Bedtime Story

"I think it's time I told you about the Doctor."

Writer: Joseph Lidster
Format: Audio
Released: September 2007
Series: Main Range 100c

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn

Synopsis

Once upon a time...

Jacob Williams is going to tell the tale of Sleeping Beauty but realises he has told that one too many times so, instead, tells of how he once met this man called the Doctor...

It's a tale of love and death and a family with a terrifying secret...

Verdict

Bedtime Story was a story that had potential but sadly didn't fully realise. It seems that the 100 release to celebrate Big Finish's centenary story is faltering in a big way which is a big shame seeing as it started so well with 100 BC. I thought this one started off decently and the idea of a bedtime story is quite good. I thought Jacob was a good character and I liked how he was a former student of Evelyn's. It seems an age now since The Marian Conspiracy when she joined the Sixth Doctor on his travels and I liked how her sudden disappearance was mentioned. It was also clear that she had been travelling with the Doctor now for a considerably long time which was intriguing. She has been on quite the personal adventure in the TARDIS and I do wonder how much more she can take. The Doctor often being left out of the conversation between Evelyn and Jacob was humorous but the one thing that I didn't enjoy about this story was, to put it bluntly, it was boring in parts. There wasn't much excitement or a moment to get you thinking about the story and that really is needed in my opinion. It was such a shame that this audio just wasn't exciting because I actually love the concept of grandparents dying as soon as their children have children. It's just horrifying and I think there definitely could have been something more in a Doctor Who story for an idea like that. It's awful but I don't think things were helped by the fact there was only half an hour to play with. It's just not long enough for a full cast story as you cannot get indulged in the story with such a short running time. The theme of 100 was rather subtle and quite nice for the Doctor to save the victims of the shapeshifter who wasn't actually killing the family, but rather pausing them. What made it worse was that they were fully aware of their surroundings and had been buried alive. The thought of that is horrendous but it's vicious and makes for a great enemy but there just wasn't the time for a full utilisation. Talia was a good character and her ploy in pretending to have cheated so Paul wasn't his was good and I thought that was actually a clever resolution. However, the ending was unexpected and quite poor in my opinion as the shapeshifter wasn't defeated as we had thought. She simply took on another form and would continue her torment throughout Jacob's family and their descendants. Overall, a great idea that sadly wasn't utilised anywhere near as well as it should have been but I liked it so much that I've been generous.

Rating: 6/10