EDA 1.5: Phobos

[Anthony Williams]

Moving on, we come to Eddie Robson's Phobos:

We want to know your thoughts on this Eighth Doc & Lucie play, co-starring the likes of Timothy West and the welcome return of Nerys Hughes to Doctor Who!

[Junkyard]

This is my favorite of the four single part stories in series one. Tim West and Nerys Hughes are both great and the plot keeps you guessing. An isolated setting, mysterious monsters and 'something nasty in the wood shed'. It ticks all the boxes for me.

[Anthony Williams]

A few days after I listen to any Big Finish play, I tend to go and read a bunch of reviews on that play, to see what other people thought about it. And rather unsurprisingly, a lot of people really seemed to dislike Phobos. At first, I rather liked this - it was relatively enjoyable. But, after a few hours, it began to sink in that there just wasn't much substance to this play.

Like many stories in this "season" of Doctor Who, a lot of the plot of this play is fairly derivative. In this case, a lot of it harks back to the Pertwee era's Colony in Space, as well as stories from other eras like Image of the Fendahl and The Dominators. For the first few plays of the season, I've argued that the plot wasn't that important - their purpose was to get us to get to know the character of the Eighth Doctor again, and the new character of Lucie Miller. However, by this point, we really are beginning to get to know them. That's not to say that further character development isn't required, but the plot should no longer play second fiddle.

Of course, with this play, there's the oh-so-familiar snowy location (I say, having recently listened to both Land of the Dead and Winter for the Adept), but this time on a different planet - one of the moons of Mars, which is being visited by adrenaline junkies and the like. The "drennies" themselves are fairly dull, cliched characters, who say things like "I felt the need for speed!" (give me strength!) And disappointingly, there's a rather shoe-horned-in sub-theme about inter-racial relationships (or, in this case, inter-species) that really seems forced. Disappointing.

This play did provide one chuckle - the Headhunter having turned up with days to spare to catch up with the Doctor and Lucie, only to have an accident and spend the play unconscious and just miss them!

Fortunately, Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are as excellent as always, putting in great performances. By far, the Eighth Doctor is the standout performance in this play, with McGann playing the part with such glee. The Doctor tests the gravity of Phobos by jumping up and down like an excited child, for God's sake! It's wonderful! But, at the same time, there's a silky menace to the Doctor - this is the man who has seen civilisations rise and fall, and seen things that would make your blood freeze. This is a Doctor who is able to destroy the fear-feeding creature by essentially gorging it on the things that he's seen. McGann manages to play this multi-faceted Doctor brilliantly.

This play is average. There are some nice things here, but it's by no means the best I've ever heard, particularly from Eddie Robson. I would give this a 6/10 (or 3/5) - it's neither good nor bad.

[Si Hunt]

It's forgettable. When I came to re-listen to it a few months ago, I was astounded to realise I remembered nothing about it. In hindsight, it's no wonder. The "extreme sports planet" premise is extremely risable, tacky and lacking in much potential. So we have a "big alien beast" type menace instead, quite a simple plot. There is another great cast, but unfortunately Timothy West and Nerys Hughes don't shine in the same way that Julia MacKenzie and Nigel Havers did in "Immortal Beloved". So despite having just re-heard it, I can't really recall any hugely impressive scenes or plot revelations.

An average release, compared to its neighbours in the season.

Si.

[Junkyard]

Er, sorry Si. Nigel Havers and Julia MacKenzie were in 'No More Lies'; Ian McLeise and Elspet Gray were in 'Immortal Beloved'.

[Paul Monk]

For me, a sign of a good audio play is that you should remember something about it. Either the whole thing or some scene or character thats particularly effective. This one I remember nothing at all about which says a lot.

[SiHart]

This one was quite dull, wasn't it?

[Jon Masters]

Hmm - surprised by the lack of love for this one, I thought it much better than Immortal B or No More lies. The idea of the madman who is the only one to believe in monsters was nicely twisted on, and Tim West comes across as really creepy later when he tries to manipulate people. Although the Ozzy- Drennies attitudes got a bit wearing, the thrill-planet idea was well realised and had a sensible link to the plot. And I thought Lucie had a realy good outing as companion in this one, rather than just pootling around after the Doctor, and McGann came over as quite dark in a couple of good scenes.

The only bit that I didn't like was the mixed species marriage subplot, but not enough to spoil the whole story.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Finally got round to this one this afternoon. It was a bit predictable and I did just about remember the twist that the monsters were being controlled by Kai from first time round but the Doctor's allusions to his darker side were interesting. Just a shame that couldn't have been saved for a better story. That said having expected it to be quite hard work it was a reasonably pleasant background diversion while I got on with some work.
Also I'd forgotten that Ben Silverstone was in it which was a pleasant surprise.