Having just looked that up, I believe that lyric is itself quoting the Bible 
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Yes, but the variant starting with ‘as’ is typically from the song. There is no way the writer decided to change those first words without knowing what they were doing.
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Just listened to this. It was just terribly boring. And now it’s over, I can’t really tell you what happened - there was a ghost, but maybe not maybe it was just psychic energy, but then there really was a ghost? and the Scottish woman was a Spillager? What’s one of those?
Ugh, not for me! 2/5
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Probably my favorite 5th Doctor audio yet. Which isn’t saying much, but it is saying that it’s not Red Dawn which can only be a good thing.
I like the first part, where we have Nyssa without the Doctor. Mostly because I’m not the biggest fan of five, so having the companion investigate the place and situation on her own was quite fun!
And I like the mystery with the ghost. It’s stupidly overcomplicated and we are given answers that are then replaced by other answers and then are together the answer AND I JUST THINK THAT’S FUNNY. How we are given to believe one explanation after the other and how it all comes together in the end. It all was true, but didn’t work in the way you expected.
Ending is way too rushed with too much “oh the Doctor has done thingy alien magic that has solved the problems yay” vibes. But that’s how it often is in DW so I won’t be too harsh on that part.
So like yeah idk i actually quite like it? I think it’s a fun ghosty story. Like i said unexpectedly my favorite 5th doctor audio on the MR yet. 7/10
And something else; I don’t understand the framing device of it being a story that took place in the past. Why it had to be a tale told by someone. It seems completely unnecessary for the story and is such a small irrelevant part of it that i almost forgot it was there in the first place, but oh well, it’s purpose will probably be revealed in a later audio.
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Not in the audio club (sadly) since I’m trying to listen to Fivey audios in (roughly) chronological order, but finished this one just yesterday serendipitously haha.
Agree with a lot that has been said in the replies and having come straight from the totally mediocre Land of the Dead, this was definitely a step up but not a particularly memorable audio. The 5 & Nyssa dynamic was quite strained in this one, with Nyssa acting more like a whiny teenager at times (tho given the random teleportation into the snow, she’s justified tbh) and Five a put upon father (well. More than usual) than I’m used to in the later nyssa audios I’ve listened to in the past. India Fisher was a surprise tho not a hugely welcome one given how Annoying her character was (which was kind of the point I guess) and the overall plot felt a lot lower stakes than what the Spillagers supposedly posed, with taking over and destroying this dimension and all. Anyway, onwards and upwards from here I guess
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This was a struggle to get through. I think the initial idea, essentially The Shining, was interesting, it just turned into people talking in rooms, and boredom. Nyssa annoyed the hell out of me, this story. She was so moody and grumpy.
Overall, this gets a 2.5/5. Interesting idea, badly executed.
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She’s 19, it’s stated right at the beginning by Alison
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On the face of it I should have loved this story - Doctor Who meets The Chalet School, one day I’ll write a fanfic for that (for those who don’t know, the Chalet School is a very long-running series of girls’ school stories famed for having prolific continuity errors - lots of potential for timey-wimey stuff there!)
There were certainly some good bits - morally ambiguous characters, plot twists aplenty - but it was badly flawed as well. Firstly Nyssa was portrayed as being extremely bad-tempered with the Doctor throughout the story, making her sound more like Tegan (or Peri with 6). Yes it was understandable that she was annoyed at first, but for her to maintain it through practically the whole story was completely out of character. I felt that this also may have affected Peter Davison’s performance as it didn’t reflect his usual relationship with her character.
Yes the Spillagers was a ridiculous name for the aliens - I had assumed “spillage” would be some kind of leakage of psychic energy into the Universe which would still have fit with the story.
I was also confused by the “older Alison” at the beginning sounding like the Headmistress (from the trailers) and was therefore expecting her character to be redeemed at the end instead of killed partway through and then apparently just forgotten about - a total contrast to the previous release!)
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Do I love the setting? Yes.
Do I like the characters? Yes.
Did I like the story? No.
I’m not really sure why I liked it, I agree with the name Spillagers seeming to be a bit of a misnomer… it was an odd choice, certainly. I’m not sure how I feel about Nyssa’s sudden disagreements and arguments with the Doctor, it was a little odd and seemed out of character, but it wasn’t severe enough for me to outright dislike Nyssa.
I do think that upon a relisten, I could enjoy the story more, but I don’t know if it’s just because I’m still relatively new to Big Finish?
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I rated this one 5/10. I’m not that big of a fan an am glad India Fisher would go on to voice such a defining role as Charley because I don’t really love her first character here.
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This is a weird one because I genuinely don’t understand how it isn’t universally hated.
Looking through these reviews and seeing people just call it “boring” or “slow” and not “a stunningly terrible dumpster fire” makes me think I listened to a different story.
Everything Winter for the Adept does, it does wrong, and as of now I genuinely consider it the Legend of the Sea Devils of the audioplays. A hilariously bad car crash without a single redeeming quality except for the joy of laughing at it.
But hey, I am completely alone in this opinion, so maybe I’m just going crazy and actually it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it was, but still, 2/10.
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I enjoyed this one, but I doubt I’ll remember much of it. The atmosphere is really nicely done, and that’s something I really like, I did like the twists with the ghostly stuff but it became a bit confusing towards the end. Just a nice, quiet little story to me
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Five hasn’t been dealt the best hand with these early audios has he? This one I was into at first but it kinda lost me. It ended up being rather dull with uninteresting alien villains (though I knew that the Lieutenant was up to something practically immediately, partially because of his creepy relationship with a 19-year-old), though I did like Allison and Peril (hey India Fisher before Charley Pollard, that’s fun). I also did like the setting and some of the atmosphere.
But yeah I found the plot rather plodding and the aliens were dull and their name is stupid. “Spillages” just makes me think of the Swedish word “spillning”, which means the excrement of animals… so yeah. Overall a 4/10. Hope the Fifth Doctor audios in the Main Range do improve because I like Five and I like Nyssa.
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