Big Finish – Early Adventures
By Andrew Smith
The
original TARDIS crew of The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara has landed on a
ship. They soon discover the ship is on
water but not on the planet Earth but on the planet Hydra. They are soon accused of being spies to whom
The Doctor quickly denies the charges. Ian is curious as to why the ships are
moving at a top speed and discovers that they are racing away from an alien
race that has invaded the planet. They
soon witness a ship being attacked and destroyed during the daylight hours
something of which the invaders have not done before. Ian volunteers to go underwater to see what
is happening down below. What he finds
is an enemy that the TARDIS crew has encountered before. The deadly Voord and this time there is an
army of them to contend with.
Domain
of the Voord is the first story in a new range for Big Finish. The Early Adventures takes the place of the
Companion Chronicles and will be concentrating on stories for the Doctor’s that
are no longer with us. At least that is
my understanding but as with all things in Doctor Who changes do happen. The Early Adventures is pretty similar to the
Companion Chronicles as the companions tell the story and try their best to do
the parts of The Doctor and in this case for Barbara. William Russell does a pretty good William
Hartnell and for the sake of the audio adventures it is pretty good for the
medium. As it is only replacing his
voice it doesn’t matter all that much as your imagination takes over when
listening to an Audio Adventure. Big
Finish has announced that they will be recasting Barbara and Ben for future
stories as that should help with the storytelling.
I
really liked this story. What got me
hooked is that the Voord return and we learn more about them. For those that do not know, the Voord, were
in the Terry Nation story The Keys of Marinus back in the very first season of
Doctor Who. Their character wasn’t
really developed much in that story and all we knew of them was being a race of
assassins who craved power to take over worlds.
Writer Andrew Smith, who Classic fans should recognize as the writer for
the Tom Baker story Full Circle, gives us more background for the Voord. The creepiest is what happens if they take
their helmets off or more to the point what happens when someone has one of the
helmets put on them. We have a deadlier
and more aggressive Voord in this story than what we were given back in the
60’s and it is a pretty good update for them as they seem more formable and
hopefully Big Finish will use them again.
Domain
of the Voord being the first in a new range was a pretty good story with lots
of good moments and made use of the cliffhanger pretty well. Andrew Smith did a good job making it feel like
a Hartnell era story and even used the escape get captured escape formula that
was a staple of 60’s Doctor Who. Carole
Ann Ford and William Russell did a splendid job as Ian and Susan. Even though
they are much older than they were when they originally played the parts you
still had the feeling that you were listening to Ian and Susan and what they
were up to in this story. Their
performances really made the story also and it was a delight listening to the
original TARDIS crew again.
I’m
glad Big Finish is making stories that take place during the earlier years of
Doctor Who and finding a way around the problem of actors who are no longer
with us. If you are a fan of 60’s Doctor
Who then you should listen to Domain of the Voord and this new range as it has
certainly gotten off on a good start.
Grade
A
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