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Some initial thoughts...
Although the setting is 'present day' (because of Richard Franklin's age), I found myself envisaging the whole tale happening in the English countryside of the mid 70s. Paul Magrs' narrative has very few, if any, references to anything that is around in 2009 which wouldn't have been around in 1976. The Doctor describes UNIT investigating some mysterious deaths, and the UNIT he talks about (to this listener) is the semi-professional understaffed outfit of the 70s, not the hard-edged, high tech multinational force we last saw in Planet of the Dead.
It's a self-contained story, but key issues are unresolved at the end and you will want to hear 'what happens next'.
The tone of it is (naturally) Paul Magrs, so its playful, well-structured, with an eye (or ear) for the absurd (such as the name of one of Noggins' guards). Imagine a story in a Fourth Doctor annual written to the standards of Panini's Doctor Who Storybooks. Or Tom Baker telling ghost stories as seen on the Key to Time DVDs.
There's a definite Conan Doyle/Holmes & Watson influence at work; the Fourth Doctor has retreated to a cottage in Sussex (The Lion's Foot); and at one point keeps a night vigil in the cellar (The Red Headed League). The 'threat' and the character names reminded me, and I'm not quite sure why, of Roald Dahl.
I'm not an expert but it seems to me that, for this recording, Richard Franklin and Tom Baker may not have been in the studio at the same time. They never talk over each other, politely waitiing for the other to finish before picking up the next thread of the tale. In contrast, the scenes with Susan Jameson and Richard Franklin, and Daniel Hill and Tom Baker, don't have this 'after you' feel to them.
Did that detract from my enjoyment of the disc? Not at all. (And I could be completely wrong anyway.)
Although the setting is 'present day' (because of Richard Franklin's age), I found myself envisaging the whole tale happening in the English countryside of the mid 70s. Paul Magrs' narrative has very few, if any, references to anything that is around in 2009 which wouldn't have been around in 1976. The Doctor describes UNIT investigating some mysterious deaths, and the UNIT he talks about (to this listener) is the semi-professional understaffed outfit of the 70s, not the hard-edged, high tech multinational force we last saw in Planet of the Dead.
It's a self-contained story, but key issues are unresolved at the end and you will want to hear 'what happens next'.
The tone of it is (naturally) Paul Magrs, so its playful, well-structured, with an eye (or ear) for the absurd (such as the name of one of Noggins' guards). Imagine a story in a Fourth Doctor annual written to the standards of Panini's Doctor Who Storybooks. Or Tom Baker telling ghost stories as seen on the Key to Time DVDs.
There's a definite Conan Doyle/Holmes & Watson influence at work; the Fourth Doctor has retreated to a cottage in Sussex (The Lion's Foot); and at one point keeps a night vigil in the cellar (The Red Headed League). The 'threat' and the character names reminded me, and I'm not quite sure why, of Roald Dahl.
I'm not an expert but it seems to me that, for this recording, Richard Franklin and Tom Baker may not have been in the studio at the same time. They never talk over each other, politely waitiing for the other to finish before picking up the next thread of the tale. In contrast, the scenes with Susan Jameson and Richard Franklin, and Daniel Hill and Tom Baker, don't have this 'after you' feel to them.
Did that detract from my enjoyment of the disc? Not at all. (And I could be completely wrong anyway.)
