So, little backstory. In 2013, to celebrate the golden anniversary, the BBC's many departments all undertook their own ways of honouring the milestone. BBC Books went back through the back catalogue of PDAs, EDAs and NSAs (brownie points for correctly deducing those acronyms) and re-released them with brand new covers, introductions and lovely other stuff... One of those was a novel featuring Colin Baker's Doctor, Peri, Winston Churchill, Season 6B, written by the legendary Terrance Dicks.... and included higher beings treating history's societies as game pieces... Why is this relevant? You'll see...
DOCTOR WHO MAIN RANGE REVIEW
222: THE CONTINGENCY CLUB
By Jack Ryan
BEWARE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
Ah, the fabled gentlemen's club.... probably a very polarising topic. As for me..... I don't give a feck about any of it. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, "I don't want to be part of any club that wouldn't have me as a member." Or was that Timon from The Lion King? Anyway, the point is, it's been a part of British culture for about as long as they can remember, and hit its popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was the absolute height of society to be part of one. Just don't be part of one that wants to destroy the world for a bet...
A dark secret is festering underneath London. Whereas above the surface, an infestation continues. An infestation... of gentlemen's clubs. Many are noted but only one is legendary: The Contingency Club. Only the truest elite of the upper class can hope to gain admittance. Of course, there are other ways to gain entry, especially if you have a time and space machine. But the Doctor and friends are about to discover the something sinister operating within the club, from the brainwashed members to the identical menservants, leading to a conspiracy to destabilise Britain. The game is afoot, in more ways than one...
Hello, Mr Phil Mulryne! You've been upgraded to a main range story now? BRILLIANT! I've already spoken at length about Mr Mulryne's other exploits in Big Finish and on every occasion, he has been nothing less than great! (Plus, he's an Irishman, so that makes me VERY happy.) So, how does his first fling into the main range fair? Pretty well. Mulryne has constructed a very nice contained story that is just a blast to listen to, with twists and turns galore. I only have one slight problem: the Chekov's Gun. I'm a bit torn on it as it feels like part cop-out, but also part utter genius! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK!!! But the rest of the story's brilliance outshines that one little doubt in my head. In fact, it's so brilliant you could almost mistake it for a Terrance Dicks script. Which I did, when the particular plot points cropped up.
Adding to that brilliance, Mulryne and legendary director, Barnaby Edwards, have assembled a brilliant cast to join the returning might of Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse, such as the legendary Clive Merrison, Take On Me's Philip Jackson, Lorelai King, The Archers' Tim Bentinck, Alison Thea-Skot and the emerging talent that is Olly McCauley. The range of the actors present may be wide, but their talent can be described with one word; outstanding! The regulars are as brilliant as always, the guest cast do a fantastic job, and in particular, Mr McCauley does an amazing effort at making his characters very similar (as the script dictates) but allowing each one to be somehow utterly unique.
That, the direction of Mr Edwards, and the formidable efforts of musician and sound designer Andy Hardwick, all come together to make this a brilliant story and a truly fantastic release. I don't care if it's not related to one of the best Doctor Who novels I've read (which would actually make everything a whole lot more confusing, now I think about it), this tale is most definitely a brilliant example of pseudo-historical Who at its best.
VERDICT: 9/10 Most certainly worth the price of admission. ;D
The Contingency Club is available to purchase from the Big Finish Website here, or from all good retailers and stockists from April 2017 onward.
A dark secret is festering underneath London. Whereas above the surface, an infestation continues. An infestation... of gentlemen's clubs. Many are noted but only one is legendary: The Contingency Club. Only the truest elite of the upper class can hope to gain admittance. Of course, there are other ways to gain entry, especially if you have a time and space machine. But the Doctor and friends are about to discover the something sinister operating within the club, from the brainwashed members to the identical menservants, leading to a conspiracy to destabilise Britain. The game is afoot, in more ways than one...
Hello, Mr Phil Mulryne! You've been upgraded to a main range story now? BRILLIANT! I've already spoken at length about Mr Mulryne's other exploits in Big Finish and on every occasion, he has been nothing less than great! (Plus, he's an Irishman, so that makes me VERY happy.) So, how does his first fling into the main range fair? Pretty well. Mulryne has constructed a very nice contained story that is just a blast to listen to, with twists and turns galore. I only have one slight problem: the Chekov's Gun. I'm a bit torn on it as it feels like part cop-out, but also part utter genius! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK!!! But the rest of the story's brilliance outshines that one little doubt in my head. In fact, it's so brilliant you could almost mistake it for a Terrance Dicks script. Which I did, when the particular plot points cropped up.
Adding to that brilliance, Mulryne and legendary director, Barnaby Edwards, have assembled a brilliant cast to join the returning might of Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse, such as the legendary Clive Merrison, Take On Me's Philip Jackson, Lorelai King, The Archers' Tim Bentinck, Alison Thea-Skot and the emerging talent that is Olly McCauley. The range of the actors present may be wide, but their talent can be described with one word; outstanding! The regulars are as brilliant as always, the guest cast do a fantastic job, and in particular, Mr McCauley does an amazing effort at making his characters very similar (as the script dictates) but allowing each one to be somehow utterly unique.
That, the direction of Mr Edwards, and the formidable efforts of musician and sound designer Andy Hardwick, all come together to make this a brilliant story and a truly fantastic release. I don't care if it's not related to one of the best Doctor Who novels I've read (which would actually make everything a whole lot more confusing, now I think about it), this tale is most definitely a brilliant example of pseudo-historical Who at its best.
VERDICT: 9/10 Most certainly worth the price of admission. ;D
The Contingency Club is available to purchase from the Big Finish Website here, or from all good retailers and stockists from April 2017 onward.
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