The Lost Magic

"The day the Spanish Armada were spotted..."

Writer: Cavan Scott
Format: Audio
Released: May 2017
Series: NSA 28

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Alex, Brandon

Synopsis

People laughed at John Dee for years, dismissing the astrologer as a madman or a fraud. Then one day a face appeared in his mirror, a face that was not his own. He was given secrets from beyond time: how to mix potions; how to tame the elements; even how to trap a demon. But Dee's magic was lost, his library ransacked, his spells and hexes stolen. A dread prophecy was made: "the Earth will burn"...

When the TARDIS lands on a Spanish galleon, caught in an unnatural storm, the Doctor, Alex and Brandon are shipwrecked and separated from each other. Between them they must discover who is waging supernatural war before the planet is pulled apart. What connects John Dee with Sir Francis Drake and the impending attack of the Spanish Armada?

Verdict

The Lost Magic was another very good audio adventure in the 'Lost' set of connected stories featuring the Twelfth Doctor! I thought this was quite barmy throughout and was definitely a bold story in terms of what was being told and the use of historical characters, but it worked pretty well for me and I think a lot of that might have been down to Dan Starkey's narration. He's obviously best known for being a Sontaran, both on screen and in the audios for Big Finish, but here he was just playing all sorts of roles and narrating the adventure and doing it just wonderfully. His impression of Peter Capaldi's incarnation was absolutely brilliant and definitely the best of the three 'Lost' stories so far. It really was impressive and made for a considerable ease of listening. Alex and Brandon were not quite as good as companions in this one, but they were far from bad. I just felt they could have offered a little bit more but it is definitely difficult to get attached to new companions when there is no familiarity and they don't have voice actors of their own. There's very little to get on board with there, but that really is quite alright for a set of adventures this small. I do wonder why the Doctor is so keen to take them to Earn after only promising one trip in the TARDIS at the end of The Lost Angel. They spread that into three stories by having The Lost Planet take place within the TARDIS itself but now that all seems to have been forgotten and the Doctor will be taking them somewhere dangerous. How events led to that though were good and I thought the setting of July 1588 was utilised very well. I liked that Brandon got to realise that they had arrived on the day the Spanish Armada were spotted off the south coast of England and after a school project, he knew all about the dangers that might pose. John Dee was a fantastic historical character and I liked the revelation that it was he who had written the letter the Doctor so desperately wanted answers to. How could he possibly know or even comprehend Old High Gallifreyan? It turning out to involve the summoning of a Tenabrious Glist was unexpected but I did like its connection with the time storm that ravaged sixteenth century England. The degeneration cycle in the Doctor that was caused from that was magnificent and I thought Starkey did a stellar job with his brief impressions of all twelve previous incarnations of the Doctor. It really was just magnificent and I couldn't help but marvel at how good it was. I also liked that things didn't stop at an aged First Doctor too as we often forget that he would've been much younger at some point during that incarnation. It was something resembling the Doctor we saw in Listen in the Gallifreyan barn. The time storm also helping Alex by reversing time for her and having made her never get infected was good and I just have to mention the humour of the Doctor's Krynoid line when Brandon was getting sea sick after the TARDIS landed on a boat. The ending was quite barmy and action-packed and I now look forward to another adventure on Karn. Overall, a very good audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10