The Monthly Adventures #010 - "Winter for the Adept" by Andrew Cartmel

Relistening to audios I’ve already experienced was one of the things I was primarily looking forward to in this marathon, mostly because I think I rated things a little wrong the first time around. On my first journey through The Monthly Range, skipping over most standalone adventures and poor, non-essential outings, the scores I dished out for these audio adventures were all incredibly high; the lowest I ever went was a 5/10 and eights were a commonality. I was actually looking forward to the bad stories, because it meant I could experience new lows and rant about them in these reviews, as well as get a complete picture for the Main Range. I’ve already experienced pain with The Genocide Machine and now I get to experience pure, unadulterated joy as I watch (or I guess listen) a story crash and burn before my eyes (or, ears, I suppose). This is Winter for the Adept: a trash fire.

When a teleportation experiment gone wrong strands Nyssa in the blistering cold of a remote, Alpine all-girls school, the Trakenite finds herself wrapped up in a haunting, a schoolgirl’s elopement and an alien race’s experiments with psychic abilities.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

When you can only think of one or two positives for a story, you know you’re dealing with a hulking beast of a bad time. The one thing about Winter for the Adept that I could truly admire is that it had some good ideas. That is it. The idea of a haunting being caused by telepathy - a cool idea. The setting? I’ve already expressed my love for snowbound stories in The Land of the Dead, and the frozen and remote academy is a striking visual. There is good here, even if you have to dig for it. The biggest mercy I can give this story is I didn’t hate listening to it; that’s the only reason I didn’t give it a 1/10, I haven’t had this much fun laughing at a car crash since The Legend of the Sea Devils.

But what caused this car to crash exactly? Where does Winter for the Adept go wrong? Everywhere. It goes wrong literally everywhere. The dialogue: atrocious, genuinely some of the worst I’ve ever heard to the point where it makes the Chibnall era look like a Tarantino film. There is not a single line of dialogue that feels natural, and by extension, none of the characters feel natural, not even Nyssa, whose performance is still on shaky ground. The Doctor’s the one character here that feasibly could be a real person (personality-wise, I don’t mean actually) and that’s mainly just because of Davison’s performance. India Fisher shows up six audios early and, whilst I don’t adore her performance as Charley or anything, it’s incredible to see how much better she must’ve gotten in half a year because dear god is she terrible here. Ok, just going to list some negatives, hold on: the sound design is a mess and I kept on thinking on of my earbuds had disconnected, it feels like it’s trying to go for some heightened realism thing with all the “eccentric” personalities but then decides to play the entire thing straight, just making every character embarrassing, the Spillagers are villains we are told are “evil” and “dangerous” but we never actually get to see why or are even told what they’re whole deal is, just that they have something to do with telekinesis and despite only being 90 minutes long, it felt like it had overstayed its welcome halfway through. Despite its many, many, many flaws, I’d struggle to call Winter for the Adept bad, just incredibly baffling. What Andrew Cartmel must’ve been on to think this was a finished product is beyond me. The Doctor isn’t in a majority of Part One; why? Literally no reason. A ghost just shows up in Part Three and then has no bearing on the plot, and if you want to know just how utterly f**ked this entire script is, the climax happens off screen. The climax. Happens. Off. Screen. That has to be the most basic thing Cartmel could’ve gotten wrong here. And that’s not even mentioning it’s paced horribly: we’re knee deep in the plot by the five minute mark and I’ve had no time to adjust to this setting or world, so any atmosphere or immersion I may have had is just gone. Plus, it’s bookended by an exceedingly pointless narration by one of the characters. Odd choice, but I’m pretty sure it’s only there because Andrew Cartmel didn’t know how to start or end this dumpster fire of a “story”.

I really would give Winter for the Adept a 1/10, I really would, but I can’t bring myself to because it’s just so goddamn funny. There is a moment where a table is levitated using telekinesis and is used to attack an alien, and India Fisher’s character’s reaction is “Oh good! A floating table! Just what I’ve always wanted!” in absolute sincerity and that is the hardest I’ve laughed since a PNG jumped onto a ghost ship in The Legend of the Sea Devils. If you want to experience a story beautifully fall to lower and lower levels of quality, whilst breaking all its metaphorical bones, I highly recommend Winter for the Adept; it might sometimes get a little dull, and a little painful, but the bits where you can just sit back and laugh at it are pure gold.

2/10

Pros:

+ There were a few good ideas hidden in the piles of garbage

+ Not actively painful to sit through

Cons:

- The absolute worst dialogue I have ever heard in a DW story

- Every single character is either dull or works to annoy me

- Has no tonal focus and can’t decide if it wants to be a fun runaround, a horror story or a comedy

- Way too fast paced

- The Spillagers are extremely underwhelming villains

- The plot is so poorly designed that it ends off screen

- Terrible sound design that made some scenes actively painful to sit through

- Bookended by completely pointless and annoying narration

- Makes constant baffling decisions, like the sudden introduction of a ghost who has next to no bearing on the narrative or the Doctor being missing for a good twenty minutes

- India Fisher’s character in particular was awfully written as well as acted

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

Previous Story: The Land of the Dead

Even if the stories can be some generic, what early Big Finish does best is absolutely the atmosphere. This story has a great soundscape and a perfect setting for a horror story like this one. There's more focus on the environment and it really makes even somewhat duller stories feel quite alive. This is something I think Big Finish have a lot less of now.

The actual story itself is good fun, a great little ghost story though it could have done with one less part in my opinion. Peter Davison is doing much better in this, he sounds more like the Doctor here. Sarah Sutton is alright as Nyssa though she lacks the characterisation that I'm used to in later stories (I can't fault this story for that).

The score is really good and I like how it ties into the actual story. The accents definitely vary in quality. The French teacher has a solid French accent but I'm not sure what the accents of Miss Tremayne and the Lieutenant are supposed to be. Still, it's not too distracting.

This might not be 5 and Nyssa's greatest outing but it definitely shows potential for the future of their stories and of the Main Range in general.

Next Story: The Mutant Phase

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“Winter for the Adept: A Haunting Mystery in the Swiss Alps”

Winter for the Adept offers a compelling setup with its atmospheric setting and eerie premise, even if the story doesn’t fully deliver on its initial promise. Set in a remote Swiss boarding school in 1963, the tale is rooted in a Gothic mystery tradition that leans into themes of isolation, strange occurrences, and suspicion.

The story begins uniquely with Alison narrating, which helps establish the school and its students before Nyssa's arrival. Watching Nyssa work independently, investigating the school’s alleged spirits, is refreshing and highlights her resourcefulness. Sarah Sutton handles the increased focus on Nyssa with aplomb, bringing depth and curiosity to her character.

The atmosphere is palpable, with strong sound design and writing evoking an intimate yet chilling environment reminiscent of Land of the Dead. The haunted house feel that takes over once the Doctor arrives adds a layer of tension, as accusations fly among the characters while they’re trapped inside.

However, the story's explanation for the strange events—telepathic powers and extra-dimensional forces—feels a bit underwhelming. The shift from a potentially unique spin on a supernatural mystery to a more standard Doctor Who explanation robs the narrative of some of its intrigue. The telepathic elements create an eerie atmosphere but don’t quite mesh with the rest of the story’s tone.

India Fisher’s early role as Peril is a fascinating footnote, though her performance is somewhat distracting for listeners familiar with her iconic portrayal of Charley Pollard. Sally Faulkner and Peter Jurasik add strong performances, with Faulkner bringing authority and Jurasik lending an air of mystery.

The pacing is steady, with strange events peppered throughout to maintain tension, but it doesn’t remain consistently engaging. The final part, while faster-paced, feels overly drawn out, and the climax lacks the impact needed to close the story on a high note. Additionally, the sound design falters in these later parts, which detracts from the immersive experience.

📝Verdict: 6/10

As Andrew Cartmel’s first Big Finish script, Winter for the Adept is notable for its rare pairing of Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor under his pen. The setting and atmosphere are its strongest elements, but the story struggles to maintain focus and feels uneven in its execution. While not without its flaws, this audio drama offers an intriguing, atmospheric experience that fans of Gothic mysteries and Nyssa-centric tales may find worth exploring.

Oof, that was disappointing. I was really hoping for something after such a rough run of early Fifth Doctor audios in the early big finish range.

I like Nyssa, Turlough, and Peri in these early stories. It is great to see them returned in these early stories with the original actors, and they all feel very much in form with their reprisals. Yet Nyssa here in Winter for the Adept is pretty useless, only with a couple interesting stuff around Nyssa's psychic abilities. Peter Davison is pretty great here, too, but on the other hand India Fisher as Peril was notably awful. I'm surprised people enjoy it, as I just found her almost unbearable here, but I'm glad she wound up as Charly down the road as clearly that worked out. Knowing how talented Fisher is, I more blame the writing.

The writing is rough, too. I was all excited for an Andrew Cartmel script but it really didn't amount to much of anything. I had a lot of trouble getting through Winter for the Adept as a result of all this, basically forcing myself through the audio just to finish it and be done with the story after several false starts.

It is a shame too, because the idea of the plot is a pretty fun one. The idea of a potentially haunted schoolhouse is fun, and there are some moments to Winter for the Adept I appreciated, such as when Nyssa gets rescued on the Alps early on, or when the Doctor causally starts insisting they need to do a seance. That stuff was fine, but too much of this audio is devoted to nonsense about a couple eloping, or other details that hold it back like some lacklustre music (although some impressive special effects to balance that category out a bit, to be fair). All told, it was okay. I don't hate that I listened to it, but I didn't love getting through it, either.

It's entirely possible that my enjoyment of this story is owed in full to the presence of India Fisher, who I missed quite a lot. It's not Charley, but her character is fun and interesting.

Still, I don't think that's the case. It's an atmospheric story with an interesting concept which was well-realised. The twists were telegraphed and easy to predict (which I personally think is a good thing). The side characters, while somewhat flat, were all unique and served their purpose.

Five's level-headedness didn't ditract from this story for me, possibly because he wasn't in a lot of it. I always enjoy seeing (or listening to, in this case) him be put in his place, and Nyssa gets to shine as she does that. I'm really enjoying this particular TARDIS team so far.