Doctor Who The Monthly Adventures #257 - Interstitial / Feast of Fear

great story

A new Doctor Who audio. Second in the current run of three to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. With Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan.This one also sees[mild mild spoiler for the previous story 'Tartarus']A new companion in the TARDIS, in the shape of Marc. Former slave from the Roman Empire. A smart and decent young man. Who lacks the experience of his travelling companions.You can listen to this release without needing to have heard Tartarus though.This one adopts a format Big Finish audio have used on a handful of recent occasions, in that it comprises two two part stories. One on each disc. Episodes run from twenty five to thirty mins [approx.].Both the two stories here are stand alone, but since the second one does start in the middle of the action, it's best to listen to them in order, not least because the first forms a better introduction for Marc.First is 'Interstitial.' In which the TARDIS is pulled off course by temporal disruption, and lands at a research facility where very dangerous experiments with time are taking place. But how do you stop such things when time itself is the danger?The first episode of this is a very good listen. As with Fifth Doctor tv tales, there is an awful lot going on in the TARDIS at first before it gets into the action, but these scenes flow nicely. They also form a good introduction, as mentioned for Marc, since he needs more explained to him than any character before, by wont of having come from times that weren't very advanced scientifically. George Watkins does really well in the role with all this material.In the meantime, the set up for the main story itself is pretty clever and works nicely. All of which leads to a decent cliffhanger.But part two falls into the trap that stories about time travel can get into. It's far too, to coin that well worn phase 'timey wimey.' I rather lost track of what was going on as a result, so it was a good feeling when a resolution came along and sorted it all out. A fairly decent final scene, though.All in all a good story, but it probably needs repeated listens to get the most from it.On disc two, we have 'Feast of Fear.' The TARDIS is in Ireland, at the height of the famine. A travelling carnival exists to spread cheer to people. But it brings something sinister instead. And it has trapped two of the TARDIS crew. Can the others break them free?A good start to this one, as it brings you into the middle of the action, and thus doesn't spend time setting anything up. You are never confused though. Whilst it does something to Nyssa that has been done a lot before, it's the first time in a while so it doesn't feel like a cliché. And Sarah Sutton does well with the material. As does Peter Davison, with the Doctor's efforts to deal with a problem.Marc fares quite well as a character, despite not getting as much good material as in part one of the first story. And Tegan is Tegan. Superbly. This one does offer other memorable things, in the sense of using established history. A memorable villain. A good setting. And a great sense of location, given that a lot of the supporting cast are Irish, so the accents are spot on. There are a couple of good character arcs for supporting players in this story, and that leads to a pretty decent conclusion.One of those four star tales that don't quite do enough to get more marks, but are good listens anyway.Disc one ends with approx. sixteen mins of music from the two stories on the last track.There's a trailer for the next in the range on the track on disc two after the final episode.And roughly fifteen mins of interviews with cast and crew on the two tracks after that.

Amazing eerie good serial of am episode got goosebumps listening to it awesome good plot and amazing to genius to