DOCTOR WHO: RESPOND TO ALL CALLS
Risky Business
RELEASED OUT NOW!
160 minutes | Vinyl/cd/download
Producer Big Finish
After a slightly messy first volume, Big Finish’s Ninth Doctor Adventures line gets on track with three standalone stories that give a stronger sense of what Christopher Eccleston’s Time Lord is like on audio: much the same as on TV, but brasher, louder and with a more pronounced lust for life.
In “Girl, Reconstructed” the Doctor finds himself investigating the disappearance of a young girl, Marnie (Mirren Mack), in present day Dundee. The trouble is, from Marnie’s POV, she’s still right there in the house, but no one can see her… With its suburban setting and low-key Sapphire & Steelstrangeness, Lisa Mcmullin’s script is both a fine evocation of the Russell T Davies era and a good, creepy tale in its own right.
“Fright Motif” takes us back to post-war Paris, where musician Artie (Damian Lynch) is losing his ability to play. Artie blames a duff piano, but the Doctor suspects something alien is at work. This is a quieter, more character-focussed piece than the other two tales, with a hint of The Grand Budapest Hotel in its setting and Adrian Schiller’s concierge Maurice.
Finally, “Planet Of The End” sees the Doctor take on The Incorporation – a race of hyper-capitalist aliens looking to expand their profit margins. Imprisoned, the Doctor must resist their attempts at a corporate takeover of his own body. The plot is comparatively lightweight, but Timothy X Atack’s script has a couple of nifty surprises up its sleeve, and a truly epic scale.
Will Salmon
Despite leaving with the Doctor at the end of Volume One, new companion Nova (Camilla Beeput) is absent from this set.
A couple of nifty surprises up its sleeve