Stories Audio Drama The Fourth Doctor Adventures The Labyrinth of Buda Castle 1 image Overview Characters How to Listen Reviews 4 Statistics Quotes Overview Released Thursday, February 18, 2016 Written by Eddie Robson Publisher Big Finish Productions Runtime 62 minutes Time Travel Present Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Vampires Location (Potential Spoilers!) Budapest, Hungary, Earth Synopsis The Doctor and Romana land in Budapest, intent on enjoying another holiday, but shortly after landing they find themselves too late to save the life of a man who has seemingly been attacked by a vampire. As they learn that this is the latest in a series of violent attacks, it becomes clear that they have stumbled onto something that needs investigating. Aided by a vampire hunter who is searching for Dracula, they look into the nearby Buda caves, currently being used for storage by the military - and find that the soldiers have problems of their own. Stalked through the tunnels by a monster, and up against an ancient evil, the race is on to escape alive - and foil the dastardly schemes of the maniacal Zoltan Frid. Listen Listened Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters Fourth Doctor Zoltán Frid Romana II Show All Characters (3) How to listen to The Labyrinth of Buda Castle: Big Finish Audio The Labyrinth of Buda Castle Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 4 reviews 16 June 2025 · 470 words Review by Ryebean Spoilers This review contains spoilers! A creepy and interesting take on the gothic horror tale Count Dracula - it's odd because, instead of normal stories being adapted to fit into the standard Doctor Who formula, it's the other way around! I got City of Death vibes as the Doctor and Romana are enjoying a nice little holiday in Budapest, and it's always nice when the Doctor just gets to have a bit of fun before all the madness starts. Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough of that Fourth Doctor charm in this story - he's often straight-faced and serious and there's not enough of that whimsicalness for it to qualify as a Fourth Doctor outing, and could've been acted out by any other Doctor and there wouldn't be much difference. Romana just ignoring Count Dracula's creepiness is fun, but it shows off the essence of this character - Every now and then I have to remind myself that this is Romana II, not Romana I because she's not a damsel in distress like Season 17 has repeatedly done - which I love! Count Dracula is not Count Dracula but an alien called Zoltan Frid who has the exact same desires as Count Dracula... It's weird, but fun. I like his scheme, but he just felt a bit... rubbish? Mark Bonnar does a fantastic job at performing the alien vampire, though, and made him really intimidating and creepy! However, he's defeated really easily and in a cheap way - being hypnotised into walking into the Sun. And the Doctor just happily murders someone? I like the idea of exploring other areas of the world rather than just modern-day London, which is what makes stories like City of Death and The Labyrinth of Buda Castle special. I think, if this was a TV story, the location filming for Budapest would look great, and the settings are explored well, with a bit of time just running about the city before converging on the castle, which sets the gothic and scary tone excellently, with a confusing atmosphere to the other characters but not for Zoltan, raising the stakes as the Doctor tries too cope with an unfamiliar environment. The side characters help to build up the threat of Zoltan Frid, as each character has well developed ties to him, with a vampire hunter turned accomplice, a military force under threat from the vampire and a sociologist who bonds well with the Doctor and Romana, but suffers a horrific fate and becomes a vampire. Another great score from Jamie Robertson, mimicking the Dudley motifs but creating something new and original with them. A really strong story overall, but in terms of the main protagonist and antagonist, there could've been more to distinguish them as important characters - which is no fault of the actors, as everyone in the story does superbly! Ryebean View profile Like Liked 0 11 June 2025 · 21 words Review by Rock_Angel Such a fun story it’s pure s17 vibes I loved alot of 4 in this too he felt very in his element Rock_Angel View profile Like Liked 0 19 January 2025 · 231 words Review by KnuppMello Spoilers 1 This review contains spoilers! Original (Brazilian Portuguese) Translation (English) Eu esperava chegar aqui nessa review e ter muito o que dizer, mas infelizmente The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle não nos proporciona muita coisa de interessante. Visualizando a arte de sua capa, imaginei que iriamos nos deparar com uma história assustadora, vampírica, claustrofóbica, envolvendo um labirinto cabuloso atmosférico...mas não! – Inicialmente seu enredo parece promissor, o Doctor e a Romana estão em Budapeste e se juntam a um caçador de vampiros para investigar uma série de estranhos assassinatos...Ok, começamos bem... Mas na real o que vemos a seguir é um plot envolvendo um vilão genérico “Zoldan Frid” que é um maníaco pirado com aquelas mesmas ambições de vampiros genéricas, morder os personagens com objetivo de infectar todo o universo transformando todos em vampiro. Por mais simples que seja, ainda não é um conceito ruim, mas sei lá...Me parece ter faltado tempo e o escritor ter tirado mais proveito de seus próprios conceitos. Ah...E a Lalla Ward (Romana II) tá beeeem apagada nessa história, em alguns momentos me pareceu até que ela não estava presente nessa aventura. Em resumo, o áudio ao todo não chega a ser uma história ruim, tem alguns personagens interessantes, momentos engraçados do Tom Baker, mas dificilmente ao término da experiência você vai deixar de questionar do tipo..."Ah mas eles poderiam ter caminhado esse conceito para esse lado", "Ah mais poderia ser assim". I was hoping to arrive here at this review with a lot to say, but unfortunately, The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle doesn't offer much of interest. Looking at the artwork of its cover, I imagined we would come across a scary, vampiric, claustrophobic story involving an atmospheric sinister labyrinth... but no! - Initially, its plot seems promising, the Doctor and Romana are in Budapest and join a vampire hunter to investigate a series of strange murders... Okay, we start well... But what we actually see next is a plot involving a generic villain "Zoldan Frid" who is a crazed maniac with those same generic vampire ambitions, biting characters with the goal of infecting the whole universe and turning everyone into a vampire. Although simple, it's still not a bad concept, but I don't know... It seems to have lacked time and the writer taking more advantage of their own concepts. Oh... And Lalla Ward (Romana II) is veeery subdued in this story, at times it even seemed like she wasn't present in this adventure. In summary, the audio overall isn't a bad story, it has some interesting characters, funny moments from Tom Baker, but it's hard to finish the experience without questioning things like... "Oh but they could have taken this concept in that direction", "Oh it could have been like this". (Translation generated by AI, so mistakes are possible). KnuppMello View profile Like Liked 1 4 June 2024 · 74 words Review by thedefinitearticle63 Spoilers 2 This review contains spoilers! This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order. Previous Story: Wave of Destruction Vampires! This is a heavily gothic story. Zoltán is a really great villain and definitely sounds the part. I wasn't expecting the vampire hunter to actually be working with the vampire so that caught me by surprise. The resolution was fairly clever and overall a very fun little story. Next Story: The Paradox Planet thedefinitearticle63 View profile Like Liked 2 Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating63 members 3.56 / 5 Member Statistics Listened 122 Favourited 4 Reviewed 4 Saved 1 Skipped 1 Quotes Add Quote Submit a Quote
