Doctor Who: The Burning Prince

Sometimes, life gets temporarily so complicated, that you can actually forget the things that make you happy. Weird, but true. For example, for years (decades?) one of my favourite activities has been painting miniatures while listening to audio drams - usually Doctor Who. However, over the last year, I have had so little time to paint, that I temporarily forgot. My painting sessions became speed challenges - get out the paints, paint as fast as possible, get it all put away again, before life (children) intervened. It often didn't even occur to me to bust out the headphones as well. 

In truth these sessions rarely achieved much in the way of happiness, and thus they became even more infrequent.

Lately, I have been thinking about my own happiness, and I realized that this is something I need back in my life. So, I acquired a few audios, booked out some uninterrupted painting time, and got back to this simple pleasure.

One of the first of this new round of audio adventures was Doctor Who: The Burning Prince, a really excellent example of Big Finish Productions. This is Doctor Who in full action/horror mode. In tone, it is more similar to Aliens and Predator than anything else. Although one might be skeptical about action done in an audio format, I challenge you to listen to the first 30 - 40 minutes of this adventure and not get caught up in the narrative drive. The tight script is greatly aided by the backing music and sound production. 

In fact, the drive is so furious, that it can't quite be maintained for the full two-hours, and the second half doesn't quite live up to the first, but it is still a strong story overall.

Usually, Peter Davidson is not my favourite audio Doctor; however, it was really nice to hear him in this adventure, free from his usual overload of companions.

For those who might be thinking of picking it up, I encourage them to do so. It is a nice stand-alone adventure - though it hints at sequels. I will warn that it is also a product of a very specific, and very dark, era of Doctor Who, when the show bordered on nihilism. Not a an era I want to visit often, but it certainly was enjoyable this time around.