The Skin of the Sleek/The Thief Who Stole Time Review

THE FINALE IS UPON US!!!!! And enjoy it as much as you can. Because from next year on, the releases will be a little more sudden and sparse... But before that, time for a talk about one of the best pieces of acting in Big Finish's history...

DOCTOR WHO FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES REVIEW

6.08 & 6.09: THE SKIN OF THE SLEEK and THE THIEF WHO STOLE TIME

By Jack Ryan

BEWARE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

SYNOPSIS:

Futhering their travels before their date with E-Space, The Doctor and Romana come across the planet Funderell, an oddity of a planet with non-Newtonian oceans. But that's not all that's odd, as they come across the local populous, the Wavewalkers, the strange eels they worship under the surface, the Sleeks, and a fellow Time Lady in the form of an old friend of Romana's....

But Funderell holds some very dark secrets... and is part of a plan that will lay waste to many... the question now is, who can be trusted?....

WRITING:

Seventh Doctor scripting legend Marc Platt returns to pen the finale to this year's series and to call it an interesting finale is an understatement. Within two hours we ae giving a brilliant setting and a belter of a concept (custard oceans), and more twists and turns and OH MY GOD moments than a retro sixties disco. All whilst being a very engaging tale that you don't want to stop listening to.

CAST:

Amidst our cast, we have the greatness of Alan Cox, Kieran Hodgson, Des McAleer, Alex Wyndham and Jamie Newall giving their all, alongside BF mainstays Jane Slavin and John Banks. But out of all the cast, and that includes the greatness that is Tom Baker, the standouts are from Joannah Tincey as Sartia, who is amazing, and Lalla Ward, giving a 40 year old role a new breath of life, a hell of a lot of character development and, quite simply, Ward's best performance yet. Under the all seeing eye of Ken Bently, this cast is brilliant, but Lalla is absolutely flawless.

SOUND WORK:

I said in the last review that I've run out of ways to praise Jamie Robertson's work. That's still true, but I have found the best way to describe his work here. Atmospheric, intense and immensely fitting.

CONCLUSION:

This is not only a finale to this year's series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures. This is a finale to an entire era of the range. And it doesn't succeed at it by being a big climactic thing calling on all previous stories. It does it the only way it knows how; being its own special thing. And no wrong can come from that.

All that's left to be seen now is if the shake up with series 7 and 8 manage to get pulled off well....

VERDICT: 10/10 A fantastic finish to a stellar series of stories. ;D

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Skin Of The Sleek and The Thief Who Stole Time are available to purchase on CD and Download from the Big Finish Website here, or from all good stockists.

Dedicated to the memory of the voice behind Professor George Litefoot, Trevor Baxter. RIP