Tag: audio drama review

Top Ten Big Finish Stories of 2020, Part One

We’re going to countdown my top ten favorite Big Finish stories of 2020. Big Finish is a British producer of audio dramas, best known for producing licensed Doctor Who Audio Dramas in spin-offs but have also have licensed several other series as well as doing their own originals.

In 2020, Big Finish not only released their expected releases but also was able to take advantage of the lockdowns to produce more audio dramas.

As usual with this list, while I listen to a lot of Big Finish, I can’t claim to have heard it all, and there are many ranges such as Torchwood, Class, Dark Shadows, Blake 7, Adam Adamant Lives, and Time Slip that I don’t really listen to. In addition, I have not heard every single release they’ve done this year even in the ranges I am interested in. That said, I’ve heard quite a bit and these are my favorites of what I have listened to. ‘

We’re going to have a lot of Doctor Who stories. So this article is going to assume basic knowledge of the series and how it works with the Doctor being an alien who travels in time and space in his ship, the TARDIS and when he dies, he regenerates into a new body (and is played by a different actor, with the latest being an actress. Each is numbered chronologically.)

10) Out of Time 1 by Matt Fitton

This is one of Big Finish’s lockdown productions and features the meeting between the most popular Doctor from the series’ original 26-year run and the most popular Doctor of the revived series. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) end up meeting by accident at a sci fi cathedral and have to team up to defeat their archfoe, the Daleks.

This story is a lot of fun with great interactions between the Doctors, as well as a few clever ideas, and at least one interesting side character.

The release is a perfect introduction to the type of audios that Big Finish makes today and is affordably priced for those who are curious about Doctor Who audio dramas. The story itself is a well-done but basic story of the Daleks invading to get what they want and killing anyone that stands in their way. But the moments between Tennant and Baker make this a fun release.

9) Scorched Earth by Chris Chapman

The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companions Flip (Lisa Greenwood) and Constance (Miranda Raison) arrive in a French village right after it’s been liberated from the Nazis. They find a festive atmosphere but its marred when an angry mob shaves the head of a young woman they label as a collaborator and the Doctor suspects that a monster made of fire may be inserting itself into the war.

The story really brings about a genuine conflict among the TARDIS crew that’s quite reasonable. This isn’t immature bickering but disagreements that come out of who the characters are. Flip is a Twenty-First Century woman and Constance is from Wartime Britain having served as a WREN.

The difference is about something that matters as Constance thought the punishment of the young woman was justified. Flip didn’t, and the Doctor is trying to walk a fine line to keep his companions safe and avoid alienating either. Constance does grow through the story. My only complaint about the conflict is that Flip never understands Constance’s point of view. Constance is of course wrong, but being able to understand where someone’s coming from even when we disagree is important.

The monster works pretty well and compliments the themes of the story. There’s some solid soundscapes and the story does a great job making it easy to imagine the scope and power of this creature. There’s also just the right amount of humor, and some really fun action in the fourth episode that makes this a worthwhile listen.

8) Vanity Trap by Stuart Manning

(from the Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume 1):

The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri meet up with an aging Hollywood star who claims to have met them, and so the Doctor travels back to 1972 and a film that was never finished.

This is a piece helped by a superb cast, including Stephen Critchlow. I enjoyed Sarah Douglas’ performance as the aging starlet, who is played as a very complex character who is better than her obvious faults.

The Doctor and Peri are given great material to work with, including good tension between them that is believable and avoids going over the top. I liked how Colin Baker was given a change to establish the menace of the situation, as Sylvester McCoy often does, but in a way that fits his Doctor.

The sound design and music are superb, knowing when to use a light touch, and when to add subtle touches to ratchet up the tension.

Overall, this was an engaging story that’s underrated.

7) Ghost Station by Steve Lyons

(From the Anthology Time Apart):

Ghost Station finds the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)  in an underground station beneath the Berlin Wall in the 1970s confronting an East German soldier with a body on the ground. The set up for the story is great, with superb atmosphere and effects. This story is a rare two-hander that allows the Fifth Doctor and the guard to play off each other for the entire runtime. Both Peter Davison and Timothy Blore turn in magnificent performances and play beautifully off one another. There’s just the right amount of plot and the story has some superb emotional beats. Overall, this is one of the best one-part Stories Big Finish has done. 

6) Quest of the Engineer by Andrew Smith

For this year, the ninth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, Big Finish reunited the Season 18 Tardis Crew of the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), and K-9 (John Leeson) and told four additional stories set in Adric’s home dimension in E-space. 

In the “Quest of the Engineer,” E-Space creator Andrew Smith returns to write the final script. Smith offers a massive concept that begins with the TARDIS crew arriving on a planet that forbids technology and encounters a remarkable man who gives them information that leads to a planet-sized ship that’s the domain of the engineer.

This is a superb story. The concepts are all great, imaginative sci fi ideas that are quite mind-blowing. The Engineer is one of the stronger villains Big Finish has created. He boasts a combination of arrogance, hubris, and cruelty as well as genuine genius that makes him a force to be reckoned with. Except for K-9, all the regulars are given a chance to shine.

The Engineer’s backstory is more complicated than necessary. Through the course of the episode, its revealed that the Engineer had been a ruthless war criminal. Smith tries to add an extra layer to that, a more personal angle, but it’s a bit hard to buy. Overall, still a very fun listen and the best Fourth Doctor story of the year.

To be continued next week…

 

Radio Review: Voyage of the Scarlet Queen

A version of this review appeared in 2012.

I’ve written before about the rarity of having a half-hour show with multiple-part episodes in the Golden Age of radio. However, one show is a notable exception to this rule, Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. The 1947-48 Mutual Radio Series was unusual in many respects. It was a sea drama, but its story-telling style bore a striking resemblance to the hard-boiled detective stories dominating the airwaves at the time. In addition to this, the first 20 episodes were interlinked.

The program follows Philip Karney (Elliot Lewis), Captain of the ketch (sailboat) the Scarlet Queen as he tries to deliver a cargo for Kang and Sons. He’s opposed at every turn by henchmen for a competing exporter, determined to steal the cargo and willing to stop at nothing, even multiple murders. He’s aided by his first mate Gallagher (played by Ed Max) who began working for the bad guys but switched to become Karney’s first mate.

The show features a recurring sophisticated and polite villain named Ah Sin as well as a returning love interest (played by Lewis’s then-wife Cathy) from one episode to the next. While some stories happen at sea, most often Karney and/or Gallagher get in trouble when the Scarlet Queen comes to port. Each episode ended with a ship’s log and the first twenty concluded with Karney announcing how many miles the Scarlet Queen had traveled from its San Francisco port of call.

The show’s exciting situations, colorful characters, and dangers around every corner make Voyage of the Scarlet Queen  one of the more unique radio programs I’ve found.  The relationship between Karney and Gallagher is also a fascinating aspect of the show. They grow from unease at distrust at the beginning to a loyal camaraderie. With one exception, each episode ends with Karney and Gallagher talking on the deck of the Scarlet Queen and Gallagher offering Karney a drink. Karney smiles and responds, “After you, Mate, after you.”

The show lost a little bit of focus after episode 20, but remained one of radio’s greatest adventures throughout its run.

One myth that has made it on to Wikipedia is that Voyage of the Scarlet Queen provided some inspiration to Star Trek based on the fact, “Each episode opens with an entry from the ship’s log.” Given Sam Spade had been giving reports to Effie for more than a year and that in another year Johnny Dollar would start handing in expense accounts, the log was just another in a long line of devices for characters to provide narration for their stories. George Raft’s Mr. Ace paid a visit to a psychologist to fill that purpose. It’s possible Gene Roddenberry heard the show, but it’s a stretch to say that played a role. The Star Trek theory also cites the fact they became embroiled in trouble with “local authorities, agents of rival merchants, or desperate women in need of rescue.” If they didn’t run into trouble, it wouldn’t be much of an adventure story. While its possible, I wouldn’t consider this a probable inspiration for anything other than audience amazement.

The series finished in 1948, but Lewis wasn’t finished with the concept. In 1950, he recorded a pilot for Log of the Black Parrot which brought Ed Max back as Gallagher and renamed his role to Matthew Kinkaid. The audition recording was far more moody and less action filled than the original series and was not picked up for a run.

Currently in circulation are 33 of the 35 broadcast episodes, with Episodes 7 and 10 being missing. In addition, the audition for Voyage of the Scarlet Queen recorded in February 1947 with Lewis as Gallagher and Howard Duff as Karney and the audition for Log of the Black Parrot are available.

Fans of great radio adventure owes it to themselves to check this series out.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0 stars.

Audio Drama Review: Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 11

This set collects six more Twilight Zone radio dramas recreating classic Twilight Zone stories.

“Five Characters in Search of An Exit” finds a man (Jason Alexander) in a major’s uniform dropping into a cylindrical room where four other people are located. They’re dressed as a clown, a hobo, a bagpiper, and a dancer. None has any memories or knows why they’re there. The newly arrived Major tries to engineer an exit. This is a solid tale that delivers a classic Twilight Zone twist and also ties in nicely to the Christmas season.

“The Arrival” is set at a small aiport where a flight comes in on time, but it’s the wrong plane and no one’s aboard. This leads to an experienced FAA investigator being called in. This one has some pretty good twists. I’m not sure its story logic holds up well. But it’s still a decent listen.

“Queen of the Nile” is about a reporter who goes for an interview with a beautiful Hollywood actress who looks far younger than her age or career should indicate. While I do think the solution (or something like it) was a kind of obvious answer, the way its delivered and some of the details make this a pretty engaging outing.

“I Dream of Genie” is about a born loser who finds a magic lamp with a genie who will provide one and only one wish. He begins to mull over the most popular wish options and imagines how good they could be, before also imagining how it would all end horribly. It’s an interesting concept and his solution to the wish dilemma, while simple, is kind of intriguing.

“It’s a Good Life” is one of the most nightmarish tales The Twilight Zone came up with. A small town in Ohio is cut off from the rest of existence and held in thrall to a six-year-old boy with amazing mental powers but zero emotional maturity. The adults in town spend the entire episode cowering. Those who say the wrong thing or think the wrong thing about him risk his wrath. With a thought, the boy could strike you blind, turn you into a monster, or strike you dead. The town, in order to keep him calm and happy, affirms everything he does as good. The transition to radio is very well-executed and this makes for an entertaining if unsettling half hour.

“Masks” finds an elderly man (Stan Freberg) dying on the last day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and his family (his hypochondriac daughter, his greedy son-in-law, their vain daughter, and their cruel and stupid son) are coming to visit before they start dividing the spoils of his estate. Lest you think my description is unfair, this is the entirety of their characterization and we’re given an introduction telling us explicitly who these people are…because some of us might not figure out after three minutes. It’s made obvious bad things are going to happen to them and that they deserve it. That does tend to make this a bit predictable and on the nose. However, the way the change is realized and the sound design does make it unnerving. It’s not a bad release, but it is one of the weaker stories in this set.

Overall, this was another solid release with a combination of skilled acting, solid sound design, and scripts that mostly tended to be among the stronger ones from the original series.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Audio Drama Review: Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 9

The ninth volume of Twilight Zone radio dramas features six more audio recreations of tales from the Classic TV series.

The set kicks off with “Time Enough at Last” where a bank teller who wants to do nothing but read and talk about what he’s read is persecuted by both his wife and his employer. It’s a classic story. The TV version is tragic and depressing and the expanded time for the audio drama manages to make it even moreso.

Next up is, “Will the Real Martian Stand Up?” There’s a report of a UFO, state troopers go out to investigate and find footprints leading to a diner. A bus has just arrived. The driver says he had six passengers, but there’s seven in the restaurant. Who’s the real Martian? This story is a nice science fiction mystery with a very clever twist at the end.

“The Trade-Ins” takes us to a world where the elderly can have their life renewed with a new body. An elderly couple wants to do this so they can have a fresh start on life. But they’ve only saved enough for one of them to get the treatment. The story has a few logical issues but still has some very sweet and surprising moments in it.

“A Passage for a Trumpet” features a trumpet player whose career has been ruined by his drinking. He’s ready to pack it in, selling his trumpet, and getting ready to leave town when he steps out in front of an oncoming truck. The story gets interesting when we find out what happens next. The story is heartfelt and earnest even its turns are a bit predictable.

“I Shot an Arrow Into the Air…” follows the crew of a downed spacecraft. One crew member sees this as a cutthroat survival experience. They have limited rations and the more of them there are, the less long those rations will last. So if fellow crew members die off, that’s longer for him to live. This one turns on a huge twist which changes everything for both the protagonist and the listener.

“The Brain Center at Whipples:” The owner of a factory (Stan Freberg) is bringing automation to spur on efficiency and eliminating jobs. This is a heavy-handed story about the anger and fear at the coming of automation. There’s a twist but you can see it coming a mile away. It does seem when Freberg did the Twilight Zone radio dramas, he tended to play roles that were much more caricatures than characters. Still, he does convey good emotion when the owner gets his expected comeuppance.

Overall, this was a pretty solid set. The stories were told well and adapted well (for the most) so the expanded running time the radio dramas offered was to put to good use. There were issues with a few of the stories but even the last (and least favorite) story wasn’t bad. All in all, a decent collection.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Audio Drama Review: Black Jack Justice, Season 8

Black Jack Justice eighth season was released monthly between September 2012 and March 2013, once again featuring Christopher as Jack and Andrea Lyons as Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective.

The series at this point was in a nice groove and the first four episodes reflect the typical episodic nature of the series up until this point. In “Jawbone of an Asp,” they find themselves drawn into the middle of an academic controversy.  In “Two is Too Many,” they end up trying to see if long-time underworld supporting character “Freddy the Finger” Hawthorne and his cousin have inherited a fortune. And in the best episode of the season, “The More Things Change,” the duo are hired by a woman who wants them to prove her fiancé to be virtuous.

The final two episodes are inter-related. “The Late Mr. Justice,” grabs the listener’s attention as Jack informs us that he’s about to die and explains how he got to this point. An old-time gangster Jack sent away has been released and is out for blood, having taken Jack’s girlfriend hostage. The gangster threatens to kill her if Jack doesn’t show up at an old abandoned theater. There’s some great noirish feel that leads to a solid finale.

The second episode has Trixie in an empty office wondering what happened to Jack after the events of the last story and whether he’ll be back. A boyfriend comes from a big agency with a clients…and with hopes of  becoming Trixie’s new partner if they uncover a missing will. A wealthy woman supposedly left it, cutting a repentant black sheep in for part of her estate. This was a good story that Trixie managed to carry quite well but I had a couple problems with it. Innuendos which Trixie used occasionally in most episodes were way overused as if writer Gregg Taylor was leaning into them a bit much.  In addition, this is the second story in six episodes involving a will. But other than that, it was a pretty good finale with a nice revelation to wrap up Black Jack Justice’s Eighth Season.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Black Jack Justice Season 8 can be downloaded for free at Decoder Ring Theatre.

Audio Drama Review: The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 8

The eighth volume of Twilight Zone radio dramas features six more stories adapted from the classic TV series.

“The Long Morrow” is about an astronaut who is chosen for a long-term deep-space mission because he has no attachments to anyone on Earth. Right before he’s scheduled to leave, he goes on a date, meets a woman, and falls deeply in love with her. He’s to go into a stasis capsule and not age during the whole voyage. There’s a lot I like about this story. The romance and character stuff is engaging, but they also explore some interesting sci-fi concepts that a lot of the “going into stasis until you arrive on a new planet” stories kind of ignore. It’s an all-around solid listen.

“The 7th is Made of Phantoms” is about an Army National Guard Unit in the 1960s that’s on maneuvers and finds itself interacting with the Battle of Little Big Horn. This is one of those stories that I just don’t get the point, the moral, or the lesson. There’s no explanation or hint of one, so it’s a very unsatisfying story.

“Mirror Image” is a really unsettling tale where a woman with an apparently poor memory at a bus station comes to believe she has a doppelganger who is trying to take her place. There’s little atmosphere or real explanation of what’s going on, but it really builds tension and atmosphere to make it a worthwhile listen.

“A Thing About Machines:” A man who lives alone seems to be constantly at war with his machines and for his machines, the feeling appears to be mutual. This one doesn’t work for me because the machines only go so far, and since we’re not dealing with like a computer or artificial intelligence, it’s just a bit silly.

“The Last Night of Jockey”-A disgraced jockey gets one wish and wants to make himself a big man. This is an interesting story and it works as a morality tale. It’s an interesting theme that the Twilight Zone examines where a protagonist thinks they need just one break in order to escape their failed lives, they get a break, and ultimately they prove that fundamentally their own character flaws led to their downfall.

“The Fever”-A tightwad (Stacy Keach) is afraid his long-suffering wife will get hooked into out-of-control gambling when they win a free trip to Vegas. So, of course, it happens to the husband instead. This has been a pretty common plot, though this has a supernatural twist. The success of the production ultimately comes down to Keach’s performance.

The stories in this set are fine, but I’d only say “The Long Morrow” and “Mirror Image” are very strong pieces. This is one collection where it may make sense to go on audible or the Itunes store and purchase your favorite episode as a standalone, because the quality in this set is a bit mixed.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review: Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 6

The Sixth Volume of Twilight Zone radio dramas features six radio dramas that recreate classic episodes.

The Dummy: Bruno Kirby plays a ventriloquist who believes his dummy is alive. Trouble starts when he decides to replace his dummy with a new one.  Ventriloquist dummies are great in creepy stories, and I think they work particularly well over audio.

No Time Like the Past: Jason Alexander stars as a scientist who tries to change history three times to make a better world before giving up and deciding to go and live in history, where he falls in love with a woman who is fated to die. Some of the emotional beats in this story work, but the logic of both the scientist and the story are a bit strained. His attempts to change history were haphazard at best and doomed to failure due to his lack of planning. A theme of this episode is that history can’t be changed, but the overall point can be taken as, “History definitely can’t be changed if you don’t actually think through your plan.”

Still Valley: Adam West plays a Confederate sergeant who is given a chance to win the war through witchcraft. I do love Adam West, and he puts in a very good performance, and the story goes in a direction I didn’t expect. There’s some great atmosphere and nice music. This is a really easy listen.

King Nine Will Not Return: The story focuses on the pilot (Adam Baldwin) of a crashed bomber searching for his crew in the dessert.  The story itself is pretty good, with a nice twist, and a bit of unexplained spookiness at the end. But what makes this a standout is Adam Baldwin’s performance. This is his second Twilight Zone and once again, he’s got nearly all the lines and his performance is superb. These two plays convince me that Baldwin’s talents are underrated. If radio/audio were as huge in America as it used to be, Baldwin would be the guy I’d want to listen to all the time.

I Am the Night Color Me Black: A man (John Ratzenberger) is about to be executed for killing an abusive racist when strange things begin to happen. This one was definitely a very moody, suspenseful, and surrealistic play. It’s definitely a different role for Ratzenberger, who is best known for his work in comedies like the TV show Cheers. It’s well worth listening to.

The Incredible World of Horace Ford: A toymaker (Mike Starr) is literally transformed back into a kid when he visits his old neighborhood. This isn’t a bad story. It deals with the idea of the dangers of living an idealized past, and the importance of living your life in the present. It’s a recurring theme in the The Twilight Zone. But that also means its a story they’ve done in more interesting ways. In particular, I think of, “Walking Distance.” (Done on Audio in Volume 5.) This feels like a slightly inferior exploration of the same theme and a little too on the nose.

Overall, this is a pretty strong set. While the stories aren’t perfect, these feature a couple of my favorite stories so far, and everything else is fine.

Ratings: 4 out of 5

Audio Drama Review: The Red Panda Adventures, Season 7

At the end of Season Six, during World War II, the entire Canadian Home Team of superhuman allied soldiers was wiped out. The Red Panda (Gregg Taylor), in the guise of August Fenwick, had his plane explode while heading to Europe.

The first half of Season Seven picks up where Season Six left off with The Flying Squirrel (Clarissa Der Nederlanden) having to pick up the pieces. Missing her husband and crime-fighting partner,  Kit Baxter-Fenwick has to keep the city safe while expecting the birth of her first child.  It’s decided that neither the fifth columnist or the criminal element in Toronto should know of the Panda’s apparent demise so the android John Doe (Christopher Mott) pretends to be the Red Panda. Kit has to mentor John and also help him as he tries to move on from the death of his wife.

This first half of the season works really well. While Season Six tried to develop Kit/The Flying Squirrel, those attempts came off as a bit artificial. In Season Seven, we get some really good character development, as well as a nice mix of solid adventures that we’ve come to expect.

**spoilers warning**

In the second half of the season, we learn the Red Panda survived and we pick up his story with him imprisoned in a POW camp. However, before his capture, the Red Panda (I believe) used his mental powers to segment all he knew of being the Red Panda from August Fenwick so he could not be coerced into revealing information. Fenwick meets up with former Red Panda Operative now Army Captain Andy Parker and his commando unit. He teams up with Parker, and is able to get them out of prison using Red Panda powers and abilities while denying being the Red Panda. They then make their away across Europe to the season’s denouement where the two halves of the season tie together.

There were things about the second half of the season I enjoyed, like the reappearance of a character who was presumed dead, and I think the last episode is good. However, what happened  with the Red Panda/August Fenwick is convoluted and I’m not sure I understand it right. The plot also got repetitive with the denials of him being the Red Panda and members of Parker’s Rangers thinking he was.  It felt a bit padded at six episodes. The arc would have been better if it’d been only three episodes long.

Overall, this is a still a solid season, owing to the strong first half, but it’s the weakest of the seven seasons I’ve listened to so far.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can listen to Season 7 of The Red Panda Adventures here.

Audio Drama Review: The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 7

The seventh volume of the Twilight Zone Audio Dramas adapts six more stories as audio dramas:

“Hocus-Pocus and Frisby” is the story of a small-town braggart and teller of tall tales who garners the attention of aliens from outer space who think his whoppers are true. This is a fun story, with a nice dish of the absurd.

“Cavendar is Coming:” An angel with a problematic track record is given one last chance if he can help an awkward young woman. This is just bad. The premise is stupid (and depressing), the story is nonsensical and the dialogue is unimaginative. The TV version had the benefit of featuring a young Carol Burnett as the young woman Cavendar “helps.” The TV episode was released in 1962 and was a backdoor pilot for an unrelated series. It does not hold up.

“The Little People:” Two members of a spaceship crew land on a planet that’s seemingly uninhabited and work on repairing their ship. However, one of them sneaks away and discovers there is life: tiny people with their own society, who he decides to oppress by pretending to be their god. This is a somewhat typical Twilight Zone story, with some nice details and even a computer that plays a role, as well as a solid twist.

“One More Pallbearer:” A wealthy man invites three people over for dinner who he blames for embarrassments earlier in his life. He has a scheme to make all of them apologize and beg him for shelter. This is  the best story in the release. While actor Chelcie Ross isn’t a household name, he’s great in the lead and manages to embody the pettiness and the damaged mind of the wealthy man. The story has not only a twist ending, but a double twist.

“The Big Tall Wish:” A washed-up boxer boards with a single mom and is beloved by her son. He decides to make a comeback and a hopeful boy makes a wish, the biggest wish (a big tall wish) but will it be enough for the boxer to win. This is a simple, wistful tale, with a downbeat conclusion.

“The Living Doll:” A tyrant of a father is infuriated that his wife spent money to buy his stepdaughter a doll at the department store. The father doesn’t like the Talking Tina doll and is shocked when Tina lets him know the feeling is mutual. He hears the doll speaking, but only when no one else is around. Probably of all the stories I’ve listened to in the first seven volumes, this is the one that fits most easily into the horror genre, though it’s definitely a more psychological horror.

Overall, this box set is a mixed set. “One More Pallbearer” and “The Living Doll” are superb, “Cavendar is Coming” is awful. The other three are between okay to good.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review: Sherlock Holmes Theatre

In 2005, the Hollywood Theatre of the Ear released a series of Sherlock Holmes plays starring Martin Jarvis as Holmes, and Kristoffer Tabori as Watson.

First up is Sherlock Holmes. The play is written by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and its performed (as far as I can tell) unabridged from the original text. The play is solidly acted, but the main reason to listen to it is to hear the play exactly as it was performed when it was first written.

From a modern listener’s perspective, the play’s a mixed bag. On one hand, it is delightful to see how many bits from the Holmes stories get mixed into this play. On the other, it has a very slow pace and quite a few scenes that are not that interesting. The opening scene in particular seems to go on forever. This is a play that goes on well over two hours. Orson Welles took the text of the play and condensed it back in 1938 for the Mercury Theater, and I think that version is more entertaining.  This version is more authentic as it has so much in it.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is, while Holmes still does his deductive bits, the play makes him into a swashbuckling romantic hero. Doyle was not  proprietary about the character or canon and went places that many Holmes purists would frown upon to make a commercially successful play.

Next up is The Speckled Band. This play was written by Doyle alone and it expands on one of the best Holmes short stories.  The play changes the name of the woman who comes to Holmes for help from Helen Stoner to Enid Stoner for reasons that aren’t clear.

The play begins after Enid Stoner has died under mysterious circumstances just before she was about to marry. Much of the information about the elder Stoner sister’s death that was relayed in the client consultation in the short story, we get to hear discussed at a coroner’s inquest.

Perhaps the highlight of the play is that we get to hear more of Doctor Grimesby Roylott. Next to Professor Moriarty, he’s the most memorable villain in Holmes but we only get to see him for one scene in the short story and otherwise learn about his actions second hand.  In the play, we get to hear him in action. Dwight Schultz (A-Team and Star Trek) does a great job bringing to life this dangerous, maniacal, manipulative villain in a really unforgettable performance.

The play does have its weak points. A lot of the material does come off as fluff and padding. One of the silliest parts was where Enid needed someone to tell her to go and see Holmes and Watson, even though the play has her meet Doctor Watson at the inquest. Also, Roylott is undermined after he asks her to sign over her money to him and she refuses and he tells her this is her last chance and she’ll be sorry, and then comes back later in the play to make the same offer and once again is clear that it’s her last chance.

Like with the first play, The Speckled Band’s biggest selling point is its authenticity to the original Doyle play.

The collection concludes with Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detective’s Flat, a one-act comedy play by Yuri Rasovsky. It’s essentially a three-hander with the premise that Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson are unlikable, amoral, hypocrites who secretly despise one another. When Holmes announces he’s going to retire to beekeeping and give up his rooms at Baker Street, leaving Watson without a meal ticket to help retire his gambling debts and Mrs. Hudson without a tenant. So the only thing to be done is for Watson and Mrs. Hudson to frame Holmes for murder. Rasovsky also inserts that Holmes and Mrs. Hudson had an affair.

In my opinion, this isn’t funny at all. Comedy is possible in Sherlock Holmes  but good comedy works when its consistent with the characters and draws its comedy from who the characters are. In this case, this is a cynical play that’s far less clever than it thinks it is. I question the decision to include it in this collection. The first two plays are going  to appeal to fans of Holmes and Watson who’d love nothing more than to hear the original Victorian plays. A lot of people interested in that would be turned off by Rasovsky’s one-act play and I doubt those who would be interested in Rasovsky’s play would be into 4 hours of Victorian Melodrama. The best thing about Ghastly Double Murder in the Famed Detective’s Flat is that is mercifully short, adding up to about 45 minutes. Although, it does feel considerably longer. If it were longer, it would seriously downgrade the set.

Overall, I’d recommend this collection if you’re interested in hearing full cast Victorian Sherlock Holmes plays. If you’re not interested in the final play, you can skip it and your life won’t be the poorer for it.

Rating; 3.75 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review: Martin and Lewis

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were the last of the great legendary comedy teams. They’d been a success in night clubs prior to landing their own radio show over NBC in 1949.

There were two Martin and Lewis shows, though collectors and CD makers group them into one long run. The first ran in 1949 until January 1950. The second, The New Martin and Lewis Show ran from 1951-53. Both programs had different formats.

The 1949 series started off with a comedy variety-style program with Bob Hope but reverted to a situational format. Martin and Lewis played themselves in the radio program, which was about them making the radio program. It also had an ongoing plot arc about starting a nightclub.  Martin would still manage at least one song an episode, sometimes with a hilarious plot justification for him singing. The series featured Sheldon Leonard as a shady conman named Soapy Leonard who served to get our heroes into trouble. Flo Macmichael played a maid who became Dean and Jerry’s assistant and then played some other female characters during their initial radio run. The show featured a variety of guest stars including William Bendix, Bing Crosby, and Victor Moore with the actors playing “themselves.”

The New Martin and Lewis show followed a comedy/variety format with no plot, Dean Martin as the host who sings two or three songs in the course of the show (one often a duet with a guest star), he and Lewis banter and do a skit, they introduce the guest star, banter with the guest and do a sketch with the guest. The guests included strong performers like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Anne Bancroft, Jack Webb, and Ida Lupino.

Dean Martin is a superb singer. He’s fun to listen to and his singing is the best argument for buying high quality recordings of this program. The guest stars are good, and it’s nice to hear Martin and Lewis getting to play off of some of Hollywood’s finest actors.

The comedy is a bit more uneven. Even though the plots were formulaic or silly, I prefer the original Martin and Lewis show. It gave Lewis more to work with. The new series format limited Lewis. Radio already took away the physical comedy which was such a big part of his appeal, but there was only so much that he could do with the banter portion of the shows, that many of the jokes and bits feel repetitive.

However, that’s not to say there aren’t laughs to be had, but the show is far from the team’s best work, particularly when compared to their films or the appearances on television’s Colgate Comedy Hour.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Martin and Lewis or either of the two on their own, both series are worth a listen.

Martin and Lewis Show rating: 4.25 out of 5
New Martin and Lewis Show rating: 3.75 out of 5

Audio Drama Review: Black Jack Justice, Season Seven

Season Seven of Black Jack Justice finds the show very well settled in to its successful formula as Jack and Trixie continue to solve crimes in a post-War unnamed American city.

The season avoids some of the fancy experimental episodes from previous seasons and really plays to its strengths. That means well-crafted mysteries and clever wordplay. The closest this season gets to any sort of emotional depth is in the episode, “The Score” when an old war buddy of Jack’s tries to draft him to rob a Nazi war criminal to exact revenge.

All of Season 7 is great listening. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d choose the fifth episode, “A Simple Case of Black and White” which finds Trixie and Jack working for a pro bowler trying to connect with his child. The plot is intricate with a surprising solution. There are characters named (of course) Black and White. That plays out to really good effect.

Overall, if you’re looking for fun diverting mysteries that illustrate how a radio detective show should be done, you’ll enjoy Season 7 of Black Jack Justice.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

The entire Seventh Season of Black Jack Justice is available for free download on their website.

Audio Drama Review: The Twilight Zone Audio Dramas, Volume 5 Review

Volume 5 of the Twilight Zone Audio Dramas offers six more adaptations of Twilight Zone in TV episodes.

The set kicks off with, “The Rip Van Winkle Caper.” It’s a story of a well-planned robbery where a scientist is part of the gang and has a plot to avoid prosecution: have the gang hide out in the cave with their stolen gold and then put themselves in suspended animation. The story delivers a smashing twist at the end, but before it gets there, we’re given some great interaction between the members of the gang. The story is a clever and intricate morality tale that holds up quite well.

The next story is, “A Most Unusual Camera,” which is about small-time crooks getting a relatively small haul from a pawnshop burglary that includes a camera that, as they discover, can predict the future. After an unnecessary scene with the crime being reported to the police by the owners of the pawnshop (who are never heard from again), the interaction between the small-time crooks dominates the rest of the story and is a real treat to listen to with a lot of plans, double crosses, and twists.

In “Twenty-two,” a singer is terrified by dreams about the number 22 and she senses impending doom surrounding it and tries to avoid whatever fate awaits. This is a well-done suspenseful tale, though to be honest, it’s the weakest story in the set, which says a lot for this particular box set.

“The Midnight Sun” finds two women trapped in an apartment in a big city as the Earth is moving closer to the sun and everyone is trying to get away from it. The characters in this are great, and there’s a big twist at the end.

In “Walking Distance,” a stressed out ad executive takes a walk while his car’s getting fixed to the nearby town where he was raised. It’s a wistful, sad, yet wise story for anyone who’s ever visited somewhere they grew up and expected it to be exactly as it was as this time he finds it that way.

The set concludes with, “The Passerby” which finds a Confederate War Widow watching the defeated Southern Army return home. She begins to notice strange things, including the return of a soldier she’d believed dead. The story has some atmospheric moments, a great reveal, and an unforgettable closing scene. It’s a picture of the sadness and tragedy of war that’s beautifully realized.

Overall, this is one of my favorite sets in this series. Unlike previous sets, there are no recognizable guest stars in the cast, but to be fair, the original Twilight Zone series, most episodes didn’t feature huge stars or those who would become big stars. For every episode of the TV series featuring William Shatner, Peter Falk, or Burgess Meredith, you’d have an episode or two featuring actors no one remembers. The strength of the Twilight Zone are its writing, its concepts, and the thoughtful ideas at the heart of each script, and that strength really shines through here.

If you’re curious about the radio series, this is definitely a set I’d recommend. The stories are very well-realized and capture the spirit of the original series beautifully.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review: The Prisoner, Volume 3

Big Finish concluded its reimagining of the Prisoner in the third volume of four audio episodes.

The series kicks off with a take on the TV episode, “Free for All” with there being an election for the new Number 2 with Number 6 finding a surprising groundswell for his candidacy.

The episode works well. It plays with the ideas in the TV show about Democracy but goes deeper in many aspects. Whereas, Number 6’s end is kind of sudden in the TV episode, we do get a build-up, a great final confrontation, and a memorable conclusion to the episode.

There are a couple of issues. I did find the village rifle association absurd. No prison is going to hand prisoners guns, not even the mad system of the Village. In addition, Lorelai King’s Texas accent didn’t ring true.

Other than that, this episode did a good job of setting the stage with a surprising conclusion.

In the next episode, “The Girl Who Was Death,” Number 6 is back in London with foggy memories of how he got there. He encounters Kate Butterworth (Lucy Briggs-Owen) again who tells him it’s been six years since his last return to London.

This story is intriguing. It revisits the smashing Series 2 opener, “I Met a Man Today” and challenges what we thought we knew about that story and how the aftermath played out over Series 2. There’s some real question as to what’s going on and who number 6 can trust. The answers aren’t obvious.

The flashback to tie in “Free for All” was a bit dull, and I miss the surrealistic majesty of the TV version. However, this does work a treat in continuing on this box set as a more inter-linked story.

The “Seltzman Connection” is an original story that’s a bit of a nod to the TV story, “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling,” Number Six teams up with another escapee to travel overseas and find out what happened to his girlfriend Janet before Number Six tendered his resignation. This is a story that has some intrigue and turns trippy towards the end to set the stage for the finale.

The series concludes with “No One Will Know” as Number Six now finds himself in Kate Butterworth’s body and questioned by Control. This a talky episode that deals with body-swapping and the ethical and practical merits of a world where no one would know who anyone was. It also ends up as a finale for the series so far and the result isn’t what I’d want, nor was it in line with the original, or something you can see being built up to from the beginning. Nevertheless, it’s one way to go and its handled pretty well.

Overall, I found the third series of The Prisoner to be a worthy updating of the original series. It evocative of the original series but goes deeper on some points than the classic television series did while developing its own themes. The acting and sound design is marvelous throughout, managing to evoke the 1960s while also having a very modern feel. Overall, a well-done final volume for what’s been a solid range at Big Finish.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review: Slick Bracer, P.I.

Slick Bracer, P.I. was a 2011 Summer series for Decoder Ring Theatre. Unlike the ongoing Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice, the series was written by Eric Decker.

It starts Peter Nichols as Private Eye Slick Bracer and features a soundtrack and feel that places it in the late 1970s or early 1980s as opposed to the more golden age setting of the two regular series. It featured Christopher Mott as the extremely stereotypical Detective McGillicuddy.

In many ways, the series does feel a lot like the Sid Guy, Private Eye series with its comedic send-up of detective tropes. It’s not quite as adept. While it does sound like the actors were having fun, this doesn’t work quite as well.

Each episode tends to rely on running gags, most of which weren’t that funny the first time. Every episode, Slick’s secretary tells a caller that’s “Slick’s not there” however her words slur together into “Slick snot.” And Slick gets furious about it. Every single episode.

I did enjoy the last episode, “Slick Bracer and the Perils of Public Radio.” It did seem to be written with a lot of knowledge of the subject, which led to some funny jokes and even a nice running gag about a coffee mug.

Overall, this was not good, but it did have its moments.
Rating: 2.25 out of 5

You can listen to Slick Bracer, Private Eye on the Decoder Ring Theatre website.