Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Paul McGann, Emma Campbell-Jones, Sonny McGann, Felicity Cant, Louise Falkner, Clive Hayward, Lizzie Hopley, Wanda Opalinska, Indra Ové, John Ramm, Vineeta Rishi, Sam Stafford, Dan Starkey, Niky Wardley.
The Time War continues to rage around the eighth incarnation of The Doctor, and with fortune, and the conundrum that continues to perplex him in the form of Cass Fermazzi is causing fractures in his personal relationship with his great-grandson Alex; and as the four stories that connect Pursuit play out so the drama of fall out is one of cracks in spirit, and splinters in time.
The four tales, Spoil Of War by Mark Wright, The Tale Of Alex by Katherine Armitage, See-Saw by James Moran, and The First Forest by Tim Foley, contrast quite significantly to the previous box set, Reflections, and sees Sonny McGann relish in the role of a person pushed to their limit and rebelling against the what was once the guiding experience and finding their own path way to enlightenment and adventure.
It is perhaps in The Tale Of Alex that this sense of reveal of just how we need as a species to eventually pursue a line of autonomy when we reach a level of maturity that sees us want to break free, and whilst it may seem to those who once were our heroes as affront, an estrangement, we must maintain the course provided less we become shadows or what could be, or just phantoms of our ancestors beliefs.
Katherine Armitage’s audio drama shows with an insatiable appetite for reveal just how one person’s actions can lead a group of people towards a conclusion that is a direct opposite of a truth, that in a game of giant openly spoken Chinese Whispers, the legitimacy of a claim can become an open source of detraction for a person who wasn’t even there, they carry the pain for all as they attempt to clean up a mess not of their making.
Alongside this, See-Saw is one of the truly terrifying audio dramas from Big Finish, and whilst it may owe a large nod of appreciation to P.J. Hammond’s Sapphire and Steel, the sense of unease as the use of children’s nursery rhymes fills the listener’s imagination is one of great stage control and tremendous insight in just how our childhood held moments of horror that we took in our stride but which dug deep into our subconscious and laid eggs of distress that are birthed in their multitude as faceless dreads, of terrors we then inflict upon our own children.
With tremendous support from Emma Campbell-Jones, Felicity Cant, Lizzie Hopley, and Dan Starkey, Paul McGann’s four cd box adventure of Pursuit is one of understanding that we, as individuals, must escape the reins on occasion as we grow, to test the limits of our own mind without a parent or grandparent to catch us; and for better or worse we must pursue these moments without impunity.
Ian D. Hall