Revisiting the Big Finish Doctor Who audio "Neverland"...

[khaosworks]

...in preparation for the conclusion coming in "Zagreus" later this year.

I am, of course, completely in love with and worship at the feet of India Fisher, and her alter-ego, Edwardian adventuress Charley Pollard:

"It's all right, Doctor. I'm not afraid. It's like I said in the TARDIS... my time is up. There is no alternative. Oh, Doctor... you rescued me from the R-101. You gave me these last, few, wonderful months. The things that I've seen! The places I've been! I've lived more than I could ever have dreamed of, and all thanks to you. And you're the sweetest, kindest, most wonderful man I've ever met. And I'm sorry it's come to this, and I'm sorry it has to end like this... but if the Web of Time is destroyed, then all the time I've had, everywhere I've been, all those fabulous, fantastic things we've done... they won't ever have happened at all. Don't let those times be taken away. Don't let it all go to waste! I know it's an awful, terrible thing, but I want you to do it. Oh, Doctor, please do it before it's too late!"

Goddamit, if they have writers like Alan Barnes willing to write for Doctor Who audio, then why in God's name can't they just do the damn TV series again? They've got the scripts, they've got the audience, they've got the talent. *sigh* And it's the 40th Anniversary. And we've been 14 years without the Doctor.

I guess I'll watch "The Caves of Androzani" again...

Comments

[demiankatz.livejournal.com]

Well, at least we're getting an even-more-extended DVD of Curse of Fenric in the nearish future. I get some comfort from that!

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... Have to say I wasn't *that* impressed with the writing in Neverland. It's a big, ambitious story, slightly spoiled by Alan Barnes getting a bit too carried away with his own poetry, and some rather wooden performances by actors who really needed a couple of read-throughs to figure out the plot and get familiar with the dialogue. - A recurring problem with Big Finish's stuff, but really obvious on this one, probably simply because there is *so much* going on. Lalla Ward is capable of far better than she manages here: She's latched onto the "I'm President. I've got to be strong and emphatic" point, and not got past that to any of what Romana's really thinking and feeling about things. So when we get the speech about the Doctor at the end, it sounds just as if she's reading it. Which of course she is!

It has some lovely moments, though, mostly in the 2nd half. India makes the above speech work, even though it's a case in point of Barnes' speeches just being too long; it's too unnatural that no one makes any attempt to respond to what she's saying until "the big speech" is finished.

Oh, and for heaven's sake... Why Rassilon *again*?!? For someone they'd all but forgotten existed in "The Deadly Assassin", you can't turn round on Gallifrey for bumping into him, these days!

Great cliff-hanger ending though. *Evil* of them to make us wait 'til November for the pay-off! =:o}