Ken Bentley

Reviews

The Angel of Scutari is one of the best historicals that Big Finish has produced, mixing a time travel element into the story in such a way that makes reviewing it very hard without giving some of the key plot points away. Ace meets up with Count Tolstoy, Hex meets his heroine Florence Nightingale, while the Seventh Doctor has to come up with a very novel way of retrieving the TARDIS.

Paul Sutton’s stories are very much in the mould of the new TV series, concentrating far more on the emotions of the characters than the show used to, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t write an exciting chase sequence. It also ends on a perfectly pitched cliffhanger that needs resolution soon!

Peter Quentin
Dreamwatch Total Sci Fi
★★★★★★★★★★

Nicholas Briggs states that he wanted this four-parter to feel every bit as alien as a tale set on another world; something that I think Sutton really pulls off remarkably well here.

Indeed, there is much to set The Angel of Scutari apart from the ‘traditional’ historicals that we were bombarded with during William Hartnell’s tenure, and of course on a few notable occasions since. Most prominently, rather than take the hackneyed ‘you can’t mess with history’ route, Sutton creates his own self-contained temporal conundrum; not only is his spliced Pulp Fiction-style narrative a-linear, but his actual plot is too!

Further, the whole story has an astonishing sense of urgency about it that is really not commensurate with most wholly historical stories. In fact, offhand I cannot recall any other historical where the writer so successfully maintains a near-unbearable level of suspense across four episodes. The whole affair is wrought with such danger that I was half-expecting one of the regulars to be killed off, and the way that the story is constructed it just had to be Hex...

Evidently chosen by Nicholas Briggs and Alan Barnes, the Crimean War serves as a fascinating backdrop for Sutton’s story, allowing the writer to combine elements as diverse as the Charge of Light Brigade; Brigadier-General Bartholomew Kitchen’s infamous fall from grace; and even the good works of Florence Nightingale. Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor is perfectly at home in the troubled setting, frantically trying to juggle his – for once – good-natured scheme (to make Hex feel useful again, after the events on Bliss in the preceding Enemy of the Daleks); preserve the continuity of his own timeline; locate both Ace and his lost TARDIS; and, most entertainingly of all, escape the clutches of the British Army’s increasingly unhinged spycatcher-in-chief, Barty Kitchen, who is sublimely brought to life by Alex Lowe.

And, of course, it would not be a Sutton story without a brace of twisted romances at its core. The lighter of the two sees Ace captured in the siege of Sebastopol by a young ensign by the name of Lev Tolstoy, who immediately takes a shine to his prisoner. Whilst relatively little time is spent following the pair, Sophie Aldred and John Albasiny share a sparkling chemistry; a chemistry that is made all the more enticing thanks to Sutton’s remarkable depiction of Tolstoy. Never having read anything by or about the man, I was surprised (and even a little bit impressed) by his propensities for gambling and womanising.

The real weight of the piece though is borne by Hex, and vicariously by Florence Nightingale. Over the course of this story, we learn that Nightingale was Hex’s inspiration for becoming a nurse (he read a Ladybird book on her at school, it seems) and so when he finds himself working at the field hospital at Scutari in October 1854, and thus face to face with his heroine, he turns into a jabbering schoolboy. Nightingale being really hot does not help matters.

As I presume Sutton intended, Hex’s thread of the story is by far the most compelling. Once again Philip Olivier turns in an exceptional performance as Hex; the scenes that he shares with Jeany Spark’s Florence and John Paul Connolly’s William Russell are particularly absorbing.

On a final note, credit has to be given to both director Ken Bentley and his sound designer, Toby Hrycek-Robinson. This story covers such an incredible amount of ground (both literally and figuratively) and never once is the listener’s disbelief stretched too far. Additionally, for an aural drama The Angel of Scutari really does a phenomenal job of conveying some truly inspiring images – the heavenly white shell of the TARDIS exterior, for example, as it comes to snatch Hex away from the jaws of death. Exquisite.

And so in summary, The Angel of Scutari is without a doubt my pick of the seventh Doctor’s 2009 run not to mention my favourite Big Finish historical to date (unless you count The Kingmaker, which is not really of the same ilk). ‘Edge of the seat’ many not be a soundbite that you often hear bandied about in relation to pure historicals, but it certainly encapsulates this one.

An absolutely unremitting classic.

E.G. Wolverson
Doctor Who Reviews

Quite simply, when a historical story is done well in Doctor Who, it can be one of the best stories ever told.

This is one of those stories.

Brian Terranova
Kasterborous

This audio is, at its heart, Hex’s story. Separated yet again from his companions, assuming them to be dead, Hex focuses on doing what he knows best – nursing.

For perhaps the first time, Hex sees his companions on the TARDIS as they really are, not as he wants them to be. His descriptions of the Doctor and Ace are riveting, and Philip Olivier knocks it out of the park with an amazing performance throughout.

Ace’s interactions with one Lev Tolstoy (ably portrayed by John Albasiny) are priceless, while the Doctor is one-upped in the game of manipulation by none other than Tzar Nicholas I (Hugh Bonneville).

The guest cast is stellar, from Jeany Spark as the passionate and dedicated Florence Nightingale, to John Paul Connolly as the crusty journalist William Russell. It’s highlighted, however, by Alex Lowe as Brigadier-General Bartholomew Kitchen. Lowe makes insanity scary again. Too many Doctor Who maniacs are driven mad by some nebulous and incomprehensible desire for universal domination; Brigadier-General Kitchen was driven mad by plain old human war, and the plain old human choices he made during that war.

As usual, sound production in the story is excellent.

A final word about the ending ... as cliffhangers go, it’s a good one.

Rachel Steffan
Unreality SF