Colin Meek

Epic story for the Doctor. A little hard to follow, sometimes the scenes switch back and forth on each line of dialog and you need to recognize the voice and/or the background sound effects to track where it's happening. There's also a lot happening, with several Timelords involved and simultaneous scenes on 3-4 different planets. Wonderful voice acting from a number of talented stars, with actors from the show reprising their roles and John Sessions, Stephen Fry, etc. providing other voices. Short but enjoyable, worth another listen (maybe while taking notes) to follow everything that's happening.… (más)

How would a fan of the Sylvester McCoy Doctor react to Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time? I wasn't one, so I wouldn't know. When I checked out Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes: Collection 1: 1964-1965, I didn't start caring about the regular characters until the third story. This is only one story, although it splits up the Doctor and Ace for separate subplots. I didn't care about either character. I felt sorry for Antimony, the Doctor's naive male companion.

General Tannis, the main villain, is a power-hungry fool, but he's got some well-crafted evil schemes going. Can the Minister of Chance, a Time Lord friend of the Doctor, stop the scheme he's supposed to deal with while the Doctor deals with a threat to time itself?

Three of the characters appear on the cover: the Doctor is to the left, the Minister of Chance is below, right, and the larger head shot in the upper right is probably General Tannis.

There are deaths among good guys and bad guys. The killers in London was a good subplot. I felt sorry for the poor police officer who got swept up in the Doctor's wake.

The Brigadier heads my favorite moment in this adventure. Ace's subplot neither thrilled nor angered me, although the old man she meets, Casmus, wasn't bad. (Then again, he wasn't trying to teach me.) I rather liked the Minister of Chance's role up until his last scene.

Do be sure to listen to the interviews at the end. Even though they were conducted before new DW episodes were made for TV, they're worth it. I particularly enjoyed the interview with a Dalek. I can't compare this CD version to the original webcast because I haven't seen the latter.… (más)

My sense that The Minister of Chance was hitting several familiar story beats from Death Comes to Time was only heightened by its second full episode, "The Forest Shakes." In this episode, the pacifist Professor Cantha ends up in a Sesian prison, and much of the discussion she has mirrors what Saint Valentine says to Nessican. In addition, Cantha's comments to the Minister about his loneliness sound similar to what Senator Sala said to him, and Governor Durian's return to Seswan is a lot like General Tannis's return to Alpha Canis, and there's a prison break here, though its connection to the Death Comes to Time prison break is admittedly small.

But though it's distracting, it's not overwhelming. The exploration of how pacifism can be a form of strength actually goes further here than in Death Comes to Time, and I quite liked the scenes where Cantha talks to her well-meaning guard. And given Julian Wadham's much gruffer incarnation of the Minister of Chance, the loneliness angle will probably play out differently as well. It was nice to hear the Minister and Kitty work together, as it was also nice for Kitty to demonstrate her own intelligence in working with Sutu to help liberate Professor Cantha. Overall, "The Forest Shakes" is a fun action piece that sets up some intriguing mysteries for episodes to come. (And, as always, the music is excellent.)

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.… (más)

"The Broken World" is the first full episode of The Minister of Chance, and our first opportunity to hear Julian Wadham play this new incarnation of the Time Lord, taking over from Stephen Fry, who played the previous incarnation in Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time. It's written and directed by Dan Freeman, who also wrote and directed Death Comes to Time, and that production's lush sound design and music is also back here. I always loved how Death Comes to Time used classical music (that scene were the Doctor confronts the Minister is simply gorgeous), and that flair is back here.

Most of "The Broken World" is spent with the character of Kitty, played by Lauren Crace. Kitty is exactly what you'd expect a future companion to be like: determined, sassy, not always smart, but still clever. I liked her pretty quickly, and I look forward to hearing her developed more. We meet the Minister from her perspective, and Julian Wadham's incarnation isn't quite as warm as Stephen Fry's, as he is obviously more concerned with the bigger picture than the people of Tanto. (Though why he needs to go to Tanto to see the bigger picture to begin with hasn't yet been explained.) My first instinct is to not like Wadham as much, but isn't that the way with all regenerations?

Thirty-five minutes in, and it's clear that the story's barely started. There are some neat ideas in play, but nothing much has been done with them yet. But it all sounds great, from the perspectives of performance, sound design, and music, and so I'm still listening. Time to begin "The Forest Shakes"...

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.… (más)