Doctor Who: Flywheel Revolution

Writer: Dale Smith
Director: Lisa Bowerman
Script Editor: Michael Stevens
Cover Illustration: Mark Plastow
Music & Sound Design: Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Producer: Michael Stevens

Read by Peter Purves
Released January 2015

The first in a series of monthly adventures that has run for six years and counting, Flywheel Revolution is charming and understated. Dale Smith's endearing tale of robots consigned to the scrapheap liberating themselves with a little help from the Doctor fits the Doctor Who Short Trips format perfectly.

The story is told from the perspective of Frankie, a robot discarded due to a minor fault with his internal clock, as he lives out his life in the confines of a scrap yard. This gives rise to a very logical style of narration, refreshingly straightforward in fact. Frankie's relationship with the Doctor, developing from the stern outsider not to be trusted to an amiable ally, condenses the softening of William Hartnell's Doctor from the TV series into just a few minutes.

Dale Smith captures the Doctor well and retains the listener's attention as first Frankie, then the Doctor explore their surroundings. This is engagingly told and, in something of a rarity for Big Finish, this is the kind of story that genuinely would fit snugly into the early years of the show. The decision to keep Susan, Ian and Barbara on the opposite side of the scrapheap's boundary wall is a wise one, allowing both Frankie and the Doctor more breathing space across this story's half-hour. Rather than feeling like a full adventure abridged for the requisite running time, Flywheel Revolution is perfectly conceived as a short story, in all senses.

Despite only appearing in a year of the TV show, most of which hasn't been seen since its original broadcast, Peter Purves is the Hartnell era's most prolific contributor at Big Finish, and this story is a good example of why. He is an excellent narrator, his measured tone ideal for audio books, and does a decent first Doctor impression to boot. Lisa Bowerman keeps the pace steady, matching the thoughtful tone of the script, and employing credible music and sound design to good effect.

Flywheel Revolution is a delightful instalment in the Short Trips series, expanding on a classic era of the show in a meaningful sense. A very promising first release that shows the level of care and attention that the stories produced by Michael Stevens typically exhibited. Recommended.

Doctor Who: Time Tunnel

Writer: Nigel Fairs
Director: Lisa Bowerman
Script Editor: Michael Stevens
Cover Illustration: Mark Plastow
Music & Sound Design: Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Producer: Michael Stevens

Read by Katy Manning
Released March 2015

The third of the monthly Doctor Who Short Trips from Big Finish Productions, Time Tunnel is a cosy offering set in the Jon Pertwee era.

The early seventies saw the third Doctor, marooned without use of his TARDIS, working alongside the 'secret' military organisation UNIT to defend the Earth from alien invasions. This encompassed almost every setup imaginable (some several times) from peace conferences under attack and replacing politicians with duplicates to underwater adventures and forays into space. About the only thing producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks didn't try was travel by rail, something that Nigel Fairs sets about putting right.

It seems unfortunate that the plot of this story is so transparent, but in hindsight that's not the point. As soon as the Brigadier enters the Doctor's lab, interrupting yet another of his experiments, and reels off the pertinent details of the latest mystery to land on his desk, the truth seems obvious in light of this story's title. A train has emerged from a tunnel in Sussex, all its passengers and crew having died of malnutrition despite having been fine just a few minutes earlier. The joy of this story, and there is a lot of it to be found, is in the execution as the Doctor and Jo head off in pursuit of answers.

There is perhaps some mileage in contrasting Time Tunnel with The Blue Tooth, the first in the Companion Chronicles series to feature the third Doctor, just as this is his first Short Trip. Both were written by Nigel Fairs, and released eight years apart. Although the content of each is partially a consequence of which series it is supposed to herald from (the envelope-pushing Season 7 versus the comfy Season 10), they are also a neat reflection of Big Finish's development. At around the time of The Blue Tooth's release, it was not unusual to get stories like Night Thoughts, Time Works or Son of the Dragon. In contrast, 2015 offered Mistfall, The Defectors and Last of the Cybermen. Purchasing a Doctor Who story from Big Finish these days is much more of a known quantity, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but can at times make the company's creative growth feel a little stunted. The Blue Tooth is ambitious and unprecedented. Time Tunnel could not be further in the opposite direction if it had Mike Yates laying on a Jeep. But of the two, Time Tunnel is probably the stronger, so what do I know?

Katy Manning is a real asset to these audio adventures, particularly in single-voice productions, such as here. She brings her signature warmth, yet to be matched, to her reading and completes the snug impression of a story that takes in the Home Counties, UNIT setting up in a school (much better than in Primord), a buried spaceship and an alien that's not evil after all. The sound design and music don't put a foot wrong in complementing the script and performance; what a find Toby Hrycek-Robinson is.

All in all, Time Tunnel is a very enjoyable trip down the train tracks of history and another enjoyable Short Trip. The only thing I'd say is that I wish they weren't in such a blimmin rush: 7 seconds into Time Tunnel, we've had the theme tune, Katy Manning's voiceover introduction and we're into the story itself. That aside, this is turning into a great series that could easily fly under the radar. Don't miss out.

Doctor Who: Dark Convoy

Writer: Mark B Oliver
Director: Lisa Bowerman
Script Editor: Michael Stevens
Cover Illustration: Mark Plastow
Music & Sound Design: Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Producer: Michael Stevens

Read by Sophie Aldred
Released July 2015

Stories set during the Second World War are tenapenny in Doctor Who, and not exactly unfamiliar to the seventh Doctor and Ace, so to break new ground on both counts is something of an achievement. Dark Convoy sees the TARDIS landing on a British warship in the Arctic circle, its occupants quickly becoming embroiled in a moral dilemma.

As is traditional, the Doctor and Ace soon become separated, and the latter ends up heading out into open waters in a rowing boat to rescue survivors of a sunken vessel with the former remains at the Captain's side, nudging the bigger picture in the right direction. This is a succinct portrait of each's natural habitat but writer Mark B Oliver never makes a point of it, suggesting an affinity for these characters.

The prose is supple and leads the listener through a variety of well-researched locations. It is occasionally over-earnest, bombarding the audience with names of every soldier going and cutting narrative corners to signpost which archetype they might fit, but on the whole this is a compellingly written Short Trip from Big Finish Productions. The Doctor and Ace, as previously mentioned, are well-captured, Dark Convoy winning this listener back round on the Sylvester McCoy incarnation after Project: Destiny was so comprehensively off-putting that it has taken several months to listen to any of his stories.

The music and sound design are expertly woven into the story, thanks to strong direction from Lisa Bowerman, with the score being especially accomplished. The foley chosen usually works well but a couple of scenes stand out; for example, a commotion in the mess following a call to action stations sounds more like someone gradually packing away chairs in a village hall. Sophie Aldred's reading is good enough, capturing the Season 25 spirit of Ace and the Doctor particularly well.

Much better than I remembered, Dark Convoy is definitely one of the stronger Short Trips, which seem to be quite firmly good or bad, without much middle ground. Within the space of a year, Mark B Oliver wrote one of the strongest Iris Wildthyme episodes, Dark Convoy, two Confessions of Dorian Gray, and hasn't been heard of since. I do wonder what happened because on the strength of this, he had a lot more to offer. Dark Convoy won't set your world alight but it's a compelling way to spend an immersive half-hour.

Doctor Who: The Ghost Trap

Writer: Nick Wallace
Director: Lisa Bowerman
Script Editor: Michael Stevens
Cover Illustration: Mark Plastow
Music & Sound Design: Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Producer: Michael Stevens

Read by Louise Jameson
Released April 2015

The first fourth Doctor instalment of the new-format monthly Doctor Who Short Trips, The Ghost Trap is a decent summation of the era's middle years without ever threatening to be particularly attention-grabbing.

Landing on an organic ship ripped out of hyperspace, the Doctor and Leela explore, get into a few scrapes and head off again. They are pretty much the only two characters, but spend most of the story apart, leaving little room to delve any deeper into their relationship.

Nick Wallace's script is thoughtful and atmospheric and the production reflects that, although the music could do with being slightly more dynamic at times to keep up. This is a pleasant way to spend half an hour but won't linger in the mind very long after it's finished.

Louise Jameson gives a good reading, but it's pretty stock material for both Leela and the Doctor. That's no bad thing; The Ghost Trap is harmless enough, it just feels like the first and third episodes of a traditional four-parter bolted together and condensed, without much else to it.

Doctor Who: The Shadows of Serenity

Writer: Nigel Robinson
Director: Lisa Bowerman
Script Editor: Michael Stevens
Cover Illustration: Mark Plastow
Music & Sound Design: Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Producer: Michael Stevens

Read by Nicola Bryant
Released June 2015

I picked The Shadows of Serenity pretty much at random as part of my Short Trips relisten, and won't make the same mistake twice. 

Clocking in at 30-45 minutes, the Short Trips are a monthly series of Doctor Who stories read or performed by a single actor. As I've gone back through the first few years of releases, I've frequently been impressed at their originality and ability to engage. The Shadows of Serenity unfortunately does not follow that trend.

This story is so rote that even if you haven't heard it, you've heard it. The basic premise is that a world of once-feared warriors have turned into complete pacifists, to the point of their own extinction, and a creature is leeching off their combatant senses for its own gain. The Doctor drops into this world and promptly sends the creature and its guardian sisters on its way while the TARDIS recharges.

The story as written affords no mystery or tension, unfolding simply as a stream of information before the Doctor heads up to the creature's base and tells it to do one. Handy, too, that of the entire planet's surface, the TARDIS happened to land just ten minutes up the road from both the settlement of neutered locals and the Abbey of Serenity, the aforementioned base. At every opportunity the cliched option is taken, at both a plotting and line-to-line level. 

The production is basically fine but does little to enhance things. Even the phenomenal Nicola Bryant sounds off her game. 

It's possible to purchase these stories a year at a time for £30; as part of a collection of 12, for that money, it's easy to write The Shadows of Serenity off. However I wouldn't recommend seeking it out individually.