DOCTOR WHO: SEASONS OF FEAR [2002]

 SPENDING NEW YEAR'S WITH THE DOCTOR.

  OK, so it's taken me about 20 years to listen to this Big Finish audio but it starts out on New Year's Eve so I thought I'd strike while the iron was ice cold! This is an early one for Number 8; this was only the 30th release of Big Finish's Doctor Who audio adventures and only the 7th audio starring Paul McGann since he triumphantly began his reclamation of the 8th Doctor the previous year along with India Fisher as Charley Pollard .  This is also the very next adventure after the classic THE CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT which many consider the greatest Doctor Who audio of them all!  So Big Finish's own synopsis is as follows:

"On New Year's Eve, 1930, the Doctor lets Charley keep her appointment at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. But his unease at what he's done to time by saving her life soon turns into fear. Sebastian Grayle: immortal, obsessed, ruthless, has come to the city to meet the Time Lord. To the Doctor, he's a complete stranger, but to Grayle, the Doctor is an old enemy. An enemy that, many years ago, he finally succeeded in killing. And this is his only chance to gloat. The Doctor and Charley desperately search human history for the secret of Grayle's power and immortality. Their quest takes in four different time periods, the Hellfire Club, the court of Edward the Confessor and the time vortex itself. And when the monsters arrive, the stakes are raised from the life of one Time Lord to the existence of all humanity."

Yep, that about covers it, I'd say.  The story was written by Doctor Who vet Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox (who also wrote THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA) and directed by Gary Russell.  We also get the return of a classic Doctor Who monster (who comes off much better here than in it's one and only TV appearance) as well as the magnificent Don Warrington as Rassilon!  Talk about a casting coup!!!  And yeah, for a split second, I swear I heard a Dalek at the end of part one!  Is it me?!?!??  I've gotta listen to that again.  And I'm not sure why I'm being coy about not spoiling the classic monster since Big Finish spoils it themselves with the newer version of the CD cover. 

Paul McGann and India Fisher have a really wonderful rapport here (what else is new -- they were superb together since day one) and they work sooooooooooooooooo well together; that's why Charley Pollard is one of my favourite all-time companions!   I also really like the arc of Charley's character in these early audios as she continues to wonder/worry if the Doctor's saving of her life has caused trouble in the timestream; as it clearly did in the previous THE CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT.  Charley here flat out asks the Doctor if the time mess in SEASONS OF FEAR is her fault because she should have died in the wreck of the R-101.  I really like the slow realisation over the course of these early 8th Doctor series in which, not only the Doctor and Charley but also the listener begins to get a sneaking suspicion that the Doctor screwed up the timestream by rescuing Charley -- no matter how much we wanted him to do so at the time.  There is a nice foreboding in these early stories which make us feel that there WILL be consequences down the line.  Charley is such a great companion because she doesn't just stand around asking questions or cowering; she is a woman of action!  At one point Charley gets ahold of a sword and comes to the Doctor's aid (even though the Doc told her to go somewhere safe while he deals with the villain).  Our Edwardian-era Charley is no shrinking violet and hangs on to the sword because she quite fancies having one.  The quips and dialogue between McGann and Fisher are particularly tasty and their chemistry between the two actors is simply magical -- as if they'd been working together for decades -- which, by 2023 they actually HAVE been now!  But the chemistry was there from their very first audio adventure in STORM WARNING when they both joined Big Finish in 2001.The Cornell and Symcox story also makes full use of the time-travelling aspect of DOCTOR WHO with trips to several eras and several incarnations of the villainous Grayle in each time period.  Think Julian Glover in the TV adventure CITY OF DEATH.  Stephen Perring as Grayle gives an excellent performance as well as he brings distinct character beats to the character which match his different time period experiences; he goes from pleasant and inncocent to evil and nasty depending on which part of the timestream he's in, 

Having gotten out of the habit of listening to Doctor Who audio adventures in the last few years, I'm making it sort of a New Year's resolution to dive back into them -- old and new -- especially the adventures of Doctor # 8 and Ole Sixie who, let's face it, are the best Doctors on Big Finish!