jivjov fucked around with this message at 23:41 on May 12, 2016

• David Warner's in it. Nuff said, really.
  
  
• No easy answers. These two stories bring up a lot of hard questions and quite wisely don't try to answer them - the answers depend mostly on context in any case, and each character's perspectives are understandable and difficult to argue against. Rather than trying to define some "correct" moral viewpoint, instead we see most of the characters arguing their point genuinely, and the one exception to that rule is designed to both be compelling in their arguments to other characters AND abhorrent to the listener who knows the truth about where they are coming from. The unspoken parallels with the Time War are obvious - the Doctor is obsessed with the notion of not taking it upon himself to decide when death is justified, do you let one person die to save 100? 100 to save 1000? 1000 to same 10,000? 100,000 to save a million etc? He gets challenged on this stance from multiple fronts, both acerbically and diplomatically, as others point out that his desire not to set himself above others is achieving nothing but more of the death he is trying to prevent. It also stands in stark contrast to the fact he stands aside and does nothing as another character is left to die because "there is nothing I can do" but then goes above and beyond all reason in order to save the lives of his friends - his high minded ideals come across as hypocritical to some, which in turn allows the villain of the piece to paint him in a far more negative light than he deserves.
  
  
• Interesting supporting characters. Whether it be David Warner's frustrated "expert", Tracy-Ann Oberman's ice-queen administrator, Nicky Henson's well-meaning security guard or even the surprisingly useful "hen-pecked" Harold - each of the supporting characters brings something to the table. Whether they're foils to the Doctor or Tamsin, or helping move the story along in other ways, or acting as counters to the Doctor's own philisophy, they are engaging and interesting additions to the cast that don't feel like they're there just to make up the numbers (unfortunately, the pilot character falls into that latter category). And of course Tamsin continues to impress and surprise as Niky Wardley grows into the role, one which has been written with a very clear purpose in mind that it executes extremely well. Her opposite number is also extremely good, and the contrast between the two both individually and when they get scenes together works really well. For the most part, every character is there to add to the story and make a point.
  
  
• The "switch". Deception has been a recurring theme this season, and this continues in these stories both in terms of how some characters are lied too (or rather, have the truth omitted from them) and how the listener gets thrown for a loop where what we thought was set to be the status quo gets turned on its ear. We're in a VERY different situation at the end of these two stories than we were at the start, with one HELL of a cliffhanger ending to the first story followed by a pretty huge development at the halfway point which then resolves itself with a major upsetting of the status quo from one character in particular. It plays into prior events of the season without feeling like it is necessary to the quality of the story in its own right, everything just seems to flow naturally and though prior experience helps, there is enough provided within the context of the two episodes that a fresh viewer (and why would they be listening to this as their FIRST story anyway?) would be able to understand.
  
  
• The way everything comes together. There are multiple strands in this story - the Ice Warriors' return, the escape of the tourists, the Doctor's refusal to kill, the presence of the nemesis, the return of an old character, the philosophical debate over the morality of the Doctor's actions, the creation and mothballing of the re-ionizer device (might as well call it Chekov's gun), the disarming of the explosives. All of them come together in the end, and the sheer pleasure in the Doctor's voice as he lays out what has happened and just how neatly it ties into what he always knew HAD to happen is infectious. After two hours of having the Doctor's morality (justifiably) called into question and accusations that his attempts to preserve the integrity of the Web of Time are just an excuse to justify letting people die as a result of his INACTION.... we see that his actions actually improved the situation. He's not always right, and bad things do happen along the way, but he does actually have a plan and a purpose.
  
  
• The continuity. Playing into both Big Finish and TV continuity, the story uses references to strengthen the framework of the narrative rather than standing in place of an actual stable foundation for the story. The obvious references to The Judgement of Isskar and The Seeds of Death are there, but there's other unspoken stuff going on too. The Doctor does explicitly (and not for the first time) mention that he looks back on his prior incarnation with some distaste, feeling like he let himself become too much of a puppetmaster/chess player who allowed himself to overlook the value of life. But there's also the unstated idea that the Doctor feels some guilt about how he acted towards the Ice Warriors back in Seeds of Death, where he actively and personally kills Ice Warriors frequently. Now he finds himself on Deimos with Ice Warriors woken too early, and while he wants to save the humans living on Mars he doesn't want it to be at the expense of the Ice Warriors' lives as it was way back when.
  

• The inconsistent tone. The author, Jonathan Morris, is known for his lighthearted work on Who and this story starts off very much in this tone. This is deliberate, as he wanted to upset the listener's expectations by getting them comfortable before delving into darker and more complex territory. A laudable goal perhaps, but unlike say The Crimson Horror where the reverse occurred to great effect, here the opening comedic touches just kind of taint the attempts to get serious later on. Particularly guilty are his double-act of Harold and Margaret, a middle-class couple on holiday on Deimos where Margaret coos over the Ice Warrior exhibits while Harold the hen-pecked husband suffers along like something out of Last of the Summer Wine. But then as things ramp up in seriousness, Harold shows an unexpected backbone and talent, getting out the news that the Ice Warriors are present, leading the hostages to safety etc. Except the comedic establishment was too strong, it becomes too difficult to take him seriously, and when he has a quiet dignified moment later in the story where he approaches the Doctor to tell him that he disagrees with his stance.... well, it's still the henpecked, exasparated"....mmmmyes dear.... " voice that is expressing these points. Similarly, while David Warner cracking a joke at a serious moment in the story is genuinely funny, it doesn't really fit in with the character OR the situation. The security guard goes from a well-meaning but not particularly bright guy who just does as he is told and isn't particularly imaginative.... to making a heroic sacrifice while asking Tamsin to deliver some monumentally devastating news to a loved one. The Doctor's nemesis cackles with glee as their plan unfolds, making jokes (including scooby-doo references!) that sit a little uncomfortably alongside the serious stakes... though to be fair this is kind of the point with that character. The idea was to go from humor to a slowly growing realization of how serious everything was, but instead of flowing naturally it feels unbalanced.
  
  
• The abrupt deaths. There are many deaths in this story, and this is intentional due to the nature of the philosophical debate over the Doctor's actions (or inaction) and whether his intentions are laudable, hypocritical, or even untenable. But the deaths are oddly handled, either given undue attention or no attention at all. There is a (probably unintentional) callback to the awful Delta and the Bannermen that is handled so poorly and so quickly overlooked that I actually figured it was going to be revealed as a fakeout and the people killed would be revealed to have been saved.... but nope. It's unsettling and a bizarre narrative choice - if it meant anything it needed more attention drawn to it, if it meant nothing then that's even worse. Not only does the Administrator, Harold AND Margaret die, but so do 600 innocent tourists and personnel and it's given all the same gravitas and attention that those poor bastards in the tour bus got in Delta and the Bannermen.... none.
  

Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 04:58 on May 13, 2016

Edward Mass fucked around with this message at 10:28 on May 13, 2016

And More fucked around with this message at 12:33 on May 13, 2016