Scream of the Shalka

Oh but it's fun

 

Richard E Grant's Doctor was a delightful blend of mysteriously gothic and also deeply silly. Alison I also loved dearly, and I think she played well off the Doctor. The Master was fun, the Shalka even looked pretty cool despite the animation* and the awful sound effects

*I will accept it has a certain nostalgic charm but that does come about from it being A Little Bit Shite

😄7/10 = Good! = Recommended!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

THE GOOD, THE BAD ANDTHE REST

The flash animation is nostalgic, provides surprisingly fluent character animations, and paints pretty atmospheric scenes at times.

Richard E. Grant provides an intriguing take on the Doctor. He is something of a darker Eight, a middle form between McGann and Eccleston. In six short episodes, he manages to create a very distinctive incarnation of the Doctor that still feels very much like the Doctor we know.

Paul Cornell writes a very modern-feeling Doctor with technobabble and quick solutions. He also shows heart, throws jokes, and has a frustrated, annoyed side. He's an alternate future for Eight, worn out by the destruction of the Time Lord race (Cornell's idea is very close to what RTD did with the Time War just two years later).

Cornell's humour is on point, and his worldbuilding is mostly fine, even if it feels a bit rushed at times, and it takes a while for the puzzle pieces to fall in place.

At best, this story manages to create a tense and eerie atmosphere.

The Shalka design sure is scary, and those screams are horrifying. There is a bit too much of it, though.

I love the TARDIS interior design.

The Master appears in a wonderfully traditional Delgado-esque take, voiced by the one and only Derek Jacobi, four years before he would play the War Master in the proper TV show. For reasons not fully explained, he finds himself trapped inside the TARDIS and transformed into an android.

The story is like a Classic Who six-parter told at rapid speed. It has that familiar feel to it, but it flows much better.

I quite like the UNIT replacement here, as led by Major Kennet. They play a similar role but are much more effective and militaristic.

The Part 4 cliffhanger is pretty effective and gross.

We eventually learn the extent of the Shalka invasion plan, and I have to say that it's pretty clever. The fight truly feels desperate by the end.

I love the fact that the Shalka bring death and destruction to a planet they see as doomed. It creates tremendous tension for the final stretch.

There is a lot of screaming and singing in that final episode, but it kind of works to make for an intriguing conclusion.

They even have time for a proper sendoff, setting up possible further adventures.

 

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The editing is sometimes very confusing, and the limits of the flash animation make a lot of the adventure look and feel stiff.

The voice acting of many of the guest cast members is stiff and feels off. And the dialogue is occasionally pretty stilted, too.

I don't find the companions particularly appealing. They lack character and irritate me.

Many scenes are very short, which leads to quite abrupt tonal shifts and strange jumps in the narrative that can make it a bit confusing to follow.

Even despite its short runtime and breezy pace, there are scenes that feel like filler. The companions' and the Master's parts of the story never go anywhere.

 

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That sure is a very 90s opening title sequence and rendition of the theme tune.

Sophie Okonedo, who voices companion Alison, is better known these days as Liz 10 from Series 5 of Doctor Who. She is also the only Academy Award-nominated companion actor to date (for Hotel Rwanda).

David Tennant appears in a small, uncredited cameo.

good on alison for dumping joe. giving up a history degree for that mediocre white boy? girl get UP!

I never thought Richard E Grant’s alternate universe 9th Doctor would be this good. He delivers the funny lines with a lightness of touch but has a complex weight to the darker side of his performance. It’s a difficult balance to get right but he nails it.

I hadn’t contemplated how exciting it is that a lesser known slice of Paul Cornell TV Doctor Who exists. Much like the Virgin novelisations and RTD’s take on the show, it is more routed in our reality and has a greater focus on personal relationships than the classic series. It feels throughly modern.

We can’t ignore the leaps and bounds that have been made in the animation - now by the talents at Cosgrove Hall who I knew from the Invasion animation. My word I wish the last three animations had been rendered in this fashion - Death Comes to Time could have been delivered on a whole different level.

The story keeps you fully engaged for the first two thirds, then does start to slip slightly, which I blame on the Shalka themselves. A menace that mostly just screams works well for a build up and reveal, but is less interesting when it comes to the meat or the battle and finale.

My favourite moment is when The Doctor manages to avoid being sucked into the void by using only his wits. Cornell is a natural at adjusting his writing to this epic scale that is not seen in his 2005 and 2007 stories. My least favourite moments are also when monsters just get sucked into voids with little emotional payoff.

Out of all of the material from the wilderness (/theme park) years, this is the most exciting prospect and the only story I could see being the starting point for a new continuing drama. I’m looking forward to finding out more about the behind the scenes and whether anything further was planned before RTD’s return made the enterprise an impossibility.