The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

The Stones Of Venice is the third of Big Finish's 'season 27' featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. It's written by Paul Magrs, who has written three novels for the BBC Books series. Unfortunately I disliked all three of these, and so with this proven track record for writing things that weren't to my taste, I approached his audio adventure with a large degree of trepidation, expecting something similar to his books.

But thankfully, the Stones of Venice is free of the experimentation and viewpoint that made his books so hard to like. Plus his books have all featured his own creation, the Time Lady Iris Wildthyme who is frankly one of the worst characters ever to feature in a Doctor Who novel, and whom Big Finish plan to launch a spin off range of books and audio stories for, so obviously somebody likes her. But I won't be buying them. Anyway thankfully Iris doesn't appear in the Stones of Venice and the story is much better off for it.

The plot concerns the Doctor and Charley trying to get away from it all. After having several adventures where they end up being chased and generally had people attempting to kill them and so Charley wants to take a break from it. So the Doctor takes her to Venice. When they get there they find themselves sometime into the future and Venice is about to sink into its waters forever. There are different factions in Venice who believe different things. The Cultists believe that the Countess who killed herself over 100 years ago is about to return to them. The Gondoliers have their own sinister agenda and the Count is a man who has not aged at all in one hundred years due to the curse that the Countess put on him.

The idea behind the Stones of Venice that Venice is coming to an end and is about to disappear into the water forever is a very interesting concept. The different groups of characters that Magrs introduces work in this context.

I have a number of problems with The Stones Of Venice. Firstly, it's not as enjoyable as either Storm Warning or Sword Of Orion, the two preceding adventures in 'season 27' which are far more enjoyable. The second is with the characterisation and portrayal of the Doctor. I haven't liked Magrs' Doctor Who book work at all mainly because he seems to have some very funny perceptions as to what Doctor Who is and he freely lets Iris Wildthyme treat the Doctor very shabbily and he tends to mock the conventions of Doctor Who. This is again evident here with the Doctor talking at lengths about the process of being chased and captured and this doesn't really feel right to me. Doctor Who on television had its strengths and its weaknesses like every other series, but in the books and audio dramas I believe that it is the strengths that should be celebrated and the weaknesses such as these conventions Magrs chooses to highlight, should not be included. Plus the plot is very predictable, especially in regard to its surprise revelations of part four, and really very little seems to happen.

Paul McGann was absolutely exceptional in both of the two preceding stories because they really captured the spirit of the Eighth Doctor and this enabled him to breathe life into the character in the way that he did in the television movie. Here Magrs has characterised him much more laid back than the energetic Doctor that it has been established that the Eighth is. This seems to undermine his character somewhat. He just doesn't feel like the Doctor in the way that the others have established. An example of this is where the Doctor doesn't notice that Charley is no longer with him for quite a while afterwards. I found it hard to believe that he wouldn't have noticed her disappearance sooner. Plus I think the fact that out of the four stories that make up 'season 27' the fact that the Stones Of Venice was recorded first has made a significant difference in the way that McGann plays the part. Here he seems to be just finding the role a gain and with the characterisation being different from the earlier stories which were recorded after this one, this does show in his performance. He seems to be lacking in confidence at some points of this production, which affects how the Doctor is perceived. You can hear his confidence in his ability to play the part growing during this audio and by the end he is starting to sound right in the part. The way that Magrs writes the Doctor does contribute to this unease though, and so overall the Doctor se ems very subdued here which does detract from the story but it is brought about mainly by a combination of circumstances.

India Fisher continues to delight as Charley Pollard. Her enthusiasm for her work really shines through and she and Paul develop a good repartee which helps their Doctor/Companion relationship to really develop into something special. Although saying that there are moments that her ebullience becomes disagreeable. The supporting cast though are uniformly excellent and it is a tribute to the direction that there isn't a single dud performance. Doctor Who veteran Michael Sheard is quite marvellous as the Count, and the versatile Mark Gatiss puts in a good performance as the leader of the Cultists.

In comparison to the other McGann adventures The Stones of Venice is a disappointment. But taken on its own, it is slightly enjoyable. Some of the plot elements are very predictable, the worst of whcih is the surprise in episode four, and this combined with the stories general dullness undermines the good performances of the supporting cast and the excellent production value. Free from his slavish obsession with Iris Wildthyme, Magrs work here is the best Who related thing that he's done, and it is capable of being enjoyed, despite its problems. It's certainly not the best Big Finish audio, but it's by no means the worst. The problem with the Stones Of Venice is that although it's produced well and is quite atmospheric, the problem is that plot is dull and predictable and that the regulars performances are not up to the usual standard. Now this was the first one that McGann recorded, so his performance can be explained as finding his way in the role again, but the main problems with the Doctor comes from the characterisation that Magrs gives him. If only the plot was less predictable and the character of the Doctor had been in line with the other Eighth Doctor audios it could have been a lot better. The story needed more incident to liven it up too. The Stones Of Venice could have been a lot better than it is. Its production cannot be faulted and with good performances from the majority of the cast it should have been good. But McGann's uncertainty as the Doctor undermines the story and the story, despite some good ideas, isn't up to the standard of the recent releases. Despite all of its problems, The Stones Of Venice is quite enjoyable, but overall it isn't that much of a success.