In 2006 Gary Russell
announced he would leave Big Finish as producer and principal director and
Nicholas Briggs took over. Briggs taking
over was a rocky time for Big Finish as again they had to get the license
reapproved and really wanted to begin more ranges for Doctor Who. The first story he had recorded was Nocturne which is honestly a shaky start
for what should be a new era of stories being told from a new creative
team. The plot itself is interesting
with the Doctor taking Ace and Hex to one of his favorite planets, Nocturne a
planet of musicians at the edge of an intergalactic war, where robots are
murdering people when music is played as bait.
The story continues on to be stop the evil robots which happens in the
last five minutes in a way that is extremely rushed before the Doctor and
company leg it from the planet. The
story doesn’t feature any crazy revelations about the characters except some
exposition from Hex’s school days explaining he went to Venice on a trip.
Sylvester McCoy as the
Doctor is doing his very best with the material of the story, but that isn’t
the problem. The problem is that McCoy
really isn’t suited to playing a Doctor as the way that Abnett decides to write
him. The Doctor here really feels more
like the part was written for the Fifth Doctor, especially with the numerous
references to the previous visit to Nocturne he was the Fifth Doctor. Now I’m not against giving the Doctor a place
to escape to, but there really isn’t much interesting being done with the
concept and what is done feels a lot like something out of an earlier era. That can’t be said for the flaws in Sophie
Aldred as Ace, as it isn’t the writing that lets her character down as it is
Aldred’s rather stilted acting performance.
I don’t know if Aldred or Ainsworth are to blame, but for some reason
anything Ace says, especially the one liners, just comes out in what must be a
forced monotone. Philip Olivier as Hex
is really the only character who feels like he is in character and it helps
that the most memorable portions of the story comes straight from the fact that
it is devoted to following Hex around as he explores the planet. The supporting cast has a few interesting
characters, but the idea of a planet of artists was done a lot better in Dust Breeding. The sound design and music are actually
really good for the most part as it is several piano pieces and even a few nice
nocturnes thrown in to keep the theme of music pervade the score. Steve Foxon knows how to write music and his
score actually feels unique not only to the story, but to the era as the story
is enhanced with almost an air of sadness.
To summarize, Nocturne is simply an underwhelming
story to begin a new era on. The main
cast and supporting cast are both boring even if the ideas are genuinely
interesting. Hex is the only character
to rise above mediocrity. The story does
however succeed in creating a captivating score to listen to on its own. 50/100
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