Reviews

Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest, Part 1 - The Stuff of Nightmares by Tom Baker, Richard Franklin, Paul Magrs

diewachen's review against another edition

3.0

I have to say I found this story a bit odd. Partially because I'm used to the quality of the Big Finish audios, and I just don't think this one lived up to what those audio dramas offer. But, mostly because this felt so much like a Paul Magrs story. Magrs has a habit of writing silly into the middle of serious moments, which Tom Baker tends to do very well. In this situation, however, the transition felt a bit odd from the seriousness of Baker in Invasion of Time (which this story is meant to be set sometime after) to the silliness of the 4th Doctor in this story.

Once I accepted the Doctor's attitude (not completely out of character, just a dramatic shift from the last story) and was able to shift into a near-audio book form of narrative (rather than audio drama), it was quite a bit of fun. Baker is hilarious, and imagining the Doctor tell this story to Mike Yates is almost as fun as having them actually go through the adventure. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

nwhyte's review

"Hornet's Nest 1: The Stuff of Nightmares, by Paul Magrs, brings back the Fourth Doctor in alliance with ex-Captain Mike Yates (who was actually a Third Doctor companion, but never mind), inhabiting a peculiar country house with even more peculiar stuffed animals. I've seen a couple of reviews commenting that it has a lot more talking-book style narration by Yates and the Doctor, and hence much less actual dialogue, than we are used to from Big Finish; myself, I felt that this was being honest to an earlier style of doing things, namely that of Doctor Who and the Pescatons, the first ever Doctor Who audio from the. 1970s; except that The Hornet's Nest, so far, is much much better. And I think it will certainly attract those who enjoy nostalgia for the glory days of Hinchcliffe and Holmes / Letts and Dicks, but are less interested in obtaining new adventures from the John Nathan-Turner era Doctors (let alone Paul McGann). Amazon tells me that the second CD is already winging its way to me; can't wait!"

simsbrarian's review

2.0

I'm torn. This was fun to hear performed so well by Tom Baker and Richard Franklin (as Mike Yates) but the story is slow and, until nearly the end of the Classic Who style of cliff-hanger ending, a bit dull.

It's a Night at the Museum meets an alien hive-mind creature intent on taking over the world (and then the Doctor!) for its flesh and warmth by using discarded museum stuffed animals as their golem-soldiers.

Since much of hte story is just the Doctor telling Mike Yates about what has happened to this point it is a lot of "And then I did that...and then this happened..." and not as exciting as the moments which happen in-scene. Not a great start to the 5-book series; unsure if I'm enthused enough to continue.