Four adventures from the New Earth setting of TV's episodes The End of the World, New Earth and Gridlock. Five billion years in the future, after the end of the world in the year 5.5/apple/26: New Earth is the second hope of humankind. Post- Gridlock, Senator Hame is working to restore her home. The cities, forests and skies teem with strange and wonderful species. Some trace their ancestry back to Old Earth, others came later, but all have their own agendas, and their rivalries. Now an ancient, powerful force has New Earth in its sights, and everyone must work together to beat it. 1.1 Escape From New New York by Roy Gill. Devon Pryce has lived all his life in the high rises of New New York. A child of the Elevator Guild, he now receives a new calling - from a cat. Senator Hame is trying to rebuild society, to make it stronger for future generations, but there are those who would stand in her way. There is a new danger on New Earth, and Devon's work is only just beginning. 1.2 Death in the New Forest by Roland Moore. On his first mission for Senator Hame, Devon crosses continents to arrive in the New Forest and meet its people. Trees are dying of unnatural causes. Sapling Vale, a cutting of the noble Jabe of the Forest of Cheem, will help Devon investigate the threat to her people. So too will an alien, an old friend of New Earth... a time traveller known as the Doctor! 1.3 The Skies of New Earth by Paul Morris. Devon's work takes him into the skies of New Earth and the great floating city of New Caelum. Here, a new energy project is exploited by alien powers, and a terrible catastrophe looms. Helped once again by the Doctor, Devon calls on the Bird People of Nest City, as well as the great Solar Bears on their Ice Clouds to stop disaster. But can the people of the skies put aside their rivalries long enough to make a difference? 1.4 The Cats of New Cairo by Matt Fitton. Senator Hame is summoned to New Cairo by the spiritual leader of the Most Exalted High Persian - a personage of great power and wisdom - to report on her investigations. Here, the camel-like Dromedans still worship Catkind, in the shadows of vast Octahedrons and temples of light. But Hame and Devon have uncovered a conspiracy that threatens the future of everyone on the planet. The battle for control of New Earth is about to begin. Big Finish have been producing Doctor Who audios since 1999, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt. This release uses the Doctor Who - New Series setting of New Earth, the setting for three of the revived show's popular episodes, with the original actors back to reprise their roles. Guest star Derek Griffiths is the voice of childhood for generations of TV viewers from his charismatic appearances on Play School. Julian Rhind-Tutt will be familiar to fans of (amongst many, many TV shows) Green Wing, Black Books and The Hour. Adjoa Andoh (Sister Jara), Yasmin Bannerman (Sapling Vale), Anna Hope (Senator Hame), Kieran Hodgson (Devon Pryce), Matthew Jacobs-Morgan (Thorn), Dan Blaskey (The Lumen / Potious / Duke of Brooklyn), Toby Hadoke (The Lux / Oscar McLeod / Dobcheff / Steward / Birdman), Matt Wilkinson (Termiton Jusk), Derek Griffiths (Xylem Maple Dorm); Pippa Nixon (Termiton Uden / Flight Attendant), Nina Toussaint-White (Loba Christata), James Dreyfus (The Most Exalted High Persian); Julian Rhind-Tutt (Berkhoff), Suzy Bloom (Katya),Youssef Kerkour (T'Harr) and Louise Gold (President Grosseteste).
"Heady, wonderful stuff… I adored this novel" (Paul Magrs on "Daemon Parallel")
The manuscript for Roy’s first novel, Daemon Parallel, was shortlisted for both the Sceptre and the Kelpies prize, and won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. A sequel, Werewolf Parallel (“Clever, creative and fun.” Kirkus Reviews) completed the duology.
Roy's recent short stories have appeared in The Myriad Carnival, Out There and the British Fantasy Society Journal.
As a scriptwriter, Roy has worked on several of Big Finish’s acclaimed audio drama series including The Confessions of Dorian Gray, The Omega Factor, and the Worlds of Doctor Who. His epic Dark Shadows 50th Anniversary Blood & Fire script won the 2017 Scribe Award for Best Audio Drama.
Doctor Who is filled with interesting worlds and concepts, that is kind of the point of the show. And occasionally one of these new worlds captures the imagination in such a way that it lives on, beyond the series. This is such a case, but while one might shrug this off as primarily just a spin-off from the Doctor Who series, it is remarkable on its own merits. I mean who wouldn’t want to return to the planet with Apple Grass?
Escape from New New York - While it does perhaps start off a bit rough, in that there appears to be no initial familiar character to latch onto or to have a previous connection with. But that is not true. Observant listeners (particularly those who may have just recently see any of the New Earth episodes from the series) will realize, within just a few moments, that the cat person Hame (portrayed by Anna Hope) is very familiar. And then you’re quickly introduced to the series protagonist, Devon Pryce (portrayed by Kieran Hodgson), a new human living in New New York on New Earth. And it is the various characters that we meet that make this story as exciting and engaging as it is.
Death in the New Forest - With the next story, Devon heads to the familial home of his dearly departed boyfriend (if your boyfriend was a tree person does the term boyfriend really apply?) to pay his respects and gets drawn into a religious conflict, or is it a land conflict, while giving assistance to another tree person and the Doctor (yes, The Doctor - but unfortunately not portrayed by David Tennant). But actually it is worth noting that Hodgson does a pretty darn good Tenth Doctor impression. The pacing is fast and the dialogue feels pretty solid (often there can be a bit too much pandering with narrated audio-plays that can spend a bit too much time explaining instead of showing. This story expands on elements from the previous story as well as continuing to expand the delightfully fun world of New Earth.
The Skies of New Earth - Solar Bears! Yep, Solar Bears. And it’s as bizarrely entertaining as it sounds. Devon engages in some old style private investigation in this one and he encounters bird people, cities in the sky and the aforementioned Solar Bears with jet packs. There’s even some ecological warnings for mismanaging the environment during an energy crisis thrown in for good measure. Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds.
The Cats of New Cairo - The last story wraps up Devon’s adventures and includes the return of Hame, Devon’s employer, and friend of the Doctor’s as the mystery of The Lux gets wrapped up. The dialogue remains crisp and entertaining throughout and the pace never lets up, without once feeling like it was artificially propelling the narrative.
To be honest, I originally picked this up as I found a cheap deal on it, and I wasn’t really expecting that it would be all that good. I was wrong. It’s wonderful.
1.1 Escape From New New York by Roy Gill Primo episodio di presentazione. Ci si rinfresca la memoria sulla storia di New New York, si incontra di nuovo Sorella Hame (adesso Senatore) e ci vengono presentati il protagonista e il cattivo di turno. Inizio interessante, anche se ricorda altre situazioni già viste in passato, e tanti riferimenti alla serie tv. 1.2 Death in the New Forest by Roland Moore Devon Pryce, protagonista principale e ormai collaboratore del Senatore Hame, viene mandato presso il popolo delle foreste e si trova trascinato in una nuova avventura dal decimo Dottore e da Sapling Vale (nata da una talea della nobile Jabe della Foresta di Cheem... conosciuta ai tempi della fine della Terra). Episodio in salita rispetto al primo. 1.3 The Skies of New Earth by Paul Morris Conosciamo un altro angolo di New New Earth, con città volanti e distese ghiacciate sospese e i popoli che li abitano, siano volatili o orsi solari. Il Dottore fa la sua comparsata, sempre interpretato dal protagonista principale, risolvendo la situazione mentre la storia procede verso la conclusione. 1.4 The Cats of New Cairo by Matt Fitton Devon Pryce accompagna Hame a New Cairo, dove i gatti ancora comandano e vengono trattati da divinità. L'avversario principale, l'entità Lux, sta progettando di conquistare il pianeta sfruttando le peculiarità di un evento astronomico, con l'aiuto dei gatti che rimpiangono il loro status di specie dominante pre Dottore e pre catastrofe da Bliss. Con l'aiuto dei vari personaggi incontrati nei precedenti episodi la situazione si risolve, promettendo il solito futuro di pace e prosperità... finché la Big Finish non ci metterà lo zampino.
Nel classico stile delle storie raccontate dai companion, la parte del Dottore è interpretata da uno degli interpreti e, in questo caso, il 10 di Kieran Hodgson è abbastanza credibile. Il cofanetto sembra autoconclusivo ma, come sappiamo bene, non si può mai dire. I riferimenti alle comparsate televisive di New Earth sono tanti... chissà che non compaia nel futuro anche l'ultimo suo esponente della serie madre, The Testimony.
Like the Moffat-era of modern Doctor Who, there is very much an "everything but the kitchen sink!" approach to this set of episodes. That they feature the 10th Doctor but not David Tennant means that these episodes have narration. And while Kieran Hodgson does a passable 10th Doctor, I've never enjoyed the narrated episodes as much as the full-cast ones. To be fair, this is full-cast -- or as full as possible. The only character whose lines are narrated are the Doctor's. He's not in the first episode, but featured heavily in the middle two, and the narration required pulls you out of the action a bit.
The other problem is that once the Doctor appears, the protagonist of this set -- Devon Pryce (played by Kieran Hodgson) -- seems to be there only to react to things instead of being a focal character and prime mover of the action.
But back to the kitchen sink approach. One of the problems with such an approach is that it tends to come off as an attempt to compensate for lack of a good storyline. Maybe if we just fill the episodes with STUFF, nobody will notice that the plots are a little thin.
And so that's what we get. Rather thin plots but overstuffed with bird people and their nest cities, tree people, "solar bears" living on solid floating clouds, camel people in an Egypt-like setting featuring giant octohedrons instead of pyramids, lots and lots of cat people, and ongoing antagonists in the form of Statue of Liberty Robots (I think). Imaginative, sure, but it's the lack of anything really human and relatable that puts a distance between the story and the audience.
There are some good performances. As mentioned above, Kieran Hodgson does a good 10th Doctor impersonation, and I enjoyed hearing James Dreyfus again (I half-expected the "Great High Persian" to end up being the Master in another disguise. But no, he was just a cat) and Anna Hope was fun to hear in a role other than DI Menzies, but she never really emerged as an interesting character.
I didn't pick this up until it was on sale, because I didn't expect much from it. I'm glad I bought it on sale, but I still think I overpaid.
It's still weird that you have the 10th doctor in the story, narrated by the main male character...I hate when they do that as you have different voices for everyone else, yet NOT the Doctor! Tennant is on the Big Finish team so why is he not doing his lines in these things!?! Grrrr. That's my one main gripe about this..well and the fact that we never got to see the Luxe robot alien thingies, they usually put the villains on the cover so why couldn't we have that too!?!!
Otherwise, the story lines were great, some nice nods to other Doctor Who characters, and things were jam packed. Loved it!
The characters did not interest me that much. And when The Doctor showed up, he wasn't voiced by David Tennant. I real highlight for me was the 22-minute music track, which is actually pretty great.