The Beast of Orlok

"The Beast of Orlok is a myth. A silly story. It doesn't exist."

Writer: Barnaby Edwards
Forward: Audio
Released: May 2009
Series: EDA 3.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Lucie

Synopsis

With fans like splinters, claws like knives, the Beast of Orlok gobbles lives.
With brimstone breath and eyes aglow, he'll eat your soul - to Hell you'll go!

Germany, 1827. The town of Orlok is under a curse, haunted by the memory of a spate of grisly murders that shattered the community twenty years before. At the time, townsfolk blamed the legendary Beast of Orlok, a nightmarish creature from medieval folklore.

And now, it seems, the Beast has returned. As the killings begin again, the people of Orlok are understandably suspicious of two strangers newly arrived in their midst. The Doctor and Lucie must face their darkest fears as they find themselves plunged into a decidedly grim fairytale.

Verdict

The Beast of Orlok was another very good story to continue along the third series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures very nicely! I am very much enjoying getting things back to normal after the events of the series two finale and what happened in Orbis as it's just lovely to have the relationship of the Eighth Doctor and Lucie back to normal. They really are a fantastic pairing and they work so well together. The setting of 1827 in Germany worked very well and I loved the humour that came with the Doctor establishing the setting when he and Lucie met up with Hans at the site of a destroyed carriage. Before we got to that, the opening scene with Teufel and him being confronted about mysterious deaths returning to Castle Orlok as soon as he returned after a 20 year absence was very interesting and foreshadowed all we needed to know about the man. Of course, it would turn out that he was actually General Zoff who had taken on the persona of Teufel. The Doctor, Lucie and Hans made a very good trio and I liked how they were thrown in jail as suspects for the crash site that they were in attendance at. Otto made a good jailer but he seemed to disappear from the story relatively early. Teufel claiming to have no memory of his life prior to the day of the story's setting was an interesting development, but the Doctor was having none of it and worked out everything forcing the man to reveal his true self. He had actually orchestrated the attack and the true Teufel had conducted gross and gruesome experiments on humanity that required fresh bodies and resulted in some awful remains being scattered about. Therefore, the Beast of Orlok was brought back to life as a way to cover up the truth. I thought the tale of the Beast was great and definitely fitted in well with the era and country of setting. It just seemed a little German which I realise is a tad odd to say. Teufel knowing that the Doctor was a Time Lord was a very unexpected moment and I think it made me sit up a little on my sofa during lunch break! One element of the story that I enjoyed very much was the dramatic music which is something I very rarely mention, particularly in an audio format. It fitted in wonderfully well with the atmosphere of the story which was a big positive. The Doctor being described as a meddling space policeman was pretty much a perfect description that made me smile a lot. I thought the cliffhanger with the Doctor nearly being turned into tarmac was nothing more than okay and I think it would have been beneficial to have visuals. Nothing much was made in terms of impact when it came to Frau, the mother of Hans, saving the Doctor. Her narrative of how she blinded Teufel was an interesting story, but from there things didn't seem to advance naturally. I liked that Zoff was after some biological devices and wanted them even before because to him, the Doctor's presence meant that the Time Lords wanted them too. Frau claiming knowledge of what he was after didn't seem right, but then we were told her intriguing tale of the star children that turned out to be Hans and Greta. That was rather interesting and a little more probably should have been made of that. Lucie and Hans having their own subplot and the former nearly drowning was good action, but it somehow never felt overly important which was rather strange. The emergence of the Golum was intriguing and its concept was excellent! It was an outlawed artificial life form that was the best soldier in the universe. It never gave up, its makeup was indestructible and it always obeyed with orders unable to be countermanded. Pretty unbeatable! Again though, it probably should have come a bit earlier in the story for a longer effect. The Doctor would use its nature to defeat it and send Zoff packing, but it nearly cost him his life. Thankfully, Lucie enacted the LTD (Locate the Doctor, as far as she was concerned) to take the TARDIS right to him for rescue. I thought that was a lovely ending and it was delightful to have the pair enjoying each other's company. Overall, a very good audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10