| PHANTASMAGORIA by Mark Gatiss |
| Story 2 Synopsis: England, March 1702. The streets of London are terrorised by highwayman William Lovemore. The Diabola Club has a strange new member, Sir Nikolas Valentine. And in the house of Dr Samuel Holywell, the TARDIS arrives. The Doctor and Turlough evade the mystery of their arrival when the Doctor engages Holywell's interest in his collection. Outside, Turlough hears cries for help, as Holywell's servant is being attacked. In the confusion, a man appears in some sort of torment. Turlough runs off, and wakes up the next day in the company of two gentlemen from the Diabiola Club, Jeake and Flowers. Flowers is angry that a friend of theirs, Carteret, has gone missing after playing Valentine at cards. Flowers is persuaded to play a game, but later appears scared from his wits. Jeake and Turlough wonder what ails the man. The Doctor and Holywell visit a library to make sense of recent reports of missing persons. Back at Holywell's house, they start a seance, at which time Flowers is afflicted, and they go to help. The Doctor seems to be attacked. He survives. Flowers finds himself a prisoner of Valentine's. The Doctor and Holywell continue their searches to find a link between the missing people. The Doctor find Turlough with Jeake, who is sure all the missing men attended the Diabola Club. Holywell finds people have been going missing for at least 30 years. The Doctor meets Valentine at the Club, marking his card. Turlough and Jeake make to follow Valentine back to his address. Valentine tries to trap the Doctor, but Lovemore comes to his rescue. The Doctor deduces that Lovemore is Holywell's maid, Hannah, who is actually an alien trying to track down Valentine, who is an escaped maniac. Turlough and Jeake learn this more directly, meeting Flowers again, who is part of Valentine's machinery. The Doctor and Hannah go to visit Valentine, who laughs at their attempts to stop him. He puts Hannah into the machine. The Doctor has altered the card Valentine used to trap him, and uses it to turn Valentine's machine against him. Hannah dies, but Flowers is rescued by Jeake and Turlough. The Doctor deals with Valentine's equipment, and then he and Turlough leave their new friends to recover. |
| Review:- The 2nd adventure from Big Finish effectively gave the indication of how the range would work. The Doctor and Turlough have an adventure in 4 episodes, guest stars pepper the cast, and there is a historical/sci-fi mix. The setting is soon shown when the Doctor finds a newspaper covering the accession of Queen Anne. Otherwise, 1702 is a bit of a backwater, allowing a historical mood without any direct danger to the course of history. The gambling of the Diabola Club and the psychic investigations of Dr Holywell provide enough fuel to keep the plot ticking, with aliens in the background, and a highwayman on the loose. Soon, the Doctor is helping Dr Holywell with his studies, and Turlough is on the town with Jasper Jeake. In their separate ways, both travellers find their paths lead to the mysterious Sir Nikolas Valentine, card-player and... more? When Jeake loses a couple of friends to Valentine's vile game, the Doctor is soon on the case and trying to hunt down his lair. The red herring in all this is Billy Lovemore, notorious highwayman, and actually Holywell's maid in a disguise, and more importantly, a disguised alien hunting Valentine. Unsurprisingly, though when released in 1999, it would have come as an interesting development, Valentine is a stranded alien toying with humans in an effort to escape his Earthly shackles. All the disparate strands come together in the final part, with the Doctor confronting Valentine directly in his lair, after learning from Lovemore who Valentine really is. The cast are all good, helped by a straightforward script. Both Peter Davison and Mark Strickson occasionally struggle with the weight of this being their first 'proper' story together since 1984. But the efforts of 'guest star' David Ryall, and Gatiss himself ensure the whole thing moves along well. It's also worth noting the involvement of David Walliams in a couple of roles, he having since gone on to huge fame and fortune with Little Britain. As the first in the new series of adventures, this is pretty entertaining, and still sounds fine years later. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |