Scaredy Cat by: Will Schindler directed by: Nigel Fairs: Kinda Plus The Twilight Kingdom Equals Failure

Scaredy Cat stars Paul McGann as the Doctor with India Fisher as Charley and Conrad Westmass as C’rizz.  It was written by Will Schindler, directed by Nigel Fairs and released in October 2005 by Big Finish Productions.

 

I read a review of this story where the reviewer posited that this story is the first traditional Eighth Doctor story in a long while.  I agree wholeheartedly with this fact that this is a traditional story, and it would make a nice return to form if it weren’t for the fact this story was a completely terrible story from a terrible author.  Will Schindler last wrote The Twilight Kingdom which wasn’t a good story and with his second effort he proves that he suffers from Terry Nation syndrome where he basically rewrites the main ideas of The Twilight Kingdom, adds in some boring subplot about a creepy child to add as a deus ex machina and almost half the runtime to tell the story and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

The plot sees C’rizz ask the Doctor and Charley to take them to a world untouched by human hands to see something like a Garden of Eden so the Doctor pilots the TARDIS to the twin planets of Caludar and Endarra.   Endarra is famous for the fact that because of a treaty involving a convoluted backstory concerning a war, no one has stepped foot on the planet for millions of years.  Of course because this is Doctor Who there are people on the planet and experiments are being performed on a criminal who begins to exhibit psychic abilities and take over much like the villain in The Twilight Kingdom and it’s up to the Doctor and C’rizz to find a way to save the day while Charley acts like an idiot.  The many problems of this story begin here as the plot is shoehorned into a quick seventy minute story that has no time to work out what it wants to do with the plot.  The plot just sort of happens without the Doctor having to do anything to save the day as the TARDIS travelers are just there for exposition to how the plot is going to eventually complete itself.

 

The characters of the story are also completely boring to listen to as the supporting cast of scientists and the criminally insane has been done much better in Kinda and doesn’t need to be attempted again.  There are only two characters I remember, the villain Flood who is standard crazy played by Michael Chance who is the only actor having any sort of fun in the role and Galayana who is the annoying child who keeps chanting scardey cat and acting as the deus ex machina to complete the story.  The actress Linda Bartram is extremely annoying in the role and really should just be replaced with an adult as she could have been super creepy.  The regulars don’t come across much better.  Paul McGann is the worst offender as he gives a performance that is one of his dull days where he can’t be asked to put in effort for anything he is giving.  India Fisher comes next and is giving an alright performance, but in this story Charley is portrayed as an idiot who falls for Flood’s lies which I just can’t stand.  Conrad Westmass as C’rizz is the closest thing we get for a good character even if his morals are completely reversed and contradictory with Terror Firma which I just cannot believe as that was only three releases beforehand.

 

To summarize, Scardey Cat is really just a story that could have been good and has very little to shine through the darkness.  It wants to be a horror story but fails without any real scares and the acting is some of the worst in Big Finish’s catalogue.  20/100