The Stage Plays #1, September 2008
I listened to the three stage plays in reverse order and perhaps that impacted how much I liked this audio, I’m not sure. This story was over the top and a bit too musically-oriented. There were two whole songs on here that were not Dr. Who, just songs. Written for this stage play. Not my thing if I’m not watching it, thanks. I have to admit that I rarely listen to the extras on a story that are the music. I think the stories would just be terrible without the great music Big Finish has but these? Meh.
Music aside, I just didn’t love this story. The Sixth Doctor is a bit of a bumbler, just stumbling from place to place and getting help from the “people” he helped previously. Plus he speaks the language of the natives but his companions can’t understand it? This is definitely inconsistent with everything else Doctor Who but it gave Colin Baker a chance to make funny noises. And once again, the Daleks are masterminding a plan to destroy the universe, or at least cause a huge war. But the plan is rather transparent if even I can guess what it is far ahead of it’s implementation, which doesn’t jibe with the Daleks as master planners.
Maybe they just didn’t have it for this plan but you don’t title an adventure “The Ultimate Adventure” without making it super amazing. And this just doesn’t live up to the title, that’s for sure. Perhaps if the story wasn’t so musical, with a companion with a French accent, and the characters were a bit better developed, I would like it better. I think this would be a fun romp on the stage but it just didn’t translate well to the audio-only arena. Terrance Dicks did a better job of translating his script for Seven Keys to Doomsday from stage to audio only than this story!Cast: The Doctor (Colin Baker), Jason (Noel Sullivan), Crystal (Claire Huckle), Karl (David Banks), Delilah/Mrs. T (Nadine Cox), Nightclub MC (Bryan Pilkington), Envoy/Zog (Derek Carlyle), Daleks/Cybermen (Nicholas Briggs)
writer: Terrance Dicks
director: Jason Haigh-Ellery
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