• The comedic elements. Though this isn't a comedy, the story is at its strongest when it is having fun with the characters and situations that arise. The Scottish Spinster's bizarre insistence that all the windows be left open to let the cleansing air in to keep people "pure"; the teasing of the ghost about hanging around a girl's boarding school; the Doctor's frequently exasperated insistence about post-hypnotic suggestions; Nyssa's own exasperation about the Doctor continually declaring something mysterious and then refusing to elaborate further. There is a lot of amusing dialogue in this story, bemused characters reacting to events or the often ludicrous biases they encounter. In particular, there is a frequently running callback to the implication that one of the girls is only going out with the local policeman (including planning to elope with him) in order to get a rise out of her parents. Her frequent,"I wish I could see mother's face when she sees/finds out about this!" continually play up the idea that she is rather immaturely toying with her own life, the lives (and affections) of others in a childish fit of revenge for being dumped into the boarding school in the first place. It doesn't always work, but when the comedy hits it hits well, and carries the story through some of the less endearing sections.
  
  
• India Fisher. I could basically listen to India Fisher talk all day (MasterChef is an aural feast as well as a visual one, as she explains what meal we are currently seeing) and it is no exception here. She has an incredible voice, and if I lived in England I'd probably sign up to Natwest Bank just to hear her on the phone when I call up to check my balance (none, it's all gone on Big Finish). So the fact she has a large part to play in this automatically is a bonus for me. She elevates the material she is given, with any other actor the character of Peril Bellamy would have really grated, instead she is tolerable.
  

• Peril Bellamy. Without India Fisher voicing her, Peril Bellamy is an awful character. She is (quite deliberately) an utter brat, and it is infuriating to listen to her - and to be fair, her companion Alison - skip merrily and uncomprehendingly through the disasters befalling them. Nothing seems to have any impact on them at all, at one point they witness the death of a person they know very well, and in the very next scene they're joking around and quipping exactly as they were the scene before. Similarly, the destruction of a helicopter and its crew not only doesn't scar them, but they don't even seem particularly concerned about the fact they're now trapped in the dangerous situation they were supposedly desperate to escape even BEFORE things got deadly. The idea seems to be to write Peril (and Alison) as flighty, immature girls and not entirely cognizant of the seriousness of the situation they've found themselves in. Unfortunately there is a fine line to walk between capturing that sense of childish incomprehension without making the characters either seem stupid or offensively self-centered, and the story doesn't really pull it off.
  
  
• The exposition. This story is written by Andrew Cartmel, former Script Editor for the tail end of the televised run of Classic Who, often credited with turning the quality of the show around (too little too late unfortunately) and being responsible for some of the better stories of the 7th Doctor's run. Unfortunately, perhaps because he's dealing with a purely aural format, Cartmel fills the story with ridiculous levels of exposition, with characters shouting about what they're seeing/what is going on for fear that the viewer will be lost otherwise. Scenes where the characters are menaced/attacked by inanimate objects see those characters providing a running commentary as they flee in panic for their lives, making sure to lay out every detail of what is happening. It breaks the suspension of disbelief, frequently reminding the listener (well, me at least) that they're listening to a scripted audio play.
  
  
• The setting/period. I'm still not entirely sure WHEN this story is set, the writing and the "voice" of the characters suggest it is set at some point in the first half of the 20th Century and presumably between the World Wars, but references to technologies suggest that it may be set later than that, making the characters or Peril and Alison in particular feel time-displaced. This may have been intentional, but it gives everything an oddly quaint and primitive feeling, the characters are so isolated from the outside world not just geographically but in terms of their entire mindset. Everything feels very anachronistic, distractingly so.
  
  
• The supernatural elements. As I mentioned in my write-up on Loups-Garoux, I get annoyed when Doctor Who just straight-up incorporates completely supernatural elements into a story. There is usually at least an attempt at some kind of "rational" explanation, which being sci-fi are generally just a techno-babble bit of fantasy anyway but at least offer the pretense of a "grounded" explanation. Throughout this story, the Doctor offers such explanations - psychic abilities mistaken for ghosts/poltergeists etc - but also takes a strangely adversarial relationship with another character who refuses to just blindly embrace the idea of the supernatural/exotic without at least first testing out more mundane possibilities. Then at about the 2/3rds mark the story just dives headfirst into the supernatural, as a ghost does show up and is exactly that... a ghost! The Doctor makes a rather lame comment saying it isn't really a ghost but just a manifestation of energy latching on to a psychic residue.... but with no basis on anything other than he just doesn't want to say "ghost". The ghost itself retains a complete personality/memories and it just straight up the person it used to be. It's a really odd, jarring thing for me, and colors my whole feeling on the story in general.
  
  
• The "mystery". Much of the first 2/3rds of the story are occupied with the Doctor attempting to solve the mystery of what is going on at the school. Unfortunately it is written in such a way that the Doctor holds his cards ludicrously close to his vests, meaning the listener can't figure things out for themselves because much of the Doctor's deductions are based on information only HE has - in that event it is akin to the old school Sherlock Holmes stories I guess, but I can share in Nyssa's frustrations as she demands explanations to cryptic comments from the Doctor and he refuses to give any.
  
  
• The sci-fi "twist" in episode 4. My own feelings on the supernatural elements aside, at least that is consistently the basis of the story. But then in episode 4..... aliens show up! They're not the explanation for the ghost/poltergeist (though they did orchestrate events), they just show up in episode 4 to give bigger stakes to the story, as we suddenly cut from trying to keep the inhabitants of the school alive to a threat to the entire planet and maybe even the galaxy itself. It's a frequent issue the revival had as well (particularly under RTD) where the stakes ALWAYS had to be world-changing. Though the Doctor does make cryptic comments to the aliens throughout the entire story, they still seem to just appear out of the blue and completely change up nature of the story, and again it has a very jarring effect. The ultimate fate of the invading aliens is surprisingly dark, and what I think is supposed to be a triumphant moment comes across more bloodthirsty on the Doctor's behalf.
  

Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Sep 15, 2015

Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Sep 15, 2015

MisterBibs fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Sep 16, 2015