A review by khayes0525
Doctor Who: Storm Warning by Alan Barnes
4.0
Storm Warning is a delight. This was McGann's first audio drama as the Doctor, and Big Finish brought back the Eighth Doctor with a bang. Literally.
Part of what makes the Eighth Doctor so great is the fact that he was the least jaded (at least on the surface) of all the classic doctors. The character has a lot of almost childlike joy for adventure that we wouldn't see again until the Tenth Doctor. Though the TV movie is...rough, to say the least, Eight shines as one of the best iterations of the character, because it's obvious that he just really loves what he does. He can be a bit manic, too, and he's a thrill-seeker, and all of this shines brilliantly in this audio drama.
Storm Warning provides some of the depth and characterization that the movie did not, while also giving Eight room to breathe as a character. Hearing him gallivant about the airship, with Charley in tow, feels like Doctor Who in a way that the movie did not. He enjoys himself on this adventure, and because he doesn’t have amnesia and actually knows what's happening in this story, he has a lot of agency, and the story is written so that we can hear his thought process. He explains how he’s going to fix the problem, rather than just stumbling into the end of the conflict like he does in the film.
Big Finish does a wonderful job of creating a sonic space that allows you to imagine the room around the characters, though I will say that this audio drama has a bit too much of characters just…describing what they’re seeing to the people around them, who can also see what’s happening. Obviously, this is for the benefit of the listener, but Big Finish does a better job in future productions of letting the listener hear what’s happening, rather than having characters describe it out loud.
Overall, a very good production, and a wonderful “first” outing for the Eighth Doctor (the kind of first outing he should have had in the first place).
Part of what makes the Eighth Doctor so great is the fact that he was the least jaded (at least on the surface) of all the classic doctors. The character has a lot of almost childlike joy for adventure that we wouldn't see again until the Tenth Doctor. Though the TV movie is...rough, to say the least, Eight shines as one of the best iterations of the character, because it's obvious that he just really loves what he does. He can be a bit manic, too, and he's a thrill-seeker, and all of this shines brilliantly in this audio drama.
Storm Warning provides some of the depth and characterization that the movie did not, while also giving Eight room to breathe as a character. Hearing him gallivant about the airship, with Charley in tow, feels like Doctor Who in a way that the movie did not. He enjoys himself on this adventure, and because he doesn’t have amnesia and actually knows what's happening in this story, he has a lot of agency, and the story is written so that we can hear his thought process. He explains how he’s going to fix the problem, rather than just stumbling into the end of the conflict like he does in the film.
Big Finish does a wonderful job of creating a sonic space that allows you to imagine the room around the characters, though I will say that this audio drama has a bit too much of characters just…describing what they’re seeing to the people around them, who can also see what’s happening. Obviously, this is for the benefit of the listener, but Big Finish does a better job in future productions of letting the listener hear what’s happening, rather than having characters describe it out loud.
Overall, a very good production, and a wonderful “first” outing for the Eighth Doctor (the kind of first outing he should have had in the first place).