Customer Reviews

Stones of Venice (Dr Who Big Finish)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Doctor and Charley arrive in future Venice hours before it sinks. Can an ancient curse be reversed in time to save the great city?

This story is filled with familiar, perhaps even stereotypical, characters. There is an unsavoury Duke, a strange old woman, a mutated human, and followers of a strange cult. All these things have long been staples of Doctor Who, but for some reason this story failed to grab me. Instead I found it to be rather formulaic.

There is, however, no denying the incredible rapport between Paul McGann and India Fisher. This is the first story the pair recorded, but their character seem like old friends. Their performances are truly the best thing about this audio.

2.5 stars

When I first listened to The Stones Of Venice I admit I wasn't hugely impressed with it. However as I've been going back and listening to the firsts season of audio stories for the eighth Doctor from Big Finish I was surprised to discover that it was a much better story this time round. Not only that but I came to really enjoy and appreciate this classically inspired tale of Venice's final hours, a cult worshiping a dead woman, amphibious gondoliers, an ageless duke and his lost love.

Paul McGann and India Fisher given nice performances as the Doctor and Charley. This was the first story they recorded together (although it's the third in proper story order) and the chemistry between them is fantastic to listen to. McGann's performance is interesting as this was his first outing as the Doctor since the 1996 TV movie and there echoes of that performance to be heard in this story (such as this Doctor's ability to pick up on the pasts of other characters almost instantly). Yet McGann pushes towards being his own Doctor from the teaser sequence right to the finale itself. Fisher too gives a marvelous performance that, more then in either Storm Warning or Sword Of Orion, gives her a chance to really show off her skills as Charley ends up separated from the Doctor for a while. Fisher makes moments like Charley's being hypnotized and her reaction to it credible as well which I can imagine is nowhere near as easy as she makes it sound. All told, it is this story that really cements as a fine Doctor/companion combination.

The story has a fine supporting cast as well. Michael Sheard is fine as Venice's ageless and cursed Duke Orsino who finds himself at the heart of the events in the story. Then there's Nick Scovell as the duke's art curator Churchwell who becomes something of a companion to the Doctor while Charley is away and a target of a cult. That cult is led by Vincenzo who is played by none other then Mark Gatiss and with considerable tongue and cheek at that. Then there's Big Finish regular Barnaby Edwards who plays the gondolier Pietro, one of the many amphibious gondoliers who plots to reclaim Venice after it sinks into the sea. Last but certainly not least is Elaine Ives Cameron as Ms. Lavish, an elderly lady who is amongst those to see Venice in its final hours yet is far more then she seems. In particular it is Cameron's fine performance in the last two episodes of the story that helps to make this story really stand out. Like the two stories before it, Stones Of Venice has a fine supporting cast backing up its stars rather well.

The script by Paul Magrs is in itself interesting and probably not for all tastes. My real change of heart regarding this story was here as well. It places the Doctor and Charley in 23rd century Venice as its about to sink into the sea. The city's only remaining people is the Duke Orsino who a hundred years earlier was cursed by his beloved Estella before she threw herself into the Grand Canal, the cult that worships her and hopes she will return to save the city, the revelers awaiting the end of the city and the long oppressed amphibious gondoliers who hope to reclaim the sinking city. If this doesn't sound like your typical Doctor Who story then you would be correct and I suspect this was the reason I didn't enjoy it as much the first time round. Yet it is a story that, is grounded in classical literature and themes, is about how people face disasters both epic and personal. It is also a tragic love story about a man who threw away his only love that somehow seeks to make things right which reaches its end in the incredible finale as well. The story, despite seemingly being buried too deep in magic, also does something Doctor Who has always been doing: disproving magic with science. The script is also full of some the best dialog you are likely to find in any audio story (or beyond for that matter) with a strong wit (Charley's line to the Doctor about what happens on their travels in part three and his response) and a fine sense of drama (see the part three cliffhanger or the story's finale). While it might not be a traditional story it is still a fantastic piece of work by Paul Magrs.

The Stones Of Venice is one of the best stories of the first McGann season, if not the best. It has fine performances from its leads, a supporting cast that is just as good and a first rate script by Paul Magrs. Yet it also more then just that of course. The Stones Of Venice also proves something else as well: that sometimes Doctor Who is at its best when its anything but your traditional story.

...but I do like Paul McGann, so I ended up not liking this audio very much, despite enjoying good performances by McGann, India Fisher (companion Charley) and the guest cast. My biggest problem was with the dialogue. Even good acting couldn't make it sound like anything anyone would really say. Ok, it came out of their mouths, and I have to believe my ears, but...arrgh. My second problem was in believing in the setting.

It's a futuristic Venice, in its last days before it drowns in the sea. The remaining inhabitants are partying to the end, doing odd cultish stuff, or waiting for the handover from human to amphibian (the Gondoliers seem to be some kind of oppressed slave race, but that wasn't terribly convincing either) control, or...just standing around being insane. There's something about a tragic love story between the Duke and his lost love. And then the Doctor and Charley land in the middle of all this... Two things: no one seems to have access to any kind of aircraft or even boats (besides the local water taxis!), and no one seems to have heard of aliens, even though by this time Earth has made contact with plenty of alien races in the DW universe.

This is one of the earlier 8th Doctor audio adventures, so I have the feeling they were still trying to establish his character. The Doctor does that "I know you" trick where he mysteriously knows about someone's past/childhood (as he did in the TV movie), but at least there were no footwear (or "is that your real hair?") gags (as has happened in other audios/books. I suppose that's what he gets for only appearing onscreen once) and thankfully, none of that "half-human" business.

I did like parts of it, but overall, for me, it fell flat.