What's it about: Drawn off-course,
the TARDIS passes through a CVE into a closed universe – a hugely improbable
event with a tragically obvious cause. In order to escape inescapable E-Space,
the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are forced to venture in the wilds of
planet Alzarius. But they're not the only unwanted visitors to this
strange world. A Starliner has landed, captained by Decider Merrion – but why
would Merrion risk rousing the Planet that Slept, and the monsters in its
marshes? Mistfall is coming. The Marshmen
are coming. But while Nyssa and Turlough find themselves caught in the open, in
the hands of fanatics who model themselves on the legendary Outlers, the Doctor
and Tegan discover that the supposedly secure Starliner affords them no
protection from monsters both within and without...
An English Gentleman: I cannot think of a single time when I
have had nothing at all to say about the Doctor in a Big Finish release.
Nothing at all.
Alien Orphan: Nyssa is very excited (but nervous) about
seeing her daughter for the first time in 25 years and looking almost exactly
the same age as her. How will she possibly react when confronted with a mother
who has not only not aged a day but appeared to have discovered the fountain of
youth.
Standout Performance: Peter Davison sounds bored. Jemma
Redgrave sounds bored. Mark Strickson sounds bored. It's quite a shock after
three releases headed by the passionate performances by Colin Baker and Nicola
Bryant.
Great Ideas: It is plausible that Adric left the programmed
co-ordinates in the TARDIS during Earthshock since we did see him tinkering
with the console. It's unlikely that the ship would just decide to take them
their on a whim but it has a grain of truth to it at least. The Starliner left Alzarius 300 years ago,
the Deciders finally plucking up the courage to make a choice. It travelled for
a long time looking for somewhere suitable to find a new home before eventually
happening upon the Haragee world. They made great friends with the indigenous
population, established themselves and cultivated and introduced technology to
a world that knew nothing about it. They were a simple people and the Alzarians
made it their world, trampling over their natural way of life. Rather
originally they called their acquired world New Alzarius. How inspiring. Now
that is the environmentalists view of the situation, bringing to mind the hippy
ethics of The Green Death. Fem is a Marsh(wo)man that has been evolved into an
intelligent, reasoning creature. Improved or perverted, you decide? Two years
ago there was a natural disaster, a tidal wave that threatened to wipe out one
of the major cities. Decider Meriem made the decision to block the estuary and
prevent the destruction of the wave from destroying their habitat. It was
diverted towards Haragee land and the wall of water swept through and
slaughtered hundreds. Forgive me but
wouldn't it be better to dramatise these events rather than simply regurgitate
what happened in great gulps of exposition? Had this event taken place it would
have been the most exciting feature.
Audio Landscape: The TARDIS screaming as it enters the CVE,
jungle sounds, a growling truck, Marshmen slopping out of the mud, bubbling
vats, growling Marshmen, a crackling spider.
Musical Cues: Perhaps it is a thing that you can only enter
a CV to Paddy Kingsland sounding music because the synthetic music that piped
through my earphones was remarkably authentic. For a moment I felt as though I
was listening to an audio soundtrack to Full Circle. This is one occasion where
I question using the same style of music because with all the familiar plot
elements and the identical music it feels as though Mistfall is a little
embarrassed to stand on its own two feet and that it actually wants to be Full
Circle. Like an obsessive who isn't really happy with who they are and so
mimics somebody else, Mistfall's score is startlingly reminiscent of Paddy
Russell's work whilst not quite tapping into the same originality and
excitement that the show was expressing at the time. And that is simply because
it isn't 1980 and the show hasn't just kicked out its in-house composer in
favour of the radiophonic workshop. This is 2015, anything is possible with the
soundtrack and to slave so close to the original lacks any novelty. Fairs music
isn't poor by any means but it is uninspiring.
Isn't it Odd: Surely the TARDIS wouldn't be tricked a second
time into thinking that it has landed in the lowlands of Outer Gallifrey. I
realise the planet inhabits the same spot spatially in E-Space as Gallifrey
does in N-Space but she's savvy enough to point out to the Doctor where they
really are. Mistfall reminds me frighteningly of Revenge of the Swarm last
year, a story with a first episode that plays out precisely like the story it
is aping to the point where you can predict every single scene. TARDIS goes
through CVE, lands on (New) Alzarius, regulars discover Alzarians, dangerous
experiments taking place with Marshmen, strange ecological things afoot...I
could write this in my sleep and for Andrew Smith this is a disappointment,
offering up self plagiarism of Terrance Dicks proportions. When there are so
many exciting stories to be told I cannot understand what the point of so
slavishly copying your own work is about. I was a little bit excited (not 'oh
my God I want to make love to the writer' excited, more like 'oh that
was a new kind of fart' excited) when the story showed a glimmer of
innovation with the forced evolution of Fem but that was immediately followed
by a scene with Marsh spiders bursting forth and all my goodwill vanished. And
that was followed by the beginning of Mistfall (although if that hadn't occurred
the title would be quite misleading...) and knives being drawn in the console.
I'm being blinded by inventiveness. 'Live up to your name and decide!' Ho
hum.
13 comments:
Every time Big Finish does sequelitis or adaptations of books is makes me appreciate more Moffat and his decision not to convert Series 7 and "The Day of The Doctor" on a fanfest fanwank.
This story is the "Time-Flight" from Big Finish.
Turlough is a obvediente puppy now instead of malicious bastard we all love, Tegan is Victoria Waterfield in this story (Although I like when she remembers with sadness Adric just before being interrupted by the redhead), and Nyssa is Amy Pond but boring as ever (Seriously, if she had not mentioned his children at the beginning and end of the story would have been impossible to believe that this story comes immediately after the traumatic heartbreaking "Prisoners of Fate")
The sooner we have to Adric and fresh new stories on the 19th season, the better. Our little mathematical genius is our only hope for the Fifth Doctor stories now. Oh the irony!
This review = "Beyond tedious - originality desperately needed."
Don't like nostalgia? Then perhaps you shouldn't review releases from a brand that is, and has always been built upon it.
Just another whiner who obsessively listens to everything for years on end, gets burnt out because of that, and then blames the releases themselves for their own self inflicted overdose. How very tiresome...
Your first paragraph - very true. Even I thought that as I was writing it. Predictably trite main range stories lead to predictably miserable reviews. However if you think this story is something special then I have to call into question your critical faculties. Or lack of.
And if you'd care to take a peek at my last three reviews you'll see how wrong you are about this site. I like stories well enough...when they are worth liking. Big raspberry :-)
Not to be interrogative, but what would you consider a good Big Finish outing where nostalgia is the main focus? I quite liked To The Death, and that's a call back to several old stories. But then, that wasn't a main range edition.
I'm sad to say this.....I almost think Davison and co are just treading water now and they're taking room we could be giving to actors who actually want to be there. Say what you will about McCoy...at least he doesn't seem more interested in the free lunch.
Good review, Joe.
Are you going to do the Novel adaptations?
I sure am, Adam
Oh my God! Even "In the Forest of the Night" is much more creative and imaginative and fun than this pathetic fanfic.
But this no surprise me, this season 20 team was a bad idea from the start and their stories never worked well. It is ironic that the "return of Adric to Big Finish" was the two best stories of the Fifth Doctor for a long, long time. What do you think?
I didn't bother buying these, probably better than buying them then being disappointed. Or falling asleep listening to them.
If I become a Big Finish completist I'll grab them up.
Myself and many others agree that Mistfall gets too much hate from pedantic reviewers like you
Some rude comments here, why is it no one can have an opinion in Dr Who fandom when the show is based on tolerance and being yourself, it boggles me, if you don”t agree, clear off and write your own. Anyway, totally agree with the review but if I didn’t, I would not turn up and be rude about ut.
Well...at least it was short!
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