BF: Excelis Dawns

[Anthony Williams]

Well, to break up the Stageplays, I've also been listening my way through the Excelis audios, beginning with the first one...

Excelis Dawns
Starring Peter Davison, Anthony Stewart Head and Katy Manning

It seems difficult to believe that this was made nearly ten years ago! At the time, Big Finish were doing a solid run of six Eighth Doctor and Charley audios. In addition to the regular range, in order to give fans their fix of previous doctors, they also produced a trilogy of Doctor Who plays set around the City of Excelis on the planet of Arturis, with an epilogue in Big Finish's Professor Bernice Summerfield range.

So, we begin with Excelis Dawns - a two-disc story, made up of two feature-length episodes, written by veteran Who author Paul Magrs. I've been fairly outspoken in the past about my very mixed opinions on Magrs' work, so the fact that I have very mixed views about this play should really come as no surprise.

If there's one thing that Magrs almost always gets right with his Doctor Who stories is the characterisation of the Doctor. Even just looking at his audio work, be it the Eighth Doctor's breathless romanticism in The Stones of Venice or the post-Trial solemnity of the Sixth Doctor in The Wormery. Here, we see him take a good look into what makes the "pasty-faced wretch" that is the Fifth Doctor tick. Here, Magrs uses the ever-controversial character of Iris Wildthyme as a juxtaposition against the Fifth Doctor, and we learn a lot more about the character as a result.

Likewise, Iris herself is wonderful. I've read many criticisms of the character online, but she really isn't that bad. I love her constant insistance on pretending that she was along for adventures with the Doctor that we know she wasn't - The Web Planet, for example. Her rapport with the Fifth Doctor is hilarious, and played so well by Davison and Manning.

However, I find that Magrs also repeats his previous works a little too much in this. While the quest notion is familiar from his book for the EDA range, The Scarlet Empress, there are lines of dialogue that are lifted almost directly from his Third Doctor PDA, Verdigris. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Beyond that, there's more scope for criticism - Anthony Stewart Head's performance as Greyvorn is somewhat lacklustre. His "gruff" voice is clearly a voice that he's put on, come across as rather wooden, and I'm extremely relieved that I already know that he goes back to his more normal voices for the other two parts in the trilogy.

Further, the story itself is rather disappointing. Being a character-first play, there's not all that much beyond it. They find the mysterious "relic" at the first stop, leaving a lot of time for faffing around. This could have been so much more exciting, with the running time - it could have been a wonderful Magrs-ian adventure, with various locations. Ho hum.

If there's one thing that this adventure highlights is how welcome Big Finish's lack of continuity references prior to this adventure were. Here, constant references to the Doctor's past, while somewhat amusing as Iris tries to claim that she was there, become rather tiresome after a while.

Overall, this story is too long, and somewhat disappointing. I know it's there to set up the next two adventures (and the Benny epilogue), but it could have been SO much more, or it should have been half the length. Still, at least Magrs gave us plenty of wonderful Iris lines, delivered expertly by Katy Manning. Otherwise, this would have been an incredible yawn-fest, filled with cliches such as zombies and Head's wooden performance. I really find it difficult to give this more than 6/10.

[SiHart]

However, I find that Magrs also repeats his previous works a little too much in this. While the quest notion is familiar from his book for the EDA range, The Scarlet Empress, there are lines of dialogue that are lifted almost directly from his Third Doctor PDA, Verdigris. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

You should try reading his novels Ant. Concepts get taken, mashed up and rehashed all the time in them. I'm never sure if it's laziness or a rather cool meta-textual thing he does. Sometimes it's annoying, sometimes it's great, but one thing is certain- it's very Paul Magrs.

[Rob McCow]

I thought that this was the strongest story in the Excelis range. I also thought it was great fun too! The ancient artefact being a handbag was rather amusing, thought it does kind of scupper the more serious plays later on.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm pretty sure this was the first ever Big Finish play I ever heard so although it's far from perfect I have soft spot for it.
I kind of feel for Anthony Head in these plays knowing he had to do his lines for all three plays in one day in isolation with Mark Gatiss reading in all three Doctors and probably everyone else.

[Anthony Williams]

The ancient artefact being a handbag was rather amusing, thought it does kind of scupper the more serious plays later on.

I totally agree with you on that one, Steve - especially when you consider that the whole planet ends up getting nuked at the end. That somewhat takes the fun away from it.

You should try reading his novels Ant. Concepts get taken, mashed up and rehashed all the time in them. I'm never sure if it's laziness or a rather cool meta-textual thing he does. Sometimes it's annoying, sometimes it's great, but one thing is certain- it's very Paul Magrs.

It's bizarre. I find that when I hear ideas that he's never done before, he's really at his best - I absolutely adored his stories from the first two McGann & Lucie seasons. AFAIK, those weren't recycled ideas, but who knows!?