Synopsis: Travelling on the luxury train service to Vienzza, The Dominie and Alice discover that one of their fellow passengers is a killer: but which one? As time runs out and the body count begins to rise, the Time Travelllers realise that things may not be all they seem.

• A Review by Stuart Gutteridge
• A Review by Richard Radcliffe

A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 26/7/99

In what appears to be the last of this particular audio series, The Dominie and Alice become embroiled in yet another mystery. Drawing its strengths from the works of Agatha Christie`s Murder On The Orient Express, Blood Sports is an enjoyable,if somewhat low-key affair. What Nigel Fairs` script does prove is that there is nothing like simple, well told, storytelling. And this is what Blood Sports offers in an abundance. Further to this, there are returning characters (from Ghosts),who are fleshed out a lot more and are much more fun.

Sylvester and Sophie are on fine form and for once we are spared any real angst or undiscovered secrets, leaving Alice to be a much more appealing character. Unfortunately, the effects aren`t up to much; at times they are barely audible. In the end though, it has to be said that this is an enjoyable way to close this particular series of audio adventures.

A Review by Richard Radcliffe 22/8/02

This was the 7th BBV Audio I had heard, and finally I have found one that isn't that good! Like the Big Finish productions that seem to have overshadowed them, it is incredible how high the standard of these productions are. But inevitably some are going to be better than others, and Blood Sports is the weakest one yet.

It features the Dominie and Alice, the Professor and Ace being just too close to Doctor Who for comfort, apparently. But it's still the Doctor and Ace, just by a different name. There is also a larger cast than usual, which actually work to the detriment of the production. The emphasis seems to be on them, rather than the 2 leads. And the Alice/Ace "angry young woman" has emerged again too. Sophie Aldred is so much better when she is more subdued, the manic personality just is too much, too many times.

I expected a Murder on the Orient Express, but it's not that at all really. There's a train, and a murderer is on the loose, but that's about the only connection. The aforementioned Agatha Christie Classic is much better and clearer.

The passengers on the train form the supporting cast, and they are a pretty dull bunch. Some attempt at brashness is attempted with the elderly couple - Sid and Betty. But Mrs Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances does not fit in well with a BBV. The train crew are similarly unmemorable, apart from the weird-speaking aliens and the marvelously named Mr Baloney. The weird speaking aliens is one of those few instances in Sci-Fi where they don't speak English! This made for some wonderful chirpy noises, and I could just see the actors at the mikes moving their finger from top to bottom lip in exaggerated fashion! They are quite weird voices, but I actually grew to quite like them over the course of the hour - one of the unique points of the production.

The music is okay, the sound production pretty good as always. The story is a strange one. There's a murder investigation where the Dominie quickly becomes the Doctor (there's a turnaround), there's plenty of politicking thrown in too. The prejudices of war are brought to the fore, but this is hardly groundbreaking material here, and when Alice starts to get all shirty with the racist comments - I felt we were going over ground already trodden down.

Blood Sports doesn't ignite the flames too much overall. It isn't the worst spin-off product I can think of, but the BBV audios with McCoy and Aldred seem to have fallen very flat. It's perhaps just as well this was the last of its kind. 4/10