Box of Bunnies fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Oct 12, 2016

• The Ice Warriors. One of my favorite classic series "monsters", the Ice Warriors are out-of-the-ordinary in that they're frequently written as being far more complex than just "the baddies!". Since the 3rd Doctor's era, attempts have been made to give a bit more depth to the species, to show that they can be the good guys, or that sometimes they're doing entire the right thing even if it does mean working against the show's hero. In their recent return to the Revival, the Ice Warriors were shown to be complex, honorable but most importantly alien - their culture is completely different to humans, they do things for reasons that make sense to them and take offense to things that you might not expect. They're capable of changing their minds, most importantly, give them new information and they'll adapt and react to it rather than just staying on one side or the other of the equation. This is the portrayal they get in this audio as well (which far predates the revival's Cold War, adding more to the backstory for the species Big Finish was putting together in previous stories), as we see a pre-"Warrior" version of the Martian culture, the Ice Warriors a welcoming species of artists, scientists & mathematicians who valued the community good above all and offers of themselves freely. When this welcoming attitude backfires on them and Mars is massively damaged to the point it can no longer sustain life, the "warm" Isskar becomes obsessed with tracking down the Doctor and forcing him to put things to rights, to put the toothpaste back in the tube. The Doctor's vain attempts to both apologize to Isskar and explain that not only is Mars done for but that the Ice Warriors themselves will never be able to change back, that his own species are now strangers to him. It's this dynamic between the two characters, and the throughline of the Ice Warriors' plight across the audio that is its greatest strength.
  
  
• The Doctor holding himself together. At one point, the Doctor finds himself converted (along with a number of other people and a very large structure) into a piece of the Key to Time. In order to hold himself together, he tells himself a story, a rather fractured and rambling retelling of The Three Little Pigs. Davison does a good job of selling the notion that he is barely holding himself together, that physically and mentally he is deteriorating into the fabric of the segment and it is only through an enormous effort (aided by the presence of the TARDIS) that he is able to retain any sense of self at all.
  
  
• The cliffhanger. As the story comes to its end, doom is upon the Doctor and his new companion after they (nobly) decide to sacrifice themselves so others (largely responsible for the situation!) can live. As death is upon them, the Doctor suddenly hits upon a clever idea and decides to.... and then much to the chagrin of both his companion and himself they don't get to even try it because they're hauled out of time by the booming voice of THE BLACK GUARDIAN - whatever my thoughts on the actual concept of the story itself, I thought the final lines make for a pretty solid cliffhanger.
  

• Amy and Zara. The first is the Doctor's new companion, the second the antagonist of the story and presumably whatever is left in this Key to Time sequel. There is potential to be had in both their characters and the dynamic between them but it feels far too rushed, and even back in 2009 the "ultra-powerful but kinda quirky" female character trope felt immensely overused. There is an air of aping the likes of Joss Whedon, but without any real sense of depth to the characters (and really how could there be, this is their first story) and they're written as such blank slates personality-wise that it's not particularly easy to either identify with or otherwise feel particularly strong emotions for either of them. To care about moments they come to some particular conclusion or revelation - probably the most fun comes from a scene where Amy attempts nicely to make her wanna-be torturer feel like they're accomplishing something, or when the Doctor takes particular pleasure from needling Zara.
  
  
• The Key to Time..... again? I mean, I mostly dug The Key to Time saga, mostly due to the chemistry between Tom Baker and Mary Tamm as the 4th Doctor and Romana respectively. But once it was done I didn't really feel any particularly great desire to see the thing again, and the 5th Doctor himself already mostly dealt with the fallout in The Black Guardian Trilogy, which explicitly takes place before this story (the Doctor is traveling with Peri at the start of this audio). This really feels like a story that nobody was particularly itching to see, and doesn't really do enough to justify its creation. The stakes don't feel earned, all of time and space is apparently at risk of destruction but there is no sense of urgency, no impending sense of doom, it's just like any other story but apparently it's meant to be a really big deal.... outta nowhere, just because.
  
  
• How rushed it all feels. Another problem with the supposedly huge stakes, as well as the attempts at a more personal stake in the revelation of what access to the power of the segments does to both Zara AND Amy, is how quickly the segments are collected. The first is found before the story even starts, the Doctor just realizes he picked it up by chance already. Then they go find the next one quickly and grab it up (with attendant problems arising), Zara has already found one herself and by the end of the 3rd episode they've already found the 4th. Of 6. There are only two segments left to get, which makes it feel like the "saga" is about done before it has even started. How many more stories will there be? One per remaining segment? Will they find both by the end of the next story and then be done and the Key 2 Time is over? I haven't looked it up and I'm sure as hell not asking for six audios of pursuing these things, but the quick collection of the first 4 makes it feel less like a desperate search across time and space than a casual scavenger hunt.
  

jivjov fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Oct 13, 2016

Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Oct 13, 2016

jivjov fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Oct 14, 2016