‘LOST WARRIORS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Meeting the Fleshkin, Lady Macbeth and a Cyberman with the Ninth Doctor

Here we are on the third box set of ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ by Big Finish! 🙂

I went straight from listening to ‘Respond to All Calls’ to check out ‘Lost Warriors’, featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. I felt underwhelmed from listening to ‘Respond to All Calls’, despite it having a good first episode. I hoped to salvage something in hearing ‘Lost Warriors’.

Once again, we have another anthology approach to ‘Lost Warriors’ where three episodes by different writers are linked by a certain theme. This should be interesting, especially considering the topic is about warriors and the Ninth Doctor having been a warrior himself as he fought in the Time War.

In ‘Lost Warriors’, the three episodes include ‘The Hunting Season’ by James Kettle, ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ by Lizzie Hopley and ‘Monsters in Metropolis’ by John Dorney. The third ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ box set is directed by Barnaby Edwards, who is a Dalek operator in the TV show.

In fact, Barnaby was a Dalek operator in all of Chris Eccleston’s ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories featuring the Daleks, including ‘Dalek’ and ‘Bad Wolf’/’The Parting of the Ways’. It’s interesting to find different directors approaching ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ range of audios as opposed to a single director.

For ‘Ravagers’, it was directed by Nicholas Briggs; for ‘Respond to All Calls’, it was directed by Helen Goldwyn; and here for ‘Lost Warriors’, it’s directed by Barnaby Edwards. I’m sure Chris Eccleston got on well with each of the three directors when making these latest ‘Ninth Doctor’ audio adventures. 🙂

It’s clear that Chris Eccleston is delivering 100% into his performances as the Ninth Doctor throughout these audio adventures and he clearly enjoys doing them. It must be a contrast compared to how he found things challenging when making the TV show involving the BBC’s politics.

Only time will tell on how these ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ will progress in years to come. I’d like to think Chris Eccleston will reunite with Billie Piper as Rose at some point in this range of Big Finish audio adventures. Meanwhile, let’s check out what the third volume of ‘Ninth Doctor’ audios has to offer.

As well as the three episodes on the first three discs of ‘Lost Warriors’, there’s a fourth behind-the-scenes disc looking into the making of the episodes. At this point, I’m keenly looking forward to how Chris’ Doctor meets a Cyberman for the first time. First of all, let’s check out ‘The Hunting Season’.

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1. ‘THE HUNTING SEASON’

The first episode of ‘Lost Warriors’ is by James Kettle. This is the first time I’ve come across James Kettle as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer in Big Finish. I hope that I’ll check out his other ‘Doctor Who’ stories.

In this story, the Doctor ends up at Duberry Hall in November 1936, somewhere in the English countryside, I believe. The hall is under siege, since strange aliens are marauding through the estate.

Lord Hawthorn is fighting off the aliens known as the Fleshkin. The Doctor finds a way to keep the Duberry household united to save itself and that includes both the upstairs and downstairs people. 🙂

From hearing the story; there are elements of both ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ when hearing the people of Duberry Hall. Did James Kettle have these things in mind in the writing?

It was interesting to hear the Ninth Doctor’s reaction to people like Lord Hawthorn and his daughter Isabel, who are very ghastly when they seem to be glorifying in war, which the Doctor clearly abhors.

Of course, the Doctor is going to be sympathetic to the kitchen staff, including Mrs. Goose and Alice. He tells Lord Hawthorn to ‘shut up’ and he takes no nonsense once he’s concerned for Mrs. Goose. 🙂

I found the drama featured between the guest characters in Duberry Hall very compelling, making it easy to listen to. It did get confusing by the story’s climax, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this. 🙂

In terms of the guest cast, Alex Jennings plays Lord Hawthorn. It was interesting to hear Lord Hawthorn’s development as a character, since I assumed he was a typical snooty English gentleman.

Initially, I assumed it was the daughter, Allegra Marland as Isabel Hawthorn, who was going to turn out to be the villain in this. It’s intriguing how it became unveiled that Lord Hawthorn was the villain.

I was misled into the notion that Isabel was the villain of this story, since she seemed to talk a lot about war and asked questions to the Doctor about what it’s like to kill people. I found it disturbing.

Don Gilét guest stars as Streatham, the butler at Duberry Hall. If the name’s familiar to you, well, Don Gilét played Lance, Donna’s fiancé who ended up becoming a bad guy in ‘The Runaway Bride’. 🙂

You may have also seen him as Lucas in ‘EastEnders’ and Richard Sherwood in ‘Wizard vs. Aliens’. Streatham seems to be a bad version of Carson from ‘Downton Abbey’ and has an affair with Isabel.

It was shocking how Streatham seemed to mistreat the servants like Mrs. Goose and Alice, especially once he and Isabel were about to use the toasting fork. They were about to use it on the Doctor too.

Annette Badland guest stars as Mrs. Goose the cook. I honesty couldn’t help think of Mrs. Goose and her friend, Tilly Steele as Alice, being like Mrs. Patmore and Daisy from the ‘Downton Abbey’ series. 🙂

Of course, Annette Badland is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’. She worked with Christopher Eccleston before, as she played Margaret Slitheen in ‘Aliens of London’/’World War Three’ and ‘Boom Town’. 🙂

She’s also done some Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’, including ‘Equilibrium’ and ‘Mind of the Hodiac’. I’ve also seen her in a ‘Miss Marple’ serial and an ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ episode. 🙂

Incidentally, if you recognise Tilly Steele’s name, then that’s because she played Willa Twiston in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Witchfinders’ with Jodie Whittaker. It was amazing to discover that in this. 🙂

The alien-like Fleshkin are voiced by three cast members in the episode, including Don Gilét, Annette Badland and Tilly Steele. The Fleshkin seem to like saying ‘flesh’ a lot in their dialogue in the story. 😀

It was fun to hear the Ninth Doctor ride a horse for the first time in this ‘Doctor Who’ episode. Somehow, it was easy to visualise Chris Eccleston’s Doctor in his leather jacket riding upon a horse. 🙂

Incidentally, the working title for this story was ‘Before and After the War’. Not sure if that’s a reference to the Doctor fighting in the Time War at all, but I find it an unusual working title to begin with.

‘The Hunting Season’ is a good opening episode in ‘Lost Warriors’ by James Kettle. I enjoyed the drama featured between the guest characters in the story and Chris Eccleston is so fantastic as ever.

‘The Hunting Season’ rating – 8/10

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2. ‘THE CURSE OF LADY MACBETH’

The second episode of ‘Lost Warriors’ is by Lizzie Hopley, who is both a writer and an actor in ‘Doctor Who’. In the Big Finish audio ‘Terror Firma’, she played Gemma Griffin, an Eighth Doctor companion.

She also played Yarvell, Davros’ sister in the ‘I, Davros’ series. As a writer, she’s written some ‘Doctor Who’ audio episodes like ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’, ‘Precious Annihilation’ and ‘The First Son’.

Now, if you’ve read my reviews on the episodes she’s written, you can tell I’m not enamoured with them. I tried my best to enjoy ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’, hoping I would gain something from it. 🙂

Sadly, I don’t feel Lizzie Hopley’s talents as a writer have won me over so far. I didn’t find ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ to be exciting enough and this is a shame. There’s an intriguing concept in the story.

The Ninth Doctor meets the real Lady Macbeth in Scotland as well as her husband. The name ‘Macbeth’ is familiar to me, since I read William Shakespeare’s play called ‘Macbeth’ when at school.

Now to be fair, I haven’t read ‘Macbeth’ in a long while, but I was certain there would be some very exciting action-packed events occurring in the episode and I would get to enjoy certain characters. 🙂

But a lot of the story felt flat for me, as I struggled to engage with the characters. It started quite well with a familiar ‘Macbeth’ opening scene and there could’ve been the three witches at the start.

The Doctor getting involved started to be interesting and Christopher Eccleston is as a good as ever. But as time went on, I found myself drifting from the tale, as there was plot and exposition going on.

Even as I’m writing this review, I’m struggling to remember what happened in the episode. There doesn’t seem to be anything memorable to take from this episode, despite the cast’s performances.

It pains me to write this review, as I’m looking forward to what Lizzie Hopley will provide in the meeting between the Tenth Doctor, Nyssa and K-9 in ‘The Stuntman’. I hope not to be disappointed.

There’s meant to be this squid-like monster called the Fuath in the episode and there are Scottish myths and legends involved. But from listening to the episode, they don’t seem to be so memorable.

I think Lizzie Hopley as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer would be best suited for TV as opposed to audio. If the episodes she’d written were made for TV, maybe I would appreciate them more than what they are.

In terms of the episode’s guest cast, Neve McIntosh is Gruach, the titular ‘Lady Macbeth’. Neve McIntosh is well-known to ‘Doctor Who’ fans for being Madame Vastra and the new series Silurians.

Neve McIntosh delivers a good performance as Lady Macbeth, interacting well with Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor. This is also an audio story that permits Neve McIntosh’s Scottish tones into focus.

There’s Anthony Howell as Macbeth of Scotland himself. Anthony Howell has done plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ audios, including ‘The Valley of Death’, ‘The Lady of Mercia’, ‘The First Sontarans’ and more. 🙂

I was disappointed Anthony Howell didn’t appear much as Macbeth, as the character appeared halfway in the story. Beforehand, Anthony was playing a servant at Macbeth’s castle named Siward.

It was also interesting to hear Anthony Howell doing a Scottish accent for a change. I’m saddened I wasn’t able to pick up more connections to Mr. Shakespeare’s play with Macbeth in this audio story.

There might have been one or two said by the Ninth Doctor in the story, but it’s not much for me. There’s also David Rintoul as Kinade, Lady Macbeth’s father (I believe). He also plays a priest and a bishop. 🙂

I previously heard David Rintoul in the audio story ‘Fever Island’ with Tom Baker’s Doctor. There’s also Lucy Goldie as Curstag, a servant, and Lulach, the Macbeths’ mute son in the audio adventure. 🙂

And there’s Maggie Service as Sorscha and sometimes voicing the Fuath. There’s a coronation scene at the story’s end where the Macbeths are the new king and queen of Scotland, but it’s not exciting.

Overall, ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ was disappointing to listen to. I’m saddened Lizzie Hopley’s talents as a writer haven’t won me over so far and I can’t understand why I can’t get into her stories.

‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ rating – 5/10

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3. ‘MONSTERS IN METROPOLIS’

If ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ was a disappointment on my part, ‘Monsters In Metropolis’ was certainly a winner for me. And it’s not hard to see why, since John Dorney is the writer of this story. 🙂

It astonishes me that Lizzie Hopley, who is a writer and an actor, doesn’t seem to win me over with her writing, and yet John Dorney, who’s also a writer and actor, does win me over with his writing. 😐

The story takes place in Berlin 1925 (not 1927, according to story’s synopsis). It’s about ‘Metropolis’. And no, that’s not the city Metropolis which is featured in the Superman comics as you would think.

Although, having Superman fighting Cybermen with the Ninth Doctor would be awesome. 😀 No, this is about a silent film called ‘Metropolis’, which was made in 1925 and it was soon released in 1927. 🙂

I knew nothing about the film ‘Metropolis’ when it came to listening to this audio episode. It was very fascinating to learn more about this film, as John Dorney does well in depicting the making of it.

The story also features a historical figure in the film’s director called Fritz Lang, played by Nick Wilton. It was amazing to hear this story and be introduced to a new historical figure in ‘Doctor Who’.

I enjoyed the Ninth Doctor’s interaction with Fritz Lang and the other filmmakers featured in this story. The Ninth Doctor is clearly an expert on silent films, as Christopher Eccleston is enthusiastic. 🙂

I enjoyed the fanboy energy Chris Eccleston delivers in his performance as the Doctor when visiting the set of ‘Metropolis’. He passes off as a film board official to see what’s going on in the production.

This audio episode was easier to listen to compared to ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’, especially because of my interest in films and how filmmaking in silent movies was done compared to talkies. 🙂

Things become serious when the Doctor sees the ‘Machine Man’ playing the significant role in the film. The Doctor tries to warn everybody that the ‘Machine Man’ is a Cyberman and is dangerous. 😐

Of course, no-one believes him and the Doctor has to find another way of convincing the filmmakers otherwise before the Cyberman causes trouble. But there’s more to this situation than it appears. 😐

Having studied GCSE History and learning about the Weimar Republic in the 1920s in the lead-up to Nazi Germany in the 1930s, I was able to get an idea of the landscape and the historical atmosphere.

It’s also interesting how this story develops from making us think that the Cyberman is the threat, when it turns out the person who’s been controlling the Cyberman is the real enemy to be afraid of.

That person controlling the Cyberman happens to be Peter Bankolé as Dieter Jovanovic. Incidentally, Peter Bankolé played a small role of a mob boss in ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, would you believe.

I enjoyed how Dieter Jovanovic started off as a mild-mannered and a decent sort-of person before being revealed as the one deliberately causing people to be killed when controlling the Cyberman. 🙂

It was easy to understand Jovanovic’s motives as a villain, especially when he’s a victim of poverty in Germany following the end of the First World War and also during the reign of the Weimar Republic.

The Cyberman is of course voiced by Nicholas Briggs. This is a particularly unusual Cyberman featured in the story, and not just because of the grey, tinny appearance as shown on the CD cover. 🙂

The Cyberman also goes through emotional trauma since it’s damaged, which the Ninth Doctor gradually comes to emphasise with. It’s almost similar to Sally Phelan Cyberman in ‘The Age of Steel’.

It’s nice to have the Ninth Doctor have sympathy for the Cyberman in ‘Monsters in Metropolis’ instead of being all-out angry. It’s also a contrast to the Ninth Doctor’s reaction to a Dalek in ‘Dalek’.

Mind you, the Doctor scraping gold into the Cyberman’s chest unit with a pen irritates me. After all these years, gold’s still used as a weapon against the Cybermen, even if it wounds one temporarily. 😦

The episode’s cast also features Helen Goldwyn (who directed ‘Respond to All Calls’) as Anna Dreyfus, Fritz Lang’s assistant. There’s also Raj Ghatak as Olaf Richter, a full-of-himself actor in this. 🙂

‘Monsters in Metropolis’ rating – 9/10

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES

The fourth disc of ‘Lost Warriors’ is a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, looking into the three episodes of the third ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ box set by Big Finish. I enjoyed how the cast and crew shared their experiences of making each of the three stories featured in this third volume.

It begins with an introduction by script editor Matt Fitton. We then go into the making of each of the three episodes of ‘Lost Warriors’ in turn. There’s a look into ‘The Hunting Season’ and there are interviews with director Barnaby Edwards, Christopher Eccleston, and the story’s writer James Kettle.

There are also interviews with Alex Jennings, Allegra Marland, Annette Badland and Don Gilét. I’m disappointed Tilly Steele wasn’t interviewed for this behind-the-scenes documentary. I liked that Annete Badland and Don Gilét’s previous ‘Doctor Who’ connections in the TV show were mentioned.

There’s then a look into ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’, which features interviews with writer Lizzie Hopley, Neve McIntosh, David Rintoul, Anthony Howell, Maggie Service and Lucy Goldie. All of the cast, including Christopher Eccleston, share their enjoyment of making ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’.

It pains me to hear this segment of the behind-the-scenes documentary, as everyone seems enthusiastic about the story. Lizzie Hopley is clearly an enthusiastic writer and people rate her highly. I pray that my experience of ‘The Stuntman’ with the Tenth Doctor, Nyssa and K-9 will be better.

Finally, there’s a look into ‘Monsters in Metropolis’, which is good. There are interviews with writer John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs, Helen Goldwyn, Raj Ghatak, Nick Wilton and Peter Bankolé. It was intriguing to hear the insight by the cast and crew on how they thought ‘Monsters in Metropolis’ worked as a story.

There’s an interview with Wilfred Acosta who provided the studio and remote recording at the Soundhouse. It was intriguing to hear from him the technicalities of making ‘Doctor Who’ audios during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are also some closing thoughts about Christopher Eccleston from the cast and crew.

‘Lost Warriors’ has been an enjoyable box set of ‘Doctor Who’ audios featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. ‘The Curse of Lady Macbeth’ was disappointing on my part, but I enjoyed ‘The Hunting Season’ and ‘Monsters In Metropolis’ very much when I heard those episodes.

I’m currently looking forward to checking out the fourth box set of ‘The Ninth Doctor Adventures’ where the Cybermen will return again and the Ninth Doctor will reunite with the Brigadier. Knowing that there’ll be more ‘Ninth Doctor Adventures’ box sets to look forward to afterwards is so exciting!

‘Lost Warriors’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Ninth Doctor was ‘Respond to All Calls’ (Audio) For the Cybermen was ‘Spare Parts’ (Audio)	The next story For the Ninth Doctor is ‘Old Friends’ (Audio) For the Cybermen is ‘Old Friends’ (Audio)
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