The Land of the Dead

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive in Alaska and are attacked by monsters on the ice fields. They take refuge in a building being renovated to become a living tribute to the the land around it, the rooms within all created from the raw elements of the surroundings. The project is being funded by millionare Shaun Brett, all of it in memory of his late father, but his insistence on using only elements from the land outside has put him at odds with the local natives. The native people, however, are the least of anyone's worries as the land outside is steeped in a primal evil, allowing an ancient and terrible force to be reborn.

This is obviously not part of the regular season of Doctor Who; this is one of the first of the Big Finish audio range of stories designed to fit in the gaps between seasons or other stories. Time Flight was the season finale for 1982, leaving a convenient break for the Doctor and Nyssa to travel together after Tegan's departure. Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton return in their original roles, and they do not sound very different; Davison's voice may be a bit lower now but otherwise it's almost seamless. So far there are seven adventures to fit in this gap between stories, almost an entire season. Perfect for listening to in the car in traffic. Or on the subway, as the case may be.

So why is it that anytime there are people of any kind of North American native status in a drama they must always speak without any kind of emotion and show a placid contempt for anything that defiles their gods? I speak of the character of Gaberick; truly uninspired and stereotypical and almost offensive. Shaun Brett is not as much a maniac as other millionaires like Harrison Chase but he has his moments. I think the shining star of the supporting cast is Monica Lewis the detail obsessed interior designer; she would make a good companion.

The joy of the Big Finish audios is they are actually done properly with full casts, not like books on tape being read in some droning monotone. The discs are all formatted into 4 episodes for the most part, with opening and closing title music and cliffhangers and all the classic special effect sounds. The one disjointing thing though is when the discs were starting up there was not enough money to use era-specific variations of the title music so they all had the Tom Baker era theme (Big Finish does discs for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Doctors). This did change eventually but the first few all have that flashback to the classic 70s days to start with, which isn't so bad. And in all there are over 80 of these discs to enjoy, and I'm gonna do em all...

NEXT EPISODE : WINTER FOR THE ADEPT