The BF Time Warp 037: The Sandman

[SiHart]

The Clutch is a fleet in constant motion, ships jostling for position, in an endless migration between the stars. For the Galyari, forbidden by an ancient curse from settling on a world ever again, the Clutch is home. But the curse travels with them!

The Sandman, a figure of myth and folk-lore, preys on the young and old alike. He lurks in the shadows and it is death to look upon him.

All too soon after the TARDIS arrives, it is evident that the Doctor and the Galyari share a dark history, and Evelyn is shocked to discover that, on the Clutch, it is her friend who is the monster.

The Sandman, according to the tales, also goes by the name of the Doctor!

What are your thoughts on The Sandman?

[Rob McCow]

Top marks for effort and world-building, but very low marks for making a distinctive and memorable story. This is a real blank for me, apart from the Galyari voices there's practically nothing I remember about it.

[SiHart]

Obviously this is one of those ones that's a bit lost. I know I listened to it a couple of times but I can't really remember much about it. Sorry to all involved for that!

[Anthony Williams]

I've never heard this one!

Ant x

[Rob McCow]

Come ON!

Surely there must be one person on this forum who can remember something about this story! Think, people! Think!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

"Sandman or Doctor it makes no difference!" And I think that was on the trailer that I heard when I relistened to The Rapture. The only thing I remember about this one is that I had a splitting headache the first time I listened to it. Even having Evelyn in it couldn't make it particularly memorable although The Galyari and The Clutch were quite an interesting race and setting so it was nice to hear them return in the Benny audio The Bone of Contention.

[Anthony Williams]

Well, I've finally heard this one. And I honestly haven't been so utterly bored by an audio since I listened to The Land of the Dead. I was really, really disappointed by this one, I'm afraid. The thing is, there was a lot here that should have been good. It sounds fantastic - I really can't fault the sound production here.

Part of the other problem is that I feel that it represents a regression in the personality of the Sixth Doctor. Was this play originally written with Peri as the companion? Because his personality is far more in line with Season 22 than the softer, post-Trial Sixth Doctor that we're used to hearing travelling with Evelyn. Here, he's abrasive, and seems to absolutely revel in it, in the way that he did in Mindwarp.

Then there's the aliens, particularly the Galyari - I just didn't like, and didn't empathise with, any of them at all. The problem was that all of them have extremely highly modulated voices, making them fairly difficult to understand at times. The Doctor being at his most abrasive, seemingly relishing in his reputation among these people, is just so jarring, creating a really grey morality - the Galyari are no worse than anything that the Sixth Doctor has done.

And on top of that, there's the utterly bizarre decision to use a guest star (in this case, Anneke Wills) and modulate her voice beyond all recognition. Utterly bizarre. This story has a strong guest cast, and I just don't think that they were used in the best way possible.

The real shame is that there were some really great ideas bubbling under this. The idea of a race of aliens that perceive the Doctor as a villain and not a hero is just fantastic, particularly in this era where the Doctor is absolutely idolised on TV. Likewise, I loved the idea that his coat was so abrasive to the visual spectrum of the Galyari - that was a really neat little twist to it all.

All in all, I just didn't dig this one. It was just plain out dull. I struggled to concentrate. I even struggled to stay awake at various points. I give it a 2/5, for the few good ideas that it had, even if they weren't well used.

[Nyder]

I really struggled with this one too this week. Even the wonderful Evelyn couldn't lift this story above the banal. And yes the monsters were too highly modulated to understand them at times. Hopefully there'll be better Sixie / Evelyn stories to enjoy.

[Stuart Wallis]

From what I remember of the story - heard some little time ago now - the Galyari were easy enough to understand, but hard to tell apart. I really hoped that the Doctor's level of abrasiveness was just the way that the legends had built him up to be like, and that he was playing up to it; though I'm not too sure about that, given, as Ant pointed out, he's not with Peri. That felt odd under the circumstances. Shame, it wasn't a bad idea...