The Labyrinth of Buda Castle

"There's a vampire at large in Budapest."

Writer: Eddie Robson
Format: Audio
Released: February 2016
Series: FDA 5.02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II

Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana land in Budapest, intent on enjoying another holiday, but shortly after landing they find themselves too late to save the life of a man who has seemingly been attacked by a vampire. As they learn that this is the latest in a series of violent attacks, it becomes clear that they have stumbled onto something that needs investigating.

Aided by a vampire hunter who is searching for Dracula, they look into the nearby Buda caves, currently being used for storage by the military - and find that the soldiers have problems of their own.

Stalked through the tunnels by a monster, and up against an ancient evil, the race is on to escape alive - and foil the dastardly schemes of the maniacal Zoltan Frid.

Verdict

The Labyrinth of Buda Castle was a really good audio adventure! It's almost impossible to dislike a story with the Fourth Doctor and Romana II teaming up as they just work so well together and whilst their humorous relationship wasn't utilised as much as it usually is in their stories, they still worked wonderfully well together. Of all the TARDIS duos in the past 56 years, it's hard to think of a more cultural one than this pairing so I really loved that this adventure took them to Budapest. It was a refreshing setting and adding in the prospect of Dracula was very exciting. However, we didn't actually get a vampire story but I liked how that seemed to be the direction things were heading in. I thought Celia was a terrific character and I liked how she had made herself the vampire hunter whilst the police weren't really helping with their investigations. Seven murders in two weeks was quite hefty but Celia knew more than she was letting on. I have to admit I was quite stunned when the truth about her came out! Instead of being the Dracula hunter, she was actually the human agent of real villain Zoltan Frid. She got jealous at the prospect of Anita actually becoming his queen instead of her and I really loved how surprised I was by that revelation. She was jealous and that obviously gave her away. I thought Frid himself made a superb villain and the performance by Mark Bonnar was absolute perfection. He really was the highlight of the whole adventure and I would love for the character to somehow return in the future. He really was that impressive. His thirst for information - particularly secrets - was quite intriguing and the method by which he retrieved them was gruesomely brilliant. It was so quick and simple yet incredibly effective and destructive. The blood being alive was another intriguing element of the story and I liked how Romana took the initiative in experimenting upon it. The fact that it was all linked across every victim was good and would prove pivotal in curing everybody of its effects once the Doctor had in fact defeated Frid. Priskin and Ensign were good characters in the caves and I liked how the latter had an association with Frid and was trying to save the monstrosity that had been inadvertently mutated and created and was lurking the caves. The latter aiding Romana at the conclusion was good and I liked the irony of Frid's fate with him suffering the sunlight. The Doctor using Celia to imprint a hypnotic link was maybe a tad too easy but I liked its result. Overall, a great little audio!

Rating: 8/10