Review: In The Night
Following on from Conflicts of Interest, Big Finish's In The Night returns to the more well-trodden ground of two and four part stories while sticking with the format of one story set out in the wider universe, with the other set in Earth's history. However, this box set flips the script, with the adventure out into space framing itself as a historical adventure of the far future, and the Earth-bound historical being contemporaneous to this era of Doctor Who.
 |
| The era-appropriate variant of the cover art, designed by Ryan Aplin |
Pursuit of the Nightjar
The first story of this release - Pursuit of the Nightjar - is written by Tim Foley, a name I could not have been more eager to see if I tried as he was previously responsible for The Auton Infinity, a story I have made no attempt to hide as my favourite Big Finish adventure, as well as Break the Ice which is one of the best from the Ninth Doctor Adventures range. Such a thing is a double edged sword, it comes with some really high expectations but I'm happy to report that those were absolutely met.
This story has the TARDIS team arrive on a spaceship known as the Nightjar, nearing the end of a historic three year voyage to bring a massive store of medical supplies to save a planet in need, an act of selflessness that will cost the one-man crew Captain Goben his life just weeks after his arrival, but will inspire a new age of universal peace. Throughout the journey, the Nightjar has been tailed by another ship known as the Nemesis, just one step behind, and with such high stakes our protagonists have to make sure history runs its course.
Alien to Tegan, Nyssa and the listener, this is a story from future history that the Doctor is absolutely enamoured with and his enthusiasm is infectious, you'll quickly be just as captivated by this heroic tale and there's so much joy in the Doctor getting to meet one of his heroes. It's all so wonderfully played and that really goes for the whole cast, the two guest performers (Paul Thornley and Fenella Woolgar, the latter of whom will be known to Doctor Who fans for playing Agatha Christie in The Unicorn and the Wasp) bring a lot to the story, but the focus lies mainly with our three leads and they all crush it, each of their characters get standout moments to themselves the actors really make the most of.
An example of particular note is Janet Fielding in the opening scenes of the final episode, I would be remiss to spoil a second of this adventure but the range of emotion you get out of Tegan here is so good and as bold as it is to say, I think this story may just be her best performance, my heart was racing through these moments but credit really has to go to the sound design and music too, as a production this is so well realised.
Cliffhangers are something you don't always think about with Doctor Who, many are deservedly iconic but they can sometimes feel obligatory, especially when you're in the habbit of watching or listening to stories in a single sitting or even just multiple episodes at a time, but this story is packed with standout ones, this seems to be a general strength of Foley's, he knows how to give the action a truly exciting cutoff point and pace plot developments just right and there is so much variety here.
On the whole this story is just so well mapped out, I find myself just as taken by it as the Doctor with the story of the Nightjar itself, every emotional beat lands and the whole thing comes together delightfully. The commentary on fans is really fun and I haven't even mentioned Alfie yet, the robot that Tegan names which even without dialogue you'll grow attached to.
This is the story that sells the set, without hesitation I could encourage you now to give it a listen and I definitely want to see Tim Foley's name on one of 2024's Fifth Doctor Adventures. This truly is an all-timer and I will come back to it time and time again.
Resistor
The other story of the set is Resistor by Sarah Grochala, writing her second story for the Fifth Doctor Adventures, having written God of War for the first part of Forty last year, another writer I am happy to see return.
On their way to visit Tegan's grandparents, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa find themselves in a Warsaw nightclub in 1982, just in time for a performance by new punk band "Resistor". The band's drummer has gone missing, the nightclub has been raided by the secret police and something alien is taking people away too.
From the off the story feels fresh, a nightclub is the type of setting less often explored in Doctor Who and as listener's we're even treated to a sample of Resistor's music which feels like the auditory equivilant of having a big set piece, it brings an extra bit of production value to the story. On the whole the sound design is excellent, selling physical action particularly convincingly, even by the high standard set by previous stories, a standout example being a scene involving a motorcycle crash.
It seems like a fun story for the cast too, the Doctor and Tegan get some funny scenes when dealing with the secret police, in one instance involving Peter Davison having to attempt an Australian accent, I can only imagine how entertaining a recording session that might've been if Janet Fielding was present for it. When Tegan's own status as an Australian comes into question, an offhanded reference is made to making a lamington, something I'm choosing to believe is to bring the two releases in this range full circle, seeing as Tegan's first scene in the previous box set has her complaining that the TARDIS food machine can't rustle one up for her.
The story is strongest in its first half, when it's dealing primarily with avoiding the secret police, trying to find the missing drummer and band member Roman's moral struggle the story is brilliant. Unfortunately I feel like it loses a lot of steam when the focus shifts onto the alien, I appreciate the way it links to Roman's story, there really is a strong parallel to work with there but I didn't find it quite as interesting. The alien could've done with a little more fleshing out and buildup, and I'm not the biggest fan of the choice of effects on the alien's voice either, it leans a little too much on the generic for my liking. This story might've been able to reach its full potential as a pure historical but I'll set aside my championing for the format for now, as it stands the story is still strong.
The one other niggle is that a small part of the story hinges on the band being familiar to Tegan, having heard of them before joining the TARDIS, the impression I got from this was that Resistor must be based on a real group but they aren't, so it felt a little odd, it's another element that could've used a little more buildup than it got but it's a mostly inconsequential element of the story.
Even though it has an incredibly tough act to follow, Resistor won't leave you disappointed, it's a fun two parter that moves at a good pace and is just generally well produced. I can only hope that my criticisms of it haven't come across too harshly.
Final Thoughts
In The Night is another big winner for the Fifth Doctor Adventures range, if you find yourself having to choose which of the two from this year to pick up this is definitely the one. In future I'd really like to see music suites included more often though, the music is strong across both stories but Howard Carter's score for Pursuit of the Nightjar is some of his best work for Big Finish I've heard and I wish I had the option to listen to it in isolation.
Comments
Post a Comment