It’s the Sixth Doctor’s turn to visit Excelis in the second part of the four part Excelis trilogy: Excelis Rising
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4 Likes
I thought that this was tomorrow. Should have been listening to this and not River Song. Hits play!
6 Likes
Same. But I am going to finish off the last episode of Vienna season 1 first 
And then back to Excelis with the Sixth Doctor.
(Another atrocious cover 
)
9 Likes
I listen to this when my daughter sleept. I like the concept of a multi-part arc featuring different Doctors. While this is far from perfect I do find it fun. 3.5/5
10 Likes
What do you mean atrocious!?
I love the fact that it looks like they made the cover in the wrong aspect ratio and decided to just reshape it rather than crop it!
And I think the cardboard cut outs are a really good aspect!
8 Likes
I don’t really have an issue with the covers. The story itself is quite good. I find myself enjoying Head’s Reeve Maupassant performance a lot more than his Warlord Grayvorn. The murder mystery aspect is quite good and while seances very much aren’t my cup of tea, I find Colin’s Doctor works within the confines of one much better than Davison in Winter for the Adept or Eccleston in The Unquiet Dead. The quiet moments between Anthony Head and Colin are the highlights of this story. I also find the worldbuilding well done. Effective, but not overdone or shoehorned in. Probably a strong 9/10.
8 Likes
Well, this one was a bit easier to digest than the first one. This is partly due to Colin’s wonderful performance and the fact that Anthony Stewart Head is somehow just as menacing, but even better in this one. The plot is straightforward (a murder mystery in a museum, is this Whispers of Terror all over again?), and the setting is sadly somewhat limited. It’s also pretty flat in structure and doesn’t grow a lot for its brief climax. It’s enjoyable though, so I’ll give it a weak 7.
8 Likes
It’s solid. Colin puts in a great performance and everyone keeps up. It’s another in the realm of “it’s fine solid comfort Who” which i think is just where this trilogy is going to end up.
8 Likes
Enjoyed this (and didn’t remember much from the first time round). A mystery in a museum with the only minus point being the fact that the perpetrator is really obvious.
I liked the turn of the century vibes with steam dirigibles, seances and spiritualism and I also liked the fact that the story tries to establish there are different countries on this planet - something which rarely happens in scifi, and attempts to reach satellites in the sky (the red brick moon sounds fascinating). There’s lots of interesting details in this dropped here and there.
In fact, the least interesting bit is, frankly, Anthony Head’s character as he’s a bit one-note - although performed well and at least Head differentiates Maupassant from Grayvorn giving him a weariness which helps to convince of the thousand years he has been existing since the end of Dawns.
8 Likes
Listened this morning as I was sorting through my Magic: The Gathering pulls from last night’s draft; I don’t know if I should listen to Audio Club entries for background noise, because I’m afraid this one did rather waft over me. It’s a bit of a workaday plot; Doctor arrives at museum, is immediately accused of crimes, has to prove his innocence, etc etc. I liked the sort of homage to Ribos that we got in the beginning, starting on criminals about to perform a heist, but beyond that, I would have a difficult time relaying any particular points of action or excitement.
My highlights would probably be Colin and Anthony Head trading cagey blows with one another as to their real identities; while it wasn’t exactly thrilling, the two actors provide nice understated performances. I would perhaps agree that Head is playing it all a bit at one note, but I actually think that sort of monotone detachment is appropriate for a character who hasn’t really slept for a thousand years. I had already rated this at 3/5 but on a revisit I might actually bump it down to 2.5/5. It wasn’t dreadful, so it doesn’t deserve anything below half, but not a lot to make it stand out either, apart from the leads doing their jobs well and the little dribs and drabs we got of Excelis worldbuilding.
I don’t remember if I’ve heard Decays yet or not, but I’m interested to see how they finish up the trilogy.
5 Likes
They were very clearly learning Photoshop at about the same time as they were learning how to be an audio drama production studio, so I give them a pass.
6 Likes
There’s neat parts of this but it’s a real 7/10 for me. I liked the parts where Grayvorn is trying to figure out the Doctor’s nature most of all. The contained style of the story felt underwhelming, however. and I think it sets up the Excelis “trilogy” to be a bit of a failure overall.
7 Likes
I really like the way this follows on from the last part, it feels like a natural progression of the world, Anthony Head continues to give a great performance, and this time he get a lot more of an interesting part to work with.
The interplay between Six and Greyvorn is really fun, both of them trying to figure out exactly what’s going on with the other, it’s a fun murder mystery, and the worldbuilding you get is especially intriguing and makes me interested for the rest of the saga.
Overall an 8/10 for me, definitely closer to a 7 than a 9 though
5 Likes
Ehhh…
Not too huge on either of the first ones of this small Trilogy. Colin as always delivers an energetic performance, there are some bits I like but overall it very much is just “Ehh okay at best, very dull and boring at worst”. I don’t want to be mean, but I really couldn’t tell you much of what happened here, arguably a good play but yet one that doesn’t do much for me. It’s solid, but perhaps so solid I just kinda will forget it after a while
4 Likes