Winter for the Adept
Nyssa is accidentally teleported off the TARDIS and onto the snowy slopes of the Swiss Alps at Christmas in 1963. The Doctor soon follows, the accident having been from an experiment in time spillage detection, but by the time he arrives Nyssa has already fallen in with the isolated occupants of an all-girls school on the mountainside. The school is run by an eccentric Scottish mistress with an unyielding belief that frigid cold weather will keep the soul pure, but it is also haunted by what seems to be a poltergeist whose presence is given away by a sudden scent of flowers and then violent telekinetic episodes. The Doctor does not believe is ghosts, but he does believe in aliens, and he believes that the isolated school could be the first stepping stone for an invasion.
Big Finish make the most of their format by taking the series to another far-off place that the BBC's design team would have had a hard time duplicating; ironically choosing the beauty of the Swiss Alps as a background that must be translated through dialogue alone. The bulk of the adventure takes place within the girls' school, though, and we've all seen how well the BBC do corridors so there is no real challenge there.
With audio, getting the right sounds at the right time is crucial to the success of each story, and here we have creaking floorboards, doors slamming, glass breaking and a really gruesome sounding metamorphasis. Different voices come into play as well; a Scottish headmistress, a very French teacher, and a gallant British bloke on skis (voiced by Peter Jurasik on Bablyon 5 - you can hear Londo Mollari under there). Speaking of the skis, though, the ski poles are used in the absolute worst radio drama cliche ever when their levetation and use as a weapon by hands unseen is described in painful detail.
As with The Land of the Dead, Nyssa's latent telepathic talents are hinted at once more, picking up on her sensitivity to the Xeraphin back in Time Flight. Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into some horribly out of joint deal with Nyssa bending iron bars with her mind or anything, and the development of this arc will have an end of sorts.
NEXT EPISODE : PRIMEVAL
Big Finish make the most of their format by taking the series to another far-off place that the BBC's design team would have had a hard time duplicating; ironically choosing the beauty of the Swiss Alps as a background that must be translated through dialogue alone. The bulk of the adventure takes place within the girls' school, though, and we've all seen how well the BBC do corridors so there is no real challenge there.
With audio, getting the right sounds at the right time is crucial to the success of each story, and here we have creaking floorboards, doors slamming, glass breaking and a really gruesome sounding metamorphasis. Different voices come into play as well; a Scottish headmistress, a very French teacher, and a gallant British bloke on skis (voiced by Peter Jurasik on Bablyon 5 - you can hear Londo Mollari under there). Speaking of the skis, though, the ski poles are used in the absolute worst radio drama cliche ever when their levetation and use as a weapon by hands unseen is described in painful detail.
As with The Land of the Dead, Nyssa's latent telepathic talents are hinted at once more, picking up on her sensitivity to the Xeraphin back in Time Flight. Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into some horribly out of joint deal with Nyssa bending iron bars with her mind or anything, and the development of this arc will have an end of sorts.
NEXT EPISODE : PRIMEVAL
Labels: Nyssa, The 5th Doctor
posted by Sean Hoover @ 4:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home