Doctor Who: The Sting of The Time Bees

[SiHart]

Brilliant performance from Martin Penny, by the way!

Definitely. This is a story of great characters (how good was Emma as her Royal Highness BTW- great performance as the Queen there!), but somehow, the story belongs to Ed Bradley. Martin plays it exactly right all the way through, with loads of great moments, played in the way only Martin could do it! Brilliant. We'll miss Ed Bradley hugely.

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

We'll miss Ed Bradley hugely.

Well...

[SiHart]

Shush!

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

Can I also say that I thought Martin was brilliant. In this and just generally.

[Andrew Curnow]

Finally got to listen to part 2 - I did start it last night, but my earphones went on the fritz!

Anyway, really good, I can only echo what everybody's already said - it sounds slick & professional, the ending was very touching without being shmaltzy, Martin's Ed stole the show as ever, and crikey Emma's laugh was quite terrifying, absolutely brilliant. I'll probably post some more tomorrow, as it's a bit late now, but just to say I really enjoyed it - and my favourite line has to be "I'll do whatever it takes - even if it takes a heck of a lot!"

[brandynigma]

Is there going to be a new episode this weekend?

Is there?

Is there?

Huuuuuuuh?

[Rob McCow]

I'm afraid not! The other stories in this series are still 'in progress'.

Hopefully there'll be an update soon!

[Martin Penny]

Can I just say thankyou to everyone for the nice comments about my performance - recording, I'm never quite sure how I'll sound when I hear it all put together, and I'm very fortunate to always be given such great dialogue.

[brandynigma]

Can I just say thankyou to everyone for the nice comments about my performance - recording, I'm never quite sure how I'll sound when I hear it all put together, and I'm very fortunate to always be given such great dialogue.

Hear, hear! You were brilliant.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

4.1 Sting of the Time Bees

Every journey has an end. And so we reach the final adventure for the Doctor and Edward Bradley

(I've stuck to the live text commentary format for this review: )

Again we're straight into the action. Nice. And great to hear the Doctor and Ed together.
Only a couple of lines in Martin threatening to steal the show again.
Like the Doctor being suddenly replaced by Ed’s Grandfather (interesting accent, Andrew, it actually seems to get better as the play goes on!), reminds me of the Quantum Leap episode where history changes so that Al is replaced by a different observer played by Roddy McDowall, except it becomes quickly apparent that Ed is not in the same time and place as he previously was.
In short, another great pre-credits teaser.

Like the cameos by the Porters and the Chefs and then… A couple of very hissy Ice Warriors
Like Parminter being all John Steed.
Interesting intrusion of the Doctor’s voice referring to the Time Bees.
Queen Cordelis is very regally played by Emma. Like the reveal that she’s the sister of Jann from Heist!
Like the music during Ed’s speech. Love the “He’s great!” at the end.
Like the time freeze when Ed sees the Doctor’s projection.
Like the shock reaction music cue on “you’re making a movie..!”

Love Jonno’s Head Chef accent.
Like the Ice Warriors accusing Gene of racism.
Like Sizleer’s singing. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.
The pendant of Norombra! Good continuity from Heist!
Ooh the pendant sings. Very Excalibur!
Scene seems to end rather suddenly.
Like the voices going wibbley wobbly when they’re talking to the unconscious Percival. Who was the other character in that scene with Jonno?
“Microwaved!” Love it!
Love the camp German executioner who I don’t recognise at all
“They’ve come for me, the Time Bees!” Good but a bit abrupt at the end.

Like Gene appearing to use Venutian Aikido on the Executioner.
Love Ed’s pessimism when dealing with Gene and Parminter.
Like this scene between Ed and Susan as Aldeera.

Hang on, how does Aldeera suddenly get the relationship between Ed and Gene wrong after only talking about it a couple of minutes earlier.
Love Aldeera being racist about the Ice Warriors. The Queen’s response is quite staid and appropriately unemotional.
Like how no one notices the bees in Aldeera’s chamber until it’s too late! Poor Aldeera!

Like the reveal that Steed I mean Parminter is using Gene for the ends of the British Government. Love the Ice Warrior gun sounds against the sound of bees. Very good scene.


The Doctor again. It’s about time. But then Cordelis is revealed to be the Queen Bee! Clever stuff.

Nice cameos from the various soldiers: Orinoco, Wildebeest and Jodrell. Well done guys.

“I could spend my whole life apologising for that man...”- great stuff.
Love the reference to Jen’s flowers being squashed in Heart of the Haniad.
“Gene Bradley you bastard!”
“Hang on a minute that’s not black grass…” Nice!
Like the idea of the Queen Bee's persona hiding in the mind of all the queens of Norombra.
Good screams Emma!
Great death scenes Andrew and Steve!

Love the 60s music in this office scene between Ed and Parminter.
Love Martin’s voice morphing to Paul reading the letter and the accompanying song.
Adore the concept of the audio recordings of their adventures. Love the cheeky reference to editing, adding music and nice covers.
Fury of the Sparkle Tribe- Hurrah! Even if it wasn’t so good
Love Ed choosing to listen to Heist! first… “and play!” What a lovely ending.

Although I can’t help feel a little sad that all these great adventures including Once Upon A Time Lord never happened to Ed even though the inhabitants of that world sing songs of the Doctor and Ed every Happily Ever After day!

Just to conclude by thanking Steve for this great script which was filled with great lines and a very worthy conclusion to Ed's character arc. Thanks also for the great work on post production. There were a couple of moments where the music seemed a little quiet but obviously I wouldn't have wanted to be unable to hear the dialogue but overall there were some great choices of cues for this play.

Also to say how much I've enjoyed the journey I've now concluded through the six (has it really only been that few?!) plays chronicling the Doctor's epic travels with Ed. The one constant throughout has been the great chemistry between Paul and Martin whose performances have really been the continual highlight of all these plays. It's only a slight shame we didn't have a little more from Paul for this final play but Martin carried it very well with support from a great supporting cast. And Paul's performance in the letter scene at the end is one of the best I've heard him give, certainly up there with Episode 2 of Once Upon A Time Lord.

If the opportunity to hear these two characters together again ever presented itself I'd certainly grasp it with both hands.

8.5/10

Next: The long awaited return of Nick and Rob in The Paradise Machine

[SiHart]

What Steve did that was so brilliant with this one was to take a load of disperate elements- Gene Bradley and Parminter from The Adventurer, The Ice Warriors, Heist! and mix them up with the kind of sci-fi device he loves and come up with a story that makes sense, ties up some loose ends we'd left dangling in the past and is one of the best stories we've done. He's very clever!

Gorgeous production on it too. It sounds fabulous!

[Nyder]

Can't wait to hear it - well done Steve!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Can't wait to hear it - well done Steve!

Dave, you can stream it directly or download from the following page:

Sting of the Time Bees

I'm glad my having little knowledge of ITC serials didn't stop me still really enjoying this one.

[Rob McCow]

Yes, it's a 'Homage' to ITC serials, or 'Rip-off'

[Daktar]

Links no longer working.

[Philipnet]

The links have been fixed.

Also I've found the cover (see the first post)