Killer daffodils, a carnivorous armchair and the debut of The Master.
The Doc and Lucie materialise in Suffolk, Uzbekistan, and find themselves pinned twixt tank-driving mercenaries and some very autonomous villagers.
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When The Doctor and Lucie materialise on the beach of a pleasant seaside town and find that (a) the sea is all dried up, and (b) the town itself looks decrepit and all but abandoned, needless to say, Lucie is not enthused. Nor is she impressed to learn that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Bryan Adams’ Everything I do, I do it for you are still in vogue.
The townsfolk, it transpires, lead a rather odd existence. There are plenty of bomb shelters, paper rounds are conducted in reverse and every day is a Sunday.
But they’re not the only people around. British and Russian mercenaries are riding around in tanks, protecting a nearby oil field and hunting down civilians.
Something strange is going on, beside the actors’ accent work, and Doc and Lucie are going to get to the bottom of it.
Brave New Town was the first Big Finish 8th Doctor adventure I purchased, back when they were brand new. I had listened to the first season of 8DAs via some weird Internet jiggery-pokery because they were played on UK radio before being released on CD or download. I haven’t listened to it since then, and I remember enjoying it but being slightly annoyed by some of it. After listening to it again to match with the podcast, I don’t know what it was that had bugged me, because it is absolutely splendid. I like the mystery about these townfolk who are living the same day over and over, and all the little clues that eventually reveal their origins. The “white rabbits” moment while Lucie is waking up from the tranquilizer dart made me laugh mightily. The use of 70s sound effects for the Auton! s (which they also used in 2005’s “Rose”, BTW) gave me a tingly moment of recognition. Before that point I didn’t quite latch on that the people were specifically Autons, but then it was like “Ah, of course!” The Doctor is there to protect these people even though they could be dangerous while under the Nestene’s control, and I like the resolution of burying the Consciousness rather than letting the military types blow up the people. Hopefully they take his advice and stick together so they won’t be exploited by McCarthy and Karimov. I remember thinking McCarthy might have been familiar with the Doctor and UNIT because of his “Scientific Advisor” line and his reaction to hearing about the TARDIS, and that he might come back in later audios…
Long story short (too late), it was very good. I’m horrible at rating things, so I will give it 4.0 out of 5 in order to have a baseline for comparison. Cha-ciao.
Bloody hell, Big Finish can even make Autons work on audio! Not exactly the greatest Who monster to adapt to audio but they work brilliantly. Very sinister and the idea of the town is great, full of ‘ghost people’.
Not the greatest of the series though, a tad bland, with a focus on side characters that takes away from Lucie and the Doc. It’s needed due to the nature of the enemy but there’s nothing here that screams Eighth Doctor Adventure. Odd placement too right after the fun Max Warp. Maybe I’m being harsh? It is nice that the series has a variety of genres (as is Doctor Who’s wont) but I just found it a tad dull.
I’d give Brave New Town a 2.5