Faith Stealer
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Big Finish Productions Faith Stealer |
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| Written by | Graham Duff |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2004 | |
| Continuity | After The Telemovie. |
| Starring Paul McGann, India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas |
| Synopsis: When the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz find their journey through the Interzone interrupted by a nightmarish vision, they are surprised to find the Kro'ka offering the perfect solution. With the Doctor and Charley catching glimpses of an old friend and C'rizz on the receiving end of some unorthodox religious practices, their belief, hope and faith are about to be tested to the limit. It's time to see the light. |
A Review About Something Or Other by Kathryn Young 29/10/04
I am one of those people who love to reread, rewatch and then rethink everything. I must have listened to Faith Stealer about five times now, but for the life of me I can't tell you what actually happens in it:
The plot:
They go somewhere. Something about religion. Was there a fountain involved in this one? No I think that was The Natural History of Fear... Something else about religion... C'rizz blends into the furniture - I remember that bit distinctly - that was cool. Something else happens, the Doctor probably does something extremely clever and Doctorish (probably at the last minute knowing him) and then they leave.
Amnesia setting in:
Um, hello Big Finish - knock knock - are you there? Look, I am one of those people who would probably pay money to listen to Paul McGann reading the weather report and I want you to continue making groovy audios cos I think they are fab and wonderful and must continue, but even I am now getting a tad fed up. I could cope with the giant termites from Creed of the Kromon, I dozed through the one about the caves, but Faith Stealer has made me a bit shirty.
I do believe Paul McGann, India Fisher and the Mr Westmass are quite proficient in their chosen craft of acting so wouldn't it be nice to actually get them to so a bit of it - here and there - just for old times sake? You know, back in the old days when the stories (love em or hate them) were interesting, fun and challenging (or at least memorable)?
As people say - an entirely new universe where the writers can create anything they want: new laws of physics... new species... giant super intelligent tea cups if they want... this new place should have writers slavering to get hold of a story and go wild.
But so far the only decent story in the new zone thingy universe has been a (can I use the phrase "total rip off"?) story pinched from Aldous Huxley and George Orwell (and to be fair - nicked or not - it was brilliant).
Caves, bugs, and cults just ain't doing it for me. Take my (somewhat limited) recall as a gauge of a story's success. I remember Creed of the Kromon cos all the buggie people sounded exactly the same and there was a rather nice squishy sac monster with a very cultured English accent. I remember the cave one as it involved quite a lot of caves and I remember the cult one because it involved a fountain (oh darn - that was The Natural History of Fear again).
Natural History of Fear: I remember blinkin' everything... summon the conscience... two legs bad eight legs good...
Sherzo: a big glass tube and some neck nibbling...
Zagreus: well, like it or hate it you definitely just can't forget that one...
I even remember Cosmo Devine from Invaders from Mars (now he was cool), Chief Steward Weekes, Ramsey, and Edith Thompson.
Faith Stealer? I remember... er... hang on... give me a second... something about faith and stealing?
Revoloutionary! by Joe Ford 11/11/04
I remember when a new season of Doctor Who was a time of celebration, a chance to hurriedly rewatch all those stories that will lead to the first new episode. Can anyone honestly admit to wanting to take this course of action after the third season of Eighth Doctor audios from Big Finish? Aside from one story (which was so good it threw the others into even sharper relief) the other four were incredibly bad, one almost interesting but losing points for incomprehensibility. The problems with the season mounted up, the desperately dull divergent universe setting, the unengaging set of regulars, the slap-in-the-face shift from trad to rad from one story to another, the unfocussed arc... all combined to leave me with a huge yawn on my face when Simon turned up at work with Faith Stealer (earning me a slap for ungratefulness!). The Twilight Kingdom climaxed on a cliff-hanger that was unconnected to the story and utterly pointless, just there to hope it gives fans the same thrill that the conclusion of Neverland had (note to Gary Russell: it did not). And even that promised more unbearable re-writing of continuity... can anyone blame me for not giving a shit anymore?
Faith Stealer is really rather fine. Colour me impressed! It has problems and we'll discuss them shortly but it is far, far better than anything from season three, bar Scherzo.
What helps considerably is the simplicity of the story; it has a good premise (What if a force started breaking down all belief systems and convert everybody to one ultimate religion?) which it explores at a good pace and has a good smattering of depth but never forgets its main responsibility is to entertain. Several scenes made me chuckle with delight as the Doctor and Charley "try out" the religion of Lucidity as though they are looking for a house to buy! Whilst the theme of the play is serious it never forgets some of the blatant absurdities of religion and good-humouredly pokes fun at those of us that are frighteningly obsessed with their beliefs. Be warned God-farers, this story may cause offence if you don't have a sense of humour!
Enjoyably the story actually felt like a Doctor Who story and by that I mean it could easily have been televised without much tweaking, the drama and humour mixing imperceptibly and it is remarkably clean for a story written for the new generation. Compared to The Twilight Kingdom, which also felt very Doctor Who-ish, Faith Stealer comes up trumps; unlike that earlier story it doesn't just deal in DW cliches but strives to tell an original story in the series' malleable format. It has that lovely DW feel of opening with an establishing the story without pushing the plot too far episode, moving into a tension building episode two, meandering a little in episode three and pulling all the threads together for a fast paced episode four. As the Church of Lucidity starts destroying all the other religions, the story really picks up for an action packed climax.
Faith is scarcely touched upon by Doctor Who and it is easy to
see why. Religion is such a tricky subject that is usually dealt with in
totally arse-scratchingly dull seriousness so not to offend anybody. Even
Face of Evil, which is the closest Doctor Who
ever got to truly condemning religion treated dealt with the idea by
portraying two deadly sombre factions to fight over their belief system.
The Massacre is the best example of Doctor Who
doing a straight religious drama but you have to admit as fantastic as it,
it is hardly a barrel of laughs.
Faith Stealer manages to take these questions and have some fun
with it. The very idea of the Multihaven, a harmonious community of varied
and spectacular religions, is gorgeous, the sheer fact that everybody gets
on with each other despite their differences straight away highlights our
society as barren and wicked, despicable acts committed in the name of
religious ideals. The story keeps pushing; religions created around
bizarre deities (such as mishaps and a profitable material!) exposes how a
ridiculous idea can be pushed too far, a man standing at the gates of the
Multihaven jotting down your beliefs (the Doctor quickly makes something
up which throughout the course of the story gathers followers) and asks
"Are any of you Gods?", the tale of how the Multihaven came about (two
children meeting in the desert and squabbling over their beliefs, others
joined in and before they knew where they an entire city was built around
their differences) proves how easily a new religious community (or
communities) can spring up... Faith Stealer never condemns religion
or suggests it is wrong but it does make you ask some questions and that
can never be a bad thing.
It is also tremendously witty in places with some very funny lines. It
is quite wonderful how the Doctor explores each religion with a knowing
wink at the audience, outwardly mocking them but never disrespecting them.
When he stumbles across the religion of misfortune I was roaring with
laughter.
The acting across the board is perfectly fine and in some cases
excellent. Christian Rodska plays a delightfully traditional Doctor
Who baddie, he has a touch of campness about him but he uses it like
all the best villains to be really pleasant and really creepy at the same
time. I really enjoyed Tessa Shaw as the Bordinan too, its one of those
gravely voices that stands out so well on audio and she plays the role
with the right amount of authority to make the role really work. All the
actors seem to be enjoying the script but they seem to understand the
golden rule of Doctor Who, to always play the story with total
conviction so no matter how absurd the story might seem it is portrayed
very realistically. I have to single out Chris Wallter-Evans though
because his northern accent is so funny I treasured every scene he was in!
Although there is nothing instinctively wrong with Paul McGann's
performance it fails to stoke the fires in me any more. There is something
remarkably bland about his character these days (BBC books got around this
by gloriously re-inventing the character to their own designs but Big
Finish is stuck with the movie persona), he's a perfectly nice chap who
says some witty things and saves the day but he rarely does anything to
truly stimulate any excitement. The same goes for Charley, who is
fortunate enough to be played by the glorious India Fisher (so remains
bubbly at least), but doesn't have much more to say since the attention
she was lavished in season two. The Doctor loves Charley, Charley loves
the Doctor. Now they are just hanging around together. It's hardly thrill
a minute.
But even worse is C'rizz who has to be one of the dullest companions
ever. I feel so sorry for Conrad Westmaas who is clearly a very talented
performer (his work on Natural History of Fear
is proof enough!) but lumbered with this dead-end character that is going
nowhere. We still know next to nothing about him except the fact that he
killed his missus. Whoopdedo! He has no background, no personality, no
sparkle... it's not the writer's or the actor's fault, the flaws are
inbuilt and unless we have a thorough examination of his character that
reveals some previously unexplored depth I suggest he is booted from the
series quick march!
The only other complaint I have is the horribly rushed ending which in
a shockingly awful moment of exposition the Doctor reels out exactly what
the nature of the threat is in three really long, garbled sentences and
proceeds to despatch said enemy in the blink of an eye. The story does not
have the resolution it deserves, almost as if Duff realised he was out of
time and just scribbled out a blink-and-you'll-miss-it ending.
However the majority of Faith Stealer is very good indeed and
that is something of a minor miracle in the divergent universe. Finally a
writer has realised we are in another universe and is using that to his
advantage. It's a funny tale that will make you think and probably leave
you wondering why every eighth Doctor audio can't be this good.
A winner.
A Review by Richard Radcliffe
7/12/04
Big Finish have excelled with their Doctor Who dramas. Readers
of my reviews will know that I rate them very highly indeed for the most
part. They just seem to be (far more often than not) what I want from a
Doctor Who story. Compare this to the books, for example, of which
about a third are just what I want. Percentage wise the audios outstrip
any other medium.
After the previous 8th Doctor season, which was patchy yet still
reasonably good, I felt it was a little too soon for another similar
season. I hate saying that, because the arrival of Paul McGann in the Big
Finish range was a treasure found. His first two seasons were splendid for
the most part. And yet things just haven't been quite the same since - the
excellence just hasn't been maintained. The gap between Neverland and Zagreus was
far too big - then Zagreus wasn't quite as good as
we wanted it to be. Glimpses of excellence came back to the 8th Doctor
range in the divergent universe (Natural History of
Fear, first episode of Creed of the Kromon),
but the previous Doctors had outshone him time and time again. Nonetheless
I still held out hope for the 4th McGann season - I refuse to judge
anything before hearing, reading or watching it. I say this season came a
little bit too quick after the last - but the gap could not be helped,
with the new TV series inevitably taking priority (as it should).
What I am getting around to saying, but putting off, is that Faith
Stealer is a massive disappointment. Those niggling fears for the new
set of 8th Doctor audios came to the fore. And as I listened to the
episodes one at a time, my optimism was eroded away. I really don't think
it gelled very well at all.
Reasons for this are manifold, and I will try to outline them here.
Was this play a comedy or a drama? It tried to be a bit of both, but
the two sides jarred horribly at times. In most Doctor Who you can
have humour and pathos - but here you have it, but it feels clumsy.
What's happened to Charley? The fascinating companion of the first two
8th Doctor seasons has had to step back considerably. This is because of
C'Rizz - and here is where the 8th Doctor audios have lost their way.
There has been a new companion for each of the Doctors on audio - two for
McGann. I am tempted to say that could be the problem - if Big Finish had
stuck to Charley only things would have been a lot better. All their other
new companions (Erimem, Evelyn, Hex) have worked a treat. C'Rizz is the
first new companion I am not that interested in. Considering his story is
a big part of Faith Stealer, this could very well explain why I
didn't like it too much.
The religious aspect was rather strange too. Religion is a fascinating
bedrock for telling a story around. There's countless Doctor Who
stories out there which have used religion in a brilliant way, using the
mass of beliefs and ideas out there to tell the best kinds of stories.
Here religion is derided and so airy fairy, as to be lacking substance as
a whole. I can't recall a single religious group portrayed here that was
interesting.
The religious haven was an incredibly dull place, and as the Doctor and
companions flit from one church to the next, the inhabitants are equally
non-descript.
I just couldn't get in to Faith Stealer. Another listen may well
change my tune though. The first time I heard Natural History of Fear I was dismissive about it.
After a few listens I really like that now. Somehow though I don't think
Faith Stealer is that kind of play though. It seemed a relatively
simple tale, but I'm afraid a not very good one, and very badly told. Just
bland, and one of the worst Big Finish dramas I have heard. 4/10
A Review by Stuyart Gutteridge
22/3/05
Faith Stealer is an enjoyable and entertaining tale, that opens
the new season of adventures for the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'rizz.
Certainly it is an improvement on previous tales, dealing as it does
(albeit in a lighthearted way) with religion; the story also serves as a
reintroduction to the three regulars and as such C'rizz actually benefits
from some character development, with nods to his past hinted at
throughout. The tale's lighthearted approach benefits the story and draws
strong performances from all.
Indeed strong villains in Laan Carder and Miraculite who complement the
central players, creating an ensemble piece throughout. In short Faith
Stealer represents an upward turn for the Eighth Doctor audios and
while Paul McGann may now be a past Doctor, at least he's going out
strongly.
Steal some time for it by Charles Berman
29/1/11
Doctor Who's relationship to religion has tended to be an
interesting one. Without actually flatly denying religion, it presents
frequently parallel or incompatible versions of events explained by
religions, but also sometimes comes up with aliens or monsters that are
virtually indistinguishable from religious concepts (see The Daemons or The Impossible
Planet/The Satan Pit). When it has dealt with religion as a literal
matter, it has often been with gentle mockery and parallelism (The Holy Terror, for one), but also respect for that
gently mocked fictional faith (see some of the wonderful scenes in Gridlock).
Faith Stealer seems to belong to that tradition of
science-fictional gentle fun-poking at religion, presenting the Doctor and
his fellow travellers, still trapped in the Divergent Universe, with a
city dedicated to housing as many different religions as possible.
Doctor Who is a good vehicle for this kind of literalising of an
otherwise abstract or high concept -- just take the world of taxes in The Sunmakers -- and here is no exception. Faith
Stealer builds up the Multihaven with a great sense of fun, genuinely
funny material, and a simple but well-transmitted message about the
essential interchangeability of the literal expressions of religious
faiths.
That wit, though, is the play's strongest point. It's spot-on and
everpresent: from mentions of a redemption vending machine, a religion
that worships coincidences and Our Lord Whoops, the Great Neglecter, to
the Doctor leaving his TARDIS-locator in the TARDIS and lines like "Who
says a faith has to have a spiritual dimension?", "The thing I've noticed
about power is that it's ever so abuser-friendly" and "Renaissance is
futile", the dialogue and concepts here make Faith Stealer a
tightly written delight to listen to.
Paul McGann and India Fisher fall into the spirit of things very nicely
and Conrad Westmass gets his first real chance at a C'rizz centric script:
he's the one most in a state to need religion, and he's what sets the plot
in motion from a certain vantage. C'rizz comes off well here; Westmass is
sincere and believable if not shocking with his presence or memorability
in the role, and the character becomes a kind of sympathetic everyman
despite his very pointedly alien origins, which is an achievement for the
author in itself.
The biggest criticism that can be made is that the threat, when it
emerges, is not thematically well tied to the theological motif of
Faith Stealer. It's an adequate alien menace and it's perfectly
well connected to the plot, causing one religion of the Multihaven to
become dangerously dominant over the others, but feels as if it could have
been mix-and-matched with another alien menace without affecting the
religious commentary that is really this story's standout feature.
On the whole though, Graham Duff's only Doctor Who script is a
lightweight but thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and funny story
throughout. Certainly worth a listen.
A Serendipitous Improvement, Whoops Be Praised by Jacob Licklider
9/1/20
Why wasn't this used as a series finale instead of The Twilight Kingdom? It's got a fun premise to explore, characters who actually have character development and feels like it would just seem out of place in the normal Doctor Who universe. Yes Faith Stealer is a great story in almost every sense of the word. The plot sees C'rizz collapsing in the Interzone, so the Kro'ka suggests taking them to the Multihaven, a zone that acts as a haven for anyone of any faith. That idea alone is amazing, as one of the largest problems in this world is war from religious issues and a zone where this isn't an issue is a stroke of genius as it is something that could never happen in our universe. Duff is an excellent writer when judged by this story, as it isn't taking itself too seriously, which is just what the story arc needs, as the last four stories have been emotionally taxing, so it's good to have one be lighter in tone. This serves as a way to generate more interest in the arc and give us one of the best unique ideas since Scherzo's test tube two-hander.
The plot is, however, a bit of a letdown when you realize with its premise it went with the most obvious storyline that could be done. There is a cult in the Multihaven in the form of the Church of Lucidity, which has been going around and forcefully taking over other faiths, which is causing an imbalance. Luckily, the supporting characters surrounding this lackluster plot are extremely interesting. The leader of the Church of Lucidity is Laan Carder who is your standard religious fanatic and isn't written in an interesting manner, but it is the performance by Christian Rodska that makes the character come alive. Rodska makes the man feel like an old bishop who has been corrupted by a power and has desired a lust for more. He is also extremely charismatic, as he is able to brainwash everyone else in the Multihaven to submit to his set of beliefs. This is seen in his assistant Jebdal, a young woman who is looking for something more out of her life and has gone to Lucidity to potentially make herself more lucid in mind and faith. Jebdal is really not a bad person and actually gets rewarded for being a good example of a religious person in the end.
On the side of our heroes, the only characters of note are the Bordinan, the woman in charge of the Multihaven, who is basically the Pope of the Divergent Universe, and Director Garfolt, who is in charge of de-faithing people, which is a lovely concept. The Bordinan is a highly sympathetic character, who wants to see everyone in the Multihaven find peace, which is an idea that I adore, while Garfolt is a mad scientist who causes C'rizz to go crazy for the Church of Lucidity in a twist of fate.
Speaking of C'rizz, we actually get a lot of character development. We are informed of his extreme feelings of guilt of killing his lover, and he has begun to have flashbacks to the event through the course of this story that only increase in their disturbing nature. He has been trained as a monk, but is holding some darker secrets beneath the calm and cool exterior. Conrad Westmass is on top form here, as he does get to do some really fun things, which cannot be said for India Fisher's Charley Pollard. Charley here suffers from bland-companion syndrome, as she is only there to tag along with the Doctor and ask the right questions. It isn't as bad as the characterization in The Twilight Kingdom, but it isn't very good either. Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor is on top form in contrast, as he is allowed to flex his comedic muscles. The Doctor makes up his own faith where they praise C'rizz, begin each morning with a ritual cup of tea and of course are known as Tourists. The Doctor's interactions with other faiths are also humorous especially the Church of Serendipity whose moments in the story I won't ruin but will hint at with the line "Whoops be praised!"
To summarize, while Faith Stealer is really nothing to write home about in the grand scheme of things, it is in itself a good example of the weird type of situations the Divergent Universe should be. The bigger problems in the story are some of the blander supporting characters and Charley not being an interesting character, along with several plot holes bringing down the overall quality of the story. 72/100