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Geek Vibes Nation
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Doctor Who: Pursuit' Review - A Mind-Bending Trip Through Multiversal Horrors
Big Finish Productions sends listeners back into the depths of the Time War with Doctor Who: Time War – Uncharted 2: Pursuit . When we last saw the Doctor, Alex, and Cass in last year's Reflections , Alex had just stolen the Doctor's TARDIS and taken Cass alongside him on adventures unknown, determined to prove that he could do a better job saving the universe than the Doctor does. But unknown to Alex, untold horrors await the pair of them as they journey further into the uncharted. Continuing from where the previous Uncharted box set left off, Doctor Who: Pursuit offers an even more mind-bending exploration of the horrors of a Time War through a collection of thrilling and horrific stories that manage to perfectly straddle the line between epic war adventures and intimate character drama. Put simply, it's Doctor Who at its very best. 'Spoil of War' by Mark Wright When Alex (Sonny McGann) and Cass (Emma Campbell-Jones) arrive at a strange manor crewed by a staff that seems to have expected their arrival, they uncover an unusual auction where little is as it seems. Meanwhile, as the Doctor (Paul McGann) and Hieronyma Friend (Niky Wardley) chase after them, they discover they've all fallen into some kind of an alternate universe ruled by Gallifreyan Sontarans. But what exactly is being auctioned at this mysterious manor and can the Doctor and Hieronyma find Alex and Cass before it's too late? Mark Wright's 'Spoil of War' acts as both a continuation of the Eighth Doctor's previous Time War box set, Reflections , and as a pilot for a new kind of Doctor Who adventure. The story itself is a bit lowkey, with Alex and Cass mostly trying to find their footing in their new dynamic. Who are they without the Doctor? Is Alex really so different from his great-grandfather? And how does their relationship change as Alex desperately tries to run away from his great-grandfather while Cass finds herself caught in the middle of this spat? These are the questions at the heart of the story, and Wright delves into them in a wonderfully thorny and vulnerable way. 'Spoils of War' is Alex and Cass's story, even as the Doctor and Hieronyma lurk on the outskirts of the story, trying to break in. It's the kind of story that acts more as a prelude for what's to come rather than a fully formed story in its own right, but it proves quite enticing nonetheless. (8/10) 'The Tale of Alex' by Katharine Armitage Hot on the heels of Alex and Cass, the Doctor and Hieronyma arrive on the planet of Igg—only to find the citizens blame the Doctor for their plight as Tarsin the Bard (Sam Stafford) sings stories of the Doctor's last visit and how he left the population to starve after saving them from a deadly blight. Meanwhile, Alex and Cass arrived a week earlier, hoping to undo that damage. Time, however, always finds a way to reassert itself, and the planet Igg finds itself caught between two warring potential timelines leaving Alex to decide the planet's future. What makes Katharine Armitage's 'The Tale of Alex' so compelling is that it's simultaneously a critique of the Doctor's habit of leaving a world directly after saving it and an exploration of what might happen if someone like the Doctor did stay to help the citizens rebuild. 'The Tale of Alex' is a story of two warring viewpoints—the Doctor's and Alex's. Alex feels the Doctor's approach to the universe is fundamentally flawed and tries to do things differently, to save people regardless of the wider context of the situation surrounding him. And the drama rests in that tug of war between those viewpoints. Sonny McGann shines here in delving into the notion that the harder Alex tries to rebel against the Doctor and his actions, the more Doctor-like he becomes. Armitage does something quite compelling with her script too, playing with the idea of how stories can shift and change, altering your view of who the 'hero' is and who the 'villain' is. 'The Tale of Alex' asks the audience to decide whether Alex is the hero and the Doctor is the villain—or vice versa—and it thrives in those twisty, shifty, murky waters. It's a clever, well-paced little character study that dives deep into both Alex and the Doctor in the most compelling of ways. (9/10) 'See-Saw' by James Moran When Alex and Cass arrive in 1924 London, answering a distress signal of some kind, they find the city freshly abandoned; a place they shouldn't be able to get to as the Earth has been time-locked to protect it from the Time War. And yet, here they are, hot on the trail of a strange little girl singing a haunting nursery rhyme they feel compelled to complete. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Hieronyma Friend (Lizzie Hopley) arrive in 1924 London, answering a distress signal of some kind, and find the city freshly abandoned. They're in the same time and place as Alex and Cass, and yet they can't see them. And Alex and Cass, in turn, can't see the Doctor and Hieronyma. But what could have possibly happened to London? And what role does the strange little girl and her unsettling nursery rhyme play? After the previous, more character-focused, stories, James Moran's 'See-Saw' offers a dose of psychological horror. Building on some of the themes in 'The Tale of Alex', 'See-Saw' furthers the exploration of how Alex's methods differ from those of the Doctor—except this time, it focuses on how well the Doctor and Alex work together nonetheless. It's a very timey-wimey story, perfect for the Time War series, complete with the kind of psychological threat that makes your brain hurt the more you think about it. But Moran's script works exceedingly well, even if it feels very small and contained. Though the box set's overarching story kind of takes a back seat here, it all feels like it's leading somewhere, with 'See-Saw' the opening salvo of a grander battle to come. As it is, 'See-Saw' offers a self-contained dose of psychological horror in a tightly-paced, immensely creepy package. (8.5/10) 'The First Forest' by Tim Foley When the Doctor, Hieronyma (Niky Wardley), Alex, and Cass crash in the most unusual of forests, they find a world besieged by shifting timelines. But with Cass missing, can the Doctor and Alex set aside their differences and come together to find their missing friend? Or will the ever-changing winds of time bring an end to the TARDIS team? All roads lead here, and this uncharted universe is finally beginning to unfold. With 'The First Forest', Tim Foley takes various story threads led across both Uncharted box sets and begins to weave them into some kind of a tapestry. Expect answers to long ruminating questions alongside a bushel of new questions. Naturally, the less you know about 'The First Forest', the better. But Foley delivers the auditory equivalent of a season finale in the best of ways—it's an ending of sorts that also throws open the doors for the next Uncharted box set. At its heart, though, underneath all of the mindbending shifting timelines, 'The First Forest' is a story of forgiveness. It's the culmination of the Doctor and Alex's journey across both Reflections and Pursuit and even if it's perhaps a bit too easy of a culmination, it's no less emotionally satisfying. Put simply, 'The First Forest' does everything a good finale needs to do; it brings Pursuit 's ongoing storylines to some kind of conclusion while leaving you desperate to hear what happens next. (9.5/10) Final Thoughts Doctor Who: Pursuit proves exactly why Big Finish's ongoing Time War series is some of its most experimental and intriguing work. Sure, it's still very Doctor Who-shaped , hardly straying away from the general structure of a Doctor Who story. But it pushes the Doctor Who format down such unusual avenues, often eschewing the kinds of plots Doctor Who often tackles in favor of telling these very introspective stories set against an almost incomprehensible, unknowable conflict. And that dichotomy is exactly what makes these stories so compelling. They're not bogged down by the immense lore that comes with the Time War, instead the freedom of the Time War's strangeness gives them this palpable energy that permeates every single story. It's Doctor Who at its very best and a must-listen for all Whovians. Doctor Who: Time War – Uncharted 2: Pursuit is available now from Big Finish Productions.
Irish Independent
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Five new podcasts to add to your playlist, from Paul McGann's family Titanic story to the antidote to Joe Rogan
There's plenty to whet the appetite of true crime fans in this week's podcast round-up with investigations into a Canadian serial killer and the tragic murder of a Tennessee student, while for history lovers, Paul McGann takes the Titanic story out of Hollywood and back into the working-class neighbourhoods of Belfast and Liverpool.
New Statesman
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
How the Titanic sank
Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The sinking of the Titanic is one of those historic events that only grows more vivid in our cultural imagination as the years go by. More than a century later, everyone has a friend with encyclopaedic knowledge of what happened, and there have been countless retellings across novels, Hollywood films and television dramas that have made even small details of the story notorious (the Case of the Missing Binoculars!). And here we have a major new podcast from the history company Noiser, hosted on BBC Sounds, which tells the story of the catastrophe over 13 lengthy episodes. Titanic: Ship of Dreams is narrated in ominous tones by Paul McGann, of Doctor Who and Withnail and I fame, who has a personal connection with events (his great-uncle, Jimmy McGann, was a trimmer down in the ship's engine room), and interspersed with the voices of experts, from historians to Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey and the 2012 TV drama Titanic. One talking head suggests there is only one story that is more popular 'in the history of mankind, and that is the story of how Jesus was crucified'. The pace is slow, yet it remains deeply compelling. Duncan Barrett's script is arresting and immediate. Unfolding in the present tense, it is full of human colour and overloaded with detail: not just crucial information such as the number of lifeboats and, yes, the location of the binoculars onboard, but the number of seconds it took for the ship to slide off the slipway and into the water at its launch on 31 May 1911 ('the longest 62 seconds in history') and the material used for the chairs in the Parisian-style bistro for first-class passengers (wicker). These small observations bring the ship vividly to life, and the scale of the project strikes us anew: not just the size of the vessel, but the number of people employed to build and sail it, the unfathomable luxury of the interiors, and the ambition with which it was executed. Clearly, the story has not been exhausted yet. [See also: The music of resistance] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
Irish Examiner
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Podcast Corner: Actor Paul McGann has a family link to tale of the Titanic
The Noiser network is home to dozens of history podcasts - over 600 episodes - ranging from Napoleon to Hitler to Sherlock Holmes and The Curious History, hosted by domestic historian Ruth Goodman and with episodes on sheds, laundry, bins, and heating. Noiser's latest series is one most of us in Ireland will be familiar with. Launched on April 8, Titanic: Ship of Dreams is hosted by actor Paul McGann ( Withnail and I, etc), who sets out what we can expect over the course of the series, from first designs and the years of construction in Belfast to 'the fateful voyage that sealed the ship's fate and beyond', considering some of the questions that haunt Titanic scholars more than 100 years later: Was the captain really ordered to increase speed, why were so many iceberg warnings ignored in the leadup to the collision, and with almost 1,200 places available on the lifeboats, why were only 700 people saved? Paul McGann's great-uncle James was on board the Titanic. There's a vivid soundscape underpinning McGann's rather grand narration - and if anything deserves such oratory, it's the biggest ship ever built. Consider this, early in the opening episode: 'For a moment, she looks like she won't move after all. Freed from her wooden moorings, the giant ship stands stock still, a towering immobile monument. Then almost imperceptibly, she begins sliding towards the water, gradually picking up speed, five, 10, 15 miles per hour. Finally, after the longest 62 seconds in history, Titanic floats freely for the first time.' McGann also has a personal connection to the story. His great-uncle James McGann is known in the family as Titanic McGann. An experienced 29-year-old Liverpool lad recently returned from a voyage to South Africa, he's signed up for Titanic's maiden voyage. 'I never met Uncle Jimmy,' explains Paul McGann. 'He died almost half a century before I was born. But my brother, Stephen, you might know him as Dr Turner from Call the Midwife, has managed to piece together his story.' He adds: 'By rights, Uncle Jimmy should have nothing to do with Titanic." There are more Swedes onboard than Irish, we are told in the third episode, Into the Atlantic, as the Titanic stops off in Queenstown (Cobh). There are also 154 Lebanese emigrants onboard - about 10% of passengers. Amid McGann's narration are talking heads and historians, who help explain such titbits, also expanding, on this particular episode, on some of the quirks of the menu and how Titanic even has its very own 'ice man', serving cocktails and desserts. Meanwhile, in Queenstown, a sinister omen is apparently spotted. Atop the ship's fourth funnel stands a figure, soot black from head to toe. Some of the more superstitious Irish visitors are convinced it's a harbinger of death. In fact, the ghoulish figure, reveals McGann, is one of the engine room workers. 'For all we know, it could have been my great uncle Jimmy.' Read More Culture That Made Me: Des Kennedy, the Belfast-born director of the Everyman in Cork
