What I always love about
Alan Barnes's writing is every single character he writes is so much larger
than life. You can trawl back through his many audio scripts for Big Finish and
always locate really rich and funny characters, even in his darker edged stories.
This story is not one of them! This story is just packed full of good fun and
some amusing light relief. A chance to have a breather and a few good laughs.
It sounds to me that every
one of the cast is really enjoying being in this story. It’s actually quite a
relief for one every now and then to get a release from the overall far darker
and more mysterious Seventh Doctor stories. Some of Big Finish's more recent
seventh Doctor plays have been very thickly laid with doom and universal peril
that it can start to drag if done continuously without a break every now and
then.
In fact, every single
story of the Mags trilogy has been a welcome break from the norm with Big
Finish. It’s great to just relax and listen to a genuinely fun tale, but still with
enough good action and peril so as not to make it a farce.
Samuel Clemens direction
is slick and the sound design and score of this story is also different, but
good different. You end up with a story that is extremely easy to get into,
whereas some of the deeper stories can be at times hard to take all at once.
Sylvester McCoy does his
usual thing of just being fantastic as the Doctor. His interacting with Ace and
Mags instantly lifts the story too. It is also great whenever one gets to hear
alien races or creatures that aren't necessarily evil used well within a story
too.
Sophie Aldred gets to have
some good scenes where she deals with the fallout of falling in with a pair of
Feratus. The Feratus are a wonderfully comically written pair of vampires, and
particularly good is how Ace just seems to take what happens to her in her
stride and doesn't become flustered. One is always happy to hear her consistent
guts and ballsy attitude. It’s what has made Ace one of the most enduring
companions ever in the show.
It could easily become
gratingly silly to always just have baddy aliens running amok in every story.
The Sin Eater is a perfect example of this trait. The Sin Eater is a very
interesting and engaging character. Shiloh Coke is really decent in the role.
Jacob Collins Levy's
performance as Rufus has to be applauded in this story. His character is
definitely a bad un, but he's a really excruciatingly enjoyable bad un. His
Australian accent is commendable and his villain is saturated with good humour
and wit. He judges the role perfectly, so that he never once goes overboard
into caricature or pantomime. And his demise is very stark and rather
unpleasant to visualise at the story's climax.
There may not be a hugely
abundant level of original material within this story. One has heard or seen
countless Werewolf movies that all share the same repetitive strains. What Alan
Barnes does with his story though that most film writers don't do these days is
at least makes his story massively listenable and plain good old fashioned
cool. The story works so brilliantly as a light hearted reprieve in the midst
of the darker stories as I’ve already said.
In fact, yes, I would say
this story's plot is very, very like a comic strip. Outlandish and knavish
interactions with great characters.
The other good point is in
film and TV werewolf transformations always seem to look naff. So, the audio
medium is a far better kind of medium to have where you can imagine the visuals
and not be disappointed by weak effects. That's always going to be a favourable
addition to the mix when an audio leaves you free to make your own pictures of
the places where the story is set. And in this story, there are no dull
characters and no over excessive re-use of all the dull as ditch water werewolf
and vampire traits we get so bored with seeing in the movies and remakes of
movies. Sometimes the B Movies are more fun and good to watch than the
multimillion-pound mega films too. And that's exactly the category this story
falls into too. The lovable B Movie type that is still ripe with so much going
for it!
But of all the elements on
display within the story, my favourite thing of all from this is Mags. Jessica
Martin really gets to shine as the Vulpanan. There are some great character
moments for her along the way in this story which does nothing but make me like
and root for her character more as the story progresses. I have thoroughly
enjoyed this Mags trilogy that begun with The Monsters of Gokroth and The Moons
of Vulpana. I must send out a hearty clap to Jessica for coming back to the
role and showing us what superb extra life there is in her amazing character.
And she does kind of achieve her mission at the last hurdle here. She has been
seeking to overcome her monster side, and the climax comes as a satisfying
outcome, if leaving just maybe the hint of chance that maybe her monster could
come back if she’s not careful.
Re-iterating: Sometimes
every now and then having a story that doesn't take itself too seriously is
good to flow away with. One is OK with universal impending doom but in between
some of us revel in the chance for some comic relief. Yeah, the title of the
story is tacky and corny but why not? Surely you can have a bit of good humour
in every aspect of the story.
An Alien Werewolf in London is never ever
going to be the most brilliant or world changing story in the whole universe,
but its consistently entertaining and amusing in equal measure. And, at the end
of the day, what more can one ask from a Doctor Who tale than that?!
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