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Big Finish: Monthly Range #147
Doctor Who: Kiss of Death
The TARDIS travellers take a break on the beach world of Vektris. Hot sun, cold drinks and all the time in the worlds. What could possibly go wrong?
A kidnapping, a spaceship heist and a desperate chase to a distant galaxy later, Turlough finds himself in a strange winter palace... along with a face from his past. The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, meanwhile, fight to escape its frozen catacombs, guarded over by a vast and deadly alien Morass.
But what connects Turlough to the ancient treasure hidden somewhere in the palace? And how far will he go to acquire it?
A kidnapping, a spaceship heist and a desperate chase to a distant galaxy later, Turlough finds himself in a strange winter palace... along with a face from his past. The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, meanwhile, fight to escape its frozen catacombs, guarded over by a vast and deadly alien Morass.
But what connects Turlough to the ancient treasure hidden somewhere in the palace? And how far will he go to acquire it?
Audio CD
First published May 31, 2011
1 person is currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Cole
229 books146 followersSee also: Steve Cole.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 4, 2012
While I thought it was really nice to give Turlough some extra back story, I found the play as a whole didn't grab me. I thought it dragged a bit in the second half, and rather unusually, I found the alien Morass really unpleasant to listen to. (Am I implying that I find Daleks pleasant to listen to? I probably do, if only because I'm conditioned to it. The Morass were both difficult to understand and sort of made my skin crawl. I think one or the other would have been acceptable.)
June 26, 2017
Turlough's past catches up with him in this story about hidden treasure on a remote planetoid. This does create some narrative problems, since the Doctor doesn't really discover anything about Turlough's past until his last TV episode, which is naturally set after this. As a result, the characters have to be kept apart even more than is usual, and the focus is to a large extent on Turlough - who is, perhaps, not the most popular of TV companions.
Having said that, he is well written here, and brought to life as well as ever by Mark Strickson. As to the plot, the basis of the story is a little far-fetched (although when that's ever stopped Doctor Who , I don't know), and doesn't introduce much of interest beyond the monster. Which is kind of neat, but unfortunately largely unintelligible for much of the time... which is a bit of a weakness in an audio.
If you are a big Turlough fan, you should like this; Cole has a good grasp of the character and adds a significant amount to his back-story. Otherwise, however, it's a not particularly memorable run around in an icy underground maze, and not a million miles from the TV story Dragonfire.
Having said that, he is well written here, and brought to life as well as ever by Mark Strickson. As to the plot, the basis of the story is a little far-fetched (although when that's ever stopped Doctor Who , I don't know), and doesn't introduce much of interest beyond the monster. Which is kind of neat, but unfortunately largely unintelligible for much of the time... which is a bit of a weakness in an audio.
If you are a big Turlough fan, you should like this; Cole has a good grasp of the character and adds a significant amount to his back-story. Otherwise, however, it's a not particularly memorable run around in an icy underground maze, and not a million miles from the TV story Dragonfire.
June 7, 2020
Turlough is one of my favorite characters.
When he was first introduced, Turlough was mean to the Brigadier and I *hated* him for it. Viscerally hated him.
Until he asked Tegan if she could kill someone if she had to. (“You’re weird, Turlough.”)
Then I started to feel sorry for him, and his struggle to be ‘good’. And by the end of Enlightenment, I liked him. He’s one of the very few companions to actually have an arc.
I wish he had stayed longer and I wish they’d explored his backstory more. But that’s what Big Finish is for. :)
This story explores Turlough’s past, what crimes led to his exile on Earth, and what sort of person he was back then, with enough of a current plot to keep everyone else busy. Oh, and there’s kissing!!
So if you also like Turlough, you’ll like this.
When he was first introduced, Turlough was mean to the Brigadier and I *hated* him for it. Viscerally hated him.
Until he asked Tegan if she could kill someone if she had to. (“You’re weird, Turlough.”)
Then I started to feel sorry for him, and his struggle to be ‘good’. And by the end of Enlightenment, I liked him. He’s one of the very few companions to actually have an arc.
I wish he had stayed longer and I wish they’d explored his backstory more. But that’s what Big Finish is for. :)
This story explores Turlough’s past, what crimes led to his exile on Earth, and what sort of person he was back then, with enough of a current plot to keep everyone else busy. Oh, and there’s kissing!!
So if you also like Turlough, you’ll like this.
February 26, 2019
I'm not a big fan of Turlough. I was hoping it'd be an interesting scifi story on a planet but was a bit disappointed. I think I definitely prefer the Doctor and Nyssa rather than the full team Tardis. It seems especially funny having Nyssa be older, when Sarah still sounds much younger than the rest of them!
November 6, 2024
The problem with this story is not that kisses don’t work on audio. The problem is that the writing is terrible, the story is ludicrous & padded all to hell, and the guest cast is way too over the top. The whole thing comes off like a mean-spirited parody written by someone who hates Turlough.
March 11, 2021
I enjoyed listening to this story and having more of a background to Turlough.
April 8, 2022
The bits touching on Turlough's past were nice, but not much else stood out.
January 31, 2023
This was just really long and boring, it should have been two parts with maybe another two-part story of something else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2023
Turlough-centric story.
August 6, 2011
The latest in the main range of Big Finish's Doctor Who stories, this has the reunited team of the Fifth Doctor, Turlough, Tegan and an older Nyssa starting off with taking a holiday which descends into a surprising exploration of Turlough's past. By complete coincidence I was listening to this over the same four days this week that I rewatched Frontios, a story with some very similar elements - underground mysteries, Turlough's past, Turlough's romantic interest - which Kiss of Death does rather better. (In fairness to Frontios, there are also some things that it does well enough which Kiss of Death does not try to do at all.) As with any established companion, giving Turlough an extra back story was always a bit risky, and spinoff fiction has on occasion done this as clumsily as the TV series (eg Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma). But Stephen Cole does it really well here; he has confessed in previous commentaries to his fascination with Turlough as a character, and now he has written what is, and will probably remain, the best Turlough story. I can strongly recommend Kiss of Death to any fan who knows a bit about Turlough but doesn't utterly hate him.
The one disappointment is the aural realisation of the hidden monster, the Morass, whose voice was distorted beyond comprehensibility. It's really rare for BF to have serious problems in this regard - the only other case I can remember was a Bernice Summerfield play, The Poison Seas, which featured Sea Devils so sibilant that their dialogue could not be made out. But it's disappointing when it happens.
The one disappointment is the aural realisation of the hidden monster, the Morass, whose voice was distorted beyond comprehensibility. It's really rare for BF to have serious problems in this regard - the only other case I can remember was a Bernice Summerfield play, The Poison Seas, which featured Sea Devils so sibilant that their dialogue could not be made out. But it's disappointing when it happens.
August 30, 2020
This is one of my favorite Big Finish audios. Turlough’s a great character and he deserves some good stories. And this is definitely a good story for him. Also a bit of a heist story, which are fun too.
January 21, 2016
Turlough is kidnapped and the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan follow to get him back.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews