2.1 - Heart of the Haniad
And so the second season of adventures begins with the Doctor now travelling alone having apparently left Nick and Rob behind on the Planet Florana only to experience a temporal disturbance which leaves the TARDIS inoperable and the Doctor stranded on board a Flying Fiat Marvel with a somewhat disgrunted pilot by the name of Edward Bradley...
Can I start by saying I approve of the new two episode format which was originally tried out with Keepsake in the previous season. This is a nice easy to listen to length clocking in at just shy of 41 minutes.
The overall story is nicely contained justifies its shortness with a nice contained feel and only six characters (yes I am counting Si Hart's computer voice as it was one of my personal highlights). I really liked the opening Haniad soundscape morphing into the TARDIS crash landing from Time and the Rani morphing into brief 80s jazz music. After the extremely musical Christmas Gnomes it adds nicely to the stripped down feel of this story not having much in the way of music.
A quick character breakdown:
The Doctor- Freed from the avuncular role he's had in recent times he seems to relish the prospect of new adventures and his attitude towards Ed is noticeably different such as his insincere apology. It's interesting to see the harder side of his character which was hinted at in the "Rob's a fool" scene in Magical History Tour resurface a little more strongly. Paul certainly responds to this with great versatility.
Ed - despite being prone to see the down side of virtually everything that happens and be generally rather selfish and at times cowardly, Ed is somehow at once a very sympathetic and believable character. I can only credit this to Martin Penny's performance which brings with it a warmth and humour that makes you almost root for Ed rather than the Doctor. His instant dislike for the "alien nut job" whose arrival in a "magical police portaloo" pretty much wrecks his chances of ever sorting things out with his girlfriend is fairly understandable however the gradual thawing of this relationship runs through the core of this play.
Uxan- Surely there are not enough words to describe P-Bal's performance as Uxan. ;) On a serious note I am glad he decided against playing the character in the style of Sarah Sutton. His harsh treatment of Grexos is very well played and pays off nicely in the denouement of which more later.
Grexos - Love this performance by David Barnes. Nicely understated so that when the reveal comes that there is an element of Burns/Smithers about his relationship to "Uxan Sir" it comes as a pleasant surprise. The scene where he has the Doctor and Ed at cannon point is great.
Computer Voice - Love the "Alert! Alert!"s at the beginning and just the whole attitude this particular voice has. Glad to see it's a returning character.
Chi-Haniad - Another great performance from Pip. Especially the last scene where he kills Grexos and gives Ed the seedling.
General Notes-
Good choice of referencing by dumping Rob and Nick on Florana as mentioned in Death to the Daleks, although I was slightly surprised the Doctor was so willing to leave them "for a few years" considering he's raised Nick from an egg.
Tick for Sparkle Tribe mention.
Even though I'm so not a cars person (I had to check the spelling of Marvel)
I like the idea of the car ships.
There's some business towards the end of Part 1 and start of Part 2 where a grapple is mentioned. Somehow I didn't quite follow this. Perhaps I just need a relisten though. :confused
Like Ed's "don't think it's pay and display" line.
The Chi-Haniad has a nice line to Ed which goes "There is a brightness in you, you are not without hope." At least I think that was it but the second part of it was a little unclear.
Tick for CWAS getting another mention. :)
Love "What is WHSmith?"
I don't think changing the line to "I feel queer" worked. Sorry P. :p
The Doctor's suggestion as to how Ed should kill Uxan rather just leaving him is quite chilling but the actual intention behind the menace is well played.
As I said before Uxan and Grexos revealing their true feelings for each other at the last was lovely... aaahhh! :love
Love the occasional music cues in those last scenes. Oh and is that the Incredible Hulk theme making a brief appearance?
Love Ed's to do list especially "show alien nut job around home town."
And finally sorry Steve but "Tree-mendous" gets an "oh dear" from me although I still laughed through my groan :-D
I'm going to try and mark this season a little more fairly so... 7.5/10
:clap