From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt@aol.com
Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews

THE WITCH FROM THE WELL (BF AUDIO)

4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Rick Briggs. Directed by:
Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

An excavation at the village of Trenchard's Fell uncovers a well,
blocked by stone and left undisturbed for centuries. Naturally, the
workers remove the stone - and in so doing, free a witch who proceeds
to butcher them all within minutes.

Twins Lucern (Kevin Trainor) and Finicia (Alix Wilton Regan), the
children of the village squire, have witnessed this massacre and
appear destined to be among the victims - until the Doctor and Mary
rescue them. The Doctor insists there are no witches, and that they
are dealing with an alien life form. He sets the TARDIS controls for
the 17th century to investigate the origin of the creature.

But there is more to Lucern and Finicia than meets the eye. Thanks to
the twins' interference, the Doctor and Mary soon find themselves
separated by centuries - Mary, evading the witch in 21st century
Trenchard's Fell; the Doctor, probing the secrets of the 17th century
village. But the Doctor's search for answers will meet a deadly
barrier in the form of Master John Kincaid (Simon Rouse), the infamous
Witch-Pricker!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Silver Turk saw the Doctor focused on destroying an
alien being, so it is a good decision here to show his more
compassionate side. From the very beginning, he refuses to judge the
aliens as monsters. Determining that they are trapped on Earth, he
focuses on helping, not destroying. This trait is shown particularly
strongly in Part Two, when he discovers a dying creature trapped on
the alien spaceship. Unable to free it, he insists on staying until it
dies: "I'll stay with you as long as it takes. You won't die alone."

Mary: Spends the bulk of the story separated from the Doctor, running
about the 21st century Trenchard's Folly with the hapless Aleister
Portillon (Andrew Havill). Though her function in the story is very
much that of "generic companion," writer Rick Briggs has woven in a
lot of material from his research on the historical Mary Shelley.
Particularly amusing is her reaction to Aleister's worship of Lord
Byron and his scorn of Byron's contemporaries (including her). She
deals effectively with the "witch" in the modern setting, even as the
Doctor deals with the witch-pricker in the distant past. Julie Cox
continues to impress, and I hope that the remaining story of this Big
Finish "season" does not end up being the last we hear of her version
of Mary Shelley.


THOUGHTS

Most Big Finish "seasons" have a traditional runaround in the middle,
with more ambitious stories on either side of it. The 8th Doctor/Mary
Shelley season seems to be following the pattern, with Marc Platt's
atmospheric The Silver Turk followed by this more traditional pseudo-
historical.

Thankfully, The Witch from the Well is not just a tedious retread of
what some audio writer thinks the show would have aired in 1976 (as
too often ends up being the case). Writer Rick Briggs, who previously
penned a clever single-part story for the Demons of Red Lodge
collection, continues to show structural ingenuity. Separating Mary
and the Doctor in time but not in space allows both characters scenes
in which to shine. And by giving each character one side of the story
to investigate, the Doctor the beginning and Mary the ending, we get
to see how the Doctor's actions may impact on Mary's predicament.

Briggs' script juggles the two strands effectively. The 17th century
scenes are the primary focus, with Mary's adventures in the modern day
being clearly secondary. The cutting between the two strands is done
with care. We cut back to Mary often enough to keep her story alive,
but at well-judged points so that her scenes don't interrupt the flow
of the Doctor's story. Her scenes also tend to be shorter than the
Doctor's, which means that her bits never keep us away from the main
story for long enough to lose track of the plot.

This is a good thing, because the scenes in the past are much more
effective than the ones in the modern day. 17th century Trenchard's
Fell is a much better-developed setting, with several strong guest
characters. Simon Rouse's Witch-Pricker is the most memorable of
these. He's clearly villainous, lacking any compassion for any
individual in the village. The Doctor reacts to him with all the
disdain you would expect, in scenes that see Paul McGann in
particularly good form - but in a nice turn, we discover that he is
actually genuine in his belief in his work, even if he goes about his
gruesome business with one eye on his Bible and the other on his own
ambitions.

The Witch from the Well is a good, entertaining yarn, one which
manages to avoid the curse of the "dull middle story" that has plagued
so many Big Finish trilogies. It's largely pretty traditional, with
superstitious villagers and aliens who are taken for supernatural
beings. But it's presented in a way that feels fresh and clever, with
solid performances from the entire cast and a satisfying resolution.
Another good story, in a set of stories that I'm finding immensely
enjoyable.


Rating: 7/10.

--- Synchronet 3.15a-Linux NewsLink 1.92-mlp
 * Origin: rec.arts.drwho.moderated moderation hosted by Gweep Systems
(1:2320/105.97)
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
 * Origin: telnet & http://cco.ath.cx - Dial-Up: 502-875-8938 (1:2320/105.1)