 | Doctor Who Big Finish- The Land of the Dead |
The Land of the Dead
Story 04 Written by Stephen Cole
Released January 2000
In the cold seclusion of Alaska, The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves embroiled in the final moments of a very old tragedy, forever altering the lives of two men linked in their grief. Rich eccentric Shaun Brett is constructing an insane testament to his departed father, using the skills of his childhood 'friend' Tulung. Both of their fathers had perished in a violent event that the TARDIS briefly witnessed 30 years ago. A great mystery and a stronger sense of resentment and anger connects the two men who seem doomed to wallow in the same excavation site that served as a burial mound for their parents.
In the midst of the drama is the wise-cracking designer Monica Lewis who uses natural material in building themed rooms in a shrine to Brett's father's historic find. Revisited, the dig is a wealth of knowledge and all of it is being used as building material in rooms made of stone, earth and even in a grisly case, of bone itself. Fragments of an unknown race of creatures predating the dinosaurs, nick-named Permians by the Doctor, are becoming animated and hostile, tearing at whatever and whoever they find and using raw material to renew themselves.
Like Whispers of Terror, The Land of the Dead is a wonderfully brilliant and inspired piece of classic Doctor Who tinged with new ideas and heightened drama. In addition to a knock-out cast and well-crafted supporting characters, the story allows for Peter Davison's Doctor to once again shine. A somewhat short-of-breath and scattered hero on screen, his depiction of the Doctor was often hampered by badly conceived companions and over-ambitious scripts.
In the Big Finish audios, Davison is given ample room to move and show what he is capable of without the BBC production team calling the shots. As indicated in several interviews, Davison had intended to inject a healthy dose of dry English wit into his version of the Doctor, but was kept from doing so by producer JNT who wished wished to distance himself from the sophomoric humor of the Graham Williams/Tom Baker/Douglas Adams era. In this instance, Davison is no longer restricted by any such demands and comes off as a sparkling personality. A brilliant, strange and whimsical personality, the Fifth Doctor of the audio adventures is an extension of the ideas that the actor explored on screen rather than an imitation.
Writer Stephen Cole comes from a long line of accomplishments in print including the highly acclaimed Doctor Who novel The Ancestor Cell. Of his three main Doctor Who Big Finish audios to date I have listened to this and the Apocalypse Element, an adventure steeped in action and technical jargon, but in my opinion little real substance in comparison to the Land of the Dead. A thrilling adventure full of charm and suspense, it comes highly recommended.
Doctor Who - The Land of the Dead can be purchased at local retailers and online from Big Finish.
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