Northern Adventurer: ‘Stupid, stupid apes!’ I was just waiting for the Doctor to make an appearance once Rose had been arrested and lo and behold he waltzes into the station with a fake identity and whisks her away, grinning all the way. There is more than a touch of Troughton from The War Games here (‘How dare you treat me like this, sir?’) except he exchanges bluster for charm. Humphrey Bogart was the only man to ever beat the Doctor at chess when he co-starred in several movies with him. Rather than produce a genuinely threatening piece of hardware, the Doctor proposes to walk into a stand off with a spud gun. Remember that trip of a lifetime the Doctor promised Rose? He delivers in spades when she leaps on the back of a hover bike and they go screaming of into the night on the trail of a criminal psychopath. When an innocent dies, that frightening anger of his flares all of a sudden. In Rose’s experience, the Doctor’s reaction to himself in two regenerations time is the first time that he has ever said ‘fantastic’ with anything other than enthusiasm. Very like his short tenure, the Doctor doesn’t have to be an active participant in the events of the climax (he shied away from making choices because a choice that he had made in the past had devastating consequences) but encourages people to do the right thing and save themselves. He gives McNeil a real gift at the conclusion; making him realise that however he might be feeling now, he did the right thing. Maybe he is talking about himself there.
Chavvy Chick: The Doctor had promised Rose a trip of a
lifetime but instead what she got was a third rate waitressing job in a sleazy
23rd Century casino in New Vegas. Rose is used to being caught up in
stressful situations by this point in her tenure and is the one who calms Jack
down when he tries to extradite her from police custody. She can handle
herself. When interrogated, Rose suggests that she is on her gap year. Rose
Tyler is the Doctor’s anchor and she performs the role over and over again,
taking his hand and leading him away from the wrong choices.
Hunky Hero: Jack steps from the TARDIS, boastful and full of
stories. I remember when he joined the Doctor and Rose after The Empty
Child/The Doctor Dances and genuinely thought the series had arrived with a
compelling, sexy and fun line up of characters to front the show. Night of the
Whisper captures that feeling of a show finding its feet with real zest and
confidence, the three characters complimenting each other beautifully. He’s
always glad to see men in uniform, even if they are law enforcers that have
come to arrest him. Don’t believe him when he says he only has eyes for you,
he’d offer that plaudit to anybody that would help them out.
Standout Performance: Wow, just wow. Was that really
Nicholas Briggs? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, naysayers! I remember
when this release was announced and there was a line of the usual
Briggs-bashing suspects ready to criticize his involvement in this story with
cries that he is monopolizing the audio market. I don’t know if anybody could
have done a better job mimicking Christopher Eccleston’s accent and attitude,
it is a remarkably authentic performance that quite took my breath away. If you
can’t have the real thing then this is a more than acceptable substitute.
Briggs’ Rose is a little more mannered but perfectly serviceable whereas his
Jack captures all that vim and vigour that John Barrowman (ever the showman and
only occasionally an actor) brought to the role. I can understand why all three
of the original performers might be in hot demand and unable to reprise their
roles but for the record it would have been a blast to have had one of them
take part, especially Eccleston or Piper (Barrowman has performed for the
Torchwood audios before so that box has been ticked). Just when you think he
can’t be asked to deliver any more, along comes Briggs’ spot on rendition of
the eleventh Doctor. I was having so much fun with this it was the first time
since the second installment of the Destiny of the Doctor series that I had
completely forgotten about him and been waiting for his appearance. This time
it was a real surprise.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Give me all your dough or I’ll fill you
full of Maris Piper! You gonna scream, or what?’
‘If that’s your mother we’re not in!’
Great Ideas: Scott & Wright conjure up the series one in
pretty much their first sentence with talk of a trip of a lifetime and the use
of ‘New’ to suggest a future copy of a location on Earth. Wolfsbane is Al
Capone with teeth and fur, in charge of the casino that Rose has found herself
working in. Digital rewind gets a mention, of course. McNeil turning his
daughter into a weapon (and the vigilante of the title) is a gut wrenching
twist that I would have thought nobody capable of and provides the story with a
fantastic dilemma. This is the most vengeful Doctor of them all (ask
Cassandra…oh no wait, you can’t, she’s a long string of chewing gum after he
let her dry out and snap) and yet his predecessor has instructed him to keep
McNeil alive at all costs. How will he keep that barely restrained anger under
control? The Whisper threatening to take down the New Vegas containment bubble
is the kind of disaster zone climax that a story this in-yer-face needed. Scott
& Wright provide an emotional roller coaster of a finale between father and
daughter that wont be forgotten in a hurry and following that up with a
vertiginous action sequence. They’ve left nothing out, this is one packed
audio. ‘Thanks to Bad Wolf Holdings…’
Audio Landscape: As befits a new series adventure, the
soundscape for Night of the Whisper is stylish and immersive, a step up from
anything we have heard from the classic series adventures in this range. I
swear at some points during this adventure I was on the back of a hover car
with the Doctor, dodging bullets and swerving to avoid oncoming traffic. Casino
atmosphere, alarm bells, bullets screaming through the air, energy crackling,
hover patrol cars rushing past, rain, lightning, honking cars screaming past.
There was more and it was excellent but I was so caught up in the story by the
end I stopped taking notes.
Musical Cues: The initial theme tune for the new series was
just tops, wasn’t it? Bombastic and confident, just how it needed to be. As
soon as it kicked in I found myself getting my groove on at the keyboard! It is
so superior to the horrid dreck that is currently accompanying the titles that
I cannot figure out why they keep changing it. It’s that man Howard Carter on
sound design and music duties and once again he does a exceptional job. It is
rather refreshing to listen to a ninth Doctor story that isn’t scored by Murray
Gold (this isn’t a Gold bash, I think despite some overuse of themes and the
occasional over dollop of syrup he has managed to score the series
exceptionally well over seven seasons), Carter delivering the same kind of
energy but his own unique style.
Isn’t it Odd: Not a comment on the story itself but more the
writers themselves and their general disappearance from the audio schedules of
late. They rocked onto the scene with the unforgettable Project: Twilight
(whether you were a fan or not) and followed that up with the equally memorable
Project: Lazarus (with a charming and colourful detour to The Church and the
Crown on the way) and finished their trilogy with the overblown (but massively
popular in some quarters) Project: Destiny. They’ve contributed a few items
elsewhere but have been extremely quiet recently. Like Joe Lidster, I don’t
always fall in love with everything they write (that is the nature of
being a writer who takes risks) but I love the fact that they push things to
extremes and try out some potentially unstable ideas to keep their work fresh
and interesting. It might not always be my cup of tea (it often is, but not
always – this is unusually diplomatic for but I genuinely appreciate their effort
to stay fresh) but I appreciate their willingness to take risks and would
certainly love to see more of them in the future. Certainly the main range
(which is erring on the wrong side of conventional of late) could do with their
electrifying touch to shove a few thousand volts up its ass.
Standout Scene: Ultimately the Doctor can empathise with
McNeil because he has been forced to take drastic action that is out of
character to get his business done, something the Doctor recognises in himself.
The Time War had to get a mention somewhere and because Davies was so
brilliantly obscure about details, he could be referring to himself or the John
Hurt Doctor who the recently screened Name of the Doctor suggested had a
dramatic role to play in the conflict. Either way it makes for a breathtaking
moment, the Doctor comparing himself to a man who would go to such lengths.
Result: Something was putting me off from listening to Night
of the Whisper and it took me a little while to figure out what it is. I rather
like the ninth Doctor and certainly don’t consider him to be the weakest (if we
were going to do that sort of thing) as seems to be popular opinion these days
and I was genuinely psyched to plunge myself back into the mood of optimism and
excitement that greeted the first series when it aired in 2005. But in my heart
I knew that unless there was some miracle that Big Finish would obtain a
licence to produce ninth Doctor stories and by an even greater convergence of
circumstances Christopher Eccleston would be willing to reprise the role on
audio this was most likely going to be the last original ninth Doctor story I
would ever experience (I don’t read fan fiction, alas). Night of the Whisper starts running and never
lets up, like many a new series episode. However, it has the fortune of being a
quarter longer than most of the Eccleston episodes and goes to show just how
much breathing space and extra detail can be packed in an hour long story. I
have always said that if you aren’t going to go for the old style 4 x 25
minutes then an hour is your best second choice – look at SJA and Benny, none
of those stories felt rushed. What you have here is an authentic ninth Doctor
tale; told in a trendy location with set pieces that you could tell your mates
about on school on Monday (‘They were riding about skyscrapers on a hover
car!’ ‘ No way…I missed that!?’) and lots of entertaining things for the
Doctor, Rose and Jack to do. Nicholas Briggs deserves nothing short of a
standing ovation for his bravura turn as all three regulars in this adventure,
imbuing them all with authentic characteristics and capturing Eccleston’s tone
as well as Frazer Hines captures Troughton’s. In some respects this is quite
similar to the recently released companion chronicle, House of Cards (certainly
in terms of its setting) but the tone of a Troughton adventure and an Eccleston
one are worlds apart and Scott & Wright should be applauded for taking the
best of season one and stuffing into one hour long bundle of escapist fun, with
the occasional moment of cruel emotion. If I have to listen to my last ninth
Doctor adventure, I would be happy for it to be Night of the Whisper: 9/10
10 comments:
Not related to the review itself (though it's a good one as always), but could you point me to some websites or Forums that would allow for some discussion of these audios? Is it primarily the Big Finish forums or are there others you'd recommend as well? Thanks in advance :)
Cheers for posting my deviantART piece on here, Joe. :-)
I can remove it if you would like, Kory. I found it online and liked it but obviously I don't want to keep it here if it upsets you.
There are relatively few places that I have found to discuss the Big Finish stories, Peakius. Your best is probably the Whispers of Terror section of Gallifrey Base, there is usually some lively debate going on there about the latest releases and a lot of the old ones too. I find the Big Finish forum a bit one note if I'm honest, with far less participants than GB but still with some fascinating views all the same.
I'm waiting for your reviews of Torchwood audio plays, please give them a try.
Upset? More like excited! I was punching the air with joy when I saw it on here. :-) Don't take it down.
I just need to come up more art to sync up with the first 8 releases and the next two.
Thanks Kory, sorry I wasn't being funny its just have posted images before that I have found and people have become really shirty!
If you have any more art that you would be willing for me to put with reviews, that would be fantastic.
Have a lovely evening,
J
Briggsie's Eccleston is superb! If they some day get the license to do the new series and they Eccleston himself isn't willing to do it, Briggs would do a great Nine
I have plenty on my deviantART gallery for use. I've just completed a new one for Enemy Aliens; I'll be working my way from that to Hunters of Earth before tackling Death's Deal and The Time Machine.
Once those are done, I can finish up my blog piece on 8th and 9th for my Continuity Zone I've been behind on for a while (writer's block and girl trouble being the two factors in it)
Do you mind if I use some? What is the link to your Deviant Art account?
Of course! conjob1989.deviantart.com
Also, feel free to include my blog in the links: http://drwhocontinutyzone.blogspot.com/
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