Overall a pretty good audio. This was only my third 7th doctor story, (including the show,) so I'm still pretty new to the duo. It was fun hearing David Tennant in this before he came the Doctor. And the Doctor was unknowingly up to some shenanigans :)

I will say that I had a little more trouble following along with this than previous audios. Not sure if it was something specific with this audio, or if it was because I had to listen to it in a different environment/situation than normal.

Despite that, I would be willing to listen to this again.

19.06.2022
BFDW: The Monthly Adventures
e25: Colditz

Very solid even without the fact that David Мать Его За Ногу Tennant is playing the antagonist here. He elevates it even further. Tennant is very good at playing a pathetic weasel sucking up to his command while simultaneously grasping for any bit of control he has. Truly an amazing performance.

The setting is great. It feels like it fills the void, something DW lacked, but fits it perfectly. The plot is fine, nothing too boring. It tends to slow down towards the second half when it should be accelerating, but it still wasn't a chore to listen through. I'd give it a 4/5 for Tennant alone, but it wouldn't be fair. 3.5/5

MR 025: Colditz

You shot my friend! Oh hey it's David Tennant. You shot my friend! First appearance of Klein, nice, I remember her. YOU SHOT MY FRIEND!

Well this one was quite good. There's some very interesting ideas about time travel here which I'll go into in a second. The Nazi stuff makes for some very interesting backdrop for the arrival of a mysterious woman named Klein who may not be what she claims to be. Also, a pre-Tenth Doctor David Tennant playing a creepy/sleezy Nazi guard! He orders Ace to take her clothes off and implies sexual favors from her. Tennant is always good at playing the villain and he's good at it here too.

The TARDIS makes a landing right outside of Colditz Castle, a famous Nazi prison. The Doctor and Ace quickly get captured. Ace tries to escape while the Doctor gets taken by Klein. Klein gives the Doctor's TARDIS to the prison's commander and then takes off. But it turns out her method of transport is gone. This is where it gets interesting.

Klein, it turns out, is from a timeline where the Nazis won. She's from the 60s in the UK in that timeline and is working on a government project studying the TARDIS. In this original timeline, Ace gets shot trying to escape Colditz and the Doctor leaves in his TARDIS, only to come back a decade later and get captured and shot when the Nazis won. They were able to use the technology in Ace's CD walkman to win the war, using lasers.

However, it turns out Klein has been tricked by a future version of the Doctor into coming back in time and changing history. She works with a future Doctor who convinces her to go back and capture the Doctor. She tampers with her own timeline and her intervention is what prevents Ace from being shot and prevents the TARDIS from falling into Nazi hands and prevents them from winning. Hence the trick. The future Doctor has been clever, seeing how her interference would wipe out her timeline.
The discussion between the Doctor and Klein is very interesting as well. The Doctor argues for his usual "changing history is bad in and of itself" bullshit. And Klein rightfully calls him out on it. Yes, it is absolutely good to change history here so that the Allies win, but there are plenty more times when changing history would be good as well. Why stop at changing history so my timeline doesn't exist anymore? Why not go back and save the people colonized by the British? Or the people who died in the numerous wars before WW2? The Doctor's going after her "paradise built on the back of genocide" rings holo when he's not willing to stop any other genocide. Only because in the history that he's familiar with, the Allies won WW2 so that's the only genocide he's willing to stop. It makes me look forward to Klein's further appearances if she calls the Doctor out on his hypocrisy even though, you know, she's a literal Nazi.

Ace's B plot is definitely less interesting as it's just her planning an escape attempt and getting ratted out by one of the other prisoners. And getting harrassed by David Tennant. It's not bad at all, just not as interesting as the meat of the time travel discussion.

Ultimately they end up leaving Klein in the 1940s, which could potentially have devestating effects. It's interesting that, when her timeline gets aborted, she doesn't cease to exist. She's a person from a timeline that no longer exists living in a time before her time. That could potentially be dangerous to to the war effort as well. Maybe if she positions herself well enough, she could help the Nazis win. Or maybe she could just get herself shot. We don't know. I'm sure we'll find out later when she's brought back.

The Monthly Adventures #025 - "Colditz” by Steve Lyons

Colditz is probably one of the most important audios in the entirety of the Main Range. Introducing Klein, who would go on to be a recurring companion of Seven, and beginning the line of stories that would eventually turn into the Hex arc, it’s impossible to understate just how many stories came out of Colditz. But how is the story itself? Its influence goes far, but where did it begin? With this - the 25th release - we’ve reached the first milestone of The Monthly Adventures, and with it a damn good story.

The Doctor and Ace step out of the TARDIS, and are immediately arrested. They’ve landed in Colditz Castle, the most secure prison in Germany, and their imprisonment might just mean victory for the German Reich.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

There is a lot to love in Colditz, but I’ll begin with what I think is the highlight; Ace is at her best here and Aldred is giving a stunning performance. The Doctor’s out of the picture for a majority of the runtime, so Ace (or McShane for a few audios but damn if I’m calling her that) is our main character this episode. Rebellious, intelligent, destructive, this is where we begin to see where Big Finish would take Ace, and she’s my favourite companion in the history of the show. As for antagonists, we have two stand out adversaries - one for the Doctor and one for Ace. On one hand, you have Klein, who is an incredibly fun foil to the Doctor and really feels like a villain that works well with Seven and his megalomaniacal schemes, and on the other hand you have Ace facing up against Nazi Sergeant Kurtz, played surprisingly enough by David Tennant, who is truly incredible at playing a slimy piece of shit. In fact, I think pretty much every character here is great, from the ally-sympathiser Schäfer to the cowardly Wilkins, these all feel like real people and none of them fall into stereotypes. As for the story, we have a plot in two halves. Ace has a pretty decent but not outstanding pure historical as she tries to escape Colditz Castle, and the Doctor is running around with a refugee from a rogue timeline where Germany uses Ace’s CD Walkman to win the war. And it’s this latter storyline that gives us the twist that the Doctor from the aborted timeline died, regenerated into the Eighth Doctor, and spent years manipulating Klein so that she’d go back to Colditz and stop her own timeline from occurring. Seven has a number of insane, time bending plans over his run in Big Finish, but this might be my favourite, it’s such a hilariously mad left field turn.

As many people have pointed out however, there is one big flaw to Colditz: the sound design is atrocious. Seriously, so much of the dialogue sounds tinny - I understand that it’s because these scenes are taking place in dank dungeons with echoey walls but you can convey this well without putting your actors in tin cans. And sometimes, background noise will just abruptly cut with no warning so our characters can talk, which just feels like the cherry on top. And whilst I like Ace’s escape plot, which took a majority of the story’s runtime, the Doctor’s stumble through the woods with Klein was a lot duller, even if it had some great dialogue. Eventually, both stories do kind of lose steam and begin going in circles, with our character nearly getting away, then getting caught, then meeting up, then getting separated, before meeting up again. You’re probably bored just reading my description of it so you can imagine listening to it.

Overall, Colditz is a personal favourite of mine. Not only is it incredibly notable in the Main Range’s history, it’s also just a damn good script from fan favourite writer Steve Lyons. Ace and the Doctor are at their best and we have multiple brilliant antagonists, which I think excuses an imperfect story and some dodgy sound design.

8/10

Pros:

+ Ace is at her very best

+ Klein seems like a very unique and interesting character

+ Kurtz made for a brilliantly sinister and vile antagonist

+ Love the madcap reveal of the Doctor’s masterplan

+ Good cast of interesting, layered characters

Cons:

- Truly abysmal sound design that was incredibly distracting

- The Doctor’s subplot is noticeably uneventful

- Plot started to circle by the end

I think this is really good. The plot is quite clever with lots of moving parts that fit together like a puzzle, one that you're solving alongside the Doctor. The characters all feel nicely developed and well-rounded. The sound design and music was good.