The Demon Song - 8/10

Yo? YO??? What do you mean yo?

The Demon song starts off as an extremely atmospheric horror but the answers to the mysteries in part 2 don't quite live up to the set up and feel fairly rushed. Would love to see this writer do a four parter.

Positives

The past future: This takes place in 2020, for 1 and dodo this is a future setting. Somehow they succeed in making our modern day feel really alien, loved this element.

Atmosphere: In part 1 there is SUCH a good atmosphere due to the creepy demon song lurking in the background of every scene. I never normally notice sound design, but this was stellar.

Negatives

Conclusions:  The creature being an other dimensional being is literally the plot to the story right before this right?? but unfortunately not given time to go into the depth of the miniaturist.

Bye bye vibes: Part 1 almost entirely relies on vibes, which I'm not against at all when done well. They just kinda leave when it comes time to explain what is happening and suddenly I am a lot less invested.

A little slow but love dodo in this and that’s gonna be a theme I think for most dodo stories haha I also love 1st in modern day uk feels very new and fresh

While okay overall, the main concept of this story is presented in a two-sided, mismatched way.

The Doctor and Dodo are exploring London, 2020-ish. Soon after their arrival, Dodo seems to be entranced by a weird song, which leads her away. Soon, it is discovered that Dodo is far from the only one. Can the Doctor find the missing people? And can he let them march to a different tune?

Structurally, this story is fine. Nothing standout, but nothing harmful either. What bothers me, is mismatch between presentation and reality. Let’s go through what I mean.

Let’s talk audio presentation. I feel like I’m starting to notice an odd pattern: For an audio play studio, Big Finish never really seem to nail music in their stories. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not talking about soundtracks. Those range from decent to good.  I’m talking about music as a concept or force.

That might sound a little far-fetched, but allow me to elaborate a bit. This story reminded me of other times when sound was the antagonist. Specifically two ‘future’ stories: “Soul Music”, a tenth Doctor short trip. And “Fright Motif”, a ninth Doctor adventures story.

I’ll review those stories eventually, but for now, it is good enough to know that both of them fell a bit flat for me in very similar ways. Their overall ideas and narrative were fine, but they failed to express the concept of sound in a meaningful way. Sound is presented as a very central part of the story, but the presentation doesn’t commit and hopes the dialogue carries it instead.

‘The Demon Song’ falls in the same category for me. We have a weird, alien song that can infiltrate the mind and hypnotize people. It is also described in dialogue as a real earworm. Yet the actual song used in the soundtrack to represent this is a garbled mess. In reality, the song is completely unmemorable. I listened to the last parts an hour ago, and I couldn’t tell you how the song actually goes. It’s a disconnect between the presentation and the reality.

And while I get that the story goes for an unnatural sound, I think that misses the point. It is sung and hummed by people. It is played by buskers on the street. It is described as catchy. It is, for all intents and purposes, an everyday song. Dialogue-wise, it sounds closer to Rihanna’s Umbrella, but in execution, it is presented as a 4-year-old’s recital of Mozart’s Lacrimosa.

…Please someone edit the soundtrack to consist entirely of Umbrella.

My point is that I find it odd that one of the last audio play companies seemingly fails to accurately catch the concept of music within their tales. I won’t make any sweeping statements, but three recent stories have struggled, which is not a great showing.

Other than the soundtrack, The story doesn’t really do anything all that special. The modern-day setting is barely used and isn’t really relevant after the first 4 minutes. Sometimes, they make a little joke, like the Doctor not understanding the word “Yo”, but those often clash with the more serious tone of the overall story.

There’s also some mind power shenanigans, with the Doctor solving a problem by mind controlling an entire room full of people at once. I wish it used intellect, instead of some random power the Doctor now suddenly has. Otherwise, why not use that power every time there’s a problem?

So what’s left after all that? Honestly, not much of value. A basic plot with no real character work and no surprising twists along the way. It’s a very safe, standard story. Comfort food at best.

Yes, I think that’s the best way to describe it. “The Demon Song” is like comfort food. It’s safe, doesn’t rock the boat and has a muddled execution all around. It’s most interesting aspect is how it reinforces a problem other stories also had. It’s is by no means terrible or insulting, but it really isn’t surprising or interesting either. Decent at best.