| THE SANDMAN by Simon A. Forward |
| Story 37 Synopsis: The Doctor lands the TARDIS on a vessel owned by Star Gypsy Mordecan, heading towards the Clutch of the Galyari, a lizard-like race who live in dread of the mythical Sandman. Evelyn is rather taken aback when the Doctor leads her to the head co-ordinator of the Galyari, and reveals himself to be the Sandman. He urges the Galyari to renounce their violent past. But when other Galyari realise their Sandman is a mere mortal, they attempt to kill him. When the Doctor learns that violent acts are being committed against the Galyari that they blame on the Sandman but which he couldn't have done, he investigates. He finds that Mordecan has been illegally supplying fragments of a Galyari memory relic to a creature whose ancestor was the Galyari leader that the Doctor originally thwarted back on Galyar to send them on their perpetual flight. With the use of some birds, the Doctor is able to destroy the fake 'Sandman', and bring his own feud with the Galyari to an end. |
| Review:- I had been dreading this for a long time. I originally kept up with Big Finish's monthly releases until The Rapture (which preceded this) and it took me 5 years to find out what came next. It was made worse by the fuss of this story bringing in the Clutch of the Galyari, one of Big Finish's attempts to add an impressive, proper new alien race into the collected Who mythos. Not only that, but the story plays with the perception of Colin Baker's nasty Doctor by presenting a story where he appears to be the very monster that Big Finish have done so much to change the idea of. Fortunately, the story isn't quite as bad as I was dreading. Once again, a companion has to confront the idea that the Doctor might be a bad 'un, despite reams of contrary evidence. Evelyn soon seems to overcome this nonsense, and is not so blundering at puncturing his image of the Sandman as Mordecan does. She doesn't get all that much to do in this story, besides complain at having to travel such a long distance in a hurry. As for the Doctor, it's an exercise in duality - not only that between his actual status and his pretence as the Sandman, but also the narrative in the present matched with the important initial meeting with the Galyari, where he launched the whole Sandman/bogeyman idea which has bedevilled the Galyari for aeons. There is also the duality between the Doctor being the Sandman, and someone else doing their evil in his name - an unfortunate consequence of which is that he has to investigate crimes which he's wrongly blamed for despite his wish to maintain his aura of menace. It helps that the story is really rather slight. The flashbacks are pure padding, and the first episode is effectively just an introduction to the world of the Galyari. It's now a curious coincidence that Mordecan seems reminiscent of Brannigan from recent TV episode Gridlock, though I expect that's unintentional. I was rather expecting him to be intentionally the culprit, but then when it becomes this obvious, it usually is just a red herring. The nomadic Galyari are not very interesting. Their dread of the Sandman turns out to be quite justified, if a little OTT. Their performances are not helped by voice modulation. With two prominent cast members being Ian Hogg and Anneke Wills, to alter their voices seems an insulting waste. It is also silly that Hogg should appear to be just a flashback, until the final part, which rather gives some clues as to the identity of the real Sandman. Daft names like Nrosha (an anagram of Sharon?) are scarcely conducive to audience credulity, either. Whilst the conclusion shows the creativity as compassion of the Doctor, it is rather bizarre. The end of the Sandman silliness is at least applaudable, though the saccharine ending with a reference to generations enjoying tales of the Doctor is the kind of unsubtlety that Big Finish really shouldn't stoop to. Not the terror I was fearing, but a gentle little thriller of mistaken identity. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |