Doctor Who: Son of the Dragon

Big Finish: Monthly Range #99

by Steve Lyons, Peter Davison (Narrator), Nicola Bryant (Narrator)

I am Prince Vlad III - son of Vlad the Great, and sovereign and ruler of Ungro-Walachia and the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras. But since my father's murder, I have had another name. I am Dracula.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Historical Fiction

Audio CD

First published September 6, 2007

About the author

Steve Lyons is a science fiction writer, best known for writing television tie-ins of Doctor Who for BBC Books, and previously, Virgin. The earliest of these was Conundrum in 1994, and his most recent was 2005's The Stealers of Dreams. He has also written material for Star Trek tie-ins, as well as original work.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem arrive in 1462 Wallachia where they encounter Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula.

Doctor Who always excels at pure historicals as this story is set around the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia and the subsequent legends that have formed around the name Dracula.

This is a companion focused adventure as Peri has a modern day take on this period of history, whilst the Egyptian princess Erimem is on familiar ground in this century and subsequently more sympathetic to Vlad Dracula's actions.

Thankfully there's some nice comedic moments, most notably the shouting of 'Bride of Dracula!' to wonderfully effect.

This brilliantly written tale is vividly brought to life by the excellent cast, especially James Purefoy as Dracula.
It's very in keeping with Doctor Who's original remit of being educational, certainly one not to miss.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

One — JAMES PUREFOY! I’d listen to his lovely voice all day.
Two — I learned something I never knew before about the historical context of the real Dracula—and HIS YOUNGER BROTHER, Radu THE BEAUTIFUL.
5 stars, will listen to this again. :)

[NephriteON · Rating 5 out of 5]

The following review was originally published in the online newspaper The Orkney News in 2020. Link here. https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/01/28...

Doctor Who: Son Of The Dragon by Steve Lyons – Released by Big Finish Productions

“I am Prince Vlad III – son of Vlad The Great and ruler of Ungro-Wallachia and the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras.

But since my father’s murder, I have had another name.

I am Dracula.”

Hello again my old friends! I think it’s time I return to one of my favourite old haunts. Audio Doctor Who...and more directly Big Finish Productions. By now those of you who’ve read my reviews will have heard my effusive praise of Big Finish as a company. Not just for their Doctor Who work but in their entirety. Case in point my several previous reviews of some of their works (DW: All Consuming Fire, Cicero, DW: Spare Parts et al.) Even when Doctor Who as a television institution may not be living up to its legacy debatably in the mind of the viewer and listener? There are twenty years of auditory travels in time and space to choose from. However which of their works am I putting ‘inkwell to parchment’ for today?

Son Of The Dragon by Steve Lyons is one of those rare joys in Doctor Who: A well written ‘pure historical.’ For context a historical is one of those stories where The Doctor and companions travel back in time and can come in two main flavours: The ‘modern historical’ where The Doctor and companions encounter an alien presence and have to get rid of the evil to set time and history back on the correct course. Examples include the classic TV episodes The Time Warrior and The Talons of Weng-Chiang. And the ‘pure historical’ where the only science fiction elements are the TARDIS and the Doctor and crew themselves. Examples include classics like The Aztecs and the audio story The Peterloo Massacre. Historicals are more common than they used to be but still aren’t exactly raining from the sky. But...what about Son Of The Dragon?

The Doctor in their fifth incarnation as played by Peter Davison, joined by his companions Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant) – an American botany student from the 1980s – and audio only travelling companion Erimem (Caroline Morris) – a female Pharaoh wiped from history thanks to ‘family issues’ to put it kindly – have landed in modern day Romania…only to be picked up by the invading army of Sultan Mehmed II – know to history as Mehmed the Conquerer – and his most able commander Radu the Handsome (Douglas Hodge) who is immediately taken with the three strangers. They attempt to make an escape late that night…only to be caught in the centre of one of the most famous attacks by the opposing army. The opposing army in this case? Led by Prince Vlad Dracula III, Voivode of Wallachia. (James Purefoy) One of the inspirations for the ubiquitous Count Dracula. Only Prince Vlad decides to take Erimem to his camp. Will The Doctor and Peri be able to reunite with Erimem and rescue her from Wallachia’s most infamous ruler? Will Erimem’s presence have some effect on the Prince? Will they be able to make their way back to the TARDIS? And just what effect does your childhood and how you view it have on your choices? Is Radu really that different?

The cast performs their parts with talent and skill. The contrast in outlooks between the modern Peri and the more classical Erimem is used to great effect with Caroline Morris seeming to relish the part she’s been given. Her emotion – be it sadness, regal formality, or something else – is clear in her vocal tones. She is integral to this audio drama but she isn’t the only performer of note. Peri’s indignation and fury is also wonderfully acted, her American modern viewpoint ably defended by Nicola’s years in the part. Davison’s more worldly – or is that timely – view of events is much calmer…but also sadder. The main trio aren’t the only notable performances. James Purefoy as Prince Vlad is absolutely perfect! I swear to you I mean PERFECT. His voice is simultaneously smooth and persuasive when it has to be. Not to mention surprisingly kind when the Prince tries. However when Dracula awakens his fury? His rage is gloriously intense. I’d be more than happy to hear his voice again in other pieces. Radu the ‘Handsome’, is ably acted by Douglas Hodge. The warrior commander is much more a reasonable figure in comparison to his opposition with quite the understanding mindset…despite the situation. On the other hand? Is that how things will stay? The contrast between the two is a rather excellent focus and between the regulars, The Son Of The Dragon, and the Wallachian noble? The listener will often find themselves gripped by events.

The writing is also expertly done by Steve Lyons. Lyons is a prolific Who writer with credits going as far back as the mid 1990s Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures book range and several credits in the Big Finish audios apart from Son Of The Dragon. Highly thought of examples including The Fires Of Vulcan, The Architects Of History and Blood Of The Daleks. Lyons is also known for his Warhammer work such as Dead Men Walking and Ice Guard. In the case of Son Of The Dragon he certainly knows how to hook his listeners with a narrative that won’t let go. I can swear by experience that a first time listener – should they have to interrupt the story for worldly reasons – can find their mind eating away at them until they finish the story. Another positive is that outside of one small allusion to a previous encounter with vampires, there aren’t any elements in the story which would confuse those who aren’t aware of every part of Doctor Who’s extensive history.

In short I highly recommend Son Of The Dragon. For those Doctor Who fans who enjoy the classic historical stories more common in the show’s early years it feels like a refreshing return. For those who want to give the series or the audios a chance? It makes a great listen with all the information you need in the story itself. For those who haven’t experienced many historicals and want to give them a chance? Jump in! For those who are curious there is a trailer on the Big Finish website as there is with almost every release.

What will I listen to next? I can’t give it away now. That spoils half the fun! See you next time!

Sayonara!

Nephrite

[TheTimeScales · Rating 1 out of 5]

TOTALLY AND FACTUALLY DISTORTED AND INVENTED FALSE, IMPALED HISTORY TO PROMOTE GLOBALIST AGENDA

Multiple events, character references and contexts are grossly and irresponsibly distorted and exploited to to falsely ‘indoctrinate’ and spread misinformation for the sake of a nasty and pathetic globalist political agenda. In many instances there are outright lies that in no way can be substantiated by factual research or adherent to established theory.

The author’s intent is obvious and the writer is plainly a dishonest, amoral writer who has zero integrity and a disgrace to the craft. Irregardless of prior work, Lyons has become the Liar here and a paid off lackey.

I

Lyons also put words into the Doctor’s mouth, dialogue, statements that are false yet purport to be historically and factually true, with the technique of placing them alongside more common myths and legends, first debunking them, and then repeatedly inventing purely fictional events, or otherwise propaganda as real incident.

Nowhere is found the real history of the “impalement” truth, such as (1) Vlad Dracul’s use and invention in dire circumstances of impaling not his own people but rather Ottoman scouts in Wallachian forests sent before invasion. The Sultan’s goal after Vlad escaped his bondage was to invade, destroy and annex Transylvania for the Ottoman empire.

Vlad and his army did kill opponent nobles and factions who conspired against him after re-establishing power (this of course natural to the context of any group or power in medieval history). He, by any frame of informed logic or historical evidence, did not brutually impale or massacre his own common people. He invented fear tactics using impalement of Ottoman scouts or soldiers as a desperate underdog effort to spread fear and fright in their camps to demoralize and hopefully aid in repelling encroaching mass forces.

(2) The other citing of impalement has nothing to do with Vlad’s own people or women and children but that of a particular battle again utilizing and impaling Ottoman soldiers, the extent to which is questionable, if not exaggerated myth itself. You’ll find copy-paste, uncited and re-hashed articles and wikis state that 20,000+ Turks soldiers were impaled at Târgovişte (all unsourced, and gee that would take a long time to fork 20,000 soldiers for Vlad’s smaller forces), yet you’ll definitely likely see the firmer context and reality with smaller scale but often used guerilla style use of impalement towards Ottoman enemies, in the forests and pathways of scouts and more ‘sparing’ use.

Lyons falsely states, out of the Doctor’s mouth, that the referenced impaled 20,000 were women and children, Vlad’s own common people and peasantly. FALSE. LIE.

* Lyons mentions “the forest” as a real historical event that Vlad Dracula led a ridiculous number of innocent women and children in a forest and simply impaled – zero logical reason, no motive otherwise that the woman-beating maniac Vlad (he is a misogynist and woman-beater in play) did this ‘just because’… Seriously unintelligent and moronic.

This event never happened, established by both conventional and military history. IN REALITY, Vlad’s men employed the tactic of capturing or impaling scouts or soldiers of the Ottoman army to utilize similar to scarecrows as a desperate attempt to spread fear among the Ottomans in order to help demoralize and repel invasions. This was a major innovation or use of fear tactics in warfare, at least in Western European history. This is one of the true links to his longstanding infamous nickname, along with the Danubian merchants who exploited this obviously acknowledged and acclaimed tactical use of impalement to DISTORT and spread damaging myth along their extensive trade route to demonize, rally widespread support against and literally make a monster out of Vlad. (Lyons does the same today for not dissimilar globalist purposes)

You may want to study Vlad’s situation, circumstances and the whole background (from a variety of academic sources) before you make assumptions of who the bad guy(s) were. Hardly matters for debate here, you can listen to Son of a Dragon and both the context and use of the impalement, completely wrong and used with malice against Vlad, the “Cross” and greater Europe, at the expense of anywhere near historical truth.

(3) The final impalement myths come from disgruntled Danubian merchants, as I’ll probably note redundantly and expand on later.

He also invented ‘scorched earth’ warfare with little option, which is mentioned with total utter mistruth and distortion (again, not used against his own people): poisoning his own nation’s rivers and wells and burning shelter and earth (food, water, protection sources for invading Ottomans WHICH WORKED) to save his country as an acknowledged last ditch military tactic.

NOTE: In the process, he arguably helped saved Europe from Ottoman/Islamic invasion that would have changed history forever and which there would be no Europe or history as we know it. Invasion and subjugation of Europe would have be a bad thing by any contemporary humanitarian and free society perspective. Can you dispute this? No, you can’t. Unless you are a modern-day globalist janissary, don’t believe in a free world, equal rights and democratic forms of government, freedoms that have taken centuries to evolve and procure against various forms of evil, suppression, violence recorded and existent throughout the world. But this is not how the globalist sees it and the evidence is clear here.

The real questions or problem here besides the historical perverted and incorrect information in the audioplay, is the pure exploitation of the myth. Pure hypocrisy and illusion that is harmful and literally non-partial to a campaign of forming globalist janissaries out of younger Doctor Who fans.

Lyons of course superficially mentions the ‘scorched earth’ tactic of poisoning the wells and rivers minus details, facts, or context. In fact Lyons distorts, once again, to outrageous lie that it was used against his own people. LIE. Any real historian or source, will tell you the opposite, like so many other things in this play.

II

THE HANDSOME IS NOT SO HANDSOME

Nowhere is found the explanation of the true ransom/kidnapping of Vlad and his brother Radu, the latter who was successfully brainwashed/indoctrinated, molested, raped and given the name ‘The Handsome’ by the Sultan for being his favorite pre-teen concubine whore! And later, after earning complete obedience, elevated to a janissary captain with purpose of sending him to kill his own brother! FACT. Again Lyons alludes only to the Sultan, later in play with extreme brevity and in obscure manner, to being the character endowing Radu with the name, but of course avoids any real attempt to paint an accurate picture: Such as Radu being a janissary; the reason or real conflict between brothers; the real facts and story that Radu (and thousands of other children along with Radu) were subject to the Sultan and Ottoman ‘endowment’ of gross mental/sexual abuse, nature and trauma as a young children and turned against their own people in probably the most shocking abuse of children in world history.

It’s a sad but true story avoided to spare any criticism of Ottoman culture, which would betray Lyon’s own secret, closeted motive in writing this piece of deception.

– Lyons repeatedly uses this writing technique to put on emperor’s clothes for ignorant listeners and to be able to state later that ‘he mentioned’ (in a base, superficial manner). Yet he goes on to slander Christianity while praising and putting on a pedestal the “benevolent, tolerant” Sultan and “Ottoman culture.” That is called total bigotry, grounded in a specific agenda.

This is what these writers and media journalists do: they take the offensive or negative actions or traits, apply them to their target, falsely and slanderously, yet in reality these commit and are guilty of using the same tactics and actions they condemn, albeit in modern context with the pen, backstabbing their readership with the poison-laced dagger. No truth, no integrity.

Lyons literally explicitly states and portays the Sultan and Ottoman culture of the time as tolerant (citing non-unique and a contextually distorted sense religious freedoms) and otherwise benign in opposition to Vlad, whose story has absolutely NOTHING to do with religion, at all! Why? A plain and obvious attack on Europe and Christianity – a false argument, distorted context that holds no water.

Beyond all this, nevermind the commonplace MASS slavery and pedophilia in Ottoman society at the time, the brutal laws and campaigns of Mehmed “The Conqueror” – all historical FACT. Not an open interpretation, but fact. Lyons actually contextualizes this towards the fact that The Ottomans did not enforce or impose their state religion of Islam on their “conquered” vassal kingdoms (like Wallachia was at the time of Vlad and Radu’s childhood), and Lyons acts like this was unique and in contrast to Christian Europe, which is not true. Eastern Europe for example for centuries before, which did not seek to conquer and invade other territories outside of its own context and general territory had a highly poly-ethnic and religious society, for a few centuries up to this time and beyond for centuries. In fact, soon after this time the only place on civilized Earth that did protect certain groups, like Jews for a famous example, by actual law, was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth later in the 16th-18th centuries.. Besides Jews coexisting for a millenium in Eastern Europe after expulsion from the Middle East, why else do you think their own identitarian subgroup existed, thrived to prominence in society – full autonomy. Now whose the tolerant society by historical fact? You’ll never hear this from certain Big Finish writers, the mainstream media or even modern political Zionist groups (who really have no relation to the actual groups of people they claim to represent but really exploit for their own self-serving contemporary political purposes). But in this case, it’s all obvious Globalist agenda about revising people’s perceptions about a certain ‘culture’ while slandering an old figure, contextualizing off a very old medieval (how laughable, really) setting and characters. And it starts with implanting crappy, false propaganda media like this to character assassinate a larger character and truth. We, today, can look at real historical events and see the current relationships that have been formed. There is a reason why and starts with true contexts and events of a larger thousand years of plain history.

Lyons has poisoned the waters and created his own false myths, distorted contexts and lies to further his own or his employers tactical agenda. Again, another really bad Big Finish that cannot be erased and will only serve in the longrun as more evidence of propaganda, distortion with intent!

[A similar offense by Big Finish of falsifying by omission and invention, in portraying a famous figure or culture as heroic was employed by Nigel Robinson’s adaptation of Farewell, Great Macedon, which thrust false historical context and imagination on Alexander the Great. This audioplay “adaptation” portrayed and wrote Alexander the Great as some sort of philosophical, altruistic, contemporary-lit heroic figure. I still tentatively rate that play 3/5 stars (although I sold it as I don’t want it in my collection), regardless of its obvious historical inaccuracy, and (at least) more popcorn form political correctness].

III

This play was released in 2007. Do the topics of immigration and Islam/Middle East refugees sound familiar today in 2017-18? It probably does to the majority of people in the Western world. And it should make you think. Hmm. Pretty interesting. There has been a whole carefully contrived campaign of thousands of pieces of media both internet and entertainment media purposefully designed and imposed upon an impressionable millenial youth, similar to the brainwash attempted on Alex in Clockwork Orange. The evidence is staggering in number and extent. Son of the Dragon is just one of these pieces of media. It is not trivial. It has successfully informed, indoctrinated and irresponsibly abused many youth and Doctor Who fans. Look at the writers, look at their clear affiliations and “history.” It will all come out of the closet soon or later.

The attempt to whitewash Islam’s history of slavery or persecution or campaigns against in contrast to Christian Europe is pathetic and untrue. This is part of the ongoing decade old globalist agenda to revise and distort history, that in 2018, any intelligent history or media analyst can see and demonstrate and unravel.

Who is the vampire? The globalists, along with their advocates and defenders (like the zombies trolls against discourse or the facts revealing themselves, thumbing down my reviews immediately) are like that American couple in 2018 that along with two Europeans were indoctrinated by such misinformation and media, that they set out in August 2018 to go biking in Tajikistan, an ISIS recruiting hotbed, Muslim country to prove that there “is no evil in the world” and it’s all an invention. Result there: While biking, a car pulls up with several men, ramming their bikes and then horrifyingly murdering them for no reason. Lyons paints Vlad firmly as the sadistic offender, which is not true and he certainly had a purpose and cause, not unnoble to free himself, his people and land from the Ottomans who forced tariff and kidnapped children only to send them back to murder their relatives and conquer. Truth. Fact. To borrow a misguided quote from one of the Tajikistan tragedy victims, obviously indoctrinated by globalist media relevant and dating back to the time of this audioplay,

“I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own—it’s easier to dismiss an opinion as abhorrent than strive to understand it…”

This is exactly Lyons theme and philosophy in Son of the Dragon ultimately (as the conclusion shows)! He distorts and ignores the truth, in this case, well-researched and established historical fact. He invents his own reality, grounded in his own indoctrination or at least his employers/master’s agenda and media message.

But there is also a bit of a difference as Lyons twists the hero and the monster, the roles, facts and perceptions to suit and serve his own agenda: using false myths as facts, to propel and elevate one culture/empire/regime from THAT TIME, burying and hiding the dirty laundry, in some warped attempt to relate to a tolerance factor concerning Turks or Muslims today.

–Eschewing and scapecoating one man, an innocent dead man who has been now, today, once again painted as scathingly with intent and for agenda, not any different than the original Danubian merchants who spread the monstrous myths in the first place.

This is a play exploiting an old pool of myths that actually initially debunks the Dracula myths, but then proceeds forward using the same myths combined with outright lies to tell its own story!

IV

In truth the Ottoman empire and culture at this time employed the shocking and revolting use of Janissaries – zero mention by Lyons of course and crucial to the Vlad/Radu story in any sense.

JANISSARIES. CRUCIAL TO THE VLAD/RADU STORY, ONE THAT CANNOT BE OMITTED TO PROPERLY ILLUSTRATE TRUE HISTORY AND THEIR STORY

Lyons completely omits and rewrites the facts and circumstances of Vlad and Radu’s father and kingdom and that they were ransomed/kidnapped and given under threat of destruction and annexation of all Wallachia by the Ottoman Empire and Sultan’s armies. Their fate was completely subject to the Sultan and court and destined as preteen concubines, indoctrination/brainwash, trophies and ultimately janissaries. Vlad resisted and escaped – a testament to his character and important background to his own accurate story. Radu succumbed to conditioning after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse. TRUTH. FACT.

In a nutshell, this accurately, supported by clear historical evidence and fact briefly describes the fate of tens of thousands upon thousands of Christian European children (a non-tolerant direct assault towards another religion in the 1st degree – contrary to Lyon’s explicit lies as evidence in play dialogue). Common villages, notably in Central/Eastern Europe were raided by this “lovely, tolerant and benign” culture, slaughtering common people and kidnapping their children. These young children were brought back to the Sultan’s court, brainwashed AKA indoctrinated and enslaved as whores, slaves or conditioned as janissaries: girls go to harems condemned to a life as concubine, abuse and pedophila. Young boys, the same. Harems factually included boys (as they do today in parts of the world protected and hidden by globalist media), and to preference of court officials and the Sultan, as exemplified by his favorite lover: the real-life preteen boy Radu “The Handsome” whose ultimate fate was to be trained as an elite warrior and Sultan’s bodyguard called a “Janissary” and finally to be sent to destroy his own brother. Janissaries were an elite, brainwashed warrior class, trained, conditioned and abused since early youth to a final state of absolute loyalty to the Sultan. They served as bodyguards and a special regiment of the Sultan’s army who then were often sent out to massacre their own European people and kidnap more children to receive their same fate. FACT.

NOT ONE MENTION IN THIS WHOLE PLAY SUBVERTING ANY TRUTH, WHICH WOULD DESTROY LYONS STORY AND SINISTER GOAL.

And this is what one Big Finish writer with approval of editor has chosen to go out of their way to hide and promote – insult-to-injury to all these children in history, serving a fate worse than death, and who at least to my sensibility, do not deserve to have Radu and the Ottoman Empire of the time championed and portrayed as fostered by a caring noble, supremely tolerate and morally righteous empire! I mean, Big finish has intentionally put this out, and went way out of their way to hide and spread misinformation! It’s really a shame and assault, if only towards the sake of truth. The proof is in the pudding.

... (read full review, cut short here due to character limit):
https://thetimescales.home.blog/2018/...

V

STOKER’S DRACULA was a pure piece of fantasy and gothic horror, whose titular character was modeled on the myths and named after Vlad Dracul, which exploited this myth in proper artful manner (similar to making exploitation films of modern times). One who reads Stoker literately can clearly comprehend the more intelligent theme presented regarding myth and legend, and that is why Dracula the character was overtly an outrageous, clearly fantasty character, not conceivably a real person but a monster, reflecting and even commenting on the myths of old times in an intelligently and probably revolutionary manner. With a sense of integrity: it sought to tell pure horror and fantasy but allude to the truth by its essence. Lyons does the exact opposite!

LYON, actually points out fiction, myth and reality but does the opposite of Stoker and presents the same myths (and worse TOTAL distortion and mistruth of established, accepted history and fact) to an incredible extent as actually being non-fiction and alluding towards truth. Totally wrong. And shockingly so.

Lyons ignores or reverses all, with gross omission designed to lie and distort. And ultimately he falls back concerning the story here and our companions to one of the most famous myths of the Bride of Dracula (not the movie, the myth).

This was 1/5.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

One suspects that most people familiar with genre fiction will have a pretty good idea which famous figure has a name that literally translates as "Son of the Dragon", so it's no great surprise when the TARDIS arrives in 15th century Romania.

However, this is a straight historical, and it's the figure from history we see, not the supernatural version later popularised by Bram Stoker. This makes the story understandably gruesome in places, but it manages to work in a decently exciting story based around the real historical events of 1462. (As a non-expert, the only historical inaccuracy I spotted was that Radu the Handsome is here shown to be a Christian, whereas, in reality, he had apparently converted to Islam long before).

If there is a flaw here, it's that the author is a little too willing to excuse Vlad's behaviour as a product of the times. Such apologetics, however, did not seem to me to be as central a point as they were in "Medicinal Purposes", and so were easier to ignore.

Which leaves a pretty good story, with some dramatic scenes and interesting characterisation of Erimem. The latter, of course, does not come from our enlightened times, and, moreover, since Vlad is from her future, doesn't automatically associate his name with the things that we would today. This obviously doesn't work out very well for her, but is quite plausible, given her background.

All in all, I enjoyed this, and I think it works well.

[Shaun Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I got over my surprise that this was not a story set in Asia and featured no dragons, I quite enjoyed myself. It feels like a long while since I heard a 5th Doctor pure historical, (not true, this being the era of Peri and Erimem, but still) and like Peri, I kept waiting for that supernatural element to appear. We are talking about Dracula, after all. But nope. Just a wonderful straightforward historical with some great performances. I tire a bit of the "let's throw Erimem to the lusty bad guy trope" but other than that, high marks. For more on this, visit www.travelingthevortex.com

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always nice to get around to some pure historical storytelling in Doctor Who. Though with any story involving Dracula (involving vampires or otherwise), the story is definitely going to turn pretty dark. And there is no difference here. Still a great story - all of Team TARDIS gets their share of pretty meaty plot to get into. Especially Erimem, but Peri got some dire peril too (nearly getting impaled courtesy of Prince Vlad’s orders - yeah, that gets dark). Enjoyable for what it was, though I hope I get into some more light-hearted Big Finish soon.

[Lewis Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Exceptional! Historical Who is some of my favourite, and this one is perfection: a fun way to learn history, with all our characters interacting with different facets of that history, without the need to have time travel or alien threats to spice things up. This is also exemplary Big Finish, going beyond what the TV show could ever achieve by giving a surprisingly full portrait of Vlad the Impaler, and treating this period of history with all the gruesomeness and complexity that would be impossible on television.

[Nicholas Whyte]

In Son of the Dragon, the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem end up in a straight historical story where they are the only sfnal elements, encountering the real Dracula (played by James Purefoy) and his brother Radu the Handsome (played with rather more authority by Douglas Hodge). There is always a problem with the pure historical stories (which Erimem has more than her fair share of - see also The Church and the Crown, The Council of Nic

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The production values are great and I always love the historical Doctor Who adventures, but the big problem with this story is that it is a straight historical character study without any sort of sci-fi element at all. The exact same story could have been told by simply using a stranger entering Wallachia, instead of a Time Lord entering Wallachia. That said it is a well-written story about how history is written.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I started listening to this a month ago and then went on holiday and it's taken me this long to get back and finish it. I think it says quite a bit about the strength of the story that I was able to pick up where I left off. I really enjoyed this one. I don't know the history at all so can't say how accurate it was but it was a good story and there was a lot of questioning of the different periods and priorities. Erymen really stood out as a different and interesting companion in this.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical adventure featuring the real life Dracula. Taking a shine to this Doctor. I need to find his Top 10 audios and get copies to hear. I don't have any more Peter Davison after this. I'm all out. Need to stack that shelf. So if you can recommend a Fifth Doctor audio drama to me I'd be glad of it.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent 5th Doctor-Peri story. Not the most popular of eras, but I have always enjoyed it. Add in the new-to-audio companion Erimem, an Egyptian Pharaoh, for more fun, mix in the historic Dracula, and add a touch of the classic Who historical, and this is a rollicking good romp(with a little learnin' thrown in lol).

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor, Eremin and Peri end up in 1400's under the time of Vlad the impaler.

[Maj · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great pure historical. Very entertaining, never dragged on. Recommended if non-monster historical Who is your thing!

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audio adventure us written in the tradition if the old school Dr Who historical episodes.

[Pietro Rossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pure historical story where the Doctor, Peri and Erimem meet the historical Dracula, Vlad Tepes.

The beauty is that without breaking the narrative, there are lots of references to the vampire lore with people shouting things like, the bride of Dracula, the curse of Dracula etc.

Yet there's no vampire in sight. This is a pure historical adventure, in the style of the early Hartnell days. The TARDIS lands and the travellers get split into their own adventure.

We meet Vlad, a real life person who aims to rule for justifice, showing the monster as well as the nobility. Vlad would make an interesting subject to that immortal moral question, Does the end justify the means. He is a monster, but wants to do well by his people.

As the story progresses, he is betrothed to Erimem. Being a pharaoh, she understands the politics of it all.

The Doctor, as usual, trying to avoid changing history. When Erimem opts to leave the TARDIS to become Vlad's wife, is she changing history or taking her alloted place? One amongst many other dilemmas.

Peri can't get beyond the Hollywood vampire caricature. It doesn't matter what Vlad does, he's always the baddie. My first reaction is, she's seen plenty of weird stuff by now, so why can’t she get over it? But narratively she's the audience. If you met Vlad for real, can you easily overcome the movies, especially as he is capable of great torture? A case can be made that Peri isn't as trusting as the others.

We also meet Radu the Handsome, Dracula's estranged brother who is trying to take control. Portrayed as the Good Guy, but there questions abound regarding his motives too.

This is a well written story. As always with politics, it is hard to see who are the goodies and who are the baddies. We get a good, albeit high-level, insight into this world. 9/10

Scoring: 0 bad; 1-3 poor; 4-6 average; 7-9 good; 10 excellent.

[Samael Kovacs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem encounter Lord Dracula. This is really cool. I don’t really know all that much about the really Vlad the Impaler so this story was such a fresh treat into a new world.
This is bleak, like really bleak.

People are being executed, one even who the Doctor is trying to save because he was to far gone, according to some fellow.

Let’s just say the treatment of women in this story is very true to the time it takes place in and leave it at that.

Making my point again that I am getting rather tired of the big finish thing that keeps happening which is that the companions and The Doctor keep splitting up. For the life of me I cannot remember the last adventure where there were all together for the entirety of it.

Reading some about Vlad it shows that this tale isn’t all that historically accurate which is quite a shame because it would’ve been quite a nice jumping off point to know some true things about the man.

Another thing of note is that the Doctor did not get all that much to do in this one, kinda a story where if he hadn’t been here nothing all that much would’ve changed. Sure, maybe some bits but it felt more like he was just as much along for the ride as we were.

I would like some more classic historicals, it dark but rather lovely story.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not gonna lie. The mention of Dracula in the description made it an instant purchase for me.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this one!

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best one in a while

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story shows why 5 works so well in historical settings. Davison naturally integrated into these settings. Not the most exciting story but the character development makes up for it.

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The burials pits are filling with bodies the names of which we will never remember."

[Vitor Frazão · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tendo já lido/ouvido todas a aventuras com Peri e Erimem, tenho a dizer que dou por mim a fazer algo que nunca imaginaria possível: simpatizar com Peri. Quer dizer, Erimem acaba sempre cercada por realeza e centro de atenção de homem atraentes, enquanto a Peri fica no meio de lutas, a chafurdar na lama (e outros sítios bem piores), constantemente a fugir e, no geral, metida em situações desagradáveis. lol

[Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this straight historical adventure, Five, Peri and Erimem encounter, um... Dracula.