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.