Doctor Who: Demon Quest by Paul Magrs
“Tom Baker reprises the role of the Fourth Doctor in five thrilling brand new adventures, with Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates. The Doctor's return to Nest Cottage lands him in trouble when a key component from the TARDIS disappears. Mrs Wibbsey is unwittingly responsible, having exchanged it for a bag containing four curious objects. It seems that each one is a clue, and the beginning of a chase through Time. With the TARDIS not working properly, the Doctor and his housekeeper embark on a dangerous journey to Roman Sussex, 19th Century Paris, the snowy mountains of Eastern Europe and 1970s New York. Along the way they collect their old friend Mike Yates, and together the trio face the elusive, demonic being who keeps luring them on in their quest. It soon becomes clear that a trap has been laid for the Doctor – and a place reserved at his ultimate destination…”
With the success of “Doctor Who: Hornet’s Nest”, BBC Audiodrama was keen to get Tom Baker back in the recording booth. As it happens, Baker was also more than ready, with his love for the character restored, so it was a foregone conclusion. And with Paul Magrs picking up where the previous story left off, the same level of quality was to be expected.
Of course, it would have been all too easy to simply repeat the same formula: having the Doctor recount much of the story, giving Baker a chance to show off his impressive oratory skills. Instead, this five-part epic is a bit more varied. Each of the five episodes (again totaling roughly 5-6 hours of ear candy) is told from a different character’s perspective. It keeps the story fresh as events play out, but as one might expect, the quality of the individual episodes varies a bit more, depending on the strength of the narrator.
The central conceit is that a critical piece of the TARDIS has been taken, forcing the Doctor to travel through time on Earth to retrieve the various elements of the instrument, all the while led on this merry chase by unusual objects left for his benefit. On the one hand, this is a familiar Classic Who plot device, and it works particularly well for the episodic format, giving a logical context for the various narrators. On the other hand, many of those “fetch quest” serials felt incredibly forced, and by the end of the story, this particular quest definitely feels extraneous to the point of the villain’s gambit.
I was also a bit confused as to the nature of the “demon”, especially as the story makes quite a big deal of the potential reveal of the character’s identity. Any Classic Who fan immediately thinks of “The Daemons”, and with Mike Yates involved, a callback to the Third Doctor era is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. But this “demon” is completely unrelated, which isn’t so much a disappointment as a storytelling oddity.
With the success of “Hornet’s Nest”, the eventual sequel was never in doubt, and sure enough, this story also leads directly into a follow-up as well (“Serpent’s Crest”). Tom Baker seems to have found a renaissance of Doctordom between these productions and his work for Big Finish, and it’s the fans of his era that reap the benefits!
Price: ~$33.00 (digital version)
Acquisition method: Audible
With the success of “Doctor Who: Hornet’s Nest”, BBC Audiodrama was keen to get Tom Baker back in the recording booth. As it happens, Baker was also more than ready, with his love for the character restored, so it was a foregone conclusion. And with Paul Magrs picking up where the previous story left off, the same level of quality was to be expected.
Of course, it would have been all too easy to simply repeat the same formula: having the Doctor recount much of the story, giving Baker a chance to show off his impressive oratory skills. Instead, this five-part epic is a bit more varied. Each of the five episodes (again totaling roughly 5-6 hours of ear candy) is told from a different character’s perspective. It keeps the story fresh as events play out, but as one might expect, the quality of the individual episodes varies a bit more, depending on the strength of the narrator.
The central conceit is that a critical piece of the TARDIS has been taken, forcing the Doctor to travel through time on Earth to retrieve the various elements of the instrument, all the while led on this merry chase by unusual objects left for his benefit. On the one hand, this is a familiar Classic Who plot device, and it works particularly well for the episodic format, giving a logical context for the various narrators. On the other hand, many of those “fetch quest” serials felt incredibly forced, and by the end of the story, this particular quest definitely feels extraneous to the point of the villain’s gambit.
I was also a bit confused as to the nature of the “demon”, especially as the story makes quite a big deal of the potential reveal of the character’s identity. Any Classic Who fan immediately thinks of “The Daemons”, and with Mike Yates involved, a callback to the Third Doctor era is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. But this “demon” is completely unrelated, which isn’t so much a disappointment as a storytelling oddity.
With the success of “Hornet’s Nest”, the eventual sequel was never in doubt, and sure enough, this story also leads directly into a follow-up as well (“Serpent’s Crest”). Tom Baker seems to have found a renaissance of Doctordom between these productions and his work for Big Finish, and it’s the fans of his era that reap the benefits!
Price: ~$33.00 (digital version)
Acquisition method: Audible
Our Grade:
B+
The Good:
* Another great performance from Tom Baker and company
* Neatly ties into the previous story arc
* Neatly ties into the previous story arc
The Bad:
* Quality of episodes varies with narrator
* A bit too dependent on the “fetch quest” format
* A bit too dependent on the “fetch quest” format
John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth