Scream of the Shalka

"The sound makes you afraid."

Writer: Paul Cornell
Format: Webcast
Broadcast: 13th November - 18th November 2003
Series: BBCi 04

Featuring: The Doctor, Alison

Synopsis

The Doctor's TARDIS materialises in the village of Lannet in Lancashire. An annoyed Doctor, who has apparently been transported here against his will, finds the village silent. Its inhabitants are all living in fear except for a barmaid, Alison Cheney. The alien Shalka have taken up residence beneath Lannet in preparation for a wider invasion. Despite his initial reluctance, the Doctor finds himself having to save the world again, aided by Alison and an enemy who has become an ally.
Verdict

Scream of the Shalka was sadly a pretty bad watch. I had relatively high hopes going into this one after wanting to purchase the DVD for a couple of years now, and after finding it for a good price this past week I didn't hesitate in watching a brand new story. The story itself wasn't new to me as I actually read the novelisation last year which was good, but this was far off that. I think having read the book already made my enjoyment of this adventure even less because this just seemed a little rushed in comparison. There wasn't much clarity of the events that were going on because of the lack of time in each part. Each of the six instalments being around 11-12 minutes is obviously only half of what was given in the true Classic era so this was essentially a traditional three-parter with cliffhangers thrown in. The cliffhangers were for the most part actually pretty good and Alison was definitely the highlight of the story in how she brought the Doctor back around to caring for humanity and showing some compassion. I thought the idea behind this incarnation of the Doctor was interesting and it's clear that this was just supposed to be the start so I have to consider that, but we needed to know more about the new exile and what the Doctor had fought in. With Derek Jacobi voicing the Master, might this be some sort of obscure War Doctor we had? That would be a pretty cool way of keeping the story canonical which would be terrific. Now, I'm going to talk about things that weren't actually part of the adventure itself and that is how the story was presented. I thought the animation was actually quite poor and whilst I know this was produced back in 2003 and the budget can't have been very much at all, but it really did contribute to how little I thought of this webcast. I actually watched most of this with my girlfriend who is very much a modern series Doctor Who fan, but she found this extremely boring because of its presentation. I thought the acting as a whole was rather bad and just forced with very little passion and emotion. Richard E. Grant's incarnation of the Doctor had potential with a decent performance but there was something just a little off about it. One thing I really enjoyed about the adventure was the funked up techno version of the theme. That was glorious and a lot of fun. The use of the Master being an android seemed to barely feature in this version which was a shame but the moment he's saying his famed catchphrase to Alison and is interrupted by the Doctor is great. I didn't enjoy the scene with the Doctor falling in the black hole and his escape just seemed awfully rushed and unlikely, even for him. The speed with which the Shalka gained entry to the TARDIS was too quick and their animation was also a little iffy in my opinion. The conclusion works pretty well, but again falls victim to the time element as it was perhaps rushed a little. The idea of future stories with this Doctor and Alison was obviously on the cards with the ending, but I was surprised she still went with him after discovering that she wasn't actually home at all as the Doctor suspected she would be. Overall, the story itself isn't bad but the presentation here really hurts it which is a big shame.

Rating: 3/10