Besides the presence of Mark Gatiss as a voice actor, the tropes, style, and script are very reminiscent of his stories, and it is quite clear this is a script from him. And this already makes me curious going in - his stories are hit or miss with me - he has written some stories I love, and some which I don't care for.

Unfortunately, this falls into the side I didn't particularly care for. The side characters unfortunately blended into the side and the setting for me, and the setting itself, while usually I am a fan of the past, wasn't utilised well enough for me in this story. The setting was realised well, but not enough done with it to really care. The villain however, I was intrigued by, and the mystery worked well to draw me in initially, which has my interest piqued by its atmosphere and horror, however my interest waned as it progressed.

The choice to have the Fifth Doctor with Turlough solo though was interesting, and nice to develop this under utilised dynamic. Davison and Strickson's performance was a pleasure throughout at least.

Honestly, it’s the definitive “This story exists” for Big Finish so far. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, having the Five and Turlough Pairing makes it a bit more unique. But it’s pretty unremarkable.
I don’t think you can do anything wrong with listening to this, pretty solid start for the 5 solo run, but even out of the first 10, I rarely ever think about this Story. I think that tells you enough about how I feel about it.

Phantasmagora é a segunda Main Range produzida pela BIG FINISH escrita por Mark Gatiss, conhecido por ter um gosto bem peculiar em suas histórias geralmente flertando com um humor pastelão. O Áudio sofre de dois grandes problemas, o primeiro e talvez mais notável está em seu enredo podendo intitula-lo com a expressão “água com açúcar”. Não há nada de instigante, diferenciado e muito menos ousado – E o segundo problema é a péssima falta de organização em sua estrutura inicial, a parte 1 descreve perfeitamente esse equivoco com vários personagens, situações e elementos sendo apresentados em um curto período de tempo facilmente causando confusão em seu ouvinte. Peter Davison empenha bem o papel de 5° Doutor mesmo em alguns momentos parecendo estar voltando a se adaptar ao seu personagem, Mark Strickson manda muito bem na performance porem seu personagem fica longe de ser notável, a não ser pelas burradas que comete perto do fim. A última parte do áudio é a mais lucida e medonha, ela coloca as coisas nos trilhos e conclui bem a aventura – O medonho fica por parte do vilão Valentine, basicamente um tirano perturbado que escapou de sua execução e busca vingança usando os jogos de cartas para identificar pessoas de mentes brilhantes, ele as sequestra para tortura-las antes de usar a consciência delas para consertar sua nave que foi danificada ao cair na Terra. O medonho e bizarro é que o meio de tortura de Valentine é remover toda a pele de suas vítimas, deixando o que ele chama de Casca...eeerr que horror, credo 🤮...Sem dizer que Valentine tem um casarão com várias pessoas nesse estado gritando de dor, de fato é perturbador ouvir esses trechos. Enfim, eu pensei seriamente em avaliar Phatasmagoria com uma nota negativa, mas as duas “colheres de chá” que evitaram isso foi sua parte 4 e o fato de ser apenas o segundo lançamento de Doctor Who da BIG FINISH.

Phantasmagoria - 4/10

I did in some ways actually enjoy this story as you can argue its the first 'proper' Doctor Who Big Finish story as Sirens of Time was a multi Doctor adventure.

I don't really have a lot to say about this story: I listened to it, I took it in and then it ended. I don't know if that makes much sense but I just didn't get that immersed within the world this story tried to build up around itself.

On a more positive note I thoroughly enjoyed both Davison and Strickson's performances and they really do feel like the characters they were playing years prior. I said this in my Sirens of Time review too but I love having Doctor Who stories to experience that I know absolutely nothing about.

The setting is something I also quite enjoyed as historical settings to me are always my favourites.

All the other characters just passed me by in this story too which I found to be quite disappointing, side characters in Doctor Who stories always bring some of the best moments (a very random but favourite example of this is Irongron and Bloodaxe from The Time Warrior who provide some of my favourite scenes from the show together).

Overall Phantasmagoria gets a 4/10 because I really just didn't care for the plot that much at all (apologies for the lack of nuance here I'm just really struggling to put my thoughts into words about this story), its not one I can see myself going back to in a hurry.

Despite some good elements I don’t think the range had quite found its feet at this point. On the two times I’ve listened to this Mark Gatiss’ name has been the main draw but I’ve found my mind drifting as I make my way through it. Must better comes after!!