Storm Warning

Audio dramas - oh yes, like TV wot you listen to. Suits me fine, I’ll follow Paul McGann’s voice anywhere.

Yet the strength of Storm Warning comes from the one thing I figured it would be short on - setting. The billowing bags, sound of the storm, sense of movement on the human ship, or grandeur on the alien. Because that’s what non-TV Who is - the ideas, the characters stay the same, but the budget is as infinitely big as the imagination. Of course, the R-101 is given a good heft along by brilliant background sound - someone has really earnt their payroll for the rollicking air ship.

The story and characters lurch between those unconventional, and those older than Event 1. The wonderfully steampunk idea of the British Empire blithely planting their flags and attempting to colonise an alien nation is let down by the predictable violent stupidity of the human race, the same streak who thought they could strike a deal in Tomb of the Cybermen, or create a new masterrace in the aftermath of the Sontaran Stratagem. I don’t buy Rathbone, as "villain by numbers" of the week.

Tamworth is lovely though - especially as he explains his feelings about war. Like Engineer Prime , we have seen him as an Uncreator - a steretotypical military what-ho - and in a speech, our perceptions change. It’s certainly the highlight of that episode, which is given over mostly to exposition about the Triskele, maybe the lamest race in the galaxy. "The head must mediate between the heart and the hands" was a tired moral when Fritz Lang made it the punchline to his sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis - and that was in the 20s, making it doubly unfair on the audience, introduced at tedious length at a pack of walking proverbs. It’s also unfortunate for Engineer Prime that his pronunciation of "Chaaaaarleeee" reminds one of the youtube hit "Charlie the Unicorn" - but being an internet fad, perhaps already people are reading this review and wondering what I’m referring to.

The Doctor, as usual for my reviews, goes without saying - brilliant and scary by turns, exactly the same guy we all know and love. Particularly his speech to Rathbone about the nature of Time. Maybe its because we never had a full TV series that McGann’s Doc seems so all-encompassingly brilliant? We only have an impression from hearing and reading about him, allowing us to weld all our favourite Doctors together into a perfect package. A particularly wonderful scene involves him scaring off the Uncreators by roaring. Charley seems fun - much like Peri’s declaration that she wants to run off to Morocco with two English guys cements her as perfect TARDIS material, she dresses up as a boy to travel to exciting places. The dilemma about saving the airship (which he doesn’t, though it isn’t for a lack of trying) and saving Charley (which he does, and I’ve a funny feeling there are going to be consequences…) is perfectly played also.

All in all, despite a few plot misgivings which the set wholly makes up for, this is a nice solid start and a 7/10. I'd like to give it higher, I really would, but for the yawnfactor of the Triskele, who very quickly manage to out-Myrka anything you've seen on the telly.