Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#036. The Rapture ~ 9/10

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◆ An Introduction

Oh boy, I cannot wait to lose all the credibility I have as a reviewer… assuming I had any credibility to begin with. Described by many as one of the worst things BigFinish have ever released, I genuinely adore this adventure, and I hope to change your mind on it too by the end of this review. Rave culture isn’t my sort of thing, though I do like the great clubbing tunes Dead or Alive put out in the late 1990s. Put on your dancing shoes, grab the cocktails, because we’re heading to Ibiza!

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◆ Publisher’s Summary

Ibiza, 1997, and thousands of young people are acting like mindless zombies.

Which is to be expected. Ibiza, the island of dance music, sex, drugs and alcohol, is the ultimate hedonistic paradise.

God has sent help from on high to save the sinners of Ibiza. He has sent His angels to save their souls.

Which would be simple enough if these souls didn't include an alien time-traveller working in a bar, a woman who disappeared in 1987, a young man carrying a photograph of a girl he's never met and an Irish girl who doesn't even know who she is anymore.

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◆ The Seventh Doctor

Sylvester McCoy delivers quite a calming, yet fantastic, performance in ‘The Rapture’.

The Doctor makes a habit of saving people’s lives more than once. He apparently fought alongside Gustavo’s father in the Spanish Civil War. He goes on to mention Franco, Mussolini and then Hitler, and the rise of fascism… but soon remembers the hell his companion has just been through at Colditz and decides to shut up! In his many, many years of experience, people claiming to be angels tend to be the opposite.

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◆ “Just McShane”

‘The Rapture’ sees Sophie Aldred deliver a brilliant performance, and there is a moment with her that genuinely made me teary-eyed.

“McShane” asks for one normal night back in London; one night without monsters or evils from the dawn of time, one night without the Professor and Ace, and she can’t even have that. Kurtz’s death was one of the worst things she’s ever seen, and she’s sick of all the fighting and dying (she even recalls seeing the Krill devouring Madame Salvadori above Duchamp 331). She’s not a superhero, and she needs some time off to relax. “McShane” never mentioned the name Ace to Liam because it’s in the past, so she’s understandably rattled when he uses it. When she read the letter from her father and began sobbing, it was genuinely so heart-breaking – realising how different her life could have been if she knew she had a brother; Colditz, Fenric, none of it had to happen.

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◆ Story Recap

Following the horrors she witnessed at Colditz Castle, “McShane” has decided that she wants to go somewhere normal for a bit of downtime, a holiday where she wont be running from power-mad fascists, angry Krill or Daleks.

The TARDIS arrives at the party capital of the world in the late 1990s, and she is quickly drawn to the famed Rapture night-club. Unfortunately, this is going to be anything but a holiday.

The brothers in charge of the Rapture claim to be angels, but they’re really trying to drug their punters, in the hopes that they can be sent to fight in a war on their home planet. In other words, this is a militaristic recruitment drive. If that wasn’t enough, “McShane” is about to discover a brother she never knew existed!

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◆ Clubbing Conscription

I think it’s fair to say that ‘The Rapture’ has a pretty bad reputation amongst fans – he inspired me to write these reviews, but you need only read Doc Oho’s review to see just how much people do not like this adventure. I’ve honestly never gotten the hate for it, though I am incredibly biased towards anything written by Joe Lidster.

Gabriel and Jude are literally conscripting people through the power of rave culture. It’s such a ridiculously barmy and fun idea, and it’s balanced out quite nicely by the more emotionally traumatic B Plot involving “McShane”.

You can actually draw a lot of parallels between this adventure and the ‘Warriors of Kudlak’, the way that Gabriel and Jude turn their night-club punters into unwilling soldiers is not that different to what the Uvodni were doing with Combat 3000!

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◆ The Sibling She Never Knew…

Joseph Lidster also decides to drop a bombshell on us in ‘The Rapture’, so let’s talk a little bit about Liam. Born to Audrey Dudman and Harry McShane sometime in 1974, Liam was four years younger than his sister. Not long after his birth, Audrey was found having an affair, so Harry took him and fled Perivale… leading to Dorothy McShane being raised as an only child (she was only a toddler at the time, so had barely any recollection of being anything but an only child).

In 1993, Harry had a heart attack and told his son everything. Liam went looking for his sister but found out she’d vanished years earlier, and returned to the hospital only to find that his father had passed away.

Four years later, and he’s finally reunited with his sister. The meeting between “McShane” and Liam is definitely a bit soap-opera, but the moment “McShane” read the letter from her long-dead father broke my heart. Not only is it massively traumatising to realise that she has a long-lost younger brother, but it just gives her even more reason to despise her vile mother. If it wasn’t for Audrey’s lies, her life could have turned out so differently. It’s really sad that this story is the only time Liam appeared, because he could have been a great anchor for “McShane”; a reason to stay alive, and a reason to come home.

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◆ Sound Design

The dance capital of the world, where you’re never far from the music or the Mediterranean waves. Mortimore’s sound design here is utterly immaculate!

Static from a radio being tuned into DJ Tony Blackburn’s Ibiza broadcast. Trance music playing on the radio station merges into a groovy club-mix of the Doctor Who theme tune. The party island is filled with cheering revellers; rave music spilling out from the nearby clubs whilst the waves lap gently against the shore. Listen to all the partying punters go eerily silent, as the angel dust works its magic… leaving just the hypnotic beat of the music in the air. The second part ends in a really memorable way, with Kat out of her mind on angel dust, hallucinating that she is flying with Gabriel. The rumbling of an old fishing boat. As Gabriel goes completely mad, he makes a dance track out of someone’s dying screams! The glass DJ booth shatters… causing Gabriel and Gustavo to fall to their deaths. The post-credits sequence made me chuckle; as two office temps receive an email containing one of Gabriel’s hypnotic tunes… an email that the entire office block soon receives!

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◆ Music

The score for ‘The Rapture’ is being handled by Jim Mortimore, Jane Elphinstone, Simon Robinson & Feel. I don’t care if you vehemently despise Lidster’s writing for this adventure, you cannot deny that the music absolutely slaps! It perfectly captures the rave culture of the late 1990s that dominated night-clubs around the world, and nowhere more than Ibiza.

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◆ Conclusion

“Spread the truth and love of the lord, and play those kicking tunes!”

A night club ran by aliens, where the punters are drugged with “angel dust” each time they step onto the dance-floor. Gabriel and Jude’s people are fighting a war, and the unlucky hedonists vibing to Livin’ Joy and Robert Miles are being hypnotised to become the perfect soldiers!

‘The Rapture’ was the first time Joseph Lidster had written anything for this franchise, and it’s very different from the rest of his catalogue (said catalogue consisting mainly of stories that will make you sob like a baby, or genuinely so frightened that you have to sleep with the lights on)!

The twist involving “McShane’s” brother is probably the only thing I’m unsure of. He is introduced in this adventure and essentially serves to make “McShane’s” backstory seem even more tragic than it already was! He definitely would’ve had more impact had he appeared in more adventures, possibly even become a regular companion alongside his sister… but then again, Philip Olivier’s introduction is right on the horizon.

The music is, of course, the highlight of this entire release. For what it’s worth, ‘The Rapture’ is my guilty pleasure adventure. The twist is the kind of thing you’d expect from a soap opera, but the main idea surrounding the titular night-club is excellent. I highly recommend you give this one another chance if you’re one of the people that vehemently dislikes it.