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Liam Carey reviews
Storm Warning
Big Finish Productions
- Year: 2001
- Rating: 9/10
- Cat. No: BFPDWCD8B
- Format: 2xCD
- Running Time: 110 minutes
- Price: £13.99
- Director:
- Gary Russell
Writer:
- Alan Barnes
Cast:
- The Doctor: Paul McGann
Charley Pollard: India Fisher
Lord Tamworth: Gareth Thomas
Frayling: Nicholas Pegg
Rathbone: Barnaby Edwards
Chief Steward Weeks: Hylton Collins
Triskelion: Helen Goldwyn
A pivotal moment in the series was Paul McGann‘s introduction to the Big Finish experience. The Eighth Doctor’s all-too-brief existence onscreen had been extended in printed form for some time, but Storm Warning had everything a “proper” Who adventure needed… except of course the visuals. In a move reminiscent of Peter Davison’s baptism on TV when following Tom Baker, this was actually McGann’s third recorded story.
For many, the Americanised TV movie dulled much of the Doctor’s enduring idiosyncracies and, well, Englishness. Big Finish, in a wonderfully inspired move, chose 1930s Britain as the stage for McGann to resume active Who duty, placing him on board the R-101 airship which crashed on its maiden voyage, killing all 54 passengers and crew.
Storm Warning makes good use of historical fact (references to the 1919 Treaty Of Versailles and the subsequent reparations that led to Hitler’s rise; the imminent technology which would arise in World War II) while fashioning a dramatised account of the ship’s voyage (including fictionalised protagonists to protect the memory of its real-life victims) around a splendidly engrossing sci-fi thriller.
The closing scene feels oddly trite, throwing up a troubling space-time dilemma before abruptly curtailing the paradox with some daft dialogue. Then again, it was often thus with Doctor Who, and Storm Warning‘s epilogue probably stays true to the TV programme in that respect.
An excellent ensemble cast (including BF director Barnaby Edwards) make the 4 episodes a joy, as solid characterisation and credible motivation in the script help to create a strongly evocative atmosphere. The constant drone of the airship’s engines, and the various other-worldly sounds, are also vividly believable.
The Doctor’s first brand new companion – aspiring, self-styled “adventuress” and all-round free spirit Charlotte ‘Charley’ Pollard (played with appealing gusto by India Fisher) – joined up during this story, while the artwork and overall design of the Big Finish titles changed for the better.
Onwards and upwards, gentlemen.
Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2003. E-mail Liam Carey
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.