The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'Actually Galapagos is the Spanish word for tortoise, they named the islands after them you see. The Tortoise Islands, which I suppose means that is in fact a Tortoise tortoise, which is another thing I've taught us!'

As the Silurians prepare to go into hibernation to escape the impending doom, they sentence one of their number to banishment on the outside after he created abominations of nature, giving him mercy for his previous successes. With nothing surviving on the surface of the Earth, he is certainly doomed. Meanwhile considerably later in time, the Doctor brings Evelyn to the Galapagos Islands where they soon find themselves in the company of one Mr Charles Darwin. But it is soon evident that there is something strange happening on the Islands with people disappearing from the gaol house under mysterious circumstances and the entire world itself may be under threat...

Jonathan Morris' Bloodtide sees the return to the Big Finish range of the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe team after an absence of almost a year since The Apocalypse Element. It also features the return of another monster race from the television series, this time the Silurians, and although past instances of such returns have been hit and miss, with the Cybermen's spectacular return in Sword Of Orion being the best example of how well Big Finish have done this and Red Dawn's Ice Warriors being the example of how not to do it. The Silurians return though is definitely a hit.

The standard of the covers to the Big Finish audios has been consistently high during the recent releases, and this has culminated in the striking Bloodtide cover which is arguably the best cover to date. It really helps to set the scene for the story with its evocative imagery.

The notes inside the CD claim that the Silurian voices are amongst the hardest to reproduce of all the familiar Doctor Who monsters, but in this respect Big Finish and Alistair Lock have done an excellent job as they sound very close to the way the Silurians were depicted in their debut story of season seven, but when the sound effects become too loud it can be difficult to make out what the Silurians were saying although this is only really a problem during the opening scenes.

The structure of the story is somewhat has a strong resemblance to The Spectre Of Lanyon Moor, especially with the introductory scene, but its strength is in the strong storyline. There are echoes of the original Silurian story in certain elements of the plot, but these are fused with new ideas which ensure that Bloodtide is a very enjoyable new story which examines the Silurians in more detail than some of their other appearances and in this respect they appear more vicious than they have been previously.

Colin Baker has been the most consistent performer amongst the four Doctors featured in the audio series, and once more in Bloodtide he's on spectacular form. Baker slips effortlessly into his character and the repartee between him and Maggie Stables is once more one of the highlights of the audio, but unfortunately he spends much of the episodes parted from his companion, teaming up with the character of Greta who ends up providing substitution. The previous releases featuring the Sixth Doctor have really helped to develop his character into something more consistent than he was depicted on television and Bloodtide builds on this well to show the Doctor in the best possible light.

Maggie Stables is once more on top form as Evelyn and it's a testament to Morris' script that this is possibly her best appearance since her tour de force debut in The Marian Conspiracy. Although she is separated from the Doctor for much of this story, she is given the chance to work alongside Charles Darwin, which works well.

The rest of the cast perform well, particularly Miles Richardson as Darwin who puts in an excellent performance. The Silurians are well played by the three actors playing them and are helped no end by the special effects used to alter their voices so they are like the Silurians on screen, with Tulok being particularly memorable helped no end by Daniel Hogath. Helen Goldwyn's performance is good, but it isn't until the fourth episode that she really shows what a good actress she is when her character Sh'vak makes some shocking realisations about what has happened.

The production work on Bloodtide is once more up to the high standards that previous Big Finish audios have set. Bloodtide isn't quite as effect heavy as recent releases have been but they work well throughout the background to help to convey the setting well. Lock's score here is commendable, as it blends subtly into the background adding to the drama, and complimenting it well.

Bloodtide is a hugely enjoyable piece of drama. Its story is a very typical, traditional style of Doctor Who but this is one of its most enjoyable features. Jonathan Morris has written a solid Doctor Who story which although isn't breaking any new ground, proves to be a fantastically enjoyable experience. The fact that Evelyn and the Doctor spend so much of the story apart is a little disappointing, but their respective subplots make up for this easily with their quality. Bloodtide boasts a cogent storyline, uniformly excellent performances from the whole cast, particularly Colin Baker as the Doctor (as usual), and superb production. All of this guarantees that Bloodtide, whilst not the best Sixth Doctor audio, is a cut above the high standard of the majority of the previous releases and is yet another example of why the Sixth Doctor stories are the best that Big Finish are producing. My congratulations to everyone involved in this superb play.