 Storm Warning |
Free with DWM 300 Last of the Titans |
| Written and directed by | Nicholas Briggs |
|
Starring Sylvestor McCoy
With Nicholas Briggs, Alistair Lock, Lennox Greaves and Holly King. |
| Storm Warning |
Free with DWM 300 Last of the Titans |
| Written and directed by | Nicholas Briggs |
|
Starring Sylvestor McCoy
With Nicholas Briggs, Alistair Lock, Lennox Greaves and Holly King. |
| Synopsis: A special feature from DWM to coincide with the release of Storm Warning |
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 29/1/01
Free with DWM 300, this is what I was looking forward to more, knowing that I would hear Storm Warning sooner or later anyway. Last Of The Titans features Sylvester McCoy`s Seventh Doctor travelling alone, presumably prior to the TV Movie and kicks off with a different theme tune, which is best described as that," different".
The story itself opens with The Doctor narrating and thankfully as the dialogue kicks in it doesn`t remain obtrusive, but merely adds to the story, due in part to Sylvester McCoy. Incidental music helps move the story along at a steady pace as does the effects on Nick Briggs' voice, which in turn bring out a more memorable character. It would take a stronger story than this to turn out a four part solo Doctor adventure, but Last Of The Titans succeeds because at 30 minutes it is just the right length. Nothing special then, but entertaining enough in its own way.
A Review by Richard Radcliffe 26/7/02
Free gifts are always nice. If you like them you really feel that you have something for nothing. If you hate it there has been nothing lost, and your pennies are free for some other DW product. I get DWM every month anyway, so this was a bonus prize. The McGann Episode 1 had to be listened to first of course, but one evening about a week after getting the original magazine (issue 300 if I recall) it was placed on the CD player.
Well! It's a 7th Doctor story, and there are no companions in it. The story takes the unusual step, for a Big Finish, for the Doctor to narrate much of the action. He does talk to himself a lot too - but he soon has Valgraith to speak to, the ugly, smelly captain of the very old, dirty ship the Doctor arrives on. There's lots of hydraulic wheezes, steel doors slamming, echoey grimy corridors - Big Finish were letting us know how well they were going to do the upcoming Sword of Orion.
When the Doctor bumps into Valgraith - the only other cast member in this production, there's some nice, well-written dialogue between them. Valgraith comes across quite sympathetically. He is quite difficult to understand though. There will always be a fine line between presenting someone/thing as alien, yet still making them comprehensible. The audios, like the TV show they emerged from, succeed mostly - but there is the odd one creation that fails in this regard.
The story is not that bad, it's very much a Frankenstein type of thing. It is just a short adventure between the main entertainments Big Finish present to us - it's very nice that it was free! The comic strips often used to have time-out for one issue, just to pause between adventures - this is kind of like that.
Big Finish have promised a couple more of these freebies too. There's The Ratings War that promises Beep the Meep from the Comics, and there's The Maltese Penguin, which promises Frobisher again. Looks the comics are in vogue at present - and that's great.
Last of the Titans - harmless little story, and free - which makes it wonderful. 6/10
A Review by Ben Jordan 20/2/03
The Doctor arrives on an old seemingly-deserted ship, orbiting a planet he's sure he's seen before, only to run into Vilgreth, a large humanoid whose only passion in life is his ship. A lizard roams the corridors, claiming that Vilgreth is far more dangerous than the tea-loving simpleton he seems, and the Doctor is beginning to wonder if he hasn't actually arrived where was supposed to have all along.
Last Of The Titans is a remake of the Audio Visuals story Vilgreth, which starred Nick Briggs as the Doctor. The script has not been altered too greatly from the original, only excising bits of dialogue referring to companion Greg, and tightening up the lines a litte. Having said that, it doesn't sound un-7th Doctorish. This is a solo adventure for him, and given his somewhat more laid-back nature, could have taken place relatively near the end of his life.
The Titan of the story is Vilgreth, a Titan-thrope, genetically-modified member of a long-extinct race that inhabited the Earth before man. Only this particular Titan-thrope has gone a bit funny in the head from his modifications. A bit on the dangerous side, you might say. It's Nick Briggs, no doubt keen to play a part in his story once more, who brings Vilgreth to life with a deep Devon accent. And Stelpor, the lizard, is played by Alistair Lock, giving him a squeaky and throaty voice. Hell, what would a lizard sound like if they spoke English? The plot revolves around the Doctor's slow realisation as to the true nature of his host, and when that happens, the real action comes out, but it's a low-key adventure, largely because it's short, and there's little time for depth.
Overall, it's not bad, but having been coupled with episode 1 of Storm Warning, it was greatly overshadowed. This ironically was the same situation under which it was released as an Audio Visuals story - coupled with the 'feature'. Listen to it again separately, and it stands up a little better.