Bloodtide pode ser considerado um marco para os fãs do Classic Who por proporcionar o retorno de um dos vilões mais icônicos desse período da série, Os Silurians – Visando sua última aparição no desastroso “Warriors Of The Deep”, ao coloca-lo e compara-lo com essas duas histórias “Bloodtide” e “Doctor Who And The Silurians” o arco estrelado por Peter Davison se torna uma peça ainda mais estupida do que já é. Eis aqui um áudio rico em conteúdo, além de apresentar uma perfeita consistência, o enredo de Jonathan Morris se aprofunda em assuntos biológicos muito interessantes, envolvendo temas como processo evolutivo das espécies, seleção natural, comportamento da natureza e até mesmo chega aborda algumas reflexões pessimistas de crenças religiosas sobre a real origem do ser humano. Juntamente a isso, existe um enriquecimento nos Silurians encorpando ainda mais a lore dos vilões – Alias... não sei, mas fiquei como um leve impressão que Bloodtide fez uma “”retcon”” na origem do ser humano kkk. A trama também conta com Charles Darwin sendo praticamente um companion do Doctor e da Evelyn, sua figura é reproduzida de forma muito envolvente o tornando um dos personagens mais fortes do enredo. Sim, tenho que admitir que a problemática causada pelos vilões está longe de ser algo considerado como diferenciado, tem até algumas coisas ali que nitidamente foram pescadas de suas histórias anteriores – Mesmo com isso, considerando que esee é o primeiro roteiro que Morris escreveu para a Big Finish, o nível de qualidade apresentado em termos de estrutura, diálogos e consistência é impressionante, dando ares do que o escritor já é um veterano. Confesso que esse foi um dos áudios mais interessantes que eu já ouvi da BIG FINISH – Super recomendo!

I think this one is quite flawed but held by a great Idea, great Cliffhangers and wonderful Character Dynamics (especially with Six and Evelyn or Evelyn and Darwin). I am not sure where to place it, it’s definitely better than “just solid”, but I can’t really place it too highly, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe some Ideas went a bit unexplored for my liking, but overall it’s definitely a good first Outing for the Silurians on BF (at least I believe so?)

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Apocalypse Element

Charles Darwin and the Silurians, a pair so perfect for each other that they're doing it again in a book coming out this month. This story is actually really interesting in how it handles Darwin encountering the Silurians, at the start he's skeptical of God, but still believing in him and by the end he believes that religion is a lie. It's fascinating to hear this happen over the course of the story and Miles Richardson's excellent performance as Darwin really helps this story stand out. Colin Baker and Maggie Stables remain an extremely fun pair to listen to.

I was surprised to find out that this was one of few Classic Silurian stories on audio, they feel like such an iconic villain that you'd expect them to appear in more. I do really like how accurate this story is to the sound design of the Silurians. The voices are on point and this story even includes the infamous third eye laser noise responsible for so many ridiculous Classic Who cliffhangers. While the inclusion of Darwin definitely makes this story stand out, it still follows the typical format of a Silurian adventure. There's always one good Silurian and one bad one that argue a bunch. The Doctor tries to be the voice of reason. Somewhere along the way a virus gets released and it ends in explosion.

Overall, I like so many things about this story (the atmosphere, the way it uses Charles Darwin, the accuracy to the TV show no matter how silly) but I can't help feeling it's a bit derivative.

Next Story: Project: Twilight

15.06.2022

Meh. Charles Darwin is in this story and he comes up with a theory of evolution throughout the course of the play. It is realised with a subtlety of a brick. Also Homo Sapiens were created by one Silurian guy, like kettle. Not naturally evolved. Specifically crafted. One could even say, divinely. A strange idea to put into the same story as Darwin's Origin of Species creation.

As for the plot, it's forgettable and skippable. The villain is a bleak evil scientist. The culmination is a stuff of kindergartens. 1/5

MR 022: Bloodtide

The thing I remembered most from this audio is the way that lady says "Devils." Still pretty B tier coded, but at least Colin and Evelyn are here so that's pretty nice. It's also the first use of the Silurians. Unfortunately, it's pretty standard as far as Silurian stories go, especially classic who Silurian stories.

The Beagle is doing its tour of the Galapagos Islands with Charles Darwin, yes, that Darwin. They end up uncovering some Silurians that have been woken up from their slumber and are working on killing all of humanity with a plague. Again. That's really all there is to it. The thing that makes it pretty standard and definitely too long, like a classic who story, is that it has the Doctor get captured... and then Evelyn goes after him with Darwin and they get captured. And then the Doctor escapes and he goes after them. It's just a waste of time. It could have easily been cut down to an hour, again, like a lot of classic who.

That said, there's some good ideas here. I particularly liked Darwin in the middle of having an existential and religious crisis of faith in the middle of being captured by the Silurians. Indeed, juxtaposing Darwin himself with the Silurians is a great idea. The story does the correct thing in comparing natural selection with artificial selection or animal breeding. Darwin talks about the way that animals are domesticated, becoming more calm because of human intervention. And he compares that to the finches becoming more afraid of humans over time by their presence on the islands.

It's particularly interesting because the story says that humans used to be the Silurians' food and that one Silurian decided to advance their evolution and give them intelligence. So humans themselves are a product of artificial selection, breeding by Silurians. That would absolutely send Darwin into a crisis of faith.
I also found the myrka pretty hilarious considering, you know, Warriors. Just don't drop kick it. They do manage to make it feel threatening as an actual giant sea monster rather than two guys in a panto horse costume. It just is pretty superfluous.

The Doctor gets to make some fun jabs at humanity. How can humans be intelligent when they enslave each other ect ect. How is eating humans any different than eating cattle. Stuff you'd expect of Six, which I'm here for. I enjoyed the outraged ship captain trying to come up with reasons to justify why eating humans is wrong and eating cows is ok. It is so good to finally have Colin back. It's been EIGHT audios since we had him. And not coincidentally Holy Terror was the last truly good one. And yes, I do like Paul McGann quite a lot, who doesn't, but his first four audios here left a lot to be desired.