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The Fearmonger

february 2000

(4 EPISODES)

By and large, I hated Doctor Who’s twenty-fourth season, but then I loved Seasons 25 and 26 in almost equal measure. The same applies to the vast majority of Virgin’s New Adventures novels. Indeed, despite his abysmal start, the seventh Doctor has always been a favourite incarnation of mine, and in my view the Sylvester McCoy / Sophie Aldred line-up is one of the strongest in the history of the series. It was with great expectation then that I picked up the first exclusive seventh Doctor audio adventure from Big Finish Productions – The Fearmonger, penned by New Adventures’ veteran Kate Orman’s other half in every sense, Jonathan Blum.

Much about this production has impressed me. I love the Virgin feel of the play, and I’m stupefied by just how well McCoy and Aldred have performed together, considering that it had been a whole decade since they strolled off together into the Perivale sunset by the time that this was recorded. I also feel that certain elements of the story have been extremely well executed – the Doctor’s scenes on the radio opposite Vince Henderson’s loathsome Mick Thompson are particularly memorable.

What’s more, Blum writes for the regulars masterfully. His Ace will no doubt have quite a broad appeal, as she’s clearly not the angst-addled teenager of the television series, but she’s not yet the grizzled warrior of the New Adventures. Blum even manages to capture the very quintessence of the seventh Doctor in his characterisation, painting him as the master manipulator, “putting ingredients together and warming the pot”, as the blurb for the fourth episodes claims.

That said, Blum’s narrative is measured and meticulous, it’s pace and atmosphere more commensurate with prose than audio drama. The first time that I listened to the play, I really had to force myself to listen at times - Big Finish have a very difficult task with these audio adventures, because unless they completely hold the listener’s attention for the duration of the play, then the listener can find himself out of the story pretty quickly.

All told, The Fearmonger is well worth its salt, and I would recommend it to anyone with a penchant for the television series’ concluding duo. Whilst it didn’t live up to my admittedly lofty expectations, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

Authorial intent places this audio drama between the New Adventures novels Nightshade and Love and War. However, at that point the TARDIS would have still been infected with Tir na n-Óg protoplasm, and whilst The Fearmonger doesn’t totally exclude this possibility, it makes such a placement unlikely.

We have therefore placed it just prior to the novel Illegal Alien, which is as close to the author’s intention as we could get it to fit. This also places it before the rest of the Big Finish audio dramas featuring the seventh Doctor and Ace, which appear to follow its continuity (a key plot point in Colditz involves Ace’s CD walkman that she obtains here).

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