The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories
Starring: Peter Davison as the Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
Format: Four full-cast half-CD-length episodes
Silly? Variably between episodes, but never primarily silly.
Standalone? Yes. The four episodes even stand alone individually.
Recommended? It's not the best 5/Nyssa anthology, but it's decent light entertainment.
My reactions to this release contain spoilers for it.
Before listening
This is an anthology release with four distinct self-contained episodes. I vaguely recall the final episode having ambiguous references to the earlier three, but not plot-critical ones, and it's possible I'm misremembering there being any inter-episode links at all.There is an amusing juxtaposition with the Mervyn Stone podcast I just finished listening to, in that the final story of this anthology, Special Features, takes place in a DVD commentary recording session and what we hear is what the session records (though if I recall correctly it never gets released).
I think I have only heard this release once before. I think I remember liking the final story enough for it to stand out in my mind, and I don't have any immediate clear recollection of the others at all. I have a generally positive impression of Big Finish anthology releases and I am guessing this one didn't go against that impression.
After listening to story 1 of 4 (The Demons of Red Lodge)
The Demons of Red Lodge is a horror-infused story in the vein of The Brain of Morbius and State of Decay. It begins in medias res with Nyssa and the Doctor suffering from short-term memory loss and an artifically-induced state of panic; they soon recall they are in England, circa the time of witch hunting. An elderly housemaid is not what she seems, and aliens are testing a strategy to invade the Earth. The alien doppelgangers broadly resemble Autons or Zygons in their behavior, but have some specific dialogue quirks that point to a mindset Nyssa manages to exploit with some briar-patch dialogue. They end up being a little too stupid at the end, perhaps because the story spent a lot of its running time building up atmosphere and didn't have time left for a more satisfying defeat.
For a one-part story, there is rather a lot of character-building for the Doctor and Nyssa. On television, the characters of the fifth Doctor and Nyssa were barely explored at all past their first couple stories; here, we have Nyssa reflecting on her past on Traken and her new life with the Doctor, and the Doctor briefly reflecting on contradictions in his own philosophy. Combined with the well-presented setting, this makes the story a much better listen than its actual plot might suggest.
Weeks later, after listening to all parts
I don't think it's this audio's fault that I fell out of my listening and blogging rhythm; I have had distractions in my life. I still have the distractions but I've mitigated one of them and I think I will try to continue my randomly selected journeys.Part 2 is very underbaked, being the sort of bog-standard connect-the-dots story that Big Finish usually only invokes as a throwaway line during another more interesting adventure. Part 3 is rather good, though the plot hinges on an interaction between two different science-fiction Macguffins and the listener is not given any information in advance to predict how they interact. Part 4 (Special Features) is by far the best part: we are hearing a DVD commentary recording to which the Doctor has somehow shown up, and there are fun reasons for this that lead to a good climax that uses the audio medium well. None of the parts have any real connection, but the fact that The Demons of Red Lodge happened is established as still true in Special Features, in passing.
Circular Time is excellent, and perhaps I hold 5/Nyssa anthologies to a needlessly high standard because of it. The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories is no Circular Time but it is reasonably serviceable Doctor Who.
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