I feel like the first appearance of the Master is given a lot of weight in Dust Breeding, and there's a side of it I quite enjoyed when this famous villain goes up against the Doctor in a psychic duel here, but outside of the big climactic moment, the rest of the audio left me strangely uninterested.  While initially intriguing with the use of the real-life missing Scream painting, when we get to the Warp Core stuff, it quickly descended into what felt like a standard and pretty boring sci-fi affair.  If it weren't for the Master's presence, this would be a totally forgettable and kind of worthless Doctor Who story.  The Master does add something.  The Seventh Doctor gets to interact with him in a way he didn't quite get to in Survival.  Otherwise I didn't have that great of a time overall.

12.06.2022

Exactly as fun as it sounds. One of the main villains is dust. A chore to listen through. 1/5

MR 021: Dust Breeding

Well this was a rather odd story. I'm not sure what to make of it to be honest.

There's an ancient powerful entity hidden in the Scream painting. The Master is trying to lure it out by using its ancient enemy it was created to fight as bait. Hijinks ensue. There's an artist who gives this planet of psychic dust to the entity and then theres a battle of psychic wills for it between the Doctor and Master.

I'm not sure if it's good or not? I guess it's pretty ok. But ok is a huge improvement over the last run of audios. I'll take ok over terrible accents, over exposed audio, and boring, messy, and procedural scripts.

It is definitely nice to see Geoffrey Beevers' first BF audio. He's fantastic as always. He's one of my favorite Masters for a reason. I find it interesting that the story gives a definitive end to the Ainley Master here. His Trakken body got burned up by the entity in the painting when he tried to unsuccessfully control it. I'm also not sure who Bev is, I have to assume that she's from a VNA.

I also like the opening where the Doctor has an art gallery in the TARDIS where he steals works that are destroyed according to history. That's pretty hilarious.

But yeah, overall pretty ok. Pretty B tier coded. Nothing super special. I'm super excited about the return of my favorite Doctor next. Colin save me from this run of bad audios.

The Monthly Adventures #021 - "Dust Breeding" by Mike Tucker

Considering Mike Tucker’s last story was so dull it made me want to put down my phone and stop listening to The Monthly Adventures there and then, the only way to go seemed to be up. However, I didn’t anticipate just how “up” it would go. I’ve listened to Dust Breeding before - a couple times actually - and each time I found it good, but not stellar. However, for some reason, it just clicked this time around and I found myself massively enjoying it, despite my previous reservations. A bleak horror story with a terrifying threat, and a familiar face.

The planet Duchamp 331, a desolate dustbowl comprised of a few refuelling stations and a forgotten art gallery - a place nobody would want to visit. But the Doctor and Ace, on a mission to collect Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, discover a terrifying plot that could end the universe, and it’s all connected to the faceless benefactor of a passing luxury cruiser.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Considering how tired The Genocide Machine was, my expectations were significantly low going into Dust Breeding, despite having already listened to it not too long ago. But lo and behold, I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing that struck me was the sound design: it is utterly haunting. The screams of maddened Daleks amplified by an eternal gale of living dust is a mad idea that is realised beyond belief, Duchamp 331 is now one of the scariest settings I’ve seen in a Doctor Who story and it’s a real shame most of the runtime is spent in a ramshackle art gallery and a luxury cruise liner orbiting the planet. At least the first half of Dust Breeding excelled at building an atmosphere, between the planet’s screams and the corpses reanimating, we had a fantastic horror story on our hands, and one that really got under my skin. The idea of the warp core and the living dust was brilliant and I was slightly disappointed when the story changed gears to be about the Master. However, that reveal is unrivalled and one of the best cliffhangers I’ve heard in a while, not to mention Geoffrey Beavers’ performance was magnificent - I haven’t had a wealth of experience with the Decayed Master but what I have heard, the character is sold entirely because of Beavers being a powerhouse performer. Another significant player we have is Bev, returning from The Genocide Machine. She was probably my favourite part of that buzzkill, so I’m just happy to see her in a better story - she’s just as good here and gets even more to do than before, so I’m rather happy about that. Still think she sounds too similar to Sophie Aldred though, I keep mixing them up.

Really, my main complaint with Dust Breeding is it went in a direction I found disappointing. I enjoyed pretty much all of it but the stuff on Duchamp 331 was so much more interesting and unique than the stuff on the cruise liner that it harms the story when our focus shifts to away from the planet. The dust, the horror, the atmosphere is all too good to look away from, Guthrie was a really interesting character but we barely spent any time with him and that final moment could’ve hit so much harder if he was one of the main cast. And, as much as I love the idea of the Warp Core and the living dust, Tucker had to go and give it a voice. I can’t stand Johnson Willis’ acting here, it’s so unnecessarily hammy and ends up being incredibly annoying. All threat the Warp Core had was ripped away by that performance.

A great horror story with Geoffrey Beavers’ killing it as the Master is steered away from an atmospheric creepshow into a slightly bland action story. Multiple fantastic antagonists and a near perfect first half make Dust Breeding undeniably great in my opinion, but I wish it had stuck with its original direction.

8/10

Pros:

+ Incredibly atmospherically rich, swamped in bleak horror

+ Fantastically creepy setting with a great idea behind it

+ Brilliant sound design that help the atmosphere massively

+ The reveal of the Master and Beaver’s performance are excellent

+ Bev returns and is once again a highlight of the story

Cons:

- The material set on Duchamp 331 is miles more interesting than the rest of the narrative

- Guthrie was a wasted character

- Damien and the Warp Core got very annoying after a while

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#021. Dust Breeding ~ 6/10

◆ An Introduction

It can sometimes take me a couple of days to get a review written, which can be quite the pain in the rear end when you desperately crave being the first reviewer on new releases. But I’ve started to realise that if I get writer’s block, the best thing to do is just take a day to compose my thoughts… which is what I did with ‘Dust Breeding’.

The BigFinish debut of a villain as iconic as the Master should be really damn good.

The key word here is “should”.

Oh dear.

◆ Publisher’s Summary

On 19th century Earth artist Edvard Munch hears an infinite scream pass through nature. Centuries later his painting of that scream hangs in a gallery on the barren dust world Duchamp 331.

Why is there a colony of artists on a planet that is little more than a glorified garage? What is the event that the passengers of the huge, opulent pleasure cruiser 'Gallery' are hoping to see? And what is hidden in the crates that litter the cargo hold?

The Doctor's diary indicates that the painting is about to be destroyed in 'mysterious circumstances', and when he and Ace arrive on Duchamp 331, those circumstances are well underway.

◆ The Seventh Doctor

‘Dust Breeding’ is the second time Mike Tucker has written a script for this incarnation, and McCoy once more puts in a really nice performance.

The Doctor has a playroom in the TARDIS that is filled with various priceless works of art, including a Terileptil sculpture and a copy of the Mona Lisa (not the one with “this is a fake” written on it in felt tip, that one is in the Louvre). I love the idea of him rescuing famed works of art, minutes before they are set to be destroyed.

◆ Ace

The dialogue for Ace in ‘Dust Breeding’ feels a little bit forced, and it honestly feels like Sophie Aldred only took one look at the script the night before. Also not a fan of the weird screaming that she does at the beginning of part two (I don’t know how many of you have seen the video of the news anchor falling out of a vat of grapes, but that’s what the screaming sounds like).

Ace doesn’t run from anything.

◆ Bev Tarrant

Louise Faulkner gets substantially more to do in ‘Dust Breeding’. The fact she didn’t join this TARDIS team full time was a massive missed opportunity (but this range’s loss is Professor Summerfield’s gain).

Bev believes that whenever she crosses paths with the Doctor, someone is always trying to kill her.

◆ Story Recap

The planet Duchamp 331 is a desolate hell hole where people come to refuel their spaceships, and not much else. Though it does contain an isolated artist’s colony, which is why the Doctor has dragged Ace here. He’s been “liberating” famous pieces of art across time and space, before they are set to be destroyed or damaged.

Duchamp 331 in the 26th century is the last known location of The Scream by Edvard Munch; a painting about to vanish in mysterious circumstances… and one containing a sentient, unstoppable super-weapon made of pure mental energy.

Meanwhile, the Master is aboard the pleasure cruiser Gallery, with a group of six extremely powerful biological, fish-faced super-weapons. Suffice to say, a pretty colossal battle is about to ensue.

◆ And You Will Obey Him…

‘Dust Breeding’ is an adventure I’ve wanted to review for a while, due to the fact it’s historically important to BigFinish’s long and awesome legacy; it’s the first time they had the Master appear in an adventure.

Anthony Ainley had been invited to reprise his role, but BigFinish were unable to reach a suitable deal with him, so Mike Tucker decided to do something quite clever. He made it so that the Warp Core (mental super-weapon) was so powerful that it stripped the Tremas Body from the Master, and returned him to his barbecued form.

Some people may be sad that we didn’t get to hear Ainley back in action, but I’m so grateful that Geoffrey Beevers got to step back into the role – he is such an incredible performer, with a gorgeously soothing yet creepy voice. I can say with absolute clarity that he is the best part of ‘Dust Breeding’, and it’s easy to see why BigFinish keep asking him back (I can’t wait to review ‘Master’).

◆ Artists in Isolation

I’d like to move onto the topic of location. Duchamp 331 has this melancholic feeling to it; a world of pure dust which is completely hostile (a Dalek saucer landed there and got stuck, so you can now hear the screams of the genocidal pepper pots beneath the surface). It’s a really bleak place.

It’s pretty much just a fuelling station, though there is the Outhouse. The idea of an isolated artist’s colony on a hostile planet is an immensely fun one, so much so that BigFinish would revisit it in a brilliant Third Doctor script called ‘The Gulf’. Sadly, I don’t think the concept was used to the best of its potential here.

◆ The Eccentric Salvadori

I want to talk about my biggest issue with ‘Dust Breeding’. The acting is really inconsistent. On one side of the coin, Beevers is absolutely nailing his BigFinish debut, whilst McCoy and Faulkner are proving that we were utterly robbed of more adventures featuring the Doctor and Bev Tarrant.

On the other side of the coin… “KLEMP! KLEMP!” I genuinely don’t even know where to begin with the performance Caroline John delivered. This is a woman who literally played one of my all-time favourite companions (Liz Shaw) so I’m completely baffled by the sheer atrociousness of her playing the eccentric Madame Salvadori. The accent feels like a mash-up of Swiss, German, Danish and Icelandic… and it just comes out sounding terrible. I never wanna hear “KLEMP! KLEMP!” for as long as I live, or I may just remove my eardrums with an orbital sander!

I’ve already been over Sophie Aldred’s poor performance in this play, so I wont waste any more time on that.

◆ Sound Design

A desolate and dusty world… which is more than a little hostile. Gareth Jenkins has created a great soundscape for Duchamp 331.

A blaring alarm sounds, as Refuelling Station B sends a distress call to Duchamp Control, attempting to warn them of the dangers of the dust. Wild winds batter the surface of this dry planet; the screams of trapped Daleks carried through the air. A band plays classical music aboard the Starship Gallery, as Salvadori addresses her crowd of buyers. The warbling Warp Core begins its psychic “communion” with Ace. As the Master reactivates the dormant Krill, they begin snarling and growling with much ferocity.

◆ Music

Russell Stone is behind the score for ‘Dust Breeding’. This is a composer who has all but vanished from BigFinish, but he created some of the best music back in the day. Duchamp 331 is meant to be this backwater planet where, according to Guthrie, you are sent to die. There are moments where the score becomes this sedate and melancholic piece, and it’s so beautifully fitting for the locale.

◆ Conclusion

“Did you even bother to ask who I might be, where I came from?”

Aside from some really nice post-production work and a few decent performances, ‘Dust Breeding’ is an adventure that is beset with problems.

The pacing is slower than a pensioner with a fractured ankle, thus making the whole outing drag on. The plot involving the Master and the Krill feels completely incidental to the one involving the Doctor and the Warp Core (which makes zero sense, since the Krill are literally on the artwork). Oh, and don’t even get me started on some of the acting in this release! Most of the cast did a decent job, with Beevers, McCoy and Faulkner really excelling. Sophie Aldred, on the other hand, completely dropped the ball! As for Caroline John as Salvadori… dear lord, the accent was abysmal!

Mike Tucker did a really good job with his last story for this TARDIS team, but ‘Dust Breeding’ really fell flat. It’s a damn shame too, since this was the Master’s BigFinish debut.