The Butcher of Brisbane

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

Previous Story: The Jupiter Conjunction

I think Doctor Who is one of the only franchises that can pull off making a story that is both a sequel and a prequel to another story at the same time. The story that this adventure is both a sequel and a prequel to is The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Luckily this has none of the bad bits and all of the good bits. For starters, I love the exploration this audio brings to the events mentioned in Talons. In the original serial it was just throwaway references to things that supposedly happen in the future but this story has turned all that into a living, breathing world. I will say, even though most of this was established in Talons, it still feels weird having countries like Iceland be major powers.

The plot of this is just really fascinating, it helps that Magnus Greel is a criminally appealing villain. Angus Wright is great as the time-travelling warlord and I really love the depth that his character is given here. He's still definitely a villain but I do like how this story humanises him, something that is very rare for villains-of-the-week on Doctor Who. Nyssa plays a key role in this story, being married to Greel which is an absolutely bonkers concept that I think is similarly done exceptionally.

The rest of the cast are great, Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding specifically stand out. Besides that, I think this an adventure that really adds to the throwaway lines mentioned in Talons in a way that only Big Finish could do. It's a much better usage of the concepts from the 70s serial and as a major bonus, it's not steeped in racist ideals and imagery.

Next Story: Eldrad Must Die!

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#161. The Butcher of Brisbane ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

I don’t really have many friends who are interested in Doctor Who, and my entire family would probably be a lot happier if I shut up about this franchise all together. That being said, I do find it fascinating to hear what both my mam and step-dad were scared of when they watched the show in their youth.

The giant maggots have always scared my step-dad, and that’s not surprising given the props were reportedly made from the head of a deceased ferret! My mam on the other hand has always been petrified of Mr Sin… so wasn’t very happy when I showed her the artwork for this release.

‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ was formerly one of the most well-loved stories in the series, before people woke up and realised it was incredibly racist! Here’s hoping Marc Platt doesn’t include anything problematic during this sequel.

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Adopting the alias of Weng-Chiang, the 51st century war criminal Magnus Greel will one day arrive in Victorian London by Time Cabinet – only to meet his doom, his plans undone by the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

The Doctor never believed he'd meet Greel again. But when a TARDIS trip to companion Tegan's home town goes wrong, the Doctor ends up in the younger Greel's heyday – in a world on the brink of all-out war.

With the Doctor at the mercy of Greel's alien associate Findecker and his army of mutations, Tegan is about to learn just why they called Greel 'The Butcher of Brisbane'…

◆ The Fifth Doctor

From a performance stand point at least, this trilogy of adventures have been absolutely top-notch. Marc Platt has proven on numerous occasions in the past how well he can write for the Fifth Doctor and ‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ is no exception. It shouldn’t surprise you then that Peter Davison’s performance here is excellent.

The Doctor always knows the horrible things, but tries to put them right, though it doesn’t always stop them from happening. I love that he bribes Chops the Dingo with a bunch of chocolate drops, all so he can reprogramme him into thinking he’s his chief. The Doctor thinks that “never” is probably the most annoying word in the universe, except when it is “never say die”.

◆ Tegan Jovanka

‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ features some excellent material for Janet Fielding’s character, which was probably a given since it is partially set in her home town. Performance wise, she absolutely nails it here.

Tegan is really excited at the prospect of going to see the shearing at her dad’s sheep farm, and even plans on giving her fellow travellers a guided tour of Brisbane. She feels physically sick at seeing what becomes of her home town; the wasteland in front of her is all that’s left of Brisbane.

◆ Vislor Turlough

‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ is the second story in a row where Mark Strickson has really stepped into the forefront of the action, and he really excels with the material Platt has given him.

Turlough is posing as Nyssa’s personal assistant, and he is even more jumpy than usual (partly because Greel scares him).

◆ “Older” Nyssa

‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ is the first script to really tap into Nyssa’s recent rejuvenation, in a rather brilliant way might I add. Sarah Sutton takes full advantage of Platt’s excellent script to deliver an equally excellent performance.

Nyssa is posing as Magnus Greel’s wife, and it isn’t long until such a dangerous position lands her in hot water – someone attacked Greel’s hover saloon, and she caught a glancing blow from a laser blast. She sees a lot to admire in Greel, but nothing to love.

◆ Story Recap

The Doctor is attempting to materialise the TARDIS just outside of Brisbane during the 1980s, because Tegan wants to witness the sheep shearing at her father’s farm. However, the ship encounters turbulence in the vortex before being struck by a beam of Zygma radiation, carving up its dimensions.

Nyssa and Turlough find themselves transported to 51st century Earth, picked up by agents of Earth Free Media, and roped into a scheme to bring down the corrupt Minister of Justice for the Supreme Alliance of Eastern States – Magnus Greel.

The Doctor and Tegan arrive three years after their friends and find that events have moved on a bit; Nyssa is now under deep cover as Greel’s devoted bride-to-be, while Turlough is working as her personal secretary. Planet Earth is on the brink of the Sixth World War, and Magnus Greel will go to extreme lengths in order to decimate the Icelandic Alliance and become Supreme Leader of the globe. But Greel’s destiny was never in his own hands…

The Doctor has seen his future, as a depraved and disfigured killer in Victorian London, one who will be defeated by his previous incarnation.

◆ Political Machinations

This adventure is a sequel for the Doctor, but a prequel from the perspective of Magnus Greel. We get to hear the events that led to him stealing an experimental time cabinet and fleeing to 1892, which coincidentally means that this story has a very different feel to ‘Weng-Chiang’.

The Gothic themes and “Jack the Ripper” style murders have been switched out for a plot involving political machinations, temporal experiments, and a planet on the edge of all-out war. The scale of this adventure is definitely a lot grander, something which is also reflected in the different locations we switch between; from the deserted Brisbane Dead Zone filled with Findecker’s mutated dingos and the corpses of the hundreds killed during experiments with Zygma energy, to the grand centre of the Eastern Alliance in Peking. It’s just brilliantly written.

◆ Sound Design

Welcome to the madness of planet Earth in the 51st century, where half the planet has been consumed by a new Ice Age, and the other half is being fought over by the Icelandic Alliance and the Supreme Alliance of Eastern States. This is a turbulent era for the human race, and it is expertly brought to life by Fool Circle.

The TARDIS begins violently shuddering as a beam of Zygma energy begins splitting apart reality, flinging Nyssa and Turlough through the time vortex. Icy winds fly past Nyssa and Turlough as they crunch through the snowy tundra of the Brisbane Dead Zone, passing corpses strewn about the city by Findecker’s time experiments. Crickets chirping in the middle of the Outback. A giant mutant troll growls at the Doctor, before kicking Tegan to the ground. The howling of Findecker’s mutant dingos, who soon try to savage the Doctor. The squealing of a Peking Homunculus at the banquet… otherwise known as Mr Sin! Chops and the other cyborg dingos howl as they are put down forever. The Supreme Alliance begins bombarding Reykjavik, their bombs colliding with the dome over the city.

◆ Music

Fool Circle are also handling the score for ‘The Butcher of Brisbane’. It’s been quite some time since I last talked about the creative partnership of Kelly Ellis and Steve McNichol, but anybody who has read my reviews in the past will know that I absolutely adore their music. Out of all the BigFinish productions they have worked on, this has to be their crowning achievement.

https://soundcloud.com/foolcircle/mr-sin-expanded-mix-from-doctor-who-butcher-of-brisbane

Fool Circle are one of the few composers to have most of their isolated scores on SoundCloud, so I highly recommend listening to Mr Sin (Expanded Mix) because it is just proof of why I adore this composing team so much. Electric guitars and snare drums in a perfect marriage to the synthesiser. I genuinely cannot praise the music here enough – it is the best score for any BigFinish play.

◆ Conclusion

“You’re the butcher Greel, one day you’ll drown in your victims blood!”

Earth in the 51st century is on the brink of all-out war, and Magnus Greel is intent on doing a hostile takeover in his native Supreme Alliance of Eastern States… before moving on to annihilate the Icelandic Alliance. He has dreams of world domination, of a planet united under his absolute rule, but we already know what becomes of him (a disfigured wreck carrying out brutal murders in the Victorian era).

‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ is a story of political intrigue and backstabbings, of assassination attempts and deception. It’s also the story of a mad scientist who is attempting to create a time cabinet using a highly deadly form of energy in the Brisbane Dead Zone. Marc Platt doesn’t just manage to pay respects to ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ in this adventure, he also creates something brand new and exciting.

I also have to praise the post-production work, because Fool Circle simply do not get enough love from the fans nowadays. Not only is their sound design faultless here, but that musical score… holy mother of God, it is so good!

‘The Butcher of Brisbane’ is simply magnificent in all aspects, and I’d argue it is the best thing Marc Platt has ever written for this franchise (besting even ‘Spare Parts’).

This one is... complicated. At a hefty length and with a lot of complex, moving parts to the story, there are some really strong and weak aspects to this audio adventure I feel I need to unpack.

On the one hand, I like this complex, sophisticated story. There's a lot of different plot lines and timelines going on, our TARDIS team of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, and Nyssa all have interesting moments in the sun, and the story is both a sequel and prequel to The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which feels very Doctor Who. It's weighty and even kind of stands alone, but between its ties to Talons of Weng-Chiang and the heavy reliance on the already established TARDIS team to drive the story, it really feels like this one is particularly prohibitive to newcomers.

I, with enough background knowledge that I should have been able to get through it no problem, still struggled with this at times. Taking place in the far future of Earth, The Butcher of Brisbane is full of great ideas and cool concepts, perhaps to a fault. It is trying to do a lot and ends up often giving some of these ideas too little attention. A car with a human brain in it, a war-torn Earth struggling through an Ice Age, or Greel being this infamous dictator are all cool concepts that I feel suffer from being underplayed a bit at times.

Other aspects of Butcher of Brisbane, like Tegan and Nyssa's roles in the story, I think fall a little short. Nyssa marries Greel while acting as a spy with Turlough, but she also has some sympathy for him even though it feels like she really should know better. Tegan feels like she falls into old habits with the character where she is there to whine more than do things, and even the Doctor feels like he frustratingly lacks agency in the story more than he should, which mutes Davison's performance a bit here. I think it is telling that some of the actors in the production interviews felt a little unsure about the story and didn't necessarily follow all of it themselves.

Performances are a bit inconsistent, perhaps as a result. Greel's actor feels like he has the stage presence required for the character, but for whatever reason, I just didn't feel a sense of intimidation from him. It's a real shame too, because while stuff like this collectively holds the story back a bit, the special effects of the production are remarkable. The audio tracks are excellent at establishing ambience and early on got me really excited about this unique setting for the story.

In spite of some severe limitations, I did enjoy Butcher of Brisbane. It's cool to have a full team of a Doctor and three companions, all straight out of the show, and all getting to be a little more active and polished than their time with the Fifth Doctor back in the Classic TV era. One thing that I feel is explored well here is the Doctor's relationship with history, as this audio adventure does a good job at showing how engrossed and present he is across our timeline while also questioning his role in it. That stuff goes a long way in preventing a bad rating, but it is a dense piece with a lot of ups and downs that definitely wouldn't be my first Big Finish recommendation.

This episode possibly would have had more impact if I either remembered or liked Talons of Weng Chiang, but seeing as I haven't watched it in many years, I'm a little hazy on the details. That said, I still enjoyed this episode well enough.

Often with theee companions, one or more of them get under-served by the story. Here, it is Turlough's turn to take a smaller seat, but I felt the balance of story between all the characters was much better than some other episodes. And, as Tegan is my favourite, I was in no way upset by this being a good episode for her - I always like it when a companion goes home, or has some ties to their past exposed.

Overall, a decent listen while in the shop bashing on some sheet metal, but not one I think I'll revisit.