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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Friday, March 28, 2003

Written by

Trevor Baxendale

Cover Art by

Lee Binding

Directed by

Jason Haigh-Ellery

Runtime

116 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Orbos, Marran Alpha

Synopsis

A thousand years ago, the evil Cult of the Dark Flame infiltrated every star system in the galaxy. In the history books the Cult is legendary, its despotic leader a terrible memory.

But for some the Dark Flame still burns. For some, its horrifying power is the ultimate goal. All that is required is for the right people to be in the wrong place and time...

An archaeologist and his robot are on the poisonous world of Marran Alpha, where they will uncover a hideous relic. The Doctor and Ace are on their way to the deep space research centre Orbos, where Professor Bernice Summerfield is soon to start the countdown to universal Armageddon.

Four acolytes of Evil.

Three mad scientists.

Two companions.

One Doctor.

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9 reviews

Eh it's alright, nothing extraordinary. The voice actor for Slyde was super irritating though, really grating in parts. Nice to hear more of Benny, 7 and Ace together !! The story in itself was okay but felt like it dragged on a bit too much, and just was rather generic.


Jamie

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i was listening to this while the pope died. i dont think the two were connected. its perfectly decent though


megaminxwin

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This review contains spoilers!

I think we have a tendency to want things made by bigots to be bad, so that we are never inclined to say a good word about something so heavily involved with that person. That is why I went into this expecting - or perhaps, hoping - that I wouldn't like it. However, to my surprise, I am here today giving this story a 4/5. So, let's put aside the Baxendale bigotry for the sake of an honest review. Minor/vague spoilers; erring on the side of caution and spoiler-warning just in case.

At first, I wasn't enjoying the story much, finding it difficult to get into. The dialogue was fun and engaging, but other parts of the story felt a little clunky at times. The humour was very succesful at lightening the otherwise really quite disturbing situations, and I found myself laughing at every other line.

I found the part two cliffhanger disappointing, with no foreshadowing, and both the delivery of the line and the actual event being entirely obvious all of a sudden in a highly unsatisfying manner. There were parts of this audio that felt creepy in a sexual way. A bit needlessly - the whole thing with the cult and decay is plenty without adding perviness into the mix.

"Girl? A long time since I've thought of myself as a girl" For a transphobe, he sure writes some trans lines! I love the way Ace's militarisation, politics, and personal experiences of travelling with the Doctor have changed her gender, and the way this evolution has been shown in her last couple audios (such as in the Rapture, with this element being one of the many things I loved about that story!)

Not all of the technobabbly stuff made complete sense - I'm a little lost on things like how the skull became parachronic/how the Dark Flame reached Vilus Krull in the first place, but I don't feel like that lack of understanding impacted my view of the story.

Both Sylvester and Bowerman's performances in this one were truly terrific, and I think this is the seventh Doctor at his best... His speech about how the flame was just an unthinking power, manipulated by a coward, was exceptional. Quite a neat ending. A dark story with a more or less happy ending; a treat to listen to. 4/5.


ThetaSigmaEarChef

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Yeah… this one was just awful, one of the very worst Monthlies.
I always insist that the biggest crime a Who Story can be is being boring. And this one is very boring, not only that, this one actively annoyed me while listening.
I am glad I had some previous Stories with the Character of Bernice, because if this was one of my first exposure of the Character, I think I would avoid her. The writing for her is just awful, she doesn’t feel very in character and while Bowerman does her best, the Material she is given is just awful. And I don’t think our other Cast Members get much better, while all of them do their best, a lot of their dialogue feels so wonky.
The Story itself is average done in the most boring execution ever, “HAHA Doctor, look at me, I AM EVIL!!” “Nooo how dare you be so evil has a monologue that feels good at first glance, but is unremarkable”.
I am sorry, I hate being so negative about a Who Story, but this is literally all the Things I could hate being done: Boring, doesn’t do the Characters justice and forgettable.


RandomJoke

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This review contains spoilers!

É bem possível que teremos olhares de estranhamento voltados a minha review vindo da maioria dos críticos desse áudio. Quando se trata de BIG FINISH não lembro de cabeça quais são os meus considerados Guilty Pleasures, desconfio que talvez esse seja o primeiro a ganhar o tal rotulo. Sendo bem justo e não anulando os fatos, SIM! Trevor Baxendale entrega um enredo bem genérico cheio elementos e eventos onde tudo leva a conclusões previsíveis - A própria chamada “Dark Flame” possui um conceito que não ajuda muito na hora de seu entendimento. Uma espécie de força, energia poderosa da natureza que se associa ao evento do fim do universo, o crânio envolvido existe parcialmente fora do próprio tempo para ressurgir os mortos à vida, alguma coisa assim rsrsrs. Ao decorrer da aventura descobrimos que o Culto da Dark Flame infiltrou agentes em todo canto possível da Galáxia e espera pelas pessoas e o tempo certo para desperta-la. Vylus Krull começa bem como vilão, mas gradualmente se torna um personagem bem estereotipado e muito repetitivo prejudicando um pouco a experiencia do ouvinte, alias... Temos aqui mais um famoso caso de uma repetição exagerada de palavra, nesse caso é "Dark Flame". Mesmo com isso tudo, pude ter uma experiência diferente de muitos, posso dizer agradável e até mesmo instigante, sempre fui muito curioso em consumir esse lado mais obscuro de Doctor Who sendo que nesse caso a BIG FINISH decidiu abraçar a tal proposta em reproduziu uma história ao estilo da Virgin New Adventures, todo aquele tom característico vistos nas escritas dos livros cheio de narrativas de horror, ambientes claustrofóbicos mais adulto e angustiante podem ser vistos nitidamente em The Dark Flame. [SPOILERS ⚠️] Cenas/acontecimentos chocantes e polêmicos não ficaram de fora, dessa vez temos Bernice espancando Ace a chutes em seu estômago no chão, dá para relevar isso quando sabemos que ela está sob controle mental do vilão, mas a questão é... Qual a necessidade disso? [FIM DE SPOILERS ⚠️] Em resumo, não há muito o que dizer dessa história, acredito que se o escritor tivesse seguido suas intenções iniciais vistas na primeira parte, em um contexto geral teríamos um resultado bem melhor – Deixando bem claro aqui que, sim eu gostei de The Dark Flame mas isso não significa que é a melhor história do mundo.

It is quite possible that most critics of this audio will look askance at my review. When it comes to BIG FINISH, I don’t recall off the top of my head which ones are my Guilty Pleasures, I suspect that perhaps this is the first to earn such a label. Being fair and not negating the facts, YES! Trevor Baxendale delivers a rather generic plot full of elements and events where everything leads to predictable conclusions - The very call “Dark Flame” has a concept that doesn’t help much in understanding it. A kind of force, powerful energy of nature that associates with the event of the end of the universe, the involved skull exists partially outside of time itself to bring the dead back to life, something like that haha. As the adventure progresses, we discover that the Cult of the Dark Flame has infiltrated agents all over the Galaxy and waits for the right people and time to awaken it. Vylus Krull starts well as a villain but gradually becomes a very stereotypical and repetitive character, which somewhat harms the listener's experience, by the way... We have here another famous case of excessive word repetition, in this case it is "Dark Flame". Even with all this, I was able to have a different experience from many, I can say pleasant and even stimulating, I have always been very curious to consume this darker side of Doctor Who and in this case BIG FINISH decided to embrace such a proposal and reproduced a story in the style of the Virgin New Adventures, all that characteristic tone seen in the writings of the books full of horror narratives, more adult and distressing claustrophobic environments can be clearly seen in The Dark Flame. [SPOILERS ⚠️] Shocking and controversial scenes/events were not left out, this time we have Bernice beating Ace with kicks to her stomach on the ground, it can be overlooked when we know that she is under the villain's mind control, but the question is... What's the need for this? [END OF SPOILERS ⚠️] In summary, there is not much to say about this story, I believe that if the writer had followed his initial intentions seen in the first part, in a general context we would have had a much better result - Making it clear here that, yes I liked The Dark Flame but that does not mean it is the best story in the world.

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


KnuppMello

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