A Quick Introduction to Big Finish Doctor Who, Part Two

   

The Fifth Doctor and his many friends and foes

I was planning to save the Fifth Doctor for last as I had not listened to many of his plays, but I got through them faster than I expected and so I decided to talk about him now while it's all fresh in my mind.

The Fifth Doctor

Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor

Typically Patrick Troughton is credited as having the hardest transition to put up with, as he had to sell the very idea of regeneration to audiences. As difficult as that must have been, I think that Davison may have had an even harder time as he had to follow up Tom Baker. If you are not familiar with Tom Baker than imagine David Tennant's popularity and then imagine if he had stayed for seven years. Tom Baker was insanely popular, and since he played the Doctor for so long many children didn't remember there being another one. In order to make the transition easier they chose an actor who was already established for playing a popular character, and was young and charming. Instead of the strange offputting Doctor that Baker played, Davison played the Doctor as a polite, charming English gentleman. At the time he was controver, but he has experienced a lot more popularity as people go back and re-watch his stuff without the bias of missing Baker, and realized he was actually pretty good.

In interest of complete honesty I think it is worth mentioning that I don't like him much. I don't dislike him exactly but he is my least favourite. The fifth Doctor is polite, suave, charming, and kind of boring. I understand why people like him, I just typically find him to be the least interesting thing in his stories. He also typically seems to be the most helpless Doctor, and I'm unsure of why he is written that way, as he constantly seems to be declaring there is nothing he can do to help.
   
For Big Finish they had the advantage of an older Davison and so his fatherly relationship with his companions works much better, as does his grouchier side. That said, his Doctor was developed well enough on TV and was not in a great need of revision, and so they mostly keep him the same.

The Companions

The Crowded Tardis Crew

The fifth Doctor had the typical three seasons, and yet he had more companions than most during that time, as he had typically had two to three companions at a time. I actually quite like the crowded TARDIS, as it does allow for interesting character interaction. Unfortunately, it also allows for a lot of bickering that can get quite grating after awhile. His initial TARDIS crew consisted of Nyssa of Traken, Tegan, and Adric.

Adric

Adric was the most hated companion of the classic series. He is probably most comparable Wesley Crusher of the classic series. He was the boy genius, whose genius we are mostly just told about, and often seems like a petulant child. He was annoying, whiny, and arrogant. He was also one of the few classic companions to die. His death may have left many fans happy, but it was well handled and surprisingly emotional considering how annoying he was.

Tegan looking rather frightened of something. 

Tegan was an airline Stewardess who the Doctor promised to bring to Heathrow, but had trouble getting her there. She was often mad at him and wasn't afraid to let him know it. I thought she was a pretty good character, and she does eventually do some big finish audios, but is not in the first fifty. Nyssa is the only one who is actually in these audio dramas. She's from the planet Traken, and is also a teen genius, but, unlike Adric, she's not annoying.

Nyssa and a large statue thing 

There are two other companions that I should mention. One of them is Peri, who I briefly talked about when discussing the sixth Doctor. Peri was controversial because she was American and mostly wore revealing outfits, leading critics to think she was mostly there as pandering. They were probably right, but when removed from that she really isn't a bad character. She's an american botany student who wants to see the universe, and while she often had an adversarial relationship with the Doctor, it was still clear that she had a great amount of affection for him.

Peri and the Fifth Doctor

Finally there is Erimem, an Egyptian Pharoah who joins the Doctor in The Eye of the Scorpion. She's strong willed and wise beyond her years, which often makes up for her lack of understanding of technology. Erimem is loyal and gracious to her friends, and vicious and cruel to her enemies.

The Doctor saves Erimem.

The Best:

24. The Eye of the Scorpion

The Doctor and Peri find themselves in Ancient Egypt, and the Doctor quickly saves a young woman who claims to be the new Pharaoh. The problem is that the Doctor has never heard of her, and there were very few female pharaohs so he really shouldn't have forgotten one. It's a fun story, with science fiction elements that don't overtake the story's historical setting. It also introduces a new companion to the Doctor, who really helps to mix things up.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-eye-of-the-scorpion-649

Big Finish also has a free short radio play about the Doctor showing Erimem around the TARDIS. It's a fun, charming little story.

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-no-place-like-home-1115

34. Spare Parts

Spare Parts is often cited as the best play Big Finish has ever made, and for good reason. The Doctor and Nyssa arrive on what the Doctor insists is Earth. London, clearly. Nyssa isn't convinced since she's pretty sure London isn't underground. It's pretty clear that wherever they are the Doctor doesn't like it, and wants to leave as soon as possible. Before long it becomes clear that they are actually on Mondas, Earth's lost twin planet, during it's last days before the inhabitants turned themselves into Cybermen.

It's a dark, sad, and frightening story that shows the end of a civilization through the eyes of a family that Nyssa and the Doctor meet. It was written in an attempt to do for Cybermen what Genesis of the Daleks did for Daleks, but I don't know if anyone would have even thought this would be the superior story of the two. It's hard to compare Doctor Who across mediums, but I think this may be the best Doctor Who story. The Doctor gives a tragic, quiet, sad performance that really showcases the strengths of Davison's Doctor. 

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/spare-parts-200

38. The Church and the Crown

Another historical, but the fifth Doctor seems to be strong in those settings. This one is a pure historical which means that the only science-fiction elements are the Doctor and his companions. No aliens, no ghosts, and no evil plots to alter history. This does not mean that it's historically accurate, but just that it is a period drama starring the Doctor, which can lead to some good stories. In this case the Doctor finds himself in France in the 17th Century, which means musketeers, Cardinal Richeleiu, the Duke of Buckinham, Queen Anne, and King Louis XIII. It's a fun time, and really allows Erimem to come into her own as a character and a companion.

44. Creatures of Beauty

Creatures of Beauty begins with the Doctor, voiced filled with world weariness, wondering whether he made any difference at all. Then we flip to earlier on to find that Nyssa has been arrested for  murder, by disfigured people who refer to her as a beauty. The story unfold in a non linear fashion, showing a world in a terrible position on the eve of destruction. It's a story that admits at the very beginning that the Doctor made no difference on this planet, creating an atmosphere of melancholic fatalism. Doctor Who often runs the risk of having the Doctor feel unnecessary to the story, as though he's just watching as things unfold. By doing this we have a story that explores a situation in which there are no good answers and maybe nothing really can be done.

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/creatures-of-beauty-210

47. Omega

The Doctor arrives on a museum ship dedicated to the history of Omega, one of the founders of Time Lord society, who was trapped in a pocket universe. One of the actors goes mad and attacks the others, and then Omega's ship appears. This is a hard one to describe without giving too much away. It starts slow, but has a twist about halfway through which leads to a great second half. The story itself explores history and our tendency to either hero worship or slander the key figures of the past.

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/omega-213

Honourable Mention:

15. The Mutant Phase

I find Doctor Who is often at its weakest when it is using classic villains such as Cybermen or Daleks. It's not that either of these villains are bad, but just that it seems to be difficult for writers to come up with exciting stories that involve them. So because of that I was somewhat hesitant when I realized it was a Dalek story that I was listening to, and then even more nervous when I reallized that this is a story where the Doctor is on an alternate Earth future where the Daleks need his help. It won me over when they revealed the threat, which was just dark and creepy enough, and convincing enough a threat to make me believe that the Daleks wanted the Doctor's help. After that I was hooked, and when I re-listened to it I loved every minute. Its probably not a great story, but it is one I enjoy a lot.

This one has the added advantage that you can listen to it for free:
https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/doctor-who-the-mutant-phase

Or buy it here:
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-mutant-phase-640

The Worst

In my post about Colin Baker's plays I said that there were no bad ones, and the play I labelled worst was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about Peter Davison's run. 

41. Nekromanteia

The TARDIS materializes in the middle of a space battle wherein the technologically superior side is easily winning. That is, until witches on the planet below start tearing spaceships out of the sky with magic. Up to this point I was okay with it. It was weird, dark, and silly, which is all fine, but then the problems quickly started presenting themselves. The Doctor is irrelevant to the story, and not in an interesting way. He mostly walks around declaring the whole thing to be hopeless, until he passively watches as a cat saves the universe. That's not even close to the biggest problem this story has.

Around forty minutes in, a guard captures Erimem, brutally beats her, and attempts to rape her. She is rescued, mentions it briefly, and then never speaks of it again. She even seems completely un-phased by it. I'm okay with Doctor Who exploring more adult themes, and darker territory, but I think there is a line where it still needs to be something children could listen to. This crosses that line, and not even for a good reason. There is no attempt made to tackle this subject matter in a mature fashion, instead it seems to only be here in order to establish a dark mood. There are other scenes of humans being brutally killed that also possibly go too far, but the thing is that the audience members have almost certainly never lost a loved one to an army of witches, but there very well could be people listening to this who have been sexually assaulted. They took a traumatic, terrible, and terribly real action and used it as a way to pad out the story. The thing that makes this even worse is that this is a story with cackling cartoon witches and a heroic cat. It's just all so terribly misjudged and uncomfortable to listen to. 

I haven't even mentioned all the other problems. The story is almost incomprehensible, most of the acting is terrible, and there isn't a single likable character in the whole thing. This next complaint may be a bizarre one for radio, but there is a scene in which Peri is completely naked and they talk about this for some time. It bears no relevance to the story, and seems to be there for the same reason that it would be in a movie. It's weirdly shameless, and awkward. 

Nekromanteia is a bizarre, boring, incomprehensible, and uncomfortably misogynistic mess. The downside to buying a digital copy of this is that I cannot throw it out. I'm going to link to the place you can buy the story, but please don't. No one should support this disaster.

 http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/nekromanteia-207

Part three (7th Doctor) coming soon.