Storm Warning

One of my first audios from big finish, it starts really good and interesting, the R101 is a great setting and the rest of the cast are also entertaining but the story starts to drag a bit for the second half until the airship is about to crash where it picks up again, my favourite parts about these are obviously Charley and 8th, Part 1 and the closing scene of the pair flying with Ramsey

15.05.2022

McGann is a wonderful Doctor. A wimsy fairytale character is what you get with this incarnation (at least the earlier stages). Unfortunately, the rest of the play leaves you desiring better material.

The new companion Charley is very bare-bones. The arc they setup is not about who Charleу is, but about what Charley is (see The Impossible Girl, The Hybrid, The Timeless Child). The story itself with the Triskele is way less smart than it thinks it is, with very plain almost-not metaphors. It's the kind of paradigm you find captivating at 9 years old. 1.5/5

MR 016: Storm Warning

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oh, um, excuse me. That's just me fangirling. Enter Paul McGann and India Fisher! This was so nostalgic, oh my god. This is BF's main line, current era team and it's amazing to hear it. The Eighth Doctor was such a blank slate in the tv movie that now BF basically gets to invent his personality and what a great personality it is. Yes, BF have already invented a new companion character in Evelyn and she is amazing, but this is the first time BF basically get to invent a new Doctor.

And what a Doctor he is. Paul McGann is a legend for a reason. His banter and sharp witted responses are hilarious even here. As are his scatter brained responses when he first meets Charley, which I will post below, another legendary first meeting like Six and Evelyn. His lust for life is evident even in this first story and Charley is the perfect companion for him. She, too, has a lust for life. She boards the R101 disguised as a steward just because she can, because she wants to see the world. I'm so excited to hear all their adventures again, I'm pretty sure I was starting to tear up with how nostalgic this was for me.
Now the actual story. The R101, an airship that historically crashed tragically is on its way to India, but it is on a secret mission. To return a crashed alien pilot and possibly steal the spaceship that the alien is from. The aliens turn out to have divided their personalities into logic, instinct, and free will. The engineers, the uncreators, and the lawgiver. There is only one lawgiver that has lived for a very long time and has dictated what the engineers and uncreators do, but it is dying and it needs a replacement. The man who brought the R101 here to steal the alien ship stays as the new uncreators are free from the lawgiver's dictates, but are scared off by everyone roaring because they've never seen a predator before. One of the people from the R101 steals an alien gun and in an act to keep it accidentally destroys the gas bags holding up the airship which then crashes tragically.

The Doctor and Charley then fly off on a vortisaur, a predator that lives in the time vortex, back to where the TARDIS has crash landed. There's an interesting hook, here, for BF's ongoing series with Charley. She's a time anomaly of some sort. The Doctor considers putting her back onto the R101 and letting her die because history is going to change with her alive, which would be horrible. Does he know who he is? But he can't do it. Just as he can't not let Charley keep the Vortisaur, which Charley names Ramsey.

It's a cute story, but it's an especially amazing one. The real strength in this story is hearing Paul McGann's first real story outside of the tv movie, of course, and seeing Charley's first story. They already work so well together and have fantastic chemistry. I remember adoring these two and I can't wait to hear more of them. Which, of course, I will because the Eighth Doctor stories in the early main range are in blocks, so the next three will all be Eighth Doctor. Look forward to that!

Interesting start for the Eight Doctor. Not a big fan of the eight doctor yet, but it was interesting enough for me to want to continue. The alien voices were quite annoying though. But I am interested in the plot development of the Doctor taking Charley out of her time and cheating her death.

The Monthly Adventures #016 - "Storm Warning" by Alan Barnes

The Main Range’s original mission statement seemed to be stand-alone, classic-who adventures with familiar faces. There were a few plot threads, Seven and Ace had stories that took place one after another, Five and Nyssa referenced some previous stories they had together and Six got a whole new companion to play around with. Storm Warning is a notable story as it is the first instance of truly serialised audios, being the debut story with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and India Fisher in her role as beloved companion Charley Pollard. This is the beginning of one of Big Finish’s most iconic runs, that boasts some of its most iconic stories. But every tale must have a beginning, so where did this one start?

The R101: His Majesty’s glorious airship, ready to pave the way for a new technological golden age for Britain. But there are secrets aboard the R101: spies, runaways, time lords and a mysterious passenger in Cabin 43. The voyagers of the R101 have a very deadly plan, one that could end the entire galaxy.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Let’s get it out of the way, we have to talk about Charley Pollard. There is going to be a lot of stuff about Charley in the coming reviews, she is easily the most popular companion from the Main Range and possibly the most popular companion from the entire Expanded Universe, the only person I think could compete with her in terms of popularity would be Bernice Summerfield. I think Charley is… fine. I think she is on the lower end of companions from the Main Range, especially when Hex and Eveleyn are right there, but I do like her. I don’t always love India Fisher’s vocal performance but 90% of it’s fine, I just find her to not be the most narratively complex. You know the revival template that has been forced upon every companion in the last 19 years of TV? Plucky young girl that smiles whilst handing the Doctor his test tubes. She’s basically just that but from the Edwardian era rather than contemporary England, which I personally don’t love. However, I will acknowledge that Charley is great here - she has a good amount of agency, Fisher does a good job right out the gate and the story introduces her well, I feel I know the character by the end. But, Charley isn’t the only thing going on in this story, we have a whole plot to expand the British Empire via spaceships going on. The R101 is a fantastic setting: I adore the imagery of an airship on a stormy night filled with the bourgeoisie throwing back champagne to the tune of a UFO’s descent. It makes for a great atmosphere and I wildly prefer it over the spaceship we get later on, which is a lot less interesting by comparison. What also helps the sections in the airship is that we have a genuinely interesting and rather fleshed out sidecast; none of the characters felt one note and I can actually remember their names for once. And topping off our cast is of course, the Doctor, this being the first appearance of his Eighth incarnation on audio. McGann’s performance will either be brilliant or falling asleep depending on how much he likes the script but I’m glad to say he knocks out of the park for his debut, Eight immediately puts himself up there with the more popular and well known Doctors.

However, no story is perfect and this is no exception. Barnes is a writer who I have a slightly tenuous relationship with, I feel a lot of his stories can fall flat in the nuance department and Storm Warning certainly misses a few marks. Our alien race for this story - the Triskeli - are a species that have split themselves into three factions: the engineers, the intuition of the species, the uncreators, the instinct, and the lawgiver, a single Triskeli who acts as free will, turning the entire species into a construct similar to that of a brain. This idea is incredibly cool, but in the end, that’s all it ends up being. The Triskeli never feel like a real species, they never feel like an element of the world, they feel like Alan Barnes’ idea, they feel like a concept and most of the time we spend with them is exposition as to how they work. This causes most of my interest in their plotline to become tainted, as I am just not immersed by their existence. And frankly, when it comes to the climax, it’s more of an anticlimax. What happens is the uncreators trick the violent South African spy Rathbone (who has the most atrocious fake south african accent I’ve ever heard by the way) into killing the Lawgiver, allowing the uncreators to take over and wage destruction on the cosmos. They are defeated within five minutes by around twenty people shouting loudly at them because fear is an instinct or something, it doesn’t make them out to be too big of a threat and the visual is just silly. And before you condemn me as a fun sponge for saying that, I’ll have you know that the story takes it completely seriously. 20 full grown men roaring at mutated aliens is not something you play straight, but this story does and it does it a lot. The tone feels like it should be more playful, a lot of the dialogue reflects this too, which feels clunky because it seems out of place with the rest of the audio. You have colourful characters, a unique setting and a climax like that, you really should be leaning into it but Barnes doesn’t, and it makes a lot of Storm Warning feel oddly forced.

Storm Warning is the beginning of an era, one of the most important audios and the start of The Monthly Adventures’ most iconic series. A great pilot with wonderful characters and a memorable setting that mishandles the intricate parts of the script, causing an imbalance in tone and a focus on concept rather than narrative. Still, a very good time and it is only the beginning after all.

7/10

Pros:

+ Charley instantly proves herself as a companion

+ The storm-ridden airship was wonderfully evocative setting

+ McGann gives a fantastic debut audio performance

+ Well developed and interesting side-cast

Cons:

- The Triskelions felt more like an idea than a fleshed out species

- The climax left a lot to be desired

- Tonally inconsistent

- Clunky and forced dialogue

I seem to be one of the few people who don't care much for this story. It's solid enough as far as companion introductions go, and is enjoyable for the most part, but it doesn't wow me.

First, and most noticeable, there's the clankiness of the characters describing out loud what they're seeing and doing. It's nicely lampshaded early on with the Doctor saying, "[Talking to yourself] is the first sign of madness," but considering it continues beyond that point it's still fairly distracting.

There are plenty of things to enjoy, however; Charlie has a fantastic introduction, crossdressing and then immediately getting into trouble, running into the Doctor, and hitting it off immediately. Safe to say, she's an instant favourite. India Fisher has a fantastic historical voice.

The Doctor is likewise spectacular in his first audio outing. He's energetic and lively, and I can practically seen him running and jumping around the sets. He's just plain fun.

There are a few too many male characters with silly names and accents for me to keep track of. Even on my third listen, I still got confused as to who's who and who's doing what. That probably took quite a bit away from my enjoyment of this story.

The passenger is an interesting concept. I like the description we got and the mix of pronouns used for them. Unfortunately, their reveal is when things started going downhill for me. I was glad Engineers and Uncreators weren't just a gender-essentialism metaphor, but I didn't care for the Froidian id/ego/super ego metaphor either. The concept is somewhat overdone, especially seeing as the theory has been repeatedly disputed.

It doesn't help that every moment on the alien ship is dull and confusing. It's made all the worse for coming after such a compelling build-up.

The solution was pretty fun. Hearing everyone roar always puts a smile on my face. I love the Vortasaur and every scene with it. Most of all, however, I like the self sacrifice; a man that had up to that point been trying to secure a weapon of mass destruction for his country agreeing that he was wrong and hoping to teach that lesson to an alien species.

I also love that the thing that brought the R101 down was, in the end, human error and lack of foresight, and not anything alien or supernatural. We rarely get stories like that, which makes this all the more impactful, all the more tragic.

All in all, enjoyable enough, but I would generally pick other things to listen to over this one.

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#016. Storm Warning ~ 9/10

◆ An Introduction

I’d been putting off ‘Connections’ for some time because I feel like the modern McGann adventures have lost their spark: I also think the writers need to wake up and realise that they’ve done everything they possibly can with Liv, and that keeping her on post-’Stranded’ was a terrible idea.

To that end, I think a trip down memory lane is called for. Let’s return to an era where creativity and experimentation was rife; a time where the characters were fun and likeable, and often came with some of the most questionable accents you’d ever hear.

Memoirs of an Edwardian Adventuress, by Charlotte E. Pollard.

Chapter One…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

October 1930. His Majesty's Airship, the R101, sets off on her maiden voyage to the farthest-flung reaches of the British Empire, carrying the brightest lights of the Imperial fleet. Carrying the hopes and dreams of a breathless nation.

There's a storm coming. There's something unspeakable, something with wings, crawling across the stern. Thousands of feet high in the blackening sky, the crew of the R101 brace themselves. When the storm breaks, their lives won't be all that's at stake…

The future of the galaxy will be hanging by a thread.

◆ The Eighth Doctor

‘Storm Warning’ wasn’t the first audio adventure McGann recorded, which explains why he seems somewhat confident being back in the role already. An excellent performance.

Whilst searching through his bookshelf, the Doctor comes across his copy of Frankenstein and reminisces about the “real story” behind it. He once took a train from Switzerland to Petrograd with Lenin: he had a remarkable mind, but was dreadful at tiddlywinks. The Doctor used to ride Vortisaurs bareback when he was at the Academy. After being caught by Lord Tamworth, he pretends to be a spy employed by the Zeppelin Company – Johann Schmidt from Stuttgart, to be precise. Upon realising that Charley should’ve died aboard the R101, he claims that it’s his duty to return her there… but he simply can’t bring himself to do so.

◆ Charley Pollard

India Fisher makes a brilliant first impression as the Edwardian Adventuress. Can I also mention how nice it is to have a companion who’s NOT from present day Earth.

Charley smuggled herself aboard the R101, but her disguise is already slipping: she is supposed to be impersonating a crewmember from Hampshire… so why is she doing a Cockney accent! The real Simon Murchford is probably still lying dead drunk in the stables of The Hare and Hounds at Ickwell Green. Charley got him plastered on the special ale, took his papers and kitbag, and snuck aboard! She loves lightning: so scary and powerful. Charley met a trader, not that long ago, who works all over the world, but mostly in the far east: he told her that you haven’t lived until you’ve had a gin sling on the terrace of the Singapore Hilton, as the sun goes down. She made him promise to meet her there on New Year’s Eve and he just laughed in her face… hence why she smuggled herself aboard the R101 in the first place! Charley pretty much invites herself aboard the TARDIS, and quickly comes up with a name for their pet Vortisaur: Ramsay, after the Prime Minister of her time.

◆ Great Gas Dirigible

‘Storm Warning’ is a pseudo-historical romp, but it still taught me about the great flying gas-bag the Doctor finds himself aboard. The R101 was created and built by the British Air Ministry, as part of a government programme to develop civil airships that could be used on long-distance flights across the Empire.

Around the same time it was being developed, the German Zeppelin Company were in the process of creating the now infamous Hindenburg Class Airships… the first of which was meant to land in New Jersey, but instead caught on fire and exploded!

The Hindenburg was essentially a giant balloon filled with hydrogen gas, so who would like a guess at what happened to the British attempt at creating a dirigible? You’re absolutely correct, dear reader! It crashed into a field in Northern France during the early hours of October 5th, 1930.

I would love to meet the person who thought it would be a genius idea to traverse the globe in enormous flammable balloons, because someone needs to call them a complete moron! In all seriousness though, the R101 is a fantastic setting for a Doctor Who adventure.

◆ Edwardian Adventuress

Nowadays, the companion archetype is always a girl from present day Earth, so it’s always refreshing when BigFinish go the extra mile to make them unique. Charley Pollard – an Edwardian adventuress – is the definition of a fan favourite. That’s likely why she became a Sixth Doctor companion in a series of intriguing releases following her final outing with Eight.

Right from her first appearance, she is utterly charming, and the chemistry between India Fisher and Paul McGann is sparkling!

◆ Sound Design

Alistair Lock has always been a reliable pair of hands, and he does a stunning job with the audio landscape for this adventure. He skilfully brings the airship to life.

A bleeping alarm sounds in the TARDIS console room, as the ship comes to an emergency stop. A time ship crashing over and over again, caught inside a glitch in space-time. Screeching Vortisaurs in the time vortex swarm to pick over the time ship debris. A crackling radio broadcast announces the launch of the R101 from RAF Cardington. The Doctor’s shoes splash through water in one of the airship’s ballast tanks. The entire R101 shudders as a Vortisaur scrapes along the side, causing glasses of Cognac to smash all over the floor. The panting of an alien in Cabin 43. The skies are filled with heavy rain, thunder and lighting, as the storm gradually intensifies. A bell rings throughout the R101, as the ship reaches five-thousand feet. There is a tremendous whoosh of air as the Triskelion spaceship comes into view. The noise made by the Triskele when they materialise is utterly ear piercing! Rathbone fires his pistol at Charley, only just missing her. The Uncreator Prime fires at the crew of the R101 with their energy weapon. The R101’s wreckage burns in the fields of Northern France.

◆ Conclusion

“Memoirs of an Edwardian Adventuress, by Charlotte E. Pollard…”

On the 4th October 1930, the R101 set out on its maiden voyage, bound for Karachi. Unbeknownst to nearly all aboard, they would be making a brief stop at a spaceship to return a lost alien ambassador – hoping to be rewarded with incredibly advanced technology and weapons, which would allow the British Empire to topple any force that dare stand against it. Unbeknownst to everyone aboard… the airship wouldn’t reach its destination!

‘Storm Warning’ is a bit difficult to talk about, because anyone who wants to call themselves a BigFinish fan with a straight face has heard it dozens of times already. If you’ve somehow managed to miss this gem, then what are you doing with your life?

A really fun little adventure, some incredible performances from McGann and Fisher, and the introduction of everybody’s favourite Edwardian Adventuress. This is just the definition of classic BigFinish.

✅8.2

😃Great!

👌🏼Essential!

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

A NEW BEGINNING!

I love the opening scene, which brings back Paul McGann with force in an exciting action scene. McGann leads this adventure with great energy and confidence, proving that he would have been a great action-hero Doctor on TV. His youthful devotion to the role is contagious, particularly in how he handles the alien invaders.

The characters and their dialogue, as well as the simple sound design, build an evocative setting onboard the royal airship in the 1930s. I truly felt like I was on the ship with the characters, following their treacherous journey through the storm.

The sound design is also used effectively to create a tense, mysterious, and exciting atmosphere.

India Fisher's Charlotte Pollard is introduced early on and used well throughout the adventure. Her adventurous energy and quick wit make her an instant favourite. She also instantly hits it off with McGann.

Barnaby Edwards offers a memorable performance as Rathbone, and Hylton Collins is great as Chief Steward Weeks. Gareth Thomas is a very believable upper-class Lord, and Helen Goldwyn provides an early example of a larger-than-life alien voice for Big Finish.

It is clear very early on that they have a set plan for the Eighth Doctor, and they are already beginning to build a larger story arc in this story, giving most of what appears here a true purpose, with the rewards coming later.

It's interesting how Big Finish set up Charley as more than a simple companion—an anomaly who shouldn't exist. This was a few years before that would be commonplace in the revived series!

Part 4 is action-packed and effectively fills up the tension and stakes. I love the Vortisaur riding and the climactic moment of the crash—all very cinematic.

This one has some of the early clunky Big Finish writing, where the characters say out loud what they are doing and seeing. This is especially bad when the Doctor walks around talking to himself.

The latter half gets surprisingly high-concept sci-fi and can be a bit difficult to follow at times. Part 3 is significantly longer than the other episodes and can feel a bit overstretched.

On my last re-listen to this story, I started listening to it on October 1st 2020. October 4th 2020 was the 90th anniversary of the R101 airship disaster as depicted in the story (albeit with a fair number of fictional embellishments and alterations). I’m not aware of experiencing any of the historical stories so close to the anniversary of the events depicted and, having enjoyed this story immensely – even on this, probably about the third or fourth time round – the anniversarial aspect adds a new dimension.

Listening to Storm Warning again and I was transported back to 2001. It was a heady time to be a fan of Doctor Who and, especially, of Big Finish. After a couple of years of stories featuring rotating incarnations of the 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors alongside a bunch of Bernice Summerfield audios, we suddenly had Paul McGann on board. Paul McGann. The ‘current’ Doctor. The Doctor who, up to that point, was sometimes referred to as the George Lazenby of Doctors – only having one TV outing which many saw as a failure due to it not spawning the hoped-for series (I wasn’t one of those – I loved the Movie at the time and still love it now).

And here was the 8th Doctor getting a whole four more stories (with probably more beyond that). I can distinctly remember listening to the story for the first time on the stereo in my bedroom having purchased it at a signing event at Tenth Planet involving India Fisher, Helen Goldwyn and Alan Barnes.

I spent a lot of my early twenties at Tenth Planet with my friends. Travelling up to London on the train and taking the Jubilee Line to stand in line in a shopping centre in Barking on Saturday mornings was how we hung out. A trip to the Wimpy across the road for food afterwards was a common ritual. We made friends with the owners of the shop. We would see the same fan faces each time and even made a few new friends.

India herself was already familiar to us having attended a signing for her first Big Finish appearance in Winter for the Adept. Alan Barnes had just been appointed editor of DWM. Helen Goldwyn had already been in quite a few stories and was also a familiar face at the signings. It was a friendly, fun atmosphere.

In a previous life I wrote up these little misadventures and published them on the net. I managed to find what I said about this signing and it seems that, after attending the signing we listened to the first two episode together (which wasn’t something we often did – audio listening isn’t the easiest of communal experiences unless you’re sitting in a car, I find). It also seems like we didn’t actually have the covers for the CD at this point as they had been sent by Tenth Planet to be signed by Paul McGann himself.

But what I distinctly remember is that opening sequence of the 8th Doctor in the TARDIS by himself. On that first listen is was both thrilling and slightly strange listening to McGann recreate his Doctor. I recall finding the Doctor talking to himself for a good few minutes as awkward and clunky.

This time round, I really didn’t feel that at all. I thought the opening monologue actually worked. Maybe its the 11 extra years of audio listening that’s meant I’ve become more accustomed to different styles of presenting story on audio that a bit of a character talking to themselves doesn’t jar as much as it seemed to back then. Maybe I was just enjoying the wave of nostalgia.

But, even allowing for a bit of clunkiness in this scene, the story soon rips along to the Doctor being aboard the R101 and meeting the best thing about this whole story – India Fisher’s Charlotte Pollard.

The rapport between McGann and Fisher is instant and the Doctor and Charley feel like best friends after about three lines of dialogue. Barnes’ script for the two characters is absolutely spot on. The 8th Doctor is born anew in this story. It takes the TV Movie depiction and adds new layers to him which feel natural and atuned to McGann’s performance. All the ‘played tiddlywinks with the Tzarina’ and breathless excitement is perfect and the steel he later shows when confronted by various adversaries is 100% the Doctor.

Charley is perfect companion material. Awe and wonder, no nonsense around fools, determination and an adventurous spirit are all brought to scintillating life by Fisher. I love every scene she is in and when it is with McGann it’s a positive joy to listen to. More than once I found myself smiling as the audio played, wallowing in the dynamic between them.

The rest of the cast more than match the two leads. Principal guest star, Gareth Thomas, is absolutely brilliant as Lord Tamworth. Initially painted as a gruff, aristocratic entrepreneur, he softens and grows as the story progresses and he realises his folly. His relationship with the Doctor grows and forms a mutual respect as the story progresses and his decision to join the Triskeli as a guide and adviser demonstrates a man of honour and humility which maybe wasn’t evident in the first episode but bubbled under the surface of Thomas’s performance.

Big Finish stalwarts (particularly in these early days of the company) Nicholas Pegg, Barnaby Edwards and Helen Goldwyn form the majority of the rest of the cast. Pegg is a bit of comic relief as Frayling, the designer of the R101 and Edwards chews the scenery as the villain of the piece, Rathbone. His South African accent is probably a bit broad but in audio heightened accents (yes, even slightly dodgy American ones) don’t bother me as the more distinct the voice the easier it is to follow who is who on audio. There’s nothing worse than characters sounding similar when there are no visuals to guide the listener. Helen Goldwyn is lovely as the various forms of the Triskeli trinity. She is ethereal and alien in just the right measure.

The sound design on the audio isn’t always something I comment on but something about Storm Warning really struck me and I remember it being the same on my first listens. The soundscape of the Triskelion ship makes it sound vast and cavernous and it is incredibly easy to imagine. The climactic scenes of Triskeli appearing in multitude behind the the Doctor, Frayling and Tamworth whilst they stand on a three-armed sigil is a long-lasting image I have from listening to this audio even now 11 years later. Something about the imagery in this story is very memorable and the soundscape and direction are to thank for this.

Historically, the R101 disaster did occur but this audio plays fast and loose with the facts. Mentions of the Cardington base (also featured in Zagreus) are factually correct as that is indeed where the R101 was built and launched from. But whilst the Doctor is adamant there are no survivors from the crash, there were, in fact, six people who did. None of the characters are historical figures or based on anyone.

It’s a slightly odd approach for a Doctor Who pseudo-historical, particularly one based around a specific event as, usually, Doctor Who writers delight in riffing on real people involved in real events. But I imagine that a disaster which is, just, in living memory is a sensitive topic to deal with. It’s a matter of record that families of people involved in the Titanic disaster were unhappy with various elements of the movie.

It was an absolute delight listening to this story again and I think it ranks as one of my favourite audios of all time. McGann and Fisher hit the ground running and, frankly, they don’t put a foot wrong from here until The Girl Who Never Was. They are the best Doctor/Companion pairing ‘people’ don’t know about. When Big Finish does stories as good as this, it makes me cross that there is still a group in fandom which refuse to acknowledge the audios as ‘proper’ Doctor Who. If this isn’t proper, I really don’t know what is.