Doctor Who: Seasons Of Fear Review

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Released in March 2002, Seasons of Fear was the 30th Doctor Who audio drama to be released by Big Finish. It stars Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and India Fisher as companion Charley Pollard. It is written by Paul Cornell & Caroline Symcox. It is directed by Gary Russell.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"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 to 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.

This one is pretty wibbly wobbly timey wimey! Since it comes right after The Chimes of Midnight, I wouldn't have cared if it were a bad story, but it's not a bad story. It's another brilliant (not to mention confusing) story with some really clever ideas... AND it's written by Paul Cornell!

The story starts with The Doctor and Charley arriving in Singapore to meet someone called Alex. While in a cafe, a mysterious man comes up to The Doctor, bragging about how he'd killed him in the past. The Doctor soon realises that this man's past is The Doctor's future, the timeline they're in is not real and the mysterious man is called Sebastian Grayle and is the grandfather of Charley's friend - Alex Grayle. The Doctor and Charley go back in time to prevent Sebastian Grayle from doing any harm... But will they succeed?

The acting... Paul McGann was amazingly brilliant as usual - so much lost potential for a TV series! India Fisher was fantastic, Stephen Perring (Sebastian Grayle) was fantastic, Robert Curbishley (Lucillius and Nimon voice) was amazing, Justine Mitchell (Lucy Martin) was great and all the other actors with minor parts were pretty damn good too.

Seeing the Nimon in a good story really made me happy. I love the things but I think The Horns of Nimon had the potential to be a lot better, even if I did quite like it. I also like how Paul McGann narrates the story, a lot like he did at the start of Doctor Who: The Movie. The Zagreus poem (or whatever it is) is great too... Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed, and eats you when you're sleeping. I've got no idea if I'll like the story Zagreus, but I certainly like the little poem.

The various settings were all fantastic! The production team made them feel extremely realistic!

My favourite character featured in this story other than the main two is Lucy Martin. She's just so much like Charley. I just want to know what happened to her at the end, so I'm guessing I need to listen to Embrace the Darkness!

My favourite line comes from The Doctor - "I'm shopping around, trying out all the different cults". Oh, and just about everything that thing said in the end was cool and creepy.

It's just a really good story that had me hooked from beginning to end, despite a couple of parts that feel slow. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see the Nimon again after the awful reputation of their debut story and bringing them back was a very brave move. A very entertaining two hours!

I probably wouldn't recommend this as your first Big Finish audio though - you should get to know the Eighth Doctor and Charley through Storm Warning, and maybe you should listen to Invaders From Mars and The Chimes of Midnight before this.

Overall Rating: 9/10

You can buy Seasons of Fear for £2.99 download or £5.00 CD here.