What's it about: The Doctor and Liv’s investigations bring them to
Paris, where a monster stalks the streets...
Breathless Romantic: Do you know I am beginning to see some
potential in the Doctor/Liv relationship and all it took was to have them
separated from the TARDIS and enjoying their time taking in the sights whilst
they try and get it back. It might be the fourth Doctor that visited Paris on
screen but I cannot think of a Doctor who is more suited to take a tour of the
most romantic city on the Earth than the eighth incarnation. Something about
his lust for life and giddy joy when he is captured in the moment suits the
city perfectly. He looks like he has just stepped off an English Dreadnought.
He's interested in anything out of the ordinary, the story of his life. Four
regenerations ago he was familiar with Montmarte, modelling for Toulouse LeTrec
and came to Zidler's funeral. He wasn't a child but he was childish (sums up
the fourth Doctor rather well during the Williams era). An admirer of art and a
critic of tawdry night spots, the Doctor can spot the changes in Paris a mile
off. It is rare for a man to fail to be seduced by the sexual delights of the
Red Pagoda, the Doctor is unique in that respect. He has no interest in petty
criminal activities but that wont stop him passing judgement on them. The
Doctor's mockery of the Time Controller is both vicious and amusing, the
monstrosity has been manipulating him for too long now for him to feel any
sympathy for its situation. He's furious when he discovers that the TARDIS is
caught up in it's lash up of technology, stolen and abused.
Liv Chenka: Now she is thinking like a seasoned time
traveller, splitting up from the Doctor and covering more ground. She knows if
she is being followed and isn't afraid to call them out on their lack of
discretion. A woman of education and refinement, she likes to be referred to as
Dr Chenka by strangers. Liv asking the Dalek Time Controller if he feels any
pity for his dying wife achieves a certain kitsch amusement. It's the one line
of dialogue within this bizarre scenario that I couldn't quite buy into.
Standout Performance: That man Briggs finds himself plenty
of work within Big Finish, whether it is a prolific amount of writing,
directing or performing assignments. It's worth remembering that the reason he
has secured such bountiful opportunities is because he is a talented man and
his performance as the Time Controller is an excellent example of that. A sick
creation that is played to the hilt, it's drunk, lilting voice and hysterical
exclamations never fail to creep me out and make me chuckle.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'Many men lose things in Paris but many
men find things too.'
'Don't worry Time Controller! We'll always have Paris!' -
well somebody had to say it?
Great Ideas: Much like the way that The Faceless Ones segued
into Evil of the Daleks because the TARDIS had been stolen in the moments
between one story and the other, I love the way that A Life in the Day and The
Monster of Montmarte are connected in a similar fashion. It means that the
stories are linked remotely but stand on their own as stories. The Dalek Time
Controller screaming long and hard into the Parisian night...it is almost worth
following the entire Dark Eyes saga to stumble across something as wonderfully
insane as that. The Doctor sensed that Adeline was corrupt but never in a
million years did he expect her to turn out to be a Dalek duplicate. I love the
way she describes the Time Controller as her husband, it matches the warped
angle this story has taken from the off. The monsters that are roaming the
streets are failed Dalek experiments, put out like dogs that they can no longer
afford to feed. The Time Controller requires Dalek strategists that are able to
comprehend the myriad complexities of the timelines, utilising the very best
criminal and artistic minds of the time period. A squadron of time strategist
mutants are prepared...the Controller simply requires the raw materials to make
their armour. The Time Controller has been cut loose by the Daleks, a new
paradigm making its presence felt. It has delusions of grandeur to control all
Dalek operations throughout all of time and so is trying to build his own
little army in neat little hideaway, a forgotten time period on an
insignificant planet. What a poor, pathetic creature. Molly's timeline, from
the 1890s all the way to the 20th century, is like scar tissue across history
infected by retrogenitor particles (I wondered when they would show up). Time
Lord technology, Time Lord interference and now the Time Controller is
contaminated too. The Daleks sense that the Controller is no longer part of
their history, that is why it has been cut loose. A gigantic Dalek standing in
the middle of 1920s Paris? Has Matt Fitton been overdosing on The Next Doctor
and thinking 'well, if the Cybermen can do it?' The TARDIS has been
perverted by the Time Controller and the Doctor is trapped within its heart at
the climax.
Audio landscape: Much more immersive than the first story in
the set, the Paris setting seems to inspire both the director and the sound
designer and they both aim for a 'you are there' feel and succeed. An unearthly
scream, extermination blasts, dogs barking, a steam train pulling away from the
station, station masters whistle, hammering on the door, crockery moving,
washing plates, shaving, music hammering from a nightclub, conversation in a
bar, banging on a door, screaming on the streets, footsteps on cobbles, Dalek
heartbeat, screams from the conversion chamber, the stage splitting apart,
bubbling vats, gunfire, Adeline's terrifying screams, rain n the cobbles,
extermination blasts, the struggling TARDIS, a mass army of Daleks, the
Master's TARDIS.
Isn't it Odd: Bizarrely the one element of The Monster of
Montmarte that I have come to praise (see below) and bury is the inclusion of
the Dalek Time Controller. He's a phenomenal creation and it is by far Briggs'
most interesting performance of many for Big Finish but the reveal of a Dalek
in an unusual location strikes me as a duplication of the twist from the Lost
Story The Elite. The set up, the pacing and the reveal feel very similar. And
with John Dorney coming on board for Dark Eyes 4, the connection between the
two stories is more apparent.
Standout Scene: The Dalek Time Controller sure knows how to
make an entrance, a stage splitting apart as he creaks and grinds into view. I
was starting to wonder if this entire set would take place in it's own little
bubble of fun since the Daleks and the Master had yet to make an appearance. Although
I have to say this is a superbly handled surprise, it's twisted and
anachronistic and makes a delicious visual. The emergence of the Dalek Time
Controller is when this story goes from being a good one to a great one. The
truth between the Time Controller's connection
Molly is extremely creepy, a flesh crawling sequence.
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