16. Storm Warning

This was Paul McGann's first Big Finish audio and his first appearance as 8 since Doctor Who: The Movie. In terms of timeline several adventures were later placed as happening earlier than this in the 8th Doctor's timeline so this comes after the adventures with Mary Shelley. It features the Doctor arriving in 1930 on board a British airship which is impressive but doomed. He meets new companion Charley, some British military officers and some aliens who appear to present some serious danger.

This story is an interesting concept with a promising plot but is not executed quite as well as it could have been. The doomed airship, the Doctor wrestling with how to interact with historical events and the appearance of aliens with a fascinatingly different social heirarchy could have lead to a classic but somehow it does not quite nail it. New companion Charley is OK and has some strength, the Doctor himself presents a difficult job for McGann and the writer, Alan Barnes, re-establishing him after the Movie. The first episode shows the strain of this introductory pressure and is a bit weak. McGann does a great job with this task and the writing allows him to show humour, strength and a bit of depth. On the minus side the military characters are rather cliched and not particularly deep and the script just does not hit the right notes enough. Great ideas end up underwhelming and some scenes fall flat.

My ratings: Episode 1 - 5.5, Episodes 2 & 3 - 7.5/10, Episode 4 - 6.5/10

Overall: 6.75/10

Storm Warning, the first Monthly Range story for the Eighth Doctor is a light and character driven story. This story isn't exactly the best of Doctor Who nor Big Finish, but as a jumping on point for the Eighth Doctor or Big Finish itself, Storm Warning is one of the best audio stories to introduce to friends. Storm Warning is loyal to the format of the classic series, with the story consisting of four 25-30 minute episodes.

Paul McGann - reprising his role after the TV Movie in 1996 - settles into the role superbly and is immediately a strong incarnation (although, I already loved his Doctor in the TV Movie). We learn more of this incarnation, and McGann really expands and develops his incarnation throughout. India Fisher as the memorable Charley Pollard is fantastic - although, I associate Lucie as 8's true companion - Charley is a great companion to 8, both Fisher and McGann sell their chemistry and their presence makes the story entirely engaging.

Overall, the story itself isn't entirely special, and I found myself getting bored easily and the story began to drag out - a good story, and although I do find it boring and slow at times, I have seen many claim this as a marvellous debut story for 8 and Charley in Big Finish - therefore this story is a great jumping on point with some great moments between the cast, but the plot itself is at times, the weakest part

“Storm Warning” (“Avis de tempête”) sert de redémarrage aux aventures du Huitième Docteur et introduit un nouveau compagnon, Charley Pollard. Les deux interprètes sont tellement charmants et impliqués qu’il est difficile de ne pas aimer cette aventure somme toute un peu facile.

Niveau de difficulté : +

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Français anglophone et Doctor Who-phile, je me suis lancé en 2017 dans l’exploration des productions de Big Finish. J’espère que mes avis aideront d’autres « whoviens » francophones à sauter le pas.
Voici mon échelle de difficulté :
+ : facile à comprendre
++ : quelques détails m’ont échappé mais cela ne nuit pas à la compréhension générale
+++ : quelques détails clés de l’intrigue m’ont échappé (à compléter par la lecture de résumés en ligne) / peut demander des connaissances en histoire britannique
++++ : une large partie de l’histoire m’a échappé / histoire difficilement audible (déformation de voix, etc.)

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As an English-speaking French Whovian, I threw myself into the exploration of Big Finish productions in 2017. I hope my reviews will help other French-speaking Whovians to take the plunge.

I've never understood the popularity of this one. While there isn't anything egregiously wrong with it, it's really not terribly good either. The story has some interesting ideas, and the script takes a good stab of using the Triskele to explore human psychology, but it's done in a fairly superficial way, and the story isn't very dynamic or engaging. It's actually pretty slow and plodding, and the Triskele don't ever present much of a threat. Worst of all, the decision to open the story with four minutes of the Doctor talking to himself was sheer madness.

Then there's Charley... the good news is that she is an instantly engaging character, and India Fisher does a wonderful job of bringing her to life. It's immediately obvious that she's going to make a wonderful companion and a perfect match for Paul McGann's Doctor. The bad news is that the ongoing story that this story is trying to set-up doesn't make any sense. We just have to take it on faith that Charley surviving the R101 disaster is some kind of terrible problem, but there's no apparent reason why it should be. If Lord Tamworth can run off with the Triskele, why can't Charley run off with the Doctor? As far as this individual story is concerned, it's just one plot hole, but this particular plot hole happens to be the key point in an ongoing storyline. Charley's entire story arc is built up out of this plot hole.

Evelyn should have been given Charley's story arc. It would have worked for Evelyn.If you go back and listen closely to "The Marian Conspiracy", you'll notice that her whole existence is one giant bootstrap paradox. The Doctor learns her family history, travels back in time, and then through his deliberate interference creates that history based on his foreknowledge of it. Her whole existence is a product of the Doctor's willful interference. She should have been the one the Time Lords wanted to kill. It would have made a lot more sense. It doesn't work for Charley at all.