The BF Time Warp 021: Dust Breeding

The Seventh Doctor and Ace are back in this Big Finish adventure...

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http://www.bigfinish.com/images/items/b022_dust_big.jpg

On nineteenth Century Earth artist Edvard Munch hears an infinite scream pass through nature. Centuries later his painting of that Scream hangs in a gallery on the barren dust world Duchamp 331.

Why is there a colony of artists on a planet that is little more than a glorified garage? What is the event that the passengers of the huge, opulent pleasure cruiser 'Gallery' are hoping to see? And what is hidden in the crates that litter the cargo hold?

The Doctor's diary indicates that the painting is about to be destroyed in 'mysterious circumstances', and when he and Ace arrive on Duchamp 331, those circumstances are well underway.

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But what do you think of it? Does it gather dust on your shelf or does it breed good memories?

Si xx

It's an average story for me. It'll forever be known for THAT twist, and that made it really. The first real time Big Finish threw a surprise on us (it wouldn't be the last of course!) and it was a very pleasurable and fun one too. That aside, quite a forgettable story, though the Scream painting was good, as was the appearance of the Krill from a book. Nice cross-formatting there!

Si.

Its not a bad tale per se,nice to see the Krill crossing over from the books,and yes it's memorable because of the anagrammatical Mr Seta more then anything else apart from maybe Caroline John's accent as Madame Salvatore!


Why does the poll ask what we think of The Holy Terror btw?

Someone wasn't paying attention this morning Stu, that's why!

Si xx

I voted this one good, simply because every now and then someone will say 'Madame Sal-va-tor-eh!' in an incredibly camp voice. And because Geoffery Beavers is the quintessence of evil. The Krill are near-invincible, aren't they? Would have been nice to have had a few more adventures with them.

I don't remember much about it but I think I'd had the twist spoiled before I heard it.

3/5 - I like this one, because of the punch in the air twist and the excellent performances of Beevers, and equally McCoy. It loses marks for some overloud sections where its very difficult to tell whats going on (especially with the Krill), some major overacting on some parts, and the unwanted return of the desperately dull Bev Tarrant.

Dust Breeding is a bit of a strange beast. Best remembered for that cliffhanger, there isn't that much else that's remarkable about it. Granted, Geoffrey Beevers puts in a superlatively evil performance as Mr Seta. But that's about it.

I think that the main problem with the story is that, like with The Genocide Machine, Mike Tucker has no real grasp on the characters of the Seventh Doctor and Ace. As a result, the Seventh Doctor comes across as a bland, generic all-purpose Doctor as seen in many of the Terrence Dicks novelisations. Then he appears to have written Ace more in the mould of a hysterical screamer like Jo Grant, rather than the street-wise, ballsy teenager that we see in other audios. Then there's the fact that Sophie Aldred is still trying to play her as she did back in the 80s, and it just doesn't work particularly well.

Then there's the return of Bev Tarrant. I didn't like the character in The Genocide Machine, and I still don't like her here. I remember Si Hart describing her in the thread for The Genocide Machine as "a cut price Benny Summerfield, without the charm, wit, warmth and well anything that made Benny a success". And she hasn't changed here. It's ironic to find out that she eventually returns in... the Benny Summerfield audios! Ouch. And what of the other guest star? Well, Caroline John puts in a frankly dreadful performance in as Madame Salvadori, who has the most ridiculous accent in the history of Doctor Who. Yowzers.

That's not to say that this play doesn't have it's merit. The Krill are a marvellous monster - near invincible, almost unstoppable, and utterly terrifying. They're a truly fantastic idea. Likewise, I love the notion of an alien trapped within Edvard Munch's The Scream. I loved the screaming of the planet as being described as "the noise of Dalek madness". Yet, I can't help but think that this play also owes something to the Blake's 7 episode Sand, through it's concept of living and sentient dust. Tucker is certainly able to plot, and really weaves the various items together - the Master, the Krill, the Dust and the Warp Core.

Yet, despite that, I find the absolute lack of attention to the characters of Ace and the Seventh Doctor, the return of the detestable Bev Tarrant, and the ridiculous accent put on by Caroline John to be so distracting that they really take away almost all enjoyment from this play. Consequently, it gets a meagre 2/5 from me...

Strangely enough Bev works really well once she's paired up with Benny. Also the Benny audios are a lot better written than some of the early Who audios which helps.
I recently bought this one along with a few others to fill the hole left in my collection by a misjudged act of generosity nearly 7 years ago so I look forward to hearing it again as I always liked it.