‘DREAM TEAM’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Dream Crabs with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric
Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse in ‘Dream Team’.
The second story of ‘The Dream Team’ audio box set is…well, ‘Dream Team’. 😀 This is a two-part story by Lizzie Hopley, and I greatly enjoyed listening to this audio adventure from beginning to end.
Lizzie Hopley is a writer I’ve come across several times in my listens of ‘Doctor Who’ audios by Big Finish over the years. I’m not sure what to make of her, as her writing can be quite uneven for me. 😐
Stories like ‘Precious Annihilation’, ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’, ‘The First Son’ and ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ in ‘Lost Warriors’ didn’t do it for me. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for those tales.
I will admit though, I was quite impressed with ‘The Stuntman’, as I enjoyed the Tenth Doctor, Nyssa and K-9 in that. Maybe when it comes to hearing tales featuring Nyssa by Lizzie Hopley, I’m switched on.
It also helps that ‘Dream Team’ is a story where it only features Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. 🙂 There’s no one else. 🙂
There’s no guest cast to support the regular Season 19 TARDIS team. It’s just Peter, Sarah, Janet and Matthew interacting with each other. That’s a treat for me and I enjoyed listening to the four actors.
‘Dream Team’ also has the advantage of being story about dreaming itself, due to the nature of the monsters featured in the story. Those monsters of course are the Dream Crabs from ‘Last Christmas’.
Yes, I know, they’re called the Kantrofarri in official terms, but the Fifth Doctor says they’re also known as Dream Crabs in ‘Dream Team’. And quite frankly, Dream Crabs is a suitable name for them.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen ‘Last Christmas’ with Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, but I recall the 2014 Christmas Special fondly and I was impressed by the scenario of the Dream Crabs in that. 🙂
The concept of being trapped in endless dreams with the Dream Crabs hugging your face as you sleep is a fascinating and terrifying one, and it’s one I could get into regarding the Fifth Doctor team.
I was anxious for the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric when they seemed to be endlessly dreaming whilst visiting the planet Concordium. The clues that not everything was as it seemed were all there.
There was a point where I cried “No!” once Nyssa was about to head off somewhere whilst the Doctor helped to save Tegan and Adric. It’s a story that kept my attention throughout as I heard it. 🙂
Matthew Waterhouse in ‘Dream Team’.
Peter Davison excels in playing the Fifth Doctor in this audio adventure. I don’t know if he’s seen ‘Last Christmas’, but he seems to get into what the Dream Crabs are about and how deadly they are.
I like how anxious the Doctor is when he realises Nyssa, Tegan and Adric are in trouble and he does all he can to rescue them. His conversations with Nyssa to break out of her dreams are mesmerising.
Sarah Sutton is equally good playing Nyssa in this audio story. I could hear the levels of fear in Sarah’s voice when she played Nyssa, especially when she tries to avoid looking at the Dream Crabs.
In the behind-the-scenes interviews, it was very enlightening to hear from Sarah that she dreams all the time whilst she sleeps. I wonder if she dreams about me after seeing me at conventions at all. 😀
Janet Fielding is very good as Tegan in this ‘Doctor Who’ audio story. I think this connects well to Tegan, considering she had a rather bad experience of dreaming when she encountered the Mara in ‘Kinda’.
It was interesting to hear how Tegan struggled to break out of her dreams and was convinced that what she experienced regarding the jungle, being in Brisbane, and being in a warzone was very vivid.
Matthew Waterhouse is also excellent as Adric in this audio story. I like how Adric copes with trying to resist being in the dreams he’s in, especially when recounting a sequence of numbers in the story.
I like Adric’s interaction with Tegan, especially when he helps her to break out of her dream state. Despite their bickering at times, this audio story does prove how much Adric truly cares about Tegan.
There are occasions where you hear Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton playing supporting guest characters in the story, especially in the adverts concerning the Concordium place.
But of course, it’s all part of the dreaming phases for our main leads. I like how the Fifth Doctor team enter the TARDIS, only to find themselves waking up again before re-entering the TARDIS once more.
‘Dream Team’ has been a pretty gripping ‘Doctor Who’ audio story to listen to. I like Lizzie Hopley’s writing, the Season 19 TARDIS team are brilliant and, I enjoyed the echoes of ‘Last Christmas’ in this story.
At the end of Disc 3 of ‘The Dream Team’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews on ‘Dream Team’ with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse, writer Lizzie Hopley, and director Ken Bentley.
If you purchase ‘The Dream Team’ box set from Big Finish, you’ll get the bonus ‘Interludes’ story called ‘Meanwhile Turlough’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, and read by Dan Starkey.
I’ve greatly enjoyed ‘The Dream Team’ collection of ‘Doctor Who’ audios with Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. Both stories are very compelling to listen to and the performances of the cast involved are pretty excellent.
‘The Merfolk Murders’ works well as a pure historical whodunnit murder mystery story set in Scotland in 1940, joining the ranks of ‘Black Orchid’. ‘Dream Team’ works equally well as a thrilling audio story that features just the Season 19 TARDIS team as well as a follow-up to ‘Last Christmas’. 🙂
It’s always a pleasure to check out these Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ featuring my favourite TARDIS characters in the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. I like how these stories allow the opportunity for extension and exploration, taping into the potential that these characters truly have.
It’s also lovely to have Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse interacting with each other in these audio stories. I don’t know how often the Season 19 cast get to reunite with each other in these Big Finish audios, but when they do, it does put a smile on my face.
At this point, I’m looking forward to checking out the BBC Audio Original story ‘Dark Contract’, read by Mathew Waterhouse, next. Then I’ll be checking out the six-part Big Finish audio adventure ‘The Great Beyond’, starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse. YAY!!! 😀
They should also be exciting stories to check out. So far, 2024 has been a good year featuring Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric stories. I hope to savour the next couple of stories when checking them out on audio CD. As far as I’m concerned, the Season 19-era tales are definitely worth hearing.
And with Sarah Sutton being my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion, they’re more than worthwhile. I’m sure Sarah enjoyed recording these audio stories, and as she said at ‘Comic Con Mania Leicester’ in April 2024, the audios allow her more opportunities to play Nyssa in ways she didn’t get to do on TV.
As of 2024, I’ve had my CD box set and sleeves notes for ‘The Dream Team’ box set signed by Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding when I saw them at the ‘Exeter Comic Con and Gaming Festival Autumn 2024’ at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter in October 2024.
‘Dream Team’ rating – 8/10
‘The Dream Team’ box set rating – 8/10
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