Hogan Reviews

The not-particularly-good run of Seventh Doctor-Naomi-Harry stories come to their conclusion with “Past Forward”, a rather odd set in that it’s two stories but one story takes place in the middle of another one but impacts the second half of the first story greatly. Keeping up? Good! So really its one long story which is why I’ve not split the set up. John Dorney’s “With the Angels” is a cracker too, the one that makes up the first and third of the set, with the exception of one too many fourth-wall-breaking references to a popular YouTube show during its second half. Anyway, let’s take a look at how Naomi and Harry leave, and how a new companion starts…

The first half of “With the Angels” opens up with The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Naomi (Eleanor Crooks) and Harry (Christopher Naylor) ending up in the wrong time again as instead of the 70s as promised it’s more modern times, although Harry is upset The Doctor asks Naomi if she would really be happy back in that time period as black people are, um, moderately treated better now then they were back then. *ahem*. Naomi isn’t sure but we the listeners sure as hell now know where she’s going to end up! Anyway while they’re running about we’re introduced to a family of unpleasant rich businessmen called the Bladukas family, specifically Irving Bladukas (Josh Cowdrey) and his children Max (Cavin Cornwall), Kiva (Laura Aikman) and Reiner (Alasdair Hankinson). The one to watch here is Max, as he is your classic underappreciated child who just wants his father’s attention and “knows” he’d be the better choice to run the company rather than his brother Reiner, who always got all the attention. His only happy memories of being with his father is playing chess, where he’d win to his father’s surprise and because of that he has his eyes on an auction with a very specific chess set on sale…

This chess set is also why UNIT get in contact with The Doctor and pals as its actually a Weeping Angel carved into chess pieces, but due to how Angels work its very much alive and in agony due to being cut up, but also each piece can also act independently as a mini-Angel, with the white pieces sending people back in time and the black forward (or the other way round, can’t remember…) Just as Max wins the auction The Doctor and UNIT break in and seize the set, much to his anger. The End! … Okay, fine, Max manages to get his hands of the set thanks to bribing a UNIT agent and also thanks to that very agent finds out how they can work and as he escapes the mini-Angels surround and touch Naomi and Harry separately, sending Harry back to his own native time (handy!) and Naomi off to the future. Where’s The Doctor during all of this you ask? Well, he had a special meeting with someone who turns out to be his future self, who then tells him of a doomed future and the steps he’d need to do to prevent it, which sadly included allowing his companions to be zapped. He’s also given a vortex manipulator and told where to go first, leading to our next story “Catastrophix”.

A good cover, they even managed to resist putting the Weeping Angels on the cover to draw extra eyes to it.

The story focuses on the two eras the companions have been sent to, with The Doctor hopping back between the two due to a single person linking the two times, Madoc Howell (Daon Broni). Harry is back with 70s UNIT and together with The Doctor they look into a holiday camp where Ray (Sara Griffiths) of “Delta and the Bannermen” fame (or infamy, really…) is the only person a young Madoc can really count on, while Naomi is stuck in a dystopian, post-apocalypse world thanks to the adult Madoc having driven the world to ruin through heartless corporate greed brought about by his mistreatment by others. It’s an interesting concept and has some fun moments but really it serves as a means to connect Ray and The Doctor back together and … that’s about it. Even Harry and Naomi’s goodbyes are hardly that, teenage Madoc is killed and thus future is saved and Harry goes back to work in his native time and The Doctor wishes Naomi good luck in living in the now-non-dystopian present (um, for now anyway…) With all that being said, The Doctor knows he has some unfinished business back with the Bladukas so takes Ray back to where this adventure started to continue the opening story of the set…

It’s a good story overall, with Sylvester on fine form, and Naylor doing his usual great Harry stuff. Yes, I’ll say it for the final time (for now anyway), Eleanor Crooks still doesn’t have this audio acting thing down, sounding like she’s reading a script without much emotion despite what crazy stuff might be going on around her, so I’m not sorry to see the character go, but Sara Griffiths is a delight at least, Ray’s cheery sarcasm is a nice pairing with the more serious later-Seventh.

The Continuity:

This brings an end to the Harry and Naomi stories that started with the Fourth Doctor story “Storm of the Sea Devils”, at least timeline wise, given the odd release pattern these have had. As mentioned Ray returns from Seventh Doctor TV story “Delta and the Bannermen”, though the surprise is somewhat ruined by the fact Ray has already appeared travelling with the Doctor in the audio story “The Krillitane Relic”, which was part of a multi-Doctor special release. Odd that it happened for all three companions in this set…

Overall Thoughts:

Past Forward is an enjoyable story full of time travel shenanigans and a unique and well realised new way to use the Weeping Angels. It’s not faultless, the middle chapter is a bit meandering and there are parts of the finale ruined by over-doing what started as a funny reference, but otherwise it’s a solid set.

The second part of “With the Angels” focuses on Max Bladukas now he has his Weeping Angel army. He starts off by vanishing his brother Reiner just before their father’s big celebration on his boat where he was set to name Reiner as his successor. It’s during a phone call here at the start where there was a funny reference to the YouTube sketch series “Pitch Meeting”, using the “get all the way off my back about that” “Okay let me get off that thing” gag to great effect given it fit the conversation they were having, it’s just later Ray says that sneaking on the boat is “super easy, barely an inconvenience” which didn’t sound like something she’d naturally say, and then during an intense verbal showdown between Max and The Doctor Mr. Dorney did it for a third time and has Max say something was “tight” in the exact same way as the Pitch Meeting character, killing all mood dead. Now obviously if you’re unaware of “Pitch Meeting” this won’t be such a big deal (though Ray’s line will still sound weird) but for me it took me right out of the story, twice.

… Anyway, despite getting rid of Reiner all that happens is that Irving selects his daughter Kiva to be his successor instead and then when Max kicks up a fuss about it Irving admits he let Max win those chess games because he was so pathetic. As you can imagine this doesn’t sit well with Max who then unleashes the Angels and gets rid of his father and sister in a rage before turning them on the other guests, and then playing a “friendly” game of chess with The Doctor. As a result of the game Angels are unleashed at once and they reform into a single, now black and white chequered Weeping Angel that if its touches you sends half of you back in time and the other half forward, thus ripping you into pieces. This is Max’s fate and then thanks to the Doctor and Ray’s efforts the Angel sinks to the bottom of the loch with the boat, unable to ever move as it will be surrounded by fish “who never blink”. Love that, turning the classic debut episode on its head. The Doctor quickly pops back in time to be the bearer of bad news to his past self before he and Ray head off for adventures new.