Tag Archive: Destination: Nerva

Big Finish Reviews – Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 1

Hello there my fellow Vortex travelers,

My name is Jamie and I will be your guide through the Worlds of Big Finish. In this installment I’m switching things up. To give myself a break from the Main/Monthly Range, I’m going to start delving into other ranges from Big Finish.

In this installment I will give my thoughts on the first season (or series rather, it is a British company after all) of the Fourth Doctor Adventures range from Big Finish Productions. This range started in 2012 when Big Finish was finally able to secure the cooperation of Tom Baker. The first series is made up of six single-disc one-hour releases. Though the final two releases make up one story, I will review them separately.

For timeline placement in relation to the TV series, these all place between “Talons of Wang-Chiang” and “Horror of Fang Rock” with the first release occurring directly after Talons. These are all available from the Big Finish website as both CD and Download versions. The CD version costs $13.36 each and the Download cost $8.99.

Each story has interviews from the cast and production staff after the main story that are worth listening to. You can also find some interesting interviews on each release’s page (except for Oseidon Adventure) on the website.

Disclaimer: All of the opinions expressed hereafter are my own. There are stories that I love that others may hate, and vice versa. I am not responsible for any reactions others might have to my comments and opinions.

 

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

 

1.1 Destination: Nerva
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: January 2012
TTV Episode: 116

My Thoughts: While not Tom’s first audio for Big Finish (there was a Lost Stories boxset that was released first), this is the first of the Fourth Doctor Adventures range. As stated above, this story begins right after the end of the Talons of Wang-Chiang with mentions of Jago and Litefoot. The story itself actually begins with a battle between some humans and the crew of an alien ship.

The Doctor and Leela pick up a distress signal from one of the aliens, a Drelleran, which the Doctor traces to 1895 Kent. They arrive and meet the alien who implores them to stop the humans from taking the alien ship. Unfortunately, the Doctor is too late and he and Leela are forced to retreat to the TARDIS to avoid being vaporized by the ship’s engines.

We then switch to Nerva Dock which is still under construction and having technical issues. The TARDIS arrives on an approaching ship which is being diverted by a pod from a different using their docking port. The pod contains a single passenger who is acting all mysterious and is infected by something strange. However, because of issues with the comms, he is allowed access to Nerva. The Doctor, Leela, the infected man (who infects through touch), the technician who let him in (and who is also infected) and Nerva’s Commodore soon end up together with the infected one preparing to infect them all. The Doctor, Leela, the Commodore, and the station’s chief medical officer Dr. Allison Foster are forced to retreat into a docked tug. They try to call the departing supply ship but are cut off by Lord Jack, the leader of the infected who plans on building a British Empire among the stars. Meanwhile, the Commodore is infected by the Epiderm (the infection) separating the others from the TARDIS.

The Drellerans soon arrive and rescue the Doctor and co. They explain what happened and infect the Doctor with the cure. Everything wraps up well, with the crew of Nerva returning to normal and Lord Jack and his crew dying because of their advanced age. The Doctor and Leela then leave for more adventures elsewhere.

An enjoyable story, fast-paced that works well as a season opener. The Doctor sounds the same for the most part and there isn’t any place were he really sounds old. Leela sounds like Leela, though I don’t know if that’s truly how she’s been able to sound like she did on TV or if, after all my Big Finish listening, I’m just used to her on Big Finish.

The guest cast does very well and the music is really good. As with most modern Big Finish, there are behind-the-scenes interviews after the “Coming Soon” track. Overall, a fun story that works well as a season opener to get you excited for what comes next.

Rating: 8/10

 

1.2 The Renaissance Man
Written by: Justin Richards
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: February 2012
TTV Episode: 159

My Thoughts: This was an enjoyable story with some interesting sci-fi ideas. The Doctor takes Leela to a museum that’s supposed to be unveiling a new exhibit so that she can learn. After meeting an expert on butterflies they arrive at a castle and meet the lord of this domain, Reginald Harcourt (played by Ian McNeice who is better known for playing Winston Churchill in the New Series).

Harcourt shows off the Collection. A collection of what? Well, a collection of everything. Over the course of Part 1, we discover that any information that Harcourt comes into contact with is being drained away in order to expand and fill the collection. It’s explained that Harcourt is the epitome of the term “Renaissance Man”, the man who knows everything there is to know.

The Doctor deduces that the programming and/or equipment has a fault as, instead of copying the data, it’s outright stealing it. Draining people’s knowledge until they have nothing to live for and commit suicide. It’s an interesting idea. And as best I can tell, it’s an idea that hasn’t been overused to the point where it’s a sci-fi trope which is rather nice.

After a bit of a chase across this little English village, we finally get to the main idea. Harcourt isn’t the “Renaissance Man”, he’s simply the main data store. Jepson, the butler (and curator of the museum) is the true “Renaissance Man”. The Doctor exposes this and then as things collapse, he and Leela leave. Later, when the bulk of the visiting scientists arrive, they find an empty room the is brimming with metaphor.

Overall, an enjoyable story. The Doctor is more humorous in this then the last one and Leela is great as always. A welcome addition to the Fourth Doctor’s adventures that seemed (to me at least) to move along at a decent place.

Rating: 9/10

 

1.3 The Wrath of the Iceni
Written by: John Dorney
Featuring: 4th & Leela
Released: March 2012
TTV Episode: 160

My Thoughts: This is a very Leela-centric story. That’s not to say that it’s a Doctor-lite story as the Doctor is very much an active participant. Essentially, as stated in the behind the scenes interviews, this is a Leela meets Boudica story.

The final story in the “Continuing Leela’s Education” thread, the Doctor wants Leela to experience her roots, her past. This involves a trip to Roman Britain. Leela and the Doctor happen across a couple of Romans as they fight the British queen Boudica. Leela jumps in and saves the woman.

What follows is a large jump in Leela’s development. In her mind, the invaders are always wrong and the invaded always right. We get a nice arc that allows Leela to see that sometimes the underdog isn’t always in the right as Boudica wages a war of vengeance.

This is some ways similar to the Fires of Pompeii with the Doctor attempting to save just one. Boudica is portrayed as a flawed individual rather than a national hero. For those who aren’t aware of the British queen, we get some nice background from the Doctor but also get it through the interactions between Leela and Boudica.

Overall, this is a very well done pure historical. The main characters are mostly female and it’s educational and entertaining. The acting and writing are both top-notch. It’s just really, really good.

Rating: 10/10

 

1.4 Energy of the Daleks
Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Featuring: 4th & Leela + Daleks
Released: April 2012
TTV Episode: 215

My Thoughts: It’s 2025 and a man called Damien Stephens is head of the energy company GlobeSphere and plans to give unlimited energy to the planet Earth. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela arrive in London just in time to witness a protest. Security breaks up the protest and arrests Leela. While Leela is being interrogated by the security forces (Robomen), the Doctor teams up with Jack Coulson, Damien’s former partner to discover the truth.

Jack fills the Doctor in on Damien’s backstory while they wait for the coast to clear. Then, they sneak into the National Gallery/GlobeSphere HQ through the WWII evacuation tunnels. Meanwhile, the Daleks show up and begin interrogating Leela. Part One ends with Leela revealing the Doctor’s existence, the Doctor and Jack entering the National Gallery and the energy transfer going ahead as part of the Dalek plan to exterminate the human race.

While the Daleks hunt the Doctor and Jack, Leela is sent to be robotized. The Doctor and Jack rescue her and then teleport themselves to the moonbase where Damien is (under Dalek control of course). Once there, they attempt to convince the base’s crew to help them stop the energy transmission. When the Daleks attack though, that convinces people rather quickly.

The Daleks are from the future and plan to use the energy as a force field around the Earth that disrupts gravity and forces away from the moon. The Doctor with a little help from Damien manages to redirect the energy at the Dalek ship and saves the day. However, Damien doesn’t survive the encounter. The Doctor and Leela then use the transmat to return to the TARDIS.

A decent enough story, though nothing really that special. It’s notable for being the first Fourth Doctor Dalek story without Davros and feels very much like a bridge between Genesis and Destiny tone-wise. Leela does well in her first encounter with the Doctor’s arch-enemy and Nick Briggs does well as the Daleks. Unfortunately, none of the other guest cast really stand out. It also was the first Fourth Doctor story that Tom Baker recorded for Big Finish. A serviceable Dalek story, not awful, but there are much better ones.

Rating: 6/10

1.5 Trail of the White Worm
Written by: Alan Barnes
Featuring: 4th & Leela + The Master
Released: May 2012
TTV Episode: 229

My Thoughts: So, this is part one of two. Best to get that out of the way now. The Doctor and Leela arrive in England in the summer of . Stepping out of the TARDIS they find a trail of slime that appears to come from a snake “as wide as a greedy child”. There are dogs hot on the trail and thus, the Doctor and Leela are forced to run.

They are soon separated and while the Doctor goes with the villagers who own the dogs, Leela finds herself at the mercy of the possibly insane Colonel Hugh Spindleton and his remote-controlled tank. While Leela exhausts the tank, the Doctor finds himself at the mercy of the villagers who think the Worm or “You-know-what” has taken Julie. However, a nice lady named Demesne Furze pulls up and retrieves Julie from her trunk. It turns out that Julie hadn’t been taken by the Worm but instead ran away to London.

Meanwhile, Leela meets Spindleton who seems the great African hunter, but also a bit insane. He takes her down into the caves beneath the manor where she meets his “Manservant”. The manservant is in reality his Master. The Master, in fact (played by Geoffrey Beevers). Here Leela is to be sacrificed as bait for the Worm.

The Worm saves Leela and takes her to the Doctor where she (the Worm, who is, in fact, Miss Demesne Furze) saves him from Spindleton. We get the backstory and that the Worm, who can create wormholes in space-time, wants the Doctor to take her away from Earth and the Master’s plans. However, the Master awaits them at the TARDIS and activates a device that triggers the Worm. A wormhole is created, at the expense of the Worm’s life, and the Master prepares to receive his allies.

It’s enjoyable, the Fourth Doctor in fine form, but it’s not great. The Master is enjoyable but doesn’t do much. I’d say that the highlight is Spindleton who is crazy, but a very fun crazy. Yes, this leads into the next story and is billed as one single story, but it feels almost like Invasion of Time where the Vardan Invasion and the Sontaran Invasion are two separate events, or like this is merely a prologue to what follows.

Rating: 7/10

 

1.6 The Oseidon Adventure
Written by: Alan Barnes
Featuring: 4th & Leela + The Master & Kraals
Released: June 2012
TTV Episode: 229

My Thoughts: This is the season finale and a direct continuation from the previous story. Here we get the Master’s reason for needing the wormhole created in the previous installment as well as a return of the Kraals from Android Invasion.

Essentially, the Kraal invasion is a distraction to keep UNIT busy. Meanwhile, get a bit of a runaround with Kraal Android duplicates of the Doctor and Master, which is a bit amusing but also a bit confusing.

The Master’s big plan is to take a battery the Doctor left behind at UNIT HQ and detonate it on the irradiated Kraal homeworld Oseidon. The resulting radiation explosion will restore the Master’s body similarly to his plan in Deadly Assassin.

The highlight really is Colonel Spindleton who’s just entertaining. The Kraals aren’t a favorite villain of mine so their involvement didn’t do much for me. And as far as Master stories go, this seemed middling to me.

This isn’t terrible, Leela gets some good moments as does the Doctor. Beevers’ Master is one of my favorites, but this story just kinda falls in the middle. As a season finale, it’s just kinda there (they have a really good one in Series 2). It’s not bad, just kinda middle.

Rating: 6/10

 

So, that’s my assessment of Series 1 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish. It’s a soft start in my eyes. Not bad, most are pretty good. I guess that I’d expected better for Tom’s first season at Big Finish. The next season is better in my eyes.

At some point, I’ll have another series listened to, and can supply another guide for those interested in dipping their toes into Big Finish. Again, this is not a fast process so the next installment might be a while, especially as I switch between Ranges.

Happy travels,

Jamie.

Schedules, Schedules, Get Your Schedules Here!

We’ve tweaked the upcoming schedule a bit to line up better with our 50th Anniversary plans, so for those of you following along at home, here’s an update for the next month or so…

The first week of March (3/1) we’ll finish “The Reign Of Terror” (parts 4-6) on Friday Night Who.

Traveling The Vortex #114 is our First Doctor retrospective.  We’ll discuss “The Reign Of Terror”, give our thoughts on the values of these and other animated episodes, as well as cover the first Doctor era (that we’ve reviewed to date).

Friday Night Who on 3/8 is “The King’s Demons” with fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

TTV #115 covers our reviews of “The King’s Demons” and Big Finish #26 “Primeval”.

Come celebrate my birthday on 3/15 with Tom Baker in “The Ark In Space”.

Traveling The Vortex #116 will have our reviews of “The Ark In Space” and our first foray into the Big Finish 4th Doctor Adventures; #1 “Destination: Nerva”.

On 3/22 our Friday Night Who will be the 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton in “The Mind Robber”.

And episode #117 will be our Second Doctor retrospective, and have our reviews of the “The Mind Robber” as well as IDW’s comic “Prisoners Of Time” issue 2, and Big Finish’s Shadow of Death (Destiny Of The Doctor 2).

That rams us right up against the new series starting.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) I’m still fleshing things out from that point on, but if the scuttlebutt is to be believed, the first episode of the return of series seven deals with ghosts.  I’d love to pair up the seventh Doctor adventure “Ghost Light” with that one, but we’ll wait and see if things get a bit more nailed down in the coming weeks.

Would You Like A Jelly Baby? And A Schedule Update?

As we discussed on the most recent podcast, we’ve finalized plans for the next few months, and now we share them with you…

Friday Night Who on 1/25 stars referencer of the show, Sylvester McCoy in “The Happiness Patrol”

Episode #109 of Traveling The Vortex will include our thoughts on “The Happiness Patrol” along with Big Finish #25 “Colditz”.

Because we know you all love it, on 2/1 for Friday Night Who we’ll be watching tenth Doctor David Tennant in “Love And Monsters”. No, seriously.  And we demand you show up to defend (or criticize the episode in person!)

Since we’ve already given our thoughts on that episode, we figured we’d delve a little deeper into real life members of L.I.N.D.A in TTV #110 with a little something I like to think of as “The Fan Show”.  We’ll talk Cosplay, collectors and Tardis Console and Dalek Builders!

2/8 FNW brings us another Tom Baker episode, “The Leisure Hive”.

And TTV #111 – sees us cover “The Leisure Hive” and Big Finish #35 “…ish”.

While Glenn and Shaun wing to Gally, Keith holds down the fort for Friday Night Who on 2/15 with Matt Smith (and most of Gally’s guest list this year) in “A Good Man Goes To War”

And then the big discussion of this year’s Gallifrey One’s 24 Hours Of Gallifrey One in episode #112.

FNW on 2/22 will be the first three parts of the just released (and animated) “The Reign Of Terror” with first Doctor William Hartnell.

In episode #113 we’ll return to the Big Finish divergent universe story arc with eighth Doctor Paul McGann and Charlie with #54 “The Natural History Of Fear” and #55 “The Twilight Kingdom”.

The first week of March (3/1) we’ll finish “The Reign Of Terror” on Friday Night Who.

Traveling The Vortex #114 covers “The Reign Of Terror” and our thoughts on the values of animated missing episodes.

Friday Night Who on 3/8 is “The King’s Demons” with fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

TTV #115 covers our reviews of “The King’s Demons” and Big Finish #26 “Primeval”.

Come celebrate my birthday on 3/15 with more Tom Baker in “The Ark In Space”.

And Traveling The Vortex #116 will have our reviews of “The Ark In Space” and our first foray into the Big Finish 4th Doctor Adventures; #1 “Destination: Nerva”.

After that we’re hoping to have a finalized schedule of NEW WHO to look forward to, so hopefully we can pair up some interesting episodes then.  As always, thanks for supporting us!