Year of the Pig

"There was never a world of pigs."

Writer: Matthew Sweet
Format: Audio
Released: December 2006
Series: Main Range 90

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

Ostend, 1913. War is coming. A war in which millions will die. And the guest in suite 139 of the Hotel Palace Thermae knows it. Which is odd, considering he has trotters, asnout and a lovely curly tail.

Toby the Sapient Pig is a swine on the run. Two peculiar strangers have been hunting him across Europe. The first, Miss Alice Bultitude, is an Englishwoman and collector of obscure theatrical ephemera. The second, Inspector Alphonse Chardalot, is a celebrated member of the detective police - the man who brought trunk murderess of St Germain to justice.

This was supposed to be a reading week for the Doctor and Peri. Now they must do battle with a villain who wants to wipe every last human from the face of the Earth - once he's had just another dish of truffles. And maybe a valedictory glass of fizzy lemonade.

Verdict

Year of the Pig was a pretty average audio adventure. I thought the premise was a little silly and whilst there were quite a few moments that I liked, it was just too long of an adventure. It was unnecessarily long and I think that defitnitely has an adverse effect on listening to it. There was just no need for it to be nearly two-and-a-half hours long and with it being such a long time, I could not understand why there were only two parts. I think it must have something to do with the story placement and the fact that season 22 consisted of two-parters but why not break it into three like The Two Doctors? I didn't like it. The Sixth Doctor was terrific as usual with Colin Baker once again showing that his incarnation can shine on audio. Accompanying him on this occasion was Peri and it's seemed quite a while since I listened to a story with this pairing so I was delighted to hear them together once again. She was the subject of the cliffhanger which was actually very good with Chardalot trapping her in the steam room and she almost turned into droplets it was so hot. Thankfully, the Doctor managed to save her with a fire extinguisher. Now, my main problem with this story was the central premise that there was a pig who was displaying gentlemanly virtues. It was ridiculous and sadly I thought it was just too silly. There were constant mentions of food which became tedious and I just didn't find Toby all that interesting sadly. His past was quite boring and the jokes about his being a pig got tiresome. The looming threat of a doctor with a time machine coming to assassinate him was intriguing and unexpected and I must admit that I was surprised to find out that it was actually Chardalot that was being referred to there. His ability to time travel only two hours was humorous but I'm still not sure why he faked his death. Alice Bultitude was a good character and I did enjoy some of her moments. Nurse Albertine was probably my favourite guest character as her relationship with Toby was rather nice. I really enjoyed the Doctor talking about some of his previous incarnations in the third person and their respective takes on reading. The references to The Space Museum, The Chase and Vengeance on Varos were very good but overall, I thought this story was severely lacking in excitement. It was mildly interesting but sadly just far too slow. The setting was very good but I don't think it was utilised as well as it could have been. Sadly, this story was not one of my favourites which was quite a shame.

Rating: 6/10