Andy’s Blog

Next up is Patrick Chapman’s Fear of the Daleks, read by Wendy Padbury as Zoe Herriott, a role she played oppsite Patrick Troughton’s Doctor in the 1960’s. I had high hopes for this CD, but also certain reservations. I remember reading something once that stuck with me, that the Troughton Era was the most difficult to capture in print. As such, I was unsure how this iconic era in Doctor Who’s history would translate into audio.

Unfortunately I found this attempt a little disappointing. The story is oddly simplistic at times, and yet unecessarily complicated at times. As with Frostfire the writer has attempted to provide a context for the character to be telling the story - in this case Zoe relaying her story to a counselor as though it were a dream or repressed memory. Sadly, this doesn’t work particularly effectively. The presence of the Daleks feels almost as though they are an accessory to the story, added as an afterthought. On the whole, this play suffers as a result of a fairly thin plot, and both content and style fall a little wide of the Troughton mark.

As will become apparent when Cult Collectors gets going, I’m a huge Doctor Who fan. This month Big Finish released a new mini series of Doctor Who spin-off adventures on CD. I’ve had as chance to listen to them this week, so I thought I’d post a review here.

The Companion Chronicles are a little different to the audio plays normally produced by Big Finish. As opposed to a full cast audio drama, these plays are more like audiobooks, with each one being read by one of the actors who played a companion opposite the first four TV Doctors.

The first of these releases is Marc Platt’s Frostfire, read by Maureen O’Brien reprising her role as Vicki. I’ve always enjoyed Marc Platt’s work, particularly his contributions to the main Big Finish range (Spare Parts and Loups-Garoux) and so I was looking forward to this. I wasn’t disappointed. More so than in any of the other Companion Chronicle plays released, Platt managed to capture the spirit of the TV episodes. Set in cold 19th Century London, his dialogue creates a wonderul sense of location, and is ably presented by O’Brien.

It’s been over 40 years since she last played Vicki, but the character is still well defined by both author and actor. By telling the story from the point of view of an older Vicki, whose travels with the Doctor are now over, it gives the play a real sense of belonging in the world of Doctor Who, something which is not as readily apparent in the subsequent plays. This is the strongest of these plays, and a wonderful evocation of the William Hartnell era.