The Players: The Seventh Doctor, Mel Bush
The Rani, Ikona, Beyus, Faroon, Sarn, Urak, Lanisha
The Setting: The planet Lakertya
The Rani, Ikona, Beyus, Faroon, Sarn, Urak, Lanisha
The Setting: The planet Lakertya
Episode 1
- The story begins with the sounds of the TARDIS under attack. Loud clack is heard (unknown at 0:11 mark - clip), with an odd sound the TARDIS lands, and we hear the voice of The Rani taking the doctor. Odd incidental music is heard, then title sequence.
- Abducting Geniuses: A Lakersian is asked what to label this one, and the Rani's response is "Einstein." (2:19 mark) Does this mean she's calling the Doctor "Einstein?" (3:12 mark) The Rani is abducting geniuses, but does this mean she has Einstein or just calling the Doctor Einstein.
- The Rani reveals the setting as "Lakertya"(mark 4:40 - clip) - Does this setting make sense with "The Last Adventure of the Sixth Doctor" by Big Finish?
- The Doctor rebells against the Rani, and states he'll smash something to pieces. Nothing is known (mark 5:56) - Drawing Conclusions is a must.
- Scene transition - 6:11 mark - clip) - however what we are looking at (a Lykertian taking Mel out of the open Tardis) - Quickly we are told that Mel has escaped, only to hear Mel scream with an explosion sound effect. (many people would have loved it had Mel actually blown up in the trap the Rani set up) - We find out later from another Lakersians it is not Mel who blew up (mark - 8:47 - two minute gap and the word "murder" but who was murdered)
- Mel is Kidnapped and accused of murder, but WHO? (visually we don't know its a Lakersian girl)
- The Rani impersonates Mel (9:40 Mark - clip), and we discover the Rani is tricking the Doctor to do her bidding without his knowledge. (The visuals of Kate O'Mara as Bonnie Langford is something that sounds better than it actually looks). 10:37 the Doctor realizes discovers he's regenerated clip)
- The Tetraps are an evil creature that Mel and the Lakersians need to get away from, it is said that they are hideous (13:30 mark - clip) "not like a human, but just as worse?" Doe these Tetraps look similarly to humans?
- Lots of unknown sounds with no explanation (16:47 - 17:27 mark clip sound and incidental music)
- 7th Doctor regeneration thoughts/worry (17:44 - 18:16 mark clip) - such anti-6th Doctor, which is similar to the 4th to the 5th - at least neither one plays the guitar (7th does play the spoons)
- Lakersian description (19:14 mark)
- 7th Doctor tries to find his new outfit (jokes and puns mean nothing without the visuals)
- Cliffhanger- Mel screams, probably in one of the Rani's traps (I know she is because I've seen it before, but without the visuals I don't know if you can assume that it).
- Reprieve- Mel's still screaming, better sounding sound effects, if one remembers what the trap sounds like from earlier, you can figure out she's in one. How she survived with the help of the Lakersian is still unknown. But something is blown up.
- Mel - screams a lot! I mean a lot! Most of the time it is a strange and unknown (30:32 mark - clip) This makes it easy to understand why Mel was one of the fans' least favorite companions.
- Ikona and Faroon have a discussion regarding how the Lakersians are being forced to help out the Rani against their will. (34:13 - 34:34 mark - clip) If one has the memory, you could conclude that the body of Faroon's daughter is the one Ikona accused Mel of murdering...if you could remember that far back.
- Mel and the 7th Doctor meet for the first time, and enjoyable exchange - visually the wresting, flipping and twirling is quite funny (39:19 - 40:04 mark - clip) - Mel says she knows about Regenerations...but how? Trial of the Timelord? Is there something in the Missing Adventures? Does the 6th Doctor's Last Adventure mention this?
- The Rani's scheme (41:52 - 42:20 clip) An astroid filled with dark matter, and something behind a mysterious door which is making the sound of a heart beat - FYI for later purposes.
- We find out the Doctor's and the Rani's age 953.
- Einstein: Minute 43:45 mark, we find out that the Rani actually abducted Einstein. (way back from the beginning of the episode)
- Cliffhanger- Audio only, cliffhangers are generally the most difficult part of the audio only, because of the sound effects and the incidental music. 47:08 - 49:00 mark play in the background over the podcast disussion (Visually the Doctor is hiding in the Tetraps lair and gets locked in). All you hear is snarling-ish/growling-ish sounds, but what is happening is unknown. Imagine--- what this would be like to be waiting weekly for a reprieve without visuals. What steps would be taken to find out what the cliffhanger looked like?
- Reprieve- The Doctor is saved by Beyus, but how is not known (Visually, filling the Tetraps trough with blood-like food. (Visually it is quite funny to see the Doctor using his short scarf to quickly tie up the Rani so he can get away)
- The Rani's scheme is further revealed: (54:03 - 54:40 mark - clip) something regarding time and the geniuses being pulled from time at the peak of their creativeness.
- Beyus reveals his willingness to help the Rani, in hopes of the Rani leaving Lakertya once she's done and allowing the Lakersians to be free.
- Leisure of Pleasure (visually a weird looking place with an odd metallic globe that spins around the Lakersians enjoying their pleasure). The Rani sends killer insects in the globe to kill some Lakersians as punishment for Beyus possibly helping the doctor.
- Mel is part of the Rani's plan, as bait and using her computer skills, even though she's never seen doing or touching anything computer-ish at all (unlike he character in Big Finish)
- The Rani's scheme is revealed even further: Running the machine on brain power (1:05:54 - 1:06:35 - clip) The doctor looks further at her plan (1:07:18 - 1:07:34 - combine both clips) - the Rani also has a deadline to get the astroid of strange matter by the solstice in order for her plan to work.
- Cliffhanger- An odd voice of a creature never seen before, visually this is something not Tetraps or Lakersians, so perhaps a computer? Visually we see a large pulsing brain and the doctor's head vibrating back-and-forth as his brain is being used to power this big brain??? Audio we have no idea what is going on, except end of part three. (Need to remember the heartbeat behind the door from episode 2)
- Reprieve- The brain (or unknown voice is talking of time, audio-wise, we still have no idea what this thing is.
- Mel discovers a loophole in the Rani's plan: the Doctor's character (1:18:38 - 1:18:45 & 1:19:04 - 1:19:36)
- The Rani's scheme is revealed even further: 1:124:08 - 1:25:32 clip) - Reproduce Helium 2 to form a Kronon particle shield around Lakertya, and turning the planet into a Time Manipulator.
- Visually we see a Tetrap overhearing the Rani's and Doctor's conversation, foreshadowing a future meeting between the Tetrap and the Rani.
- The Doctor has Mel defuse the Lakersians bombs that were strapped to their legs in the Leisure Palace. Very manipulative, as who knows if Mel would have gone up with the Lakersian when she did it.
- The Doctor foils the Rani's plan, saves Lakertya with the help of Beyus, as well as the geniuses. Obviously the Rani gets away in the Doctor's perspective, but is actually held captive by the Tetraps.
- Parting Shots:I'm glad the 7th Doctor only played the spoons, and misquoted sayings in this episode. Unlike the brash personality of the 6th doctor in the TV series, this part of his persona goes, and it's not until his teaming up with Ace does the 7th Doctor get dark (more evident in the Virgin New Adventures and Big Finish audios).
- Pip and Jane Baker wanted King Solomon to be the one abducted by the Rani instead of Einstein, and they wanted her to abduct him in the middle of his baby-splitting activity....question: What does King Solomon have to do with the ability to figure out Time Travel?
- Nev Fountain's Big Finish "Mervyn Stone: The Axeman Cometh" has the main character Mervyn Stone getting ready to re-boot Vixens from the Void. I want to believe Nev is mocking Pip and Jane Baker as the other writers in this episode.