The Game

(Note: This review was written back in late May.)

I can't honestly say that I've enjoyed many Fifth Doctor audios besides 2012's The Emerald Tiger. You might know, from reading some of my other reviews, that I'm not too fond of Nyssa, and she turns up a lot in Five's audios. But that all changed in The Game. Big Finish has done quite a few political audios--Arrangements for War, Council of Nicea, Live 34, Gallifrey. Of this list, I've only heard Arrangements for War and now The Game, but I've found myself absolutely adoring the political intrigue. It's probably because as long as an audio is well-written and contains characters that I care about, I'll like it--never mind the setting or situation. And wasn't Nyssa great in this audio? Whereas the Doctor was mostly (ineffectually) fighting against Naxy, Nyssa was actually getting things done.

• William Russell. Oh my goodness. I knew he was in this audio (his first one for Big Finish, this was pre-Companion Chronicles) but I had no idea he was that important to the audio or that good. He almost made me cry near the end. I teared up at least. The fact that he knew Five so well, and why he knew so well was ingenious,  and really rather heartbreaking.

• That being said, when does Five have time to stop 36 wars? He's rarely away from his companions, except for The Burning Prince. Maybe he does it before the beginning of that one? If not, I imagine that he just takes a break from Tegan & Turlough and does them all in one go. That would be, say, five wars stopped every two weeks (allowing time for capture, ones that were easy to stop, and eating/sleeping/being knocked out). That's what, about twelve weeks? Approximately three months? No big deal for him, if Doing Time is anything to go by.

• I didn't know that this was a six-parter coming into it, but the format worked well, and it didn't feel too long or too short. I'd rather stick with four-parters in the future, though.

• I read somewhere that this episode was intended for the Sixth Doctor before they realized that a sporty audio would be much better suited to the Fifth Doctor. You can tell, though, that some of the dialogue was written for Six. No matter what Steven Moffat says, all the Doctors have different voices.

• Thank goodness the minor characters' voices sounded different. Being American, I can sometimes find it difficult to tell British actors' voices apart, and so it was nice to have some variety in accents and tonal quality for the main males.

• It sounded as if they were leaving Morian for a sequel hook, and Five was even like "Well, I guess I'll be seeing him again". But I guess they didn't go that route, because Morian only shows up in The Game. I doubt they'd bring him back, it having been seven years and all. Then again, look at the Forge/Hex arc.  That's been going on since what, 2003? And it was just resolved last year. That's nine years. Well, if they wanted to bring Morian back for some more political thrillers, I'd gladly listen to them.