The Monthly Adventures #030  - "Season of Fear" by Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox

Big Finish is somewhat famous for “saving” forsaken characters of old, such as The Celestial Toymaker, Frobisher or even the Sixth Doctor. With such an innovative and interesting release model and an array of fresh-faced writers, it was inevitable that some would dig deep into the bastions of lore and pull out some old, forgotten and maligned figure from Doctor Who’s long and arduous history and turn them into something great. And I’m glad to say that Seasons of Fear, written by one of my favourite writers - Paul Cornell - and a name unfamiliar to me - Caroline Symcox - does just that. The rest of the story however? It simply fails to impress.

Finally reaching their destination of Singapore, the Doctor and Charley are encountered by Sebastian Grayle, a man who claims to have killed them in the future. Fighting for their lives, the pair trace the mysterious gentleman throughout the vortex, and find a deadly scourge following him.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Let’s just get it out of the way. If you know Seasons of Fear, you know its claim to fame: the Nimon are back! And leave it up to Paul Cornell to make them a genuinely terrifying threat. With no stilettos or massive empty corridors in sight, the race of godmaking locusts are truly allowed to live up to their potential, and you really buy into the fact that they could absolutely ravage the planet if they so wished. The stakes actually feel quite high throughout the whole audio and tonally, Seasons of Fear feels like a Doctor Who movie, jumping from place to place to place, with the entire universe at stake. It’s an action packed blockbuster that never stops moving and because of that is anything other than boring, for which I can give it props. As usual, Cornell excels at writing character. Though we spend a significantly small amount of time with each cast member due to the story’s troubling structure (which I will get on to), they all feel alive, and I think that’s because of how fun but realistic Cornell’s dialogue is and how well acted everything is. Eight and Charley get shine especially and I know I’ve said that with every audio is Season 2 so far but the point does still stand. And helping along this action-fuelled romp is a stellar score with a booming sound to it, that greatly improves any action scene and really helps along the visualisation of any given moment.

Unfortunately, despite Seasons of Fear apparently being a fan favourite, I just can’t get behind it, and mostly because the story is an utter mess. Let’s begin with our opening: the Doctor is reclining in a Singaporean tea garden when he is approached by Sebastian Grayle, who informs the Doctor that he is an immortal, that he’s going to take over the Earth and that in the future, he has killed the Doctor, who then has ample time to go and stop him because Grayle just informed him of his entire plan. Immediately, I am not intimidated by this man, and whether or not that was the point I don’t know but what I do know is that he is our main antagonist for 3/4 of the story and for all of that time just comes off as a slightly pathetic dreamer with a serious god complex. I will say however that how he evolves over the course of the four parts, how his character changes with his life span, is a really cool take on an immortal. But then there’s the problem of the narrative, which is just all over the place; whilst the electric pace lends itself well to the speed and movement of the story, it does not lend itself well to the plot, which travels at the speed of light and never gets time to breathe, every peril coming one after another, which means you can never really get invested. Not to mention how Seasons of Fear structures itself, with a different setting and cast every part - much like The Sirens of Time. And just like The Sirens of Time, it doesn’t work. The dialogue and immediate characterisation is good, but you never spend long enough with any character to actually care about them and Grayle’s plots start and end so quickly that it really doesn’t help his image as somewhat of an intertemporal wimp.

Seasons of Fear is a weird one because whilst it is fun and it is fast and it’s chock full of some really stellar moments, it feels almost like a pantomime in how ludicrous it can get, and never in a good way. Grayle is a profoundly underwhelming villain, the plot goes too fast for its own good and the whole narrative holds itself together with bits of string that seem to unravel the more it goes on. Honestly, the biggest merit you get here is how much it sets up for later stories, name dropping Zagreus and teasing The Time of the Daleks and Neverland. It’s a good listen but not a story I can’t confidently say I like.

6/10

Pros:

+ The Nimon are surprisingly threatening and fully realised

+ Truly cinematic feeling, this feels like a Doctor Who blockbuster

+ Great dialogue that makes every character feel alive

+ Thundering score that greatly aids the action

Cons:

- Grayle is incredibly underwhelming as a villain

- Has a mess of a plot that never settles down

- Each storyline goes too fast for you to become invested