Given than this is the point at which a lot of stories can flounder, I was very pleasantly surprised by episode 3. We learned more about the mysterious hunter. The Doctor continued to delight. Oh what a tragedy it is that Colin never really got the opportunity to showcase what he can do on TV. For all that I enjoy his televised stories, had he been able to portray the role as he does on audio, I genuinely think he’d be much more fondly remembered by the general public.
One element of this episode that stands out is Yrsa and her plot thread. I find myself caring about her and her story. Amy Beth Hayes is great in the role. The character is also well written and a pleasure to spend time with.
Oh, and finally, isn’t the idea of the hunter forcibly ripping the most treasured memory from his targets to keep as trophies a wonderfully nasty idea?
Two episodes of Order of the Daleks and it’s all a bit paint by numbers at the moment. Crashed Dalek ship and Daleks trying to repair themselves by co-opting the locals - all very Power of the Daleks. Daleks using some sort of mind control and having human puppets. Cliffhanger ending to Episode 1 being the ‘surprise’ that its the Daleks.
There’s some lovely performances but two aspects seem rather odd choices: the stained glass Daleks are a fun idea but is it really a great idea for audio? And Nicholas Briggs playing the Abbot rather makes it blatantly obvious he’s under Dalek control.
This will need to have some sort of amazing twist or development in the last two episodes to be anything other than a run of the mill Dalek story.
This morning…sheesh, I don’t know. I’m so stressed and distracted by work I couldn’t focus at all. I’m gonna listen to the same two discs on the way home, I think. Then I’ll say what they were.
I don’t know why I had it on pause, because this spin-off is so much for me
The short episode “The Prisoner” was gimmicky and a bit ridiculous but honestly I smiled all the way through and laughed out loud several times while mowing my lawn for the last time this year.
This audio was basically the first draft for the final installment of The Stranger video series, “Eye of the Beholder”. Nick Briggs (who is the actual writer for it, but under a pseudonym) agreed that it was a flawed audio script, since he wrote it in a week.
Similarly with The Last Mission, I think these audios only “make sense” (using that loosely lol) if you’ve watched the entire Stranger series. Then you can kind of fill in the gaps yourself and conjure up your own logic.
Sentinels of the New Dawn - meh. Didn’t enjoy a story about a group of greedy selfish elites. Too close to real life.
Ferrill’s Folly - meh. Didn’t really enjoy this one either. Millie sounded like Peri to me, and that messed with my head.
Cold Equations - Liked this one a bit better. And hey, now I know what Oliver’s terrible secret is. A little surprised I didn’t remember, because when it was revealed, I did kind of remember it left an impression the first time.
Still think I’d have been better off taking tunes with me today, headspace that I’m in.
Well, that was a solid and very enjoyable story! Nothing ground breaking or truly remarkable, but really good solid fun throughout. I think a real strength of this one is the fact that I genuinely took to Yrsa as a one-off companion. She’s a character who I would have enjoyed following as a protagonist in her own right, and listening to her interactions with the Doctor was a delight.
