A review by colossal
Doctor Who: Bang-Bang-a-Boom! by Clayton Hickman, Gareth Roberts
2.0
This is a seventh Doctor adventure with Mel Bush as the companion and is #39 in the Big Finish main range.
The Doctor and Mel appear on a shuttle approaching a space station, only to discover that the two people on board are dead and the shuttle is about to explode. At the last possible moment they're beamed aboard the space station Dark Space 8 and they are immediately mistaken for the new station commander and the pilot of the shuttle. Dark Space 8 is hosting the Intergalactic Song Competition and features a diverse group of crew and guests that the Doctor and Mel begin to mix with. Just in time for the murders to start.
The seventh Doctor era was a strange one for the show and this is well documented in fan history. For me personally, while there are one or two standout stories, it was mostly disappointing and not for me. In particular the seventh Doctor seemed to have two modes of story, roughly separated into his earlier stories and his later ones. The early ones were tonally off, with patently ridiculous situations, slapstick humor, yet with story-lines with substantial body-counts. The later ones got a lot more serious in terms of plot and portrayed the Doctor with a clownish demeanor that masked a Machiavellian puppet-master. This entry fits chronologically smack in the early seventh Doctor stories and this story feels exactly like it belongs in that group.
I strongly dislike the early seventh Doctor stories. Call me odd, but high body-counts don't mesh well with silly antics and clownish behavior.
As a parlor room murder-mystery this kind of works. As a spoof of 90s space station SF it kind of works (I laughed when they referred to Dark Space 8 as "the last best hope for peace", and of course the name is a reference to ST:DS9). As a showcase for the acting of Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford ... no, I'm sorry, they're both obnoxious in this one.
Another one for a very specific sub-group of fans and is highly skippable.
The Doctor and Mel appear on a shuttle approaching a space station, only to discover that the two people on board are dead and the shuttle is about to explode. At the last possible moment they're beamed aboard the space station Dark Space 8 and they are immediately mistaken for the new station commander and the pilot of the shuttle. Dark Space 8 is hosting the Intergalactic Song Competition and features a diverse group of crew and guests that the Doctor and Mel begin to mix with. Just in time for the murders to start.
The seventh Doctor era was a strange one for the show and this is well documented in fan history. For me personally, while there are one or two standout stories, it was mostly disappointing and not for me. In particular the seventh Doctor seemed to have two modes of story, roughly separated into his earlier stories and his later ones. The early ones were tonally off, with patently ridiculous situations, slapstick humor, yet with story-lines with substantial body-counts. The later ones got a lot more serious in terms of plot and portrayed the Doctor with a clownish demeanor that masked a Machiavellian puppet-master. This entry fits chronologically smack in the early seventh Doctor stories and this story feels exactly like it belongs in that group.
I strongly dislike the early seventh Doctor stories. Call me odd, but high body-counts don't mesh well with silly antics and clownish behavior.
As a parlor room murder-mystery this kind of works. As a spoof of 90s space station SF it kind of works (I laughed when they referred to Dark Space 8 as "the last best hope for peace", and of course the name is a reference to ST:DS9). As a showcase for the acting of Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford ... no, I'm sorry, they're both obnoxious in this one.
Another one for a very specific sub-group of fans and is highly skippable.