📝8/10 → VERY GOOD!

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

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “BANG-BANG-A-BOOM”

As was radiation for Big Finish in their Main Range, the last release of each release was meant to be a light-hearted or fun Christmas special or parody. Bang-Bang-a-Boom! parodies the Eurovision Song Contest and the Star Trek franchise.

What we get here is Seven and Mel arriving at a space station and encountering dead bodies, all the while the three-hundred-somethingth Intergalactic Song Contest is underway. The political tension between two participating neighbouring worlds causes stir-up and conflict behind the scenes of the production, so the Doctor gets involved in trying to solve the problem.

The writers know their Eurovision and write a fantastically sharp political satire that perfectly mirrors a lot of the political shenanigans involved with the real-world contest (especially so in recent times). Seven and Mel are also the perfect TARDIS crew to get involved with such a story, especially since the Doctor’s decision to impersonate a spaceship commander further complicates things. 

Sylvester McCoy goes all in on being light-hearted and fun here, and it’s a nice change of pace from the manipulative and sinister Seven we so often encounter. Bonnie Langford is wonderful, especially when paired together with the intergalactic pop star Nicky Newman (Anthony Spargo), who is delighted to meet someone who has no idea who he is.

The Star Trek elements come from the science-y and space-y stuff that both sound believable but also so out there that it's impossible to determine whether it's realistic or not. The cover art also mimics the poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

And there’s the murder mystery element here as well, which is nothing new to Doctor Who. That makes this something of a The Curse of Peladon or The Robots of Death parody as well, or even a twist on a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunit.

The supporting cast is colourful and fun. Angvia is a fun character, exaggerated and romantic, with an East-European accent; Geri is a rodent character with a cute voice (she sounds distractingly like Alpha Centauri; both are voiced by the inimitable Jane Goddard); Loozly is a hot-headed interpreter; and Dr. Harcourt is a medical officer working closely with the Doctor. David Tughan’s Logan the Commentator is also a very fun character and a parody of typical Eurovision commentators.

One gripe I have is that the individual episodes are all over 30 minutes in length, making this adventure a tad overextended.

The music is nice, especially some of the dramatic musical cues whenever a dead body is discovered. Which happens a lot, by the way.

The constant small twists and turns keep the story fresh, even though there isn’t a whole lot going on. There were so many twists that I couldn’t keep up with them all the time.

The strange romance subplot between Angvia and the Doctor is bizarrely funny.

The dialogue is frequently funny and over-the-top, with the cast delivering them in a way that makes them even more amusing. I found myself giggling more than once while listening to this.

Part 4 finally offers some “performances” from the Intergalactic Song Contest, and they are horrible and funny. It also features one of the funnier takes on a classic “murderer reveal” I’ve heard. The entire episode is the strongest part of the story and one of the best single episodes I've heard in the Main Range.

I love the little fake-out ending before we get the real reveal of the killer. And how the Doctor inadvertently wins the contest for Earth.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• I adore the continuity announcements by Nicholas Briggs at the start of every part. Feels like a nice callback to the TV days.
• They finally begin using era-appropriate theme tunes from this release onwards!
• The title of this adventure is a play on Lulu’s song Boom Bang-a-Bang, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 for the UK.
• It took me a bit too long to realise that Angvia is a deliberate anagram of a different word (it begins with a “V”).

(DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A STORY WRITTEN BY GARETH ROBERTS, A FIGURE WHO HAS MADE HIMSELF INFAMOUS IN THE DOCTOR WHO COMMUNITY THROUGH REPEATED VILE AND NASTY COMMENTS MADE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. THIS REVIEW IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF HIM AS A PERSON, PURELY HIS WORK. DO NOT TAKE ANY PRAISE I LEVEL AT HIM HERE AS ADMIRATION TOWARDS HIS UTTERLY BACKWARDS VIEWPOINTS. ANYWAYS, WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY, PLEASE DO ENJOY).

The Monthly Adventures #039 - “Bang-Bang-a-Boom!" by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman

Perhaps the easiest and quickest way to ruin a perfectly good story is to make it a comedy. Comedy is hard to get right and, whilst something like horror is simply subjective, comedy will ruin a piece of media if not catered to the viewer. So, in an audio-only format, writing a humorous take on our favourite time traveller feels like walking a tightrope atop a pit of bad fan reviews and half-listens. The duo Clayton Hickman and, unfortunately, Gareth Roberts walked the tightrope once before in The Monthly Adventures #27 - “The One Doctor”, which, for the most part, succeeded and was a fun if sometimes over the top good time. So, having proven themselves as talented comedy writers before, can Hickman and Roberts replicate their first success in a Christiesque murder mystery set in space Eurovision?

The Intergalactic Song Contest is currently being overseen by Dark Space 8, a high tech monitoring station that’s just lost its commander. But luckily, a new commander is on his way, except upon entry, he is murdered. The Doctor and Mel, stumbling across the corpse, take the place of the commander and play detective as a mounting pile of corpses grows.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I don’t think Bang-Bang-a-Boom! is a particularly good story, I don’t think it sticks with you or makes you think or makes you weep, it is simply a good bit of fun. This is a witty and intelligent script that moves like wildfire with a lightning fast yet smart and consistent plot. There is fluff that could be cut out, which I will talk about in the negatives section, but it’s never slow, simply bloated at times and I think any story that can keep such a momentum going is worthy of some credit. And I think the primary reason Bang-Bang-a-Boom! remains so entertaining is because we have such a great set of characters to listen to. It’s a Christie-like whodunit and any story trying to live up to the mother of the murder mystery has to have a compelling set of suspects, which Bang-Bang-a-Boom! brilliantly delivers on with a group of zany and all-together odd song contestants that fit right at home in space Eurovision. They’re all convincingly real people and the way each of them interacts makes for some pretty nice and subtle character growth, not something one would expect from an oddball little murder mystery. Leading our cast is of course, our regulars, this time around Seven and Mel both of whom are delightful. McCoy once again gives it his all and is characterised in this really nice sweet spot between Season 24 Seven and Season 26 Seven, cunning and plotting but still winning Eurovision with the spoons (so, Season 25 Seven, I suppose). And, I am surprised to say, I think I like Mel now. She was never really given much of a chance in the show but here, with the opportunity to be taken even a little bit seriously, Bonnie Langford delivers a really grounded and relatable performance that makes her a great pairing with the more outwardly idiosyncratic Seventh Doctor. But, of course, Bang-Bang-a-Boom! is not primarily a mystery thriller, it is a comedy… kind of. It’s not as laugh out loud funny as The One Doctor and, surprisingly enough coming from the same writing team, the whole brand of humour comes off as completely different. The One Doctor was more absurdist and Monty Pythonian - dry and nonsensical - whilst what we have here can be described more as quirky, with bombastic, loud and very proud characters all squabbling and deliberating. It’s a series of bizarre and outlandish situations juxtaposed with a murder most foul and I think it’s a little bumpy. Sometimes, it doesn’t land at all but when it does, it’s fine, there are a couple great moments, like the aforementioned winning the space Eurovision by having Seven play the spoons. Bang-Bang-a-Boom! is not a deep story, it is a fun story with a great setting and fun cast, something to turn your brain off to.

But, that doesn’t mean I can overlook its faults. For as fast and swiftly as the script moves, I think the ending drops the ball. The reveal that alien interpreter Loozly was the killer admittedly did get me, his constant affiliation with another character caused me to sort of group them together in my head and I forgot about him, but the reveal is short lived and done with forced theatrics. And after that, the story ends, shortly before the credits are interrupted by Mel prolonging the story by pointing out Loozly was going to blow up the ship and they still haven’t found the bomb. This whole section feels like a rush job with very little tension, even if there are some fun moments (once again, spoons). I think this helps contribute to another issue of the story just being too long; it’s almost two and half hours, far longer than this silly little whodunit needed to be and because of that there’s a lot of wasted time and running around aimlessly. Also, as I mentioned before, the humour is imperfect, and I have to highlight when it doesn’t work because those parts are grating on the soul. Specifically the whole subplot of one of the contestants successfully seducing the Doctor, which was painfully awkward and not in the least bit funny. On top of this, the story makes this weird choice to constantly have 1950s sci-fi b-movie sound effects pop up for emphasis such as in dramatic moments or at the end of parts and it utterly breaks the flow of what's happening, eventually becoming a common irritant. Actually, I think the whole sound design for this audio is crap, especially with some of the voices, from the orotund and exhausting Anglia to the painfully shrill Geri (another annoyingly voiced character played by Jane Goddard surprisingly, sorry Robert).

Is Bang-Bang-a-Boom! good? That remains to be seen, but it is fun. Not as much of a triumph as The One Doctor felt (it certainly has less to say) but it’s a genuinely enthralling murder mystery with some really entertaining characters and a distinct style that separates it from other, similar audios. Idiosyncratic and imperfect, it's not hard to find something to love in this odd little story.

7/10

Pros:

+ Well paced and interesting plot

+ A cast of fleshed out and likeable characters

+ The Doctor and Mel are both at their very best

+ An imperfect comedic set but one that impresses on occasion

+ The setting of an intergalactic Eurovision is incredibly fun

Cons:

- Ending that feels rushed and all together disappointing

- Awful sound design that got progressively more intrusive as the audio went on

- Far longer than it needed to be

- The humour doesn’t always land and can be soul-crushingly awkward

19.08.2022

Space Eurovision is fun. They're just chilling, yknow. Murders are happening, but that's secondary. Space Harry Styles is fun. Alien Queen trying to f**k the Doctor is fun. It just works. 4/5

MR 039: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!

Or the one where Patricia Quinn pushes Sylvester McCoy's face into her bosom.

It's the intergalactic song contest on Dark Space 8! Worlds from across the galaxy are competing, but there's been a murder or two in the background and it's up to our plucky protagonists to stop them before the song contest is ruined!

Yes, this is a sort of spiritual successor to The One Doctor. It's a parody, this time of Star Trek and Eurovision. It's definitely not as good as The One Doctor, though. I am big into Star Trek, but the parody was not as direct as the parody of Doctor Who itself in The One Doctor. It's still VERY good though. It's a shame that we don't do intentionally comedic/ridiculous stories like this anymore.

The Doctor and Mel land on a shuttle carrying the new commander of Dark Space 8, only it blows up just in time for them to get pulled onto the station via transmat. The Doctor gets mistaken for the commander and it goes from there. It's quite entertaining to hear the Doctor playing commander on this Star Trek type space station. He gives orders and talks to the principal crew, the Doctor and the scientist while investigating a series of murders.

The main story here is that two of the competitors in the song contest are Angvia and Gholos, a gestalt entity, two species that have hated each other and fought for years. There's a peace conferance going on, but in the meantime the song contest is a symbol of that peace.

However, there's a little secret. The song contest is actually the REAL peace conference. The arbiter of the song contest is the arbiter of the peace conference, all of it conducted psychically and subconsciously so that the singers don't know that they're negotiating.

It's mostly just a fun little romp with much hijinks and murders along the way. I particularly enjoy the parodies of Star Trek where the commander gets killed in an appropriately Star trek episode fashion, leading to the Doctor becoming the new commander.

The space station scientist and doctor are actually quite incompetent at their jobs even though they look and sound quite profession. In fact the doctor gives stardate logs of what's happening. But she is not very good. She can't revive someone who's just got a bump on the head and doesn't know what smelling salts are. And she says "I feel so helpless" a lot. It turns out that she stowed away and just said she was a doctor because she wanted to live the life of a star trek doctor, running down corridors with a tricorder in hand and saving people. But she actually got a lot of people killed along the way.

As for the scientist, he was drunk the whole time. Whenever anyone asked him something, he just said whatever random crap popped into his head. Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow indeed. He, doubtless got a lot of people killed as well.

As for the eurovision parodies, we get some fun parodies of the announcers and voting when the Ice Warriors cast their vote for Mars' delegation. But the actual performances sure are... something. There's a pop star from Earth named Nicky Newman who has stage freight and has a bomb that goes off when he's stressed inside of him (true story) so the Doctor goes on for him instead. Guess what he plays, and then wins the whole contest with?

The murderer is revealed to be the translator to the gestalt entity trying to sabotage the peace conference. The idea of a translator being the only one who understands what someone is saying and thus manipulating them and lying about what they say is a fun idea.

I also particularly enjoyed the theme starting and then cutting off when Mel says it was too easy to just wrap up. Speaking of which, I find it interesting that both parody/comedic stories use Mel as the companion. Presumably Gareth Roberts thought she contributed well to comedy, which was a good call, she does. Definitely a fun romp, not as good as The One Doctor, but still a good time. And a reminder of what we could have had if they kept up the comedy stories.

It's lighthearted, camp, and a good bit of fun! Certainly nothing life-changing, but sometimes you're in the mood for a silly little romp with over-the-top characters and a tropey murder mystery!