Reviews

Doctor Who - The Lost Stories - The Fourth Doctor Box Set by Robert Banks Stewart, Jonathan Morris, Philip Hinchcliffe, John Dorney

waylander101's review

4.0

Doctor Who: The Lost Stories: Fourth Doctor Box Set is a full cast audio from Big Finish Productions featuring two stories, The Foe From the Future and The Valley of Death, from the Fourth Doctor and companion Leela.

The Foe from the Future
The Grange is haunted, so they say. This stately home in the depths of Devon has been the site of many an apparition. And now people are turning up dead. The ghosts are wild in the forest. But the Doctor doesn’t believe in ghosts.
The TARDIS follows a twist in the vortex to the village of Staffham in 1977 and discovers something is very wrong with time. But spectral highwaymen and cavaliers are the least of the Doctor’s worries.
For the Grange is owned by the sinister Jalnik, and Jalnik has a scheme two thousand years in the making. Only the Doctor and Leela stand between him and the destruction of history itself. It’s the biggest adventure of their lives – but do they have the time?
The Valley of Death
A century after his Great-Grandfather Cornelius vanished in the Amazon rainforest, Edward Perkins is journeying to the depths of the jungle to find out what became of his ancestor’s lost expedition. Intrigued by what appears to be a description of a crashed spacecraft in the diaries of that first voyage, the Doctor and Leela join him on his quest. But when their plane runs into trouble and ends up crash landing, everyone gets more than they bargained for.
The jungle is filled with giant creatures and angry tribesmen, all ready to attack. But in the famed lost city of the Maygor tribe, something far, far worse is lurking. Something with an offer to make to mankind. Who are the Lurons and can they be trusted? Will the Doctor defeat the plans of the malevolent Godrin or will he become just another victim of the legendary Valley of Death?

The main thing that put me off Big Finish and their output before is, well, they're kind of pricey. That is pricey if they're not on Audible and you don't have a credit to spare but hey ho here we go. Anyway when I saw this one as part of a two-for-one sale I couldn't resist as I've wanted to listen to some of the Eighth Doctor plays for a while now but back to the review

Both stories are pretty strong, standard, stuff for classic era Who. The Doctor and companion arrive, shenanigans ensue, Doctor fixes it, ta-da. I found the acting to be very good and no-one felt like the "phoned it in" or was just there for the cheque. While the sound effects helped the atmosphere of the stories there were a couple of times it wasn't headphone friendly which was a little off putting (and the only reason I dropped a star).

All things being equal I think I will probably get a few more of these, most likely McGann's Eighth Doctor at first, as this one was a good listen and I've not heard much dissent about any of Big Finish's other productions

kryten4k's review

4.0

The only thing missing was the Dudley Simpson music...

nwhyte's review

4.0

Well, after thirty-five years, the magic has come back. The first run of Leela stories from The Face of Evil to Horror of Fang Rock is in some ways the peak of the Tom Baker era, possibly of the whole of Who, and I have been a bit disappointed that neither the spinoff novels set in this period nor the Big Finish Companion Chronicles featuring a dying Leela reminiscing about untold adventures have quite captured the Zeitgeist. But Big Finish have now pretty much pulled it off. The Fourth Doctor Lost Stories box set includes a six-parter by Robert Banks Stewart, adapted by John Dorney, and a four-parter by none other than Philip Hinchcliffe, adapted by Jonathan Morris - this is already a super package, with ten episodes and a CD of extra interviews with writers and cast.[return][return]Nothing is perfect, of course; The Foe From The Future has quite a complex time-travelling plot, with some of the questions raised in early episodes not really answered by the end, and some really rather gory and visceral moments; and like a lot of six-parters from the original show, it could perhaps have been trimmed a bit. The Valley of Death is much more satisfactory plot-wise - indeed, as a story, it is very well constructed - though it would clearly have been preferable as a Fourth Doctor / Sarah story (alas, no longer possible) and has some dodgy stereotyping of South American tribesmen. [return][return]Whatever the flaws, both of them are carried by the soaring performances of Tom Baker and Louise Jameson; several of the guest cast comment on just how infectious their energy was for the rest of the team during the recording process, and it shows. Baker is still occasionally silly, but nowhere near as portentous as he has been in the Paul Magrs BBC audios, and also able to effortlessly switch from clown to genius to alien wizard as required. Jameson has finally been given Who material that treats her as an equal rather than as a mere sidekick, and is utterly convincing. And the chemistry between them is clearly several magnitudes better than it was when they were on TV; both stories feature moments when the Doctor thinks Leela is dead or dying, and Baker rises convincingly to the occasion. (The guest cast are all good too, but really it's the stars who I was listening for.)

twainy88's review

5.0

It’s no surprise that I love Doctor Who but I love it when one of these multi-stories comes out! Narrated by original cast!! Lost stories?! YESSS!

Not only 2 lost stories but multiple interviews with cast & staff interspersed. I love old Who!! Tom Baker & Louise Jameson!! Just fun fun fun!!

I loved it!!