The Land of the Dead

Well this story was certainly interesting. I notice it's the lowest rated in the MR so far so forgive me for my contrarianism as I say I actually quite enjoyed it and certainly think it was a big improvement over the last two stories. To begin with I just want to say I absolutley love Five and Nyssa as a duo in this. In his TV run Five's TARDIS teams are always chaotic and based around some sort of form of squabbling or conflict, and while that works fantastically, particularly for how Davison plays the role on TV, his dynamic here with Nyssa is a wonderful change of pace. I think it works especially well because both Davison and Sutton's voices have aged quite a bit. Davison still brings the youthful energy but he's also got the manner of an aged professor and Sutton is perfectly playing the role of an inquisitive and intelligent student. It feels like they both appreciate each others knowledge and perspectives a lot and they work together in a functional way that would probably be totally derailed if you were to throw an Adric, Tegan or Turlough into the mix.

The story itself I reckon is fine. It's essentially a BUS, which is a format I love and I do really like the setting of an old house in Alaska. Unfortunately however this story did lose quite a but of steam for me as it went on. The concept of the Permians, skeletal dinosaur-like creatures is pretty cool and if this story had kept to being an atmosphere led BUS as it had been for the first half it would have been awesome. However as you enter the second half, things do get a bit muddled. Things just get needlessly complicated, especially when you start dealing bio-electronic fields and their associated techno babble. It's funny because one worry producers had about having very intelligent companions is that it would confuse viewers too much ass there was no reason to having things explained in basic terms. This is one of the reasons why they got rid of Liz Shaw at the end of S7. I don't happen to agree with this view, although it does come up as an issue here; I don't think this is a fundamental issue with having a very smart companion, I honestly think in this scenario it's just bad writing and poor communication. There's also some weird thing about spiritualism going on here. One of the characters believes this is happening because of some old supernatural superstition and I think the story is trying to execute some sort of theme about the spiritual vs the rational. Thing is though, this theme is so underdeveloped to the point where I don't even know what the story is trying to say. Is it trying to find a middle ground between the two, saying that a balance between them can exist, or is it coming down purely on the rational side? I don't know and this is one of the best examples of how the story here gets needlessly muddled. The side characters are also a bit ehh, none of them make much of an impression with the exception of Monica, who gets some great and lines and, in the absence of Tegan plays off and banters with the Doctor quite well. Overall this story has some elements I really enjoy but sadly a few things that let it down. I'm tempted to give it a 7/10 but I think that's just because of how much I enjoy this Doctor/Companion duo. So I'll give a 6.5/10 and in accordance round down to 3 stars.

10.01.2022
BFDW: The Monthly Adventures
e04: The Land of the Dead

Another meh. Conflict between Tulung and Brett is flat, the villain isn't of any interest, the rest of the side characters is tediously forgettable and the Doctor doesn't really do much. I will not remember this story. Another 1/5 for Five, I'm afraid

Well this... uh... certainly was a serial of Doctor Who. There's a primordial creature made out of bones awakening from the dawn of time and turning everything into amalgamations. Sounds interesting right? Not really. It's all a pretty straightforward base under seige story with an overly complicated monster for no reason.

It's a shame, too, because the first part was quite atmospheric. The concept of this house built with different Alaskan environments inside of it was quite interesting. As were some of the characters, although one of them becomes a Native American stereotype pretty quickly.

Five gets some nice stuff to do at least, he's muttering a lot less. He mostly takes charge of the situation and goes on with Nyssa about the history of Alaska, which is fun. The psuedo companion they give him is interesting, talking about her phases in a crisis. It's a bit different than his normal passivity. He gets a nice line when the owner of the house says "Aren't you being a bit proprietary with my property?" And he says "Aren't I just?" before moving on. He's still quite boring, though most of the time.

As is Nyssa. Nyssa's voice is just as monotone and lifeless as the Doctor's. I talked about it when I watched Classic, but Nyssa has the most interesting potential of all the companions and not much is ever used. In this audio there's a bit about her relating to one of the characters by saying she lost her father and her world, but that's it.

Also rude that Five gets a second audio before Seven even gets his first.

The Monthly Adventures #004 - "The Land of the Dead" by Stephen Cole

It’s no secret I have an affinity for snowy settings. The Thing is and probably always will be my favourite film of all time, the landscapes of snowy Antarctica or Alaska make for genius settings in anything from horrors to thrillers and there’s something so evocative about that endless, white nothing. So, reading the blurb for The Land of the Dead, set in an isolated, surreal house in the wastes of Alaska, I was incredibly excited for what surely had to be an atmospheric and unsettling outing for the Fifth Doctor. Turns out Stephen Cole missed the memo and instead wrote 2 hours of dull trudging around a decidedly uninteresting tundra.

Following a peculiar energy signature, the Doctor and Nyssa end up in the remote mansion of English oil baron Shaun Brett, where ravenous hybrid creatures and monsters from prehistory prepare to awaken from a very long sleep.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

The Land of the Dead, more than anything, disappointed me. It’s undeniably filled with some great ideas; as I mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of the setting, even if the atmosphere is barely utilised. The idiosyncrasies of Brett’s peculiar monument to his father - a house full of rooms themed to the surrounding environment - is a great background for our story and, if it had been done better, I can see it being a fantastic catalyst for some well done horror. On top of this, The Land of the Dead boasts some brilliant antagonists in the form of living fossils from the Permian era that rapidly evolve based on what they consume. Living fossils, on their own, is a great image, and I still don’t really know how The Land of the Dead makes it so very boring. Slightly helping my interest is our side cast, half of which are great. Quick-witted architect Lucy Campbell is a little too generic for my taste but the soft spoken, damaged Inuit assistant to Brett - Tulung - was excellently acted by Neil Roberts and was easily the best character here. I will note however that this story boasts Big Finish’s recurring issue of forced American accents, though I’m not too bothered by it.

I am bothered, however, by how utterly glacial this whole story is. It moves at a snail’s pace, the whole first part begins with the Doctor and Nyssa getting attacked by poorly-visualised hybrid creatures and then proceeds to wander aimlessly around Brett’s house for 25 more minutes without any care in the world, despite the rabid monsters outside. Past this, I just ended up losing interest. I listened to this audio about forty five minutes ago and I genuinely can’t remember the final part, because I’d tuned out by then. Although I praised part of our sidecast, our other half is less than stellar. My main problem lies in Brett himself, who feels like a one note evil rich stereotype who did not need to act as a very unnecessary secondary antagonist towards the end. As for the other characters, Nyssa is notably very dull here, Sarah Sutton is really not giving it her all for the sake of this script and apathetically delivers most of her lines. Really, The Land of the Dead’s biggest sin is wasting so many ideas. I love the setting and Tulung and the Permians but it’s stuck in Stephen Cole’s failed attempt at an icy chiller and frankly I’m just sad these ideas aren’t in a better story.

I heard it was bland, still got excited after reading the summary, and wasn’t too shocked to find it was, indeed, very bland. Boring and slow moving but unfortunately filled with ideas that have clearly come from better stories. Stephen Cole is a writer who I am yet to be impressed by, and this hasn’t helped him go up in my rankings.

4/10

Pros:

+ Great idea for a setting, Brett’s bizarre monument to his father is a very cool concept

+ The Permians made for incredibly interesting antagonists and had a great design

+ Tulung was easily the most likeable and interesting of the sidecast

Cons:

- Utter drag of a story that barely moves and just wallows in one spot for nearly two hours

- Brett is a thoroughly under characterised and an unneeded secondary antagonist

- Sarah Sutton’s acting is simply not up to scratch

- Utter wasted potential, filled with cool ideas that are stuck in a story as dead as the fossils featured in it

whilst not a bad story, its filled with lots of concepts that could have done with being way more fleshed out than they were. the more interesting plot points weren't focused on, when they should have been. an okay first outing for this tardis team.

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

Previous Story: Time-Flight

I'm going to be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Unfortunately that doesn't mean it was a very good story. It has quite a few interesting ideas that it just absolutely fails to tackle well. The characterisation of the main cast is somehow even more generic than in the TV show and Peter Davison is still getting used to performing the Doctor again.

The atmosphere is well-realised and it has a pretty good soundscape. All of this, however, doesn't help the fact that the story itself is just dull. It's the usual "base-under-siege" format. The monsters, immortal creatures that adapt based on what they eat are fairly interesting but they're hardly explained and their weakness being fire feels like a cop-out.

The accents are not good. I don't understand why early Big Finish would try and tell a story with a Native Alaskan group when they can't even get American accents right. There's a map included with this story and the floorplan for the house is baffling. It looks like something that someone who has never stepped foot inside a real building drew up on MS Paint.

There were some good things about it, for example, you can really tell that Brett and Tulung have a history. The whole mystery surrounding the rockfall in general is very good and has quite a satisfying explanation in my opinion.

As much as I liked this story, it objectively has a lot of flaws. Still it shows some promising signs of what Big Finish is to become and I'm looking forward to the rest of the releases with just Nyssa and the Doctor.

Next Story: Winter for the Adept

Wow, what a disaster. I had managed to avoid Land of the Dead up until now and would definitely recommend others avoid it, too.

It definitely doesn't sit well with me that we are telling indigenous stories from a very British perspective, the sound effects are overused and detract from what could have been a spooky and interesting monster in the form of the Permians, while the Doctor and Sarah don't have much to do of substance throughout. It's interesting you can tell this story might have been written with Tegan in mind and had to cut her out and replaced with Monica, but it really just makes her a useless character with some rough attitudes that never really get addressed.

It's a shame, too, because I like the Alaskan setting and think this story has miles of potential with the Permians as they sound creepy as on idea, but it really doesn't work with it well at all in its execution. I also think it is something the franchise could and should explore more, especially outside of Big Finish's early days, now that they might have resources to actually tap into more indigenous talent. This could have made the story more authentic feeling and give the story more energy, both of which Land of the Dead severely lacks. I do hope Doctor Who explores more of these ideas in the future as currently it is rarely touched on at best, because it sucks such stories are often relegated to audios like this one, which was a chore to get through more than anything, and a little problematic with how we treat the Koyukon, who seemed to only get the barest of research by writer Stephen Cole.

Stephen Cole delivered the script quickly to fill a scheduling gap, and it shows. The concept is easy enough. The classic trapped and hunted plotline has served Doctor Who well in the past. Throw in ancient Inuit legends and a vegetarian architect; you will have the basics.

The plot is too exposition-heavy without any real payoff. The whole spiritual v rational thread is handled crassly, and there are too many throwaway lines about the exploitation of wildness for commercial gains. Sarah Sutton tries to make the best of it; hers is the best performance.

Davidson seems to have phoned in his performance, while the supporting cast is annoying. Neil Roberts and Andrew Fettes play Inuit natives working for Christopher Scott’s English millionaire. It’s hard to tell which is the most irritating. They also have deeply annoying fake accents which break down throughout the production.

The soundscape is fine enough, but the score is utterly forgettable and offers nothing to the story.

The first dud of the Big Finish Doctor Who releases. The plot is a dull thudding of nothingness that just keeps going with a drudging game of hide and seek that leaves you lost in a void of generic rooms, to the point that the CD release has a floor plan. The characterisation is either annoying and whiney, or baffling to the point of me audible say WTF or groaning. The sound design is OK with the caveat that generic_monster_sound_24_MASTER is supposed to do some heavy lifting, along with, even more generic, verbal descriptions. This was a struggle to get through. I actually stopped about halfway through for a full day and just couldn't bare getting back to it. I think only sleep deprivation allowed me to finish it. All-in-all, a very disappointing and never-to-be-listened-to-again release.