Seems a bit odd but it’s not a military ship, ultimately, so I guess that can happen with “the Company” in charge. It was a very different culture for ship’s command and was a bit awkward at times for me to listen to.
The extras are good, for the most part. Nothing too tediously boring but nothing earthshattering was revealed either. Overall, a good though not very “whiz-bang” audio adventure.
Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant
writer: Pat Mills
director: John Ainsworth