Flip Flop

All right....I'm going to attempt to understand this one. Here goes:
I listened to the Black disc first. Once I was done with the White disc I wanted to go back and listen to it all again in order to fully understand the story, but I was afraid my head might explode from trying to understand this audio. At first I thought it was like a spiral, looping downwards, but then I realised that it's actually a figure eight: the story goes in a circle on one world and then switches over the other world where it completes another circle, and vice-versa if you listen to it in a different order. But how was it that there were two Mels and two Doctors coming in from the same point in time? Why was it different? I have a theory here, or rather two theories: The first one is that there are two universes, both created when Stewart and Reed went to kill the President. It was a decision, and decisions create universes. One decision was to let the president live, and one was to kill her. This sort of explains why there are two different Mels and two different Doctors who are coming from the same situation (the Quarks on the spaceship). My second theory actually makes more sense, and is even more clever on Johnny Morris's part. There are actually two different stories going on, not one continuous one. The Black disc is one story, and the White disc is the other. The main focus of each story is Stewart and Reed and their involvement with the assassination attempt. Whew. Usually I love Johnathan Morris, he's done some fantastic novels and audios, and deserves to write a TV episode. But this story just seemed too confusing.
Other notes:

• Recently I read a description of Mel saying that she was "bossy and practical", and I thought to myself: what a good way to sum up her character. I wouldn't have chosen those adjectives myself, but considering her Big Finish stories and the best of her character in TV episodes, those are really the best ways to describe Melanie Bush. No screaming for this Mel: she's all morals and asking the right questions and respecting the Doctor, but at the same time taking absolutely none of his bullcrap.
• The way the Slithigees feigned helplessness when they, in effect, ruled the world was absolutely terrifying. Yes, they were blind, and yes, they seemed polite, but boy did they get people to do anything they wanted.
• The Doctor says at the end of both discs that the other Doctor and Mel will fix things, but that means that nobody does. And how could he? Pauxataunee is pretty much beyond help, and short of blowing up the fleet before they arrive 30 years previous, I can't think of anything any of the Doctors could have done to save the day. How bleak.
• Yes, that was a sex scene. Moving on...
• Another Christmas-time story! That brings the list up to:
• Chimes of Midnight
• Winter for the Adept
• The One Doctor
• Voyage to Venus (okay, so they sing a Christmas carol. It counts.)
• Flip Flop
• Big Finish doesn't usually physically or mentally torture Seven (they save that for Five and Six)--heck, I don't think he ever gets tied up. So the way that wonderfully creepy Professor Capra tortured him and Mel was surprising and rather scary.

All in all, an extremely confusing audio. Someday, I plan to make a color-coded chart for both this audio and The Kingmaker. If you are not paying absolute attention and possibly taking notes, you will get very frustrated by trying to understand it. I recommend a re-listen. If your head doesn't explode.

The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories

The Demons of Red Lodge:
It's rather thrilling to hear the Doctor scared, isn't it? That's what this audio is all about (or at least the beginning of it, anyway) and so when we get our confident Doctor back, it's a relief. There are moments in the Fifth Doctor/Nyssa audios where you can really care that the Fifth Doctor cares an awful lot about his female companion. There are a lot of those in this one, especially when he goes to save her from being...what, absorbed? by her clone/self/thing. The part with Nyssa remembering her father felt a bit shoe-horned in there, but it tied in nicely with the next story.

The Entropy Composition:
I didn't think this episode had much potential when I first started listening to it, but it got quite interesting about halfway through. The premise--a deadly song--works really well and is fantastically creepy. The story really picks up once they get to earth, and I thought Nyssa's trying to talk like a rocker from the sixties was hilarious. The laugh at the end was terrifying, and the fact that I was listening to it at about 11:00 at night didn't help.

Doing Time:
It always depresses me when it's revealed that the Doctor's spent a lot of time away from his companion. It happens more often than I would like, too, which may have had something to do with why this audio bothered me. I mean, there was a Duncan Wisbey Alert, which is always nice (I like to keep an ear out for him, although he sounded nothing like Sacker) and I totally thought that Nyssa had gotten married for a few seconds, but the Doctor in solitary for six months?! That's awful! But anyway, Nyssa had some good development in this audio. She can exist without the Doctor, and does quite well adjusting to a normal life. She gets a job, a haircut, a crush, and everything. Hopefully the Doctor got to relax for a bit after this one, though. Poor Five.

Special Features:
This was an odd one. I can't decide whether I liked the fact that they were clearly making fun of Doctor Who commentaries or not. If you listen to the Nicholas Courtney, Carole Ann Ford, Mark Strickson, and Elisabeth Sladen commentary on The Five Doctors, for example, it's brilliant and hilarious. But this commentary was just so....awkward. I think that was rather the point, though; that the director and actors  were embarrassed by the work they had done all those years ago. The Doctor is quiet during most of it, which made me think--of all the Doctors (not actors, mind you) to record a DVD commentary, only Five, Seven, and possibly Nine would be quiet during it. The rest would basically take over, contradicting everyone else and providing amusing anecdotes. Nyssa wasn't in this one much, but I can't help thinking that she would find acting rather pointless and silly, but the Doctor seemed to have gone to quite a lot of effort to get her the part.

All in all, a fairly enjoyable little series of stories. It's rare for me to enjoy a Five/Nyssa story--Big Finish have done so many of them, and Nyssa's far from one of my favorite companions--but I had fun listening to this one.