Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Circular Time by: Mike Maddox from a story by: Paul Cornell directed by: John Ainsworth: Season's Fade

Circular Time stars Peter Davison as the Doctor with Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.  It consists of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  Spring guest stars Hugh Fraser as Zero, Summer guest stars David Warner as Sir Isaac Newton and Autumn guest stars John Benfield as Don.  All segments were written by Mike Maddox from four stories by: Paul Cornell, directed by John Ainsworth and released in January 2007 by Big Finish Productions.

 

Spring

This is the story that opens the first anthology of Big Finish’s catalogue, and while it is still an extremely good story it’s the weakest of the release.  The plot representing the green spring, sees the Doctor and Nyssa sent on a mission to a planet where the children of criminals are punished for their wrongdoings of their families while those who actually committed a crime go scot free from punishment.  It’s a really good idea with a Time Lord played by the wonderful Hugh Fraser, already on the planet there to rule the planet, but peacefully.  The biggest weakness is that the story really doesn’t have a good enough conclusion, the Doctor and Nyssa show up, the Time Lord forces himself to regenerate accusing them of a crime, they leave, he in a new avian body repeals the original law of punishing families and the story is over.  Hugh Fraser is great however in his role as Zero as he always is and the writing does work well for being a short story even if it almost feels like it’s going to be like The Ark and the next part is going to return to the planet, but it doesn’t.  70/100

 

Summer

The stifling heat of summer is what this story is meant to represent and honestly it does that.  It is the comic relief story of the release with many jabs taken at Doctor Who and its penchant for running through corridors.  The Doctor and Nyssa are captured in the castle belonging to Sir Isaac Newton who is a crotchety old man that is trying to get his ideas across to a public who won’t listen to him.  The portrayal by David Warner is a comedic great alongside other characters who have to put up with the constant complaining of their master.  Again this story keeps it brief, but gets some extra points mainly down to the fact that the Doctor recites “I am the Doctor” while Nyssa lets slip to Newton exactly what is going to happen in the future to Newton.  80/100

 

Autumn

From a story poking fun at Doctor Who to a story that is the evolution of Doctor Who.  It’s a story that would fit in nicely with the Virgin line of Doctor Who novels.  As a short story it has as much story as a full two hour story translated extremely well into a small thirty minute short story.  The plot is that in the golden autumn while writing a novel Nyssa falls in love and we get to see the rise and fall of that relationship.  Like the Virgin novels, it is not afraid to shy away from the adult topics of love which is all there and it becomes quite a good story for the things going on.  Sarah Sutton really shines as Nyssa as she has never felt feelings of love or attachments especially since her father was taken over by the Master which of course affected her completely.  It ends with some great soliloquies from the Doctor and Nyssa in reflection which was great to listen to.  It’s a really good story and for this purchasing the audio is worth it.  95/100.

 

Winter

And now on to a story that just kills you in the feels even more than Autumn did.  It is the only story not taking place in succession as it takes place during the final scene of The Caves of Androzani.  The Master has set a trap for the Doctor with an older Nyssa and her husband’s consciousness being dragged into the mind of the Doctor which is now inhabited with his family.  Yes the Doctor is given a family and it is up to Nyssa to try and save his life.  This is a story that is extremely informative on the end of Logopolis explaining just exactly the Watcher’s place in what the Doctor’s mind is and the ending is honestly heartbreaking and I don’t want to give any more away except that it feels different this time. 100/100

 

To summarize, Circular Time is an anthology release that has continually increasing quality and must be judged as the average of it’s part leaving us with a final score of 86/100.

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