The Natural History of Fear

"Questions are bad for the common good."

Writer: Jim Mortimore

Format: Audio

Released: February 2004

Series: Main Range 54

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Charley, C'rizz

Synopsis 

IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE TO COPY OR ATTEMPT TO COPY ANY PERSONALITY OR MEMORY-RELATED ARTICLE SHOWN OR DISPLAYED IN THIS PUBLIC THEATRE, INCLUDING THIS WARNING. PUNISHMENT OR CONVICTION IS AN UNLIMITED REDUCTION OF AUTHORISED OVERTIME HOURS AND TOTAL PERSONALITY REVISION. YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BRING ANY JUKEBOX OR RECORDING EQUIPMENT INTO THIS PUBLIC THEATRE. THIS WILL BE TREATED AS AN ATTEMPT TO BREACH COPYRIGHT. ANY PERSON DOING SO CAN BE EJECTED AND THE EDITOR MAY CONFISCATE SUCH ARTICLES. WE ASK THE PUBLIC TO BE VIGILANT AGAINST ANY SUCH ACTIVITY AND REPORT ANY MATTERS AROUSING SUSPICION TO THEIR LOCAL CONSCIENCE. THANK YOU. 

Public Warning 

Faction Against Character Theft   

Verdict 

The Natural History of Fear was not the best audio adventure by a long stretch of the imagination. Sadly, it didn't live up to expectations and failed miserably and has even taken over The One Doctor's place as the worst Big Finish Main Range audio yet which is something I really wasn't expecting prior to listening. I'm not sure what it was but I just didn't like it at all. Don't get me wrong, there were good moments but as a whole, I thought the story was extremely poor and that's the reason for the very rare low rating. I'm growing a little tiresome of the Divergent Universe arc now as I don't feel things are being utilised as well as they should be. Having the TARDIS team in an alternative universe should present an incredible story but instead here we got a story that would be more than at home in the normal universe. I was listening to this on an unusually late train back to Bath from South Wales, which was stunningly quiet by the way, but instead of passing the time I just found myself rather bored. As was the case in Zagreus, I despise it when the main cast characters like the Doctor and his companions play other roles in stories. I hate it and in my opinion it just shouldn't happen. It took the best part of two hours for McGann and co to actually play their characters and even then we barely got fifteen minutes of them. After C'rizz's debut as companion in The Creed of the Kromon last time out, I really thought things would push on but instead we got this. If the producers were keen on having this story then that's fine, but at least get the placement right. It just made no sense whatsoever placing it straight after C'rizz joined the Doctor and Charley. I just didn't like it nor where it appeared. Right, let me try and be positive for a moment and think of what j enjoyed. I thought the inclusion of talk about missing episodes when it came to the broadcasts was the one moment of genius this story had and when I heard that mentioned I won't deny it put a smile on my face. There were also very good references to The Claws of Axos and The Web Planet and I also liked hearing the flashbacks, or broadcasting of memories rather, from the recent adventures of Neverland, Living Legend, Scherzo and The Creed of the Kromon. I thought Paul McCann and India Fisher were very good in this to be fair but I just really disliked their roles in the story as they weren't the Doctor or Charley! The memory use just didn't make sense to me (I don't mean I was confused, I just don't understand why it happened) and an insanity virus did seem like it was going to be viable but we only heard it mentioned once really which was a shame. The use of questions not wanting to be asked was actually pretty good but it just went on and on and there seemed to be a lot of repetition which hurt things sadly. There didn't even seem to be a resolution to the story that was going on and nothing really seemed tied up. It offered nothing in terms of the arc progression which has to occur when you go with a story arc and the cliffhangers were even pretty poor, resulting in the final part being a far too lengthy 50 minutes long. Overall, far from being a favourite of mine which was bitterly disappointing. 

Rating: 5/10