paulopaperbooksonly's review
2.0
Weak story about Susan and the first Doctor.
A Little story about Susan and the Daughter before meeting with Ian & Barbara. This tale is told by Susan. They were travelling through the fourth dimension (it seems there are more but this was as far as he went - and it's hinted that we, our earth is set on the Third Dimension).
They arrive in a village that is having a drought for over two years and just explled the last rainmaker. When they heard that the doctor is a scientist they think he is rainmaker and so they "kidnap" him so he could make it rain. They also meet some strange homeless girl called Meedla.
There is also a superstision that a bad luck bird The Shrazer is in outskirts of the town.. an ill-omen. So the town focus on the catching the bird and making the doctor, well - rain.
But when Susan returns to the Tardis he saw that Meedla was catch in the nets and releases her but soon afterwards she seens the Tardis swept away in a flood with meedla in it.
Oh, didn't I told you? Tardis is a Kiosk and not a police box.
As Susan gets to the city she is taken by a woman (piglet woman because she own a pig) and susan as a dream of the ill-omen bird. Soon aftewards the husband of piglet's owner is killed by the bird and at stole the key to the Tardis. The town now infuriated call a huntsman to kill the Shrazer. The Huntsman tells the Doctor and Susan that they are not ill-omen but they can sense impeding danger and disaster (like carrion birds).
The Doctor travel to get the Tardis but becomes trap. Susan makes a deal with Shrazer, now with the full knowing that she was Meedla, and says if she saves the Doctor they will take her with them.
However before Meedla saves him the hunstsman saves the Doctor and kill the Meedla. Susan he is very sad and the Doctor tells Susan that she needs friends of her own age.
They then travel to London (where they meet Ian & Barbara) in the first episode of the TV Series.
A Little story about Susan and the Daughter before meeting with Ian & Barbara. This tale is told by Susan. They were travelling through the fourth dimension (it seems there are more but this was as far as he went - and it's hinted that we, our earth is set on the Third Dimension).
They arrive in a village that is having a drought for over two years and just explled the last rainmaker. When they heard that the doctor is a scientist they think he is rainmaker and so they "kidnap" him so he could make it rain. They also meet some strange homeless girl called Meedla.
There is also a superstision that a bad luck bird The Shrazer is in outskirts of the town.. an ill-omen. So the town focus on the catching the bird and making the doctor, well - rain.
But when Susan returns to the Tardis he saw that Meedla was catch in the nets and releases her but soon afterwards she seens the Tardis swept away in a flood with meedla in it.
Oh, didn't I told you? Tardis is a Kiosk and not a police box.
As Susan gets to the city she is taken by a woman (piglet woman because she own a pig) and susan as a dream of the ill-omen bird. Soon aftewards the husband of piglet's owner is killed by the bird and at stole the key to the Tardis. The town now infuriated call a huntsman to kill the Shrazer. The Huntsman tells the Doctor and Susan that they are not ill-omen but they can sense impeding danger and disaster (like carrion birds).
The Doctor travel to get the Tardis but becomes trap. Susan makes a deal with Shrazer, now with the full knowing that she was Meedla, and says if she saves the Doctor they will take her with them.
However before Meedla saves him the hunstsman saves the Doctor and kill the Meedla. Susan he is very sad and the Doctor tells Susan that she needs friends of her own age.
They then travel to London (where they meet Ian & Barbara) in the first episode of the TV Series.
nwhyte's review
2.0
Quinnis tells the story of how the First Doctor and Susan almost lost the Tardis, as mentioned in a throwaway line in The Edge of Destruction, and now at last told through the pen of Marc Platt. It's a good adventure - unusually penetrable compared to some of Platt's more complex scripts, and Carole Ann Ford (reprising Susan, and the narrative voice) and Tara-Louise Kaye (playing Meedla) successfully evoke an alien world with a pre-industrial culture, very peculiar architecture and even weirdly bird life. Given that it is set before the first televised Who story, no knowledge of continuity is demanded of the listener.
However, I am not happy that for the third consecutive story (after An Earthly Child and Relative Dimensions) a mistake made by Susan puts the world / the Doctor / everything at risk. I don't recall this plot line ever being used for the classic series; it's a bit unfortunate to do it even once, but three times in a row? Bring back the Susan whose grandfather was Geoffrey Bayldon, and who became President of Gallifrey. Also Tara-Louise Kaye is a bit uncertain as the guest cast, but we are told in the extras track that she was unwell on the day of recording. (Also that she is Carole Ann Ford's daughter.) And I thought it odd that a story set before the recent Eighth Doctor audio Relative Dimensions should be released after it.
So, rather oddly, an audio that I would recommend more strongly to listeners with no knowledge of Who than to those more familiar with the relevant continuity.
However, I am not happy that for the third consecutive story (after An Earthly Child and Relative Dimensions) a mistake made by Susan puts the world / the Doctor / everything at risk. I don't recall this plot line ever being used for the classic series; it's a bit unfortunate to do it even once, but three times in a row? Bring back the Susan whose grandfather was Geoffrey Bayldon, and who became President of Gallifrey. Also Tara-Louise Kaye is a bit uncertain as the guest cast, but we are told in the extras track that she was unwell on the day of recording. (Also that she is Carole Ann Ford's daughter.) And I thought it odd that a story set before the recent Eighth Doctor audio Relative Dimensions should be released after it.
So, rather oddly, an audio that I would recommend more strongly to listeners with no knowledge of Who than to those more familiar with the relevant continuity.
kmccubbin's review
4.0
Marc Platt has become, through a sideways route, THE great First Doctor writer at Big Finish. (And no, the new David Bradley stories do nothing to alter my opinion of this.) This may be the loveliest of his Companion Chronicles wherein he takes an offhand remark made during the show's first year and transforms it into a lyrical fantasy with echoes of Italo Calvino.
The plot is sparse, but enough, and it is held aloft by ambitiously strange world building.
In many ways this is primarily a horror story with Susan at its heart and I, for one, would be more than happy to have it serve as a model for First Doctor stories to come.
Notably, Carole Ann Ford's daughter, Tara-Louise Kaye, plays her counterpart in this piece.
The plot is sparse, but enough, and it is held aloft by ambitiously strange world building.
In many ways this is primarily a horror story with Susan at its heart and I, for one, would be more than happy to have it serve as a model for First Doctor stories to come.
Notably, Carole Ann Ford's daughter, Tara-Louise Kaye, plays her counterpart in this piece.
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