The next Main Range episode for the Audio Club is Winter for the Adept.
Buy it online using the link above, or listen for free - you’ll find links where to listen free on the story page.
Once you’ve listened, talk about it below! Even if you listened to it before and just want to discuss it - dive right in! Just please use spoiler tags where appropriate.
Everyone who participates will get a coveted Audio Club badge!
This is the first one I struggle with. The cliffhangers are edited really badly; Sally Faulkner is obviously voicing the older Alison as well as the Scottish headmistress and it’s very distracting; and the ‘Spillagers’ is a truly terrible name for an alien.
It is, of course, important for being the first BF appearance of India Fisher.
5/10
It probably isn’t a bad story, it has a decent premise. However I did find myself being a bit bored while listening to it - basically the worst crime for a Doctor Who story.
As with Red Dawn I kind of get the feeling that Peter Davison’s heart isn’t really in this - he does a fine job but it is like he isn’t giving it his all.
India Fisher really understands her assignment, Peril is just so annoying - which is what that role calls for. I don’t have much more to say about it really.
The highlight for me is the outtake where Peter Davison does a tiny bit of improv
This always reminds me of Land of the Dead, as they have similar settings and atmospheres. Still, this is another pretty basic and average Fifth Doctor audio. Nyssa doesn’t make it more exciting (I’m not a huge fan of her), though I like how she handles the opening episode alone.
The setting comes alive well enough, the guest cast is good, and the basic plot is fine (a haunted house with supernatural powers and extra-dimensional beings, yay!). It just doesn’t grab my attention very well, and as stated previously, the cliffhangers are bad. It’s also peculiar to hear India Fisher play one of the characters a few releases prior to her transition into the role of Charley Pollard.
The first episode sets the tone well, and the last is initially interesting before focusing on the aliens, which are forgettable and not very well realised.
Given that Andrew Cartmel wrote it, this is quite disappointing!
I agree with @MrColdStream. It’s not a bad story per se, it’s just kind of average. The Doctor and Nyssa are very good, and the atmosphere works well. That said, this isn’t the kind of story I gravitate to. Ghosts and witchcraft and the like aren’t my cup of tea. Same reason I’m not a huge fan of The Daemons. I think I’m going to skip this story and work through The Clockwise Man instead.
I like it! Think it’s pretty good. Got some clunky expository dialogue in places tho. Not much other than that lol. Admittedly the most memorable part is the outtake at the end “and the little baby Jesus too?”
Another one I literally could not have given you a detail about from my memory if I’d tried. And having relistened, I see why. The guest stars in this one really make it, they’re great. I’m quite a fan of spooky stuff, and I think it’s a thousand times less boring than Land of the Dead so that all works for me. I like the spooky atmosphere and the close feeling of the setting, I think that can work well on audio.
But still, it’s relatively run of the mill as far as stories go and I hate to say it, but Five and Nyssa on audio generally are just kind of boring to listen to (sorry to Fivey fans but Davison’s voice lulls me to sleep) and I think the types of story they usually get put into don’t vibe with me often either. So yeah, this one is not too dull but it’s not one I’m going to be keen to relisten to again
Oh god The Spillagers. I genuinely thought it was a joke the first time I heard it, then they kept saying it and making it worse.
Once again an early Big Finish Main Range that’s also lumbered with a weird creepy misogynistic side-plot, this time it being India Fisher’s character (who can’t be more than 18, right? Private girl’s school?) being in quite a vocally lustful relationship with an older man and that sort of just being taken as alright? Very weird one this, that doesn’t much seem to go anywhere, and given that it doesn’t really START anywhere, that’s bad.
EDIT - I also think this probably can go down as Peter Davison’s worst audio performance? Just phoning it in the entire time while poor Sarah Strutton has to very clunkily explain that there are mysterious objects floating that will attack them.
Yes - is it Peter Jurasik from Babylon 5 she’s getting it on with?
One thing to say for BF: even in these early days they were pulling in pretty good guest casts. James Bolam, Susan Jameson, Peter Jurasik, David Ryall, Peter Miles, Bruce Montague with Sam Kelly, Peter Guiness, Roberta Taylor and Christopher Blake coming up.
The tone & style of this puts me off. The over reliance on narration & thinking out loud dialogue & the music seems too much, too often/overbearing. & Nyssa seems to be written by someone who has never seen her on the show before, more like Tegan at times. There’s probably a good story here but its just not convincingly presented. It all feels rather am-dram. & the accents! Mon deiu Add to that a superfluous framing story, scenes of characters standing around explaining things to each other its another early dud for me I’m afraid.
First two episodes in and I’m enjoying it. I think this one is fun. Nyssa is more Tegan than Nyssa and Five also has some weird characterization. That being said, there’s a really wonderful atmosphere in this story that I can’t shake.
Finished it and yeah, I just really enjoy this little slice of Doctor Who. I wish some things would be explained a tad better but overall, not one I’d come back to but if the itch for some ghosts needs scratched, I’d consider this one.
I’m not usually a main range listener but I did give this one a go this morning and yeah, it’s alright. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything but it’s not bad either. Solid averrage. It’s a bit tricky to follow here and there (but maybe I just wasn’t awake enough yet). Good for casual enjoyment but not one I’d think of first if I was thinking of what audios to revisit
Im listening to it for the first time and there is no way they just quoted the first lyric of Gangsta’s Paradise. I’m still screaming internally that’s the funniest thing ever.
