CC 1.2: Fear of The Daleks - with Zoe Herriot!

[Rob McCow]

We've trolled through part one of this this morning. It's fairly good fun, with Zoe being used as an assassin by an alien fish-race who smell of cinnamon. Smell!

They've made it Zoe's first adventure, so immediately after the Doctor assures her that they will never run into the Daleks, they straight away run into the Daleks. Buh! The Daleks don't seem to have much of a plan, but the Xantha (I guess that's how you spell it) are trying to use their technology to take over the galaxy.

Of course, the other characters are in the background so this is all about Zoe. Poor, dim Jamie doesn't get a look in!

[Rob McCow]

Poor old Atrica, he didn't know what he was doing.

Fairly predictable poop, but quite good fun. Wendy Padbury reads extremely well and doesn't sound a day older, let alone four decades.

[SiHart]

I quite enjoyed it. It was pretty standard Dalek fare- a big plot that goes wrong (the psychic thing was bit reminiscent of the Apocalypse Element slightly) but it was well read by Wendy.

I liked the linking material, with Older Zoe. That was intriguing stuff.

[Anthony Williams]

This was a bit of an odd one. Yes, it was fairly standard Big Finish Dalek fare - but you wouldn't expect anything less when they're trying out something new like this first mini-season of the Companion Chronicles. So, that was unsurprising.

However, what I really found odd about it was the choice of Zoe as the companion. Unsurprisingly, the Doctor was somewhat sidelined, but I would have thought that Jamie might make for a more interesting story, rather than cold, logical and unemotional Zoe. And while Padders does a good impression of Patrick Troughton, her Jamie... well, that'd be why he's barely in this one.

I just feel that this was such a waste of opportunity. The script was very b-movie-ish, following lots of stereotypes - mind probes, space cities and the like. The plot is so dull and logical, that Nick Briggs even makes the Daleks sound slightly embarassed at the predictability of it all. The dialogue involved in this story just further illustrates my point - can you honestly say that you know anyone in real life who would say things like "I must atone for my treachery!"?

Frankly, after the marvellousness of Frostfire, this was just so disappointing. Padders deserved much more for her first Big Finish outing!

[SiHart]

Padders deserved much more for her first Big Finish outing!

She got it in Davros

[Anthony Williams]

I'll rephrase.... her first Big Finish outing as Zoe!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I so need to relisten to these first four but I remember thinking this one was ok. Not as special as Frostfire or as much fun as The Blue Tooth or even The Beautiful People which I'm not so keen on.
It probably says something that Patrick Chapman has never written for Big Finish either before or since this was released. I suspect he may be a friend of the person responsible for producing the first season who has likewise not been subsequently employed by BF.
It's interesting to note thanks to a friend who did the sound editing for the first season that Fear... had to be edited down from an original version that ran to about 90 minutes.