4. The Land of the Dead

The Land Of The Dead is, I'm sad to say, a totally generic and forgettable release, which is shocking considering that it was the fourth release in the Big Finish main range. The story could be swapped out for any base-under-siege tale from the Who cannon: there's little new or remarkable here.

What doesn't help that it can't do most of the elements that make up a base-under-siege tale properly. The pace is as glacial as the setting: the early scenes feel lifeless and little is done to advance the plot, other than set up the initial mystery. The monsters also feel very lacklustre: sure, they can come from the natural elements that the house is made from, but they're basically just there for our heroes to run away from. And the characterisation is awful: not one of the characters in really likeable, or even understandable, and the cast do little to bolster their roles. That said, Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are very good, even if there roles are generic Doctor/companion material.

Sure, The Land Of The Dead has a few interesting ideas to its credit, and two excellent lead performances. But the fact that this title was hurried clearly shows, and it's one of the most forgettable and dull productions Big Finish has ever put out.

Nothing about this story works quite as well as it needs to, but nothing about it entirely fails either. The overall effect is generic and forgettable, but it's a solidly mediocre effort. It's got a small selection of strongly realized supporting characters, and the story (though quite conventional) does a nice job of incorporating and developing its themes. Unfortunately, the weakest link is the A-story, which revolves around some absurdly implausible and badly underdeveloped prehistoric monsters. This was never going to be a classic, but at worst its a near-miss.

Stephen Cole continuous the trend of using former Doctor Who novel authors to pen their Audio adventures. Cole delivered the script in a hurry to fill a scheduling gap and I’m afraid it shows. The concept is easy enough. It’s the classic trapped and hunted plotline that has served Doctor Who well in the past. Set in a remote Alaskan house owned by an eccentric millionaire the Doctor and Nyssa are cut off and face an ancient foe, a skeletal creature from before the dinosaurs. Throw in ancient Inuit legends and a whingy vegetarian architect and you have the basics. Carefully crafted it might have worked but alas that is not the case.

The plot is too exposition heavy without any real payoff. The whole spiritual v rational thread is handled crassly and there are too many throw away lines about the exploitation of the wildness for commercial gains. In a good story these would be pebbles in your shoe, but here they simply add to the whole beach of faults in the production. Sarah Sutton tries to make the best of the slim pickings and hers is comfortably the best performance in the 2 hours of plodding progress.

Davidson seems to have posted in his performance, while the supporting cast are at best annoying. Neil Roberts (Tulung)and Andrew Fettes (Gaborik) plays Inuit natives, working for Christopher Scott’s English millionaire (Shaun Brett). It’s hard to tell which is the most irritating. Fettes potentially would have been but he meets a grisly end before the half way point. The also have deeply annoying fake accents which break down throughout the production.

Lucy Campbell (Monica Lewis) has lots of air time. She tries gamely but since this is mainly filled with her character complaining, she only adds to mess. Alaska is an unforgiving land and no one as uncompromisingly whinny would survive long. At the end of the play, she asks for a lift in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Nyssa wisely beat a hasty retreat.

The soundscape is fine enough, but the score is utterly forgettable and offers nothing to the story.

This is not a story you will want to revisit. It is good value at £2.99 but I can in all honesty only recommend this to completests who are building a collection.

This story is not that great, and the main reason has to do with the cast of supporting characters. I could not get past the bad Inuit accents. The Doctor and Nyssa are solid, but it gets boring and the same issues are rehashed repeatedly by some of the supporting characters, which makes it a bit tiresome.