Villordsutch reviews Big Finish Audio Productions’ Doctor Who – Tomb Ship…
Written by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby.
Directed by Ken Bentley.
Starring Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Eve Karpf (Virna), Amy Ewbank (Jhanni), James Hayward (Hisko), Jonathan Forbes (Heff), Ben Porter (Murs), Phil Mulryne (Rek/Hologram-Fresco Voice).
A rather good classic Doctor Who tale from Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby, here we have a here Pyramid, numerous deadly puzzles and a lot of corridors; yes it is very much a good classic Doctor Who tale. The unfortunate thing however is that it is an over-stretched story – instead of four discs “Tomb Ship” would have been perfect delivered to us on three; it’s just that bit too long in the middle and a trim here or there would have brought this story up from good to brilliant.
That being said it is still good, with excellent performances from all involved, more so from The Doctor (Peter Davidson) and Virna/Mother (Eve Karpf ). When they are together, you can hear in the Doctor’s voice the disbelief in her decisions made and lack of love she has for her family. However at the same time Eve Karpf plays her part so well occasionally you could believe she actually does love her sons and then in a moment you’re back at your original thought of ‘She’d rather see them die for her treasure’. The other players each deliver good performances though with the numerous corridor scenes they tend to get lost in the moments you wish would hurry up, or just move along so to get to the meat of the story. A little thing to listen out for is the background comments occasionally thrown in by the brothers, some of them are rather funny especially when the Doctor is speaking.
As always the sound engineers for this episode, Richard Fox and Lauren Yason, are amazing in their field. The Chambers echo, the engines “Thrummmm!”, and the attacking ships bombardment rattles. If you haven’t picked up an audio adventure as yet you’ll be surprised by the quality that goes into these productions.
A rather melancholy tale delivered to us this month from the Fifth Doctor stable, but a good one nevertheless. Not to dwell too long on the negative but bringing this story to three discs would have increased the pace that little bit more and tightened up the story making it brilliant; still good is good.
For more on Doctor Who – Tomb Ship, visit the official site.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published May 30, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
