The Butcher of Brisbane
When I first saw the headline ‘Fifth Fights Magnus Greel’, I thought surely not. I’ve seen the Talons of Weng-Chiang a couple of times now, and I don’t see it in quite the way other fans do. It’s a good story, no doubt about that, but not much more. It doesn’t deserve the hype and attention it gets. I always thought that Greel would be a one off villain that we would never see again. Talons gives him a lot of back-story, but I thought it would remain just that, rumours and whispers of a time we would never see. So when a prequel was announced, I wasn’t that excited. Then the CD cover came out.
Then the blurb was released. And finally, a trailer. I was sold on it from that moment. I’m not normally keen on any story that expands on something the way The Butcher of Brisbane does. The idea of a throwaway line like the Filipino march on Reykjavikin Talons should be something for the viewer to imagine and make up their own minds about. However, all this went out the window during the story.
Butcher really begins with the TARDIS crew being torn apart from one another. Nyssa and Turlough are transported into a snow covered
wilderness, where bodies are pilling up around them. Literally. Somehow, corpses are being transported through time into the field. This scene, so close to the start, really paints a picture of how gruesome and dark the tale will be. And it is. The Doctor arrives three years later, with Nyssa married to Greel and Turlough her guard. This part of the story works really well. My initial thought was that it was completely wrong, that Magnus Greel should not be given a TARDIS companion to love. But this is what twits him into the creature we see in Talons, what turns him from being just another evil villain to a disturbed monster. The story continues at a brilliant pace, with unexpected turns and twists. The feel of the plot is undeniably Marc Platt, who wrote the equally dark Spare Parts and The Silver Turk. Platt manages to avoid the question that was on everyone’s mind, ‘How would an earlier Greel meet a later Doctor and not remember in Talons.’ Very simply, he doesn’t know it’s the
Doctor. While not completely original or inventive, it does make a brilliant change from the standard ‘mind wipe’ approach.
The cast have been chosen with great care, and that really shows. Some may be familiar with Greel actor Angus Wright, who previously played Mr Dread in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode, The Vault of Secrets. He really was perfect for the role. The chemistry between him and Nyssa
(Sarah Sutton) was electric and completely believable, had you not known her before listening. I was almost completely fooled by her acting. Peter Davidson was brilliant here. The 5th Doctor felt more like the 7th, twisting and manipulating events while keeping everything hidden from his companions and the people around him. During the 4 episodes, I had an older version of the Doctor in my mind, more like him from Time Crash than Enlightenment, but that worked just as well. Here he does know what is happening and is the wise man of the story.
All in all, The Butcher of Brisbane is a story you cannot miss. Great cliff-hangers add to the tension and Platt never lets the plot slip, keeping pace all the way through. Just the acting is enough to give you goose bumps at times. Surely a story that should be treasured and listened to at every chance, and certainly the pick of this years releases so far.
Then the blurb was released. And finally, a trailer. I was sold on it from that moment. I’m not normally keen on any story that expands on something the way The Butcher of Brisbane does. The idea of a throwaway line like the Filipino march on Reykjavikin Talons should be something for the viewer to imagine and make up their own minds about. However, all this went out the window during the story.
Butcher really begins with the TARDIS crew being torn apart from one another. Nyssa and Turlough are transported into a snow covered
wilderness, where bodies are pilling up around them. Literally. Somehow, corpses are being transported through time into the field. This scene, so close to the start, really paints a picture of how gruesome and dark the tale will be. And it is. The Doctor arrives three years later, with Nyssa married to Greel and Turlough her guard. This part of the story works really well. My initial thought was that it was completely wrong, that Magnus Greel should not be given a TARDIS companion to love. But this is what twits him into the creature we see in Talons, what turns him from being just another evil villain to a disturbed monster. The story continues at a brilliant pace, with unexpected turns and twists. The feel of the plot is undeniably Marc Platt, who wrote the equally dark Spare Parts and The Silver Turk. Platt manages to avoid the question that was on everyone’s mind, ‘How would an earlier Greel meet a later Doctor and not remember in Talons.’ Very simply, he doesn’t know it’s the
Doctor. While not completely original or inventive, it does make a brilliant change from the standard ‘mind wipe’ approach.
The cast have been chosen with great care, and that really shows. Some may be familiar with Greel actor Angus Wright, who previously played Mr Dread in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode, The Vault of Secrets. He really was perfect for the role. The chemistry between him and Nyssa
(Sarah Sutton) was electric and completely believable, had you not known her before listening. I was almost completely fooled by her acting. Peter Davidson was brilliant here. The 5th Doctor felt more like the 7th, twisting and manipulating events while keeping everything hidden from his companions and the people around him. During the 4 episodes, I had an older version of the Doctor in my mind, more like him from Time Crash than Enlightenment, but that worked just as well. Here he does know what is happening and is the wise man of the story.
All in all, The Butcher of Brisbane is a story you cannot miss. Great cliff-hangers add to the tension and Platt never lets the plot slip, keeping pace all the way through. Just the acting is enough to give you goose bumps at times. Surely a story that should be treasured and listened to at every chance, and certainly the pick of this years releases so far.