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A review by mrcoldstream
Doctor Who: Seasons of Fear by Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
✅75% = 👍🏼35 ✊🏼5 👎🏼3 = Good!
Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: a date in Singapore, immortal baddies, and horns!
This story finally sees Charley get to her appointment in Singapore, which has been teased for a while, but it's also about the Doctor meeting one man several times across time. From the onset, as the Doctor narrates, we realise that there is a strange, eerie quality to this story (helped by the uneasy music that accompanies most scenes).
The story goes timey-wimey early on, once we learn that something in the Doctor’s future and the world’s past has messed up the time-space continuum, and it’s possibly connected to Charley’s rescue from the R101 crash. The Doctor and Charley investigate by travelling through Earth’s history to find the source of Grayle’s immortal power, beginning in the times of the Roman Empire and then moving to 1055 and 1806.
It's interesting how Part 1 ends with Grayle almost setting into motion the very things that doom the future, forcing the Doctor to track him down at another point in time to prevent him from getting another chance later on. This ends in a wonderfully tense cliffhanger that makes you want to continue listening.
Grayle serves as the common denominator, setting each episode in a different period. This allows the story to utilise time travel extensively while adding scope to the story and avoiding running stale. Each episode also wonderfully builds tension and excitement and releases it in an exciting final stretch before the cliffhanger.
Part 3 connects this story to Minuet in Hell; the Doctor and Charley once again clash with the Hellfire Club. This is the one that focuses most on Grayle and isn’t very interesting other than for the sword fight between him and the Doctor.
Grayle is another intriguing character faced by this incarnation: an immortal man with a strange past, played very convincingly by Stepehn Perrong, who captures his different stages very well. His many encounters with the Doctor are the crown jewels of the story. India Fisher also brings out a jollier Charley, which is fun to listen to.
The guest actors are fine but not very interesting.
The story makes frequent references to “the demon bull,” meaning that the eventual reveal of the Nimon (making their return since The Horns of Nimon) isn't too much of a surprise. I've never been a huge fan of the Nimon, and they don't leave much of an impression in this story either, despite featuring heavily in Part 4.
Part 4 doesn't do much with the Nimon, which ends up feeling like afterthoughts. It does, however, creatively use Grayle by having the younger Grayle kill the older one, thus saving the day. At the very end, we get some confusing but intriguing hints of bigger troubles coming for the Doctor and Charley.
Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: a date in Singapore, immortal baddies, and horns!
This story finally sees Charley get to her appointment in Singapore, which has been teased for a while, but it's also about the Doctor meeting one man several times across time. From the onset, as the Doctor narrates, we realise that there is a strange, eerie quality to this story (helped by the uneasy music that accompanies most scenes).
The story goes timey-wimey early on, once we learn that something in the Doctor’s future and the world’s past has messed up the time-space continuum, and it’s possibly connected to Charley’s rescue from the R101 crash. The Doctor and Charley investigate by travelling through Earth’s history to find the source of Grayle’s immortal power, beginning in the times of the Roman Empire and then moving to 1055 and 1806.
It's interesting how Part 1 ends with Grayle almost setting into motion the very things that doom the future, forcing the Doctor to track him down at another point in time to prevent him from getting another chance later on. This ends in a wonderfully tense cliffhanger that makes you want to continue listening.
Grayle serves as the common denominator, setting each episode in a different period. This allows the story to utilise time travel extensively while adding scope to the story and avoiding running stale. Each episode also wonderfully builds tension and excitement and releases it in an exciting final stretch before the cliffhanger.
Part 3 connects this story to Minuet in Hell; the Doctor and Charley once again clash with the Hellfire Club. This is the one that focuses most on Grayle and isn’t very interesting other than for the sword fight between him and the Doctor.
Grayle is another intriguing character faced by this incarnation: an immortal man with a strange past, played very convincingly by Stepehn Perrong, who captures his different stages very well. His many encounters with the Doctor are the crown jewels of the story. India Fisher also brings out a jollier Charley, which is fun to listen to.
The guest actors are fine but not very interesting.
The story makes frequent references to “the demon bull,” meaning that the eventual reveal of the Nimon (making their return since The Horns of Nimon) isn't too much of a surprise. I've never been a huge fan of the Nimon, and they don't leave much of an impression in this story either, despite featuring heavily in Part 4.
Part 4 doesn't do much with the Nimon, which ends up feeling like afterthoughts. It does, however, creatively use Grayle by having the younger Grayle kill the older one, thus saving the day. At the very end, we get some confusing but intriguing hints of bigger troubles coming for the Doctor and Charley.