FDA 1.5 Trail of the White Worm

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The legend dates back to Roman times, at least: a great White Worm, as wide as a man, slithers out of the rocks of the Dark Peak Gap to take animals, sometimes even children, for its food.

When the Doctor and Leela arrive in the wilds of Derbyshire, only to get caught up in the hunt for a missing girl, they soon discover that the legend of the Worm is very much alive – even now, in 1979.

Worse still, it seems that the Doctor isn't the only renegade Time Lord on the trail of this deadly and mysterious Worm…

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

4/5 from me. Easily the most enjoyable of the series so far. Beevers is simply superb.
Loses a point for the Doctor not quite realising what's going to happen in time and also for the fact that we all already know who the Master's alien allies are so the conceit of not revealing them in this story falls rather flat at the end.

[Alex Me]

Downloading it at the moment. Anyone know why we only get a 'download mp3' option (instead of both a 'download mp3' and 'download audiobook') this month?

[Anthony Williams]

Audiobook option coming next week, apparently

I liked it. More when I'm on my computer and not iPod!

[Nyder]

I liked it too. The blustering, bonkers Colonel got on my nerves a bit, but Mr Beevers more than made up for it - very sinister!! Tom & Louise on top form again. Plus we get the added bonus of Diana Rigg's daughter in this story!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Michael Cochrane did seem to playing a human variant on the same character he's played in several previous BF plays to the extent I would've sworn he even had an identical line to one of his scenes in "Brotherhood of the Daleks" which was not a play I was keen to have called to mind.

However as Dave has said (at the risk of repeating myself) Beevers really gave this story a lift.

[Rob McCow]

We've listened to Part One. It really could have done without all that faffing about with the tank and the chasing hounds, that went on far too long. It seemed to be all delaying tactics for the Episode 1 reveal, sadly!

Still, Geoffery Beevers is incredibly sinister. A bit like a less camp Vincent Price, perhaps?

[Anthony Williams]

I'm going to be honest. The bar for this was not set very high. So when I say that this has been the best of the main Fourth Doctor audios so far (excluding the Lost Stories), I'm not necessarily saying that much.

Yet, this was actually pretty good. Alan Barnes took a look at the rulebook when it comes to the Master and threw it out. There's no cliffhanger reveal - Barnes doesn't try and conceal the character, which is a refreshing change. Big Finish have been there and done that. What we get instead is Beevers at his best - utterly evil. To an extent, it was a shame that he is later revealed to be working for the Kraals.

It's actually pretty difficult to judge this on its own merits. In comparison to The Master's previous (or later) plans, this seems like pretty small game - opening up a wormhole that allows the Kraals to invade. Ultimately, we won't know what the overall plan is until we've heard The Oseidon Adventure. Hopefully it's something more grandiose and worthy of The Master.

But despite this, it was wonderful to hear the Fourth Doctor alongside the Beevers Master once again. As I've said before, the Fourth Doctor didn't get that many stories with returning villains, and the dynamic between Tom Baker and Geoffery Beevers is one that I absolutely relish.

As Richard said earlier, this really loses its point for the fact that Big Finish revealed who The Master's co-conspirators are before the story was released, thus ruining what should have been a shock cliffhanger at the end of the story. Boo. Very disappointing.

But, that's made up for with some of the lovely ideas that are here. A seemingly bonkers military man, in the thrall of the Master. The worm itself, lending to some wonderful digestion humour (chronologically the first time the Doctor has been digested, although not the first time it's happened in BF, as he will do again as the Sixth Doctor in The One Doctor!) And then there's the lovely legend of the White Worm spun among the locals.

This was an entertaining play to listen to. It certainly has its flaws, but it was wonderful to hear the Fourth Doctor and the Beevers Master back together again. This one gets a 4/5 from me.

[Si Hunt]

The best play so far in a mediocre season. I've always been a fan of Beevers, and I didn't leave dissapointed.

Si.

[SiHart]

It was fine, but nothing very special. I loved the performance from Rachel Stirling who sounded uncannily like her Mum in The Mrs Bradley Mysteries and of course Geoffrey Beevers can make the phone book sound evil.

But it was a very slight tale really. The focus seemed all over the place- was it the Master's story or the worm's? It didn't seem to achieve a lot, with most effort going into setting up The Oseideon Adventure.

Enjoyable but could have been better.