Leviathan

"In the hands of the wicked and the depraved, even the finest dreams can be turned into nightmares."

Writers: Brian Finch & Paul Finch

Format: Audio

Released: January 2010

Series: Lost Stories 1.03

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis 

No one lives to old age in the village. When their Time is come, they are taken and never seen again. That is The Way. And, should anyone try to break with the established order of things, then the fury of Herne the Hunter is unleashed...

When the TARDIS materialises near a castle in this mediaeval society, the Doctor and Peri befriend Gurth, a terrified youth who is attempting to flee his fate. And Herne is closing in...

Why does the local baron impose the culling? What is the secret of Zeron? And who are the Sentinels of the New Dawn?

The answers lie within a cave...

Verdict 

Leviathan was a fantastic audio adventure to continue along the great and consistent standard of the first series of the Lost Stories range. The idea behind restoring scripts, particularly those intended for the original season 23, is wonderful and hearing a script being performed so well that was so close to appearing on television is splendid. I'm so glad that we're now given the chance to hear what was intended for the outstanding pairing of the Sixth Doctor and Peri, quite possibly my favourite TARDIS duo. I always look forward to a story that has Colin Baker and/or Nicola Bryant in them because I love each of them and I just adore them together! Their relationship was magnificent here and after the awkward aftermath of regeneration during season 22, it's lovely to see the softer side of the Sixth Doctor come out, something that was hinted upon in The Trial of a Time Lord. I much preferred the first part of this story to the second which came as a bit of a surprise to me after the excellent cliffhanger! The Middle Ages are a period I know quite a bit about so having the story set there, or so it first seemed, was very appealing to me and my attention was grabbed right away. But something I liked even more was the absolute lack of historical reference. Not every story set in the past needs to have a famous monarch or writer for example, but instead we were just in a village in the middle of nowhere. The use of the Middle Ages setting allowed us to have the Doctor and Peri engaging in the minds of simpletons. And that helped the story considerably I thought. The fear behind Herne was wonderful and the voice, enhanced by its limited appearance, was ferociously frightening! The description of the creature, as seen on the CD cover also, was brilliant and I liked how Peri read the history behind the folklore from the TARDIS data bank. The appearance of the Sentinels of the New Dawn was a surprise to me and I'm convinced they've appeared in another audio, something is telling me a Companion Chronicle, so with me not having done that story I think it hurt my perception of them here. Zeron was a great demon and I loved how the Barron served it. That was a very intriguing relationship throughout the adventure. I really enjoyed the lengthy battle scenes and despite the high possibility of them not being great for audio I thought they worked magnificently! I loved the reference to The Crusade seemingly more than I usually would like a classic story throw in but I picked up the Target reprint, Doctor Who and the Crusaders, today so maybe I liked the coincidence behind it considerably more. The TV story wasn't amazing but I'm intrigued to see how the story will pan out in prose. And I think it's intriguing thinking of the comparisons between pure historicals and pseudo-historicals as is sort of the case here. I like both but I think I have to lean to the pseudo stories as being more favourable when I think of the likes of The Time Meddler, The Time Warrior and The Next Doctor as being three of my favourite ever adventures. The mix of androids and human youth in this story was an intriguing balance and the fact that the dogs were also of robotic nature was of severe interest. This was one of my favourite performances from the terrific Nicola Bryant as Peri, she really was angry with what was going on and didn't hold back in shouting aggressively when her life was under threat. The reference to Mission to Magnus was great and I like how despite the running order being not quite how season 23 intended, the Lost Stories are going in some form of continuity. The guest cast were pretty strong in this audio and I particularly liked Althea. She didn't like "the way" and what it did for her family and that whole concept was something that didn't really provide enjoyment. I wasn't struck on it. The fact that nobody had ever questioned why it was only the youth whose time was up was another fact I had difficulty believing. How did everybody just have an uncle and auntie? But the scenes on the spaceship were tremendous with Gurth and the disturbing foetuses. That really was an unexpected distressing description! But it's horribleness made it work tremendously. The climax was done well with all the loose ends of the plot being tied up nicely, even if the rushed third party moment was something I thought unnecessary. Just like in The Android Invasion, the robot impersonators of humans can't escape being defeated by the Doctor, and that was done elegantly here. 

Rating: 8/10