Forty-Five
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Big Finish Productions Forty-Five |
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| Written by | Mark Morris, Nick Scovell, Mark Michalowksi, Steven Hall |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2008 |
| Starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier |
| Synopsis: In Egypt, archaeologist Howard Carter unearths an ancient secret buried in the Valley of the Kings. On an island of Mendolovinia, a deranged academic attempts to push back the frontiers of the human mind. In war-torn London, a cockney spiv takes possession of a bizarre alien object. And in a military bunker in the cold heart of Antartica, the strangest and deadliest of the Doctor's many enemies lies in wait... |
45 years of the Doctor by Thomas Tiley 16/9/25
Much like the audio 100 starring Colin Baker that precedes it, Forty-Five is an anthology of four separate stories that celebrate 45 years of Doctor Who, starring the seventh Doctor.
False Gods is set in the valley of the kings where famous archeologist Howard Carter is digging up tombs. The Doctor, Ace and Hex arrive after detecting strange time signatures and hearing voices in the TARDIS. It is a basic, straightforward story. Benedict Cumberbatch (before he did Sherlock) does a good job as Howard, while Lucy Adams is fine as Jane, his assistant with a secret. Paul Lincoln is his other assistant. Robert is fine as well, but he isn't in it for long. It is an all right story about an alien time traveler and its damaged TARDIS time machine. I did not see the twist coming, but it does feel rather light, maybe for the best being an opening story, but it might have been better had it more time to develop or as a full release.
The second story Order of Simplicity is the worst. Arriving at a mad scientist's remote island laboratory after receiving puzzle/signal/challenge from Dr Verryman (Jon Glover), it involves a strange virus reducing peoples IQ to 45 and a secret plan to infect the universe with it by the most obvious villain ever, Mrs Crisp the housekeeper (Lucy Adams sounding completely different from her previous character). Hex and Ace come across as rather stupid in this one, and the ending seems rushed and confused. The nature of the virus/plan is confusing, changing from infecting you if you look at it (in that case why don't the baddies just transmit it everywhere?) to being transformed into a airborne version if you are smart enough to cure it and the solution of forcing people infected to solve it results in it being destroyed is just bizarre. Also for some reason, reducing your IQ to 45 turns you into a caveman-type creature (why does a virus infecting the brain mutate the body?) that is only there to smash through walls and destroy machinery. It does have a nice bit at the end where the Doctor learns that parking his ship on the beach at low tide is a bad idea. Again, the story needed more time to develop and have a better ending.
Casualties of War has the Doctor and co track down a piece of alien tech on VE Day 1945, only for them to run across Ace's family. It's a simple story with good atmosphere, period bits and pieces and some good moments for Ace and Hex. The truthsayer is an interesting idea, a bracelet used by alien police to force you to tell the truth. It gets turned against the Doctor, and he nearly spills the beans about Hex's mother. Ace gets some interesting moments acting around her toddler mother, although I still don't get her deal with her mother angst, just get over it. It is the sort of detail that could have been elaborated on if this were a two-parter or such. A grown woman voices Ace's three-year-old mother, and it sounds as good as you'd expect. Didn't anyone have a niece or cousin they could have put in the recording booth for five minutes? Miss Merchant (Beth Chalmers) the ruthless forge operative after the truthsayer was nasty villain, would like to hear her and her cut-glass accent again. It is a nice story that doesn't outstay its welcome, although you can't help suspect it could be developed a bit more, probably not into a four-parter but certainly more than one episode.
The best story in this collection is The Word Lord set in 2045 during the Cold War on an isolated Base hosting a diplomatic mission that is under threat after a delegate is murdered. The Doctor and co are quickly onto the job of solving the case after first being confused for suspects ('Who do you work for?' 'I told you I'm self-employed'). The Doctor soon notices something out about the numerous mentions of the number 45.
The story is packed full of great ideas. The Word Lord is an alternative dimension version of a Time Lord using letters and words to manipulate reality. Nobody No One (Paul Reynolds) is a fun villain with a great voice and some great lines. Travelling in a CORDIS that is disguised as a joke, the various 45 repeating patterns are revealed to be the noises of its engines, like the TARADIS hum. Gaining power over reality from stray comments is a great idea, people saying stuff like 'Nobody can evade base security' or 'Nobody can enter the TARDIS' lets him do just that, and as a being from another universe he gets to cheat, firing his gun in the TARDIS despite its defenses. The Doctor's solution to getting rid of him, scrambling the TARDIS translator so everything word and letter he could use is illegible and forcing him to take refuge in the base's only book is brilliant as well. The twist at the end when the rescue team arrive is great ('Nobody move').
This is a brilliant story, very clever and a highlight of the anthology.
Overall I would say this set contains one bad story, two fairly okay or average stories and one excellent story which is 10 out of 10 and worth the collection alone. That being said a 8 out of 10 would be more like it.