I guess I should repost my reviews on these, they're over GallifreyBase, but here's Thin Ice and Crime of the Century.
Thin Ice - So. The Lost Season 27. If you own the Survival DVD set, you’ve surely seen the extra that talks about the stories Cartmel and co. talk about what stories and more specifically ideas and scenes they had for their next series. Naturally, Big Finish were going make those a reality if they could, and as well they did. They finally released these stories as part of the Lost Stories range and had the blessing and even involvement of Andrew Cartmel himself. Things are looking exciting, right? Though as with all things, Big Finish tend as they should to reconfigure given stories to better fit the continuity they established. But sadly, it seems these stories are not every well received (fellow member Chris Stokes, as he reviewed them in his marathon thread, didn’t like them all, and to such a degree, I was actually apprehensive of them when I got to hearing them again this time) and is looked at with a kind of bemusement by fans, at best. But I’m getting ahead of myself. As far as this story goes, I have to admit… I liked it? Indeed, I did. Marc Platt’s best for his extensive and expansive world building, and almost always works his magic in creating a detailed environment just his words. I also largely enjoyed Creevey and the emotional growth of the character throughout the story, and I did like the Ice Warriors wherein, and particularly enjoyed Hhessh and his interaction with Ace. I enjoyed the setting, and the aura of the era robbed off well and everything. It felt like a story of its era, though at the end of the day, it would be a mediocre one. Yes, I’m afraid it’s not quite as good or great as you’d expect, but that’s the problem with hype, right? Still, one of the important issues to discuss is Ace and the original idea of her leaving… Now, mentioned elsewhere for sure, but it’s been said that the decision whether Ace should leave at the end of the story or not was up to Cartmel himself, and he decided she should stay. Now, here’s the thing. I don’t mind that. Peronally, the idea that Ace would ever end up being a Time Lady (despite even the fact she’s not a Gallifrean, but give that a pass), despite the Doctor being himself the very example of a Time Lord who was so opposed to their whole way of life as to run away from it, never seemed convincing to me. So I can imagine Cartmel actually considering her stay even at the time, which would be 1990 possibly. That isn’t the problem – the problem arises from the opposing fact that Ace did end up training with the Time Lords in Big Finish’s Gallifrey spin-off range anyway! If she was always going to end up there, why not set up her exit here? Make for a non-conflicting exit for a change but a visible one, too. So her staying is not exactly bad, but it’s a questionable decision in light of what the company ended up doing with her anyway. The play is filtered with various faults, of course, mainly an unsatisfactory plot resolve and the rather odd cold-hearted stance of the Seventh Doctor, a quintessential Socialist if any Doctor ever was one, towards Soviet Russia of the mid ‘60’s. I wouldn’t mind I suppose if BF hadn’t ensured the Doctor was such chums with Winston fraking Churchil (perhaps Mark Gatiss’ and Steven Moffat’s most enduring mistake in all of Doctor Who), so having the Doctor take a piss at the Soviet Union rubs me off the wrong way. But like I said, I enjoyed it, and was interested enough to listen through the rest.
Crime of the Century - After the Doctor and Ace’s quick detour helped restore 1998 to its “glorious” present by ensuring Oliver Cromwell’s heir as Lord Protector was his own son Richard and not General John Lambert, they split duties as each has a task to fulfill the Doctor’s newest masterplan: The Doctor intercepts cat burglar Raine Creevy, daughter of Markus Creevy from Thin Ice, preventing her from stealing something from the safe at a dinner party. This leads him and Raine to journeying from London, to the Middle East and lastly to the Scottish borders where they discover the insect Metatraxi. The Metatraxi suck. They just do. So, with that out of the way, overall I’d say this is a step up from Thin Ice, but still not as good as the superlative Republica. The nice thing about it, of course, is that it features the Seventh Doctor in full scheming mode, with the plan perfectly formed inside his brain and just moving the chess pieces in his board towards his desired conclusion. Seeing Andrew Cartmel himself write this himself does lend an authenticity in the Doctor’s motivation and overall characterization, and I genuinely enjoyed Beth Chalmers as Raine Creevy. And yet... there seems to be an odd disconnect with the era it’s supposed to be connected with, despite Cartmel being heavily involved in it. I’m not gonna argue that it’s not like seasons 25/26, cause I feel like maybe they should be different from those as 24 was from them. And I guess my argument is that it’s closer to 24 in its wildly inconsistent tone and underdeveloped climaxes than those, much more widely (and rightly) celebrated seasons. Of course, these scripts never existed beyond scenes and speculative collection of what-if’s, but still. It seems there was, not a lack of effort, but still a lack of imagination and creativity towards imagining the next step to season 26. This is alright for this Doctor, and the characterization of him and Ace are on-point, and for my money it is nowhere near as abhorrent as Delta and the Bannermen, but I also don’t think this is Cartmel at his best. Still, it does have good character moments – like Raine meeting with her father (played once again in a consistently strong performance by Ricky Groves) and their interaction not being as warm and fuzzy as, you know, the stereotype goes. And while Ace is separated for most of the story, she is well handled, as mentioned. It’s just that those moments should’ve been made to count more in a more focused, streamlined narrative.
