✅6️⃣ = ENJOYABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“FROZEN RELATIONS: A COMMENTARY”

The 13th season of Big Finish Fourth Doctor Adventures continues with a historical adventure on the sea and a rematch with the Dominators and their deadly Quarks.

• THE STORY:

This story is set on a cargo ship on the Atlantic in 1916, where Jamaican citizens are transported to the war on the western front in Europe. This story is inspired by real events I'm not familiar with, but it's brought to life well, and the historicity of it is even more interesting than the base-under-siege plot it is tied to.

I do like how the story enlightens the impact people from the Commonwealth countries had during the war and also how it suggests that they've been dealing with alien threats for quite some time.

Part 2 eventually reveals the ties to WWI, as the ice monster onboard is a Japanese plan to hopefully put an end to the war. Of course, the creature turns out to be a danger to all existence.

• THE PEOPLE:

The supporting cast doesn't stand out much. The captain of the ship, for instance, is sort of forgotten about. The story is more focused on building atmosphere and tension. It's a bit of a shame since they could do something more about the classic "companion meeting their historical relative" thing. Part 2 gives some time for this, but it is not very deep.

It's always good to have a few breather moments that allow some characterisation for Harry and Naomi since I'm not entirely sold by this TARDIS team yet, and Grochala, fortunately, does that.

All three main cast members are in great form, and I particularly enjoy the attempt to make Naomi a bit more sympathetic with the family connection.

It's somewhat annoying how they make Naomi try to repeatedly reveal that Samuel is her grandfather, only to be constantly cut off by other events. They then drop the reveal in the cliffhanger, and it's pretty underwhelming because it's so obvious from the start.

• THE ATMOSPHERE:

The audio describes the ship being attacked and taking in water pretty well. You feel the urgency of the situation, the rising panic among the crew and prisoners. The icy danger found within the ship is also very effectively realised and voiced perfectly by the master of alien voices, Helen Goldwyn.

Part 2 is slower than Part 1, partly because it spends a lot of time with the Doctor and Harry trying to work out the problem at hand as well as Naomi and Arnold having a character moment. It builds up to a nice little finale though, ending the story on an intriguing note.