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Overview

Released

March 2011

Written by

Eddie Robson

Directed by

Nicholas Briggs

Runtime

110 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Robots

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Lancaster, Ackleton, Earth, England, Liverpool

Synopsis

19th century Lancashire: where the white heat of the Industrial Revolution burns hottest at Samuel Belfrage's brass mill, a mill plagued by more than its fair share of work-related injuries.

While Thomas Brewster struggles to secure a fair deal for Belfrage's overworked hands, fellow travellers the Doctor and Evelyn follow the Copper King to Liverpool, there to discover the unexpected truth about Belfrage's business.

Back in Ackleton, the local MP voices the fears of many when he says that the machines are taking over. He's more right than he knows...

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2 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Chegamos ao áudio de encerramento a trilogia de Thomas Brewster com o 6° Doutor. Industrial Evolution é marcado por suas despedidas, primeiro temos a última participação de Maggie Stables como a companion Dra. Evelyn Smythe antes de se aposentar da atuação e logo depois infelizmente vir a falecer. E também temos Brewster ganhando seu destino deixando de vez cruzar seus caminhos com o Time Lord – As propostas iniciais do enredo de Eddie Rodson são das mais boas intenções do mundo abraçando toda causa da classe trabalhadora denunciando o abuso das empresas e de chefes que pisam em seus funcionários usando de sua autoridade, mas infelizmente na segunda metade do enredo o escritor acabou se perdendo em suas ideias descartando totalmente a mensagem que pretendia transmitir e logo em sequência se contradizendo em alguns pontos. A trama é situada em uma fábrica de cobre em Liverpool do século XIX, o Doutor e Evelyn se depara com um acidente de trabalho e por alguns fatores os viajantes começam a desconfiar da existência de uma influência alienígena no ocorrido. Ao decorrer das investigações descobrimos que o dono da fábrica “Belfrage” na verdade é um alienígena da espécie “Cahlian” disfarçado de humano que se encontra envolvido em uma espécie de comércio ilegal de venda de halita para outros mundos (um tipo de mineral antes visto no arco “Image Of The Fendahl” do 4° Doutor) . Por conta de um descuido de um dispositivo uma espécie de robôs/alienígenas começou a se reconstruir na espreita da empresa através de peças danificadas. Toda intenção critica de Eddie Rodson acaba por não funcionar pela má reprodução das tais sendo entregue de um jeito nada convincente ao seu ouvinte, além de superficial sua escrita conta com clichês e contradições em alguns momentos de sua história. Uma delas ocorre na segunda metade onde o Robson decide ficar em cima do muro quando era evidente a total culpa do dono da fábrica “Belfrage”, ele dribla isso apresentando dois pontos de vista inocentando o principal responsável da problemática. Uma outra contradição está no fim do enredo onde Thomas Brewster o mesmo que quase deu inicio a uma grave trabalhista nas partes iniciais do áudio, decide formar uma dupla com o chefe da fábrica. Junto a isso ficamos inserido em um enredo genérico de criaturas meio robô meio alienígena correndo atrás dos humanos, todo aquele clichê ridículo de invasão um corre corre pra e pra cá “Aaahh é o fim do mundo corre”. A BIG FINISH não costuma a pecar quando se trata da produção de som de seus áudios, mas a de Industrial Evolution apresenta uns cortes de cena muito feio e brusco parecem até mesmo um erro de masterização, ele também contar com efeitos sonoros fracos e repetidos - Um exemplo: são os barulhos das maquinas da fábrica, claramente são efeitos sonoros aleatórios de metais misturados não remetendo a uma máquina de produção. E por último temos uma outra boa intenção de Eddie Rodson que também não funciona, ele faz 6° Doutor insistir em soluções pacifistas para a problemática mostrando que não existe a necessidade de matança, até ai ok! Legal! Está tudo dentro do personagem. Mas deter as criaturas com uma pistola de cola é um meio muito bobo para convencer seu ouvinte, não mesmo!? Enfim, é um áudio que não deixa claro qual é a real mensagem que quer transmitir, o enredo é bem chato contando com uma invasão/perseguição bem manjada e genérica.

We have reached the closing audio of Thomas Brewster's trilogy with the 6th Doctor. Industrial Evolution is marked by farewells, starting with the last appearance of Maggie Stables as the companion Dr. Evelyn Smythe before she retired from acting and, unfortunately, later passed away. We also have Brewster finally finding his destiny, no longer crossing paths with the Time Lord. Eddie Robson's initial storyline proposals had some of the best intentions in the world, embracing every cause of the working class and denouncing the abuse of companies and bosses who trample on their employees using their authority, but unfortunately, in the second half of the plot, the writer lost his way in his ideas, completely discarding the message he intended to convey and soon after contradicting himself in some points. The plot is set in a copper factory in 19th century Liverpool, where the Doctor and Evelyn encounter a work accident and, due to some factors, the travellers begin to suspect the existence of an alien influence in the incident. Throughout the investigations, we discover that the factory owner "Belfrage" is actually an alien from the "Cahlian" species disguised as a human who is involved in a kind of illegal trade, selling halite to other worlds (a type of mineral previously seen in the "Image Of The Fendahl" arc of the 4th Doctor). Due to a mishandling of a device, a kind of robots/aliens begin rebuilding themselves within the company using damaged parts. Eddie Robson's critical intention ultimately does not work due to poor reproduction, being delivered in a way that is not convincing to the listener; besides being superficial, his writing contains clichés and contradictions in some moments of his story. One of them occurs in the second half where Robson decides to stay on the fence when it was evident that the factory owner "Belfrage" was entirely to blame, he dodges this by presenting two points of view exonerating the main responsible for the problem. Another contradiction is at the end of the plot where Thomas Brewster, the same one who almost started a severe labour issue in the initial parts of the audio, decides to form a duo with the factory boss. Along with this, we are inserted into a generic plot of creatures that are half robot, half alien running after humans, all that ridiculous cliché of an invasion, a runaround of "Aaahh it's the end of the world, run". BIG FINISH usually does not falter when it comes to the sound production of its audios, but that of Industrial Evolution features very ugly and abrupt scene cuts that seem almost like a mastering error; it also includes weak and repetitive sound effects - For example: the noises of the factory machines, which are clearly random metallic sound effects mixed together, not resembling a production machine. And lastly, we have another good intention of Eddie Robson which also doesn't work; he makes the 6th Doctor insist on pacifist solutions to the problem, showing that there is no need for killing, which is fine and all! Cool! It's right in character. But stopping the creatures with a glue gun is a very silly way to convince your listener, isn't it!? In the end, it is an audio that does not make clear what message it wants to convey; the plot is quite boring featuring a very stereotypical and generic invasion/chase.

(Translation generated by AI, so mistakes are possible).


KnuppMello

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This review contains spoilers!

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

Previous Story: The Feast of Axos


Aaand just after it was getting good, we're back to the snoozefest. Not particularly surprised that Brewster went out on a low note. Still, I'm glad to know I won't have to hear him ever again. No hate to John Pickard's performance, I actually think it's quite good, it's just that he's quite possibly the most insufferably written companion ever to travel with the Doctor (though I'm sure I'll be proven wrong on that eventually).

There's not much to say about the story itself, it's as generic as a story could ever get. I liked some of the ideas here, particularly the monsters that use humans as spare parts to build themselves. I don't think the true body-horror aspect of that was realised as well as it could have been though. If I'm being honest, I zoned out for most of this story and I don't intend to relisten to it to find out what I missed (most likely nothing).


Next Story: A Town Called Fortune


thedefinitearticle63

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