Here we have the second of the Barry Letts penned BBC Audio Dramas staring Jon Pertwee (playing The Doctor for the last time, sadly…), Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney. Once again Richard Pearce’s Jeremy Fitzoliver appears to ruin most scenes he’s in but now he’s joined by a whole host of over-the-top cheesy accents! Headphone users beware… Let’s take a look…
Much like the previous release the main highlight is our lead trio in The Doctor, Sarah and the Brigadier all interacting with their original actors in the roles. Certainly hearing Mr. Pertwee for the final time is a bittersweet experience, but it’s nice he got to return to the role at all.
The original cassette release cover, complete with Nicholas Courtney looking NOTHING like Nicholas Courtney… that’s why future releases use old stock photos from the show…
The plot has some highlights, just about. The concept of “Null Space” (which is different to the N-Space from the E-Space trilogy, keep up!) is a fun one, basically it’s a connected dimension that has various nasty creatures known as “N-Forms” hanging about but can also easily take an “imprint” of someone who suffers from a traumatic experience upon death. It normally peacefully coexists with our dimension but at the Brig’s uncle’s Sicilian castle the barrier is weak and gets weakened further by the conjunction of various planets. This is something a man named Vilmius (Stephen Thorne) discovered in the 16th Century and he used the N-Space power to prolong his life, and even potentially gain immortality. He turns out to be going under the name of Max Vilmio in the current day, acting as a mob boss trying to take Uncle Mario’s castle because of its weakened connection (yes, I know, Uncle Mario…) The Doctor and Sarah enter N-Space via something akin to astral projection at various points, seeing Vilmius’ history and running from N-Space “demons”. It’s some fun mixing of science fiction and religious beliefs.
The original CD release, once again featuring really crap CGI on the cover…
Once again Jeremy Fitzoliver is painful on the old ears, which given this exists only as audio is a bit of a problem. He and Sarah are coincidentally on holiday at Sicily when they spot The Brig and follow him to the Castle, but Jeremy is just whining and complaining the whole way and it just drives all the fun out of everything. Sadly along with Jeremy you have characters like Vilmius during his Vilmio days, Uncle Mario (Harry Towb) and especially Vilmio’s female second Maggie (Sandra Dickinson) who have such overly exaggerated and cartoony accents that I could barely be bothered to continue to put myself through it at points, and this story is a full six parts! Anyone who’s complained about some of the American accents on Big Finish audios needs to give a few parts of this a listen, that’s for sure…
It does go on for a bit, unlike the previous story that changed locations frequently, this was just Mario’s Castle and N-Space with the odd flashback so some of the middle chapters really drag. When something drags and has loads of obnoxious voices it really does bring you down. Oh and The Brig having an Sicilian Uncle Castillo? Come on… come up with another reason for him to be there, he’s already part Scottish!
The Continuity:
The re-release CD cover, once again just using a random photo from the show with zero effort…
Obviously this follows on from “Paradise of Death” though not straight away as Sarah mentions having met Daleks, so this must be after “Death to the Daleks” for her.
The only other connection I can think of is the Eighth Doctor audio “Seasons of Fear”, which sees The Doctor encounter an immortal man at several historical points where he tries to use a unique conjunction to summon the aliens that gave him power. That’s one of my favourite audio stories, so it’s safe to say I’d recommend that over this…
Overall Thoughts:
And finally the book adaptation cover, which has the fun Virgin Missing Adventures drawn artwork, if nothing else.
The Ghosts of N-Space is a really hard time on the ears thanks to some truly terrible voice work and obnoxious Jeremy still hanging about. What’s worse is that it’s one of those six parters that drag in the middle, so overall the fun concepts and a few good scenes don’t really help you get through this mess… Best to avoid, beyond its historical context as Jon’s last time in the role.
The climax actually takes place in N-Space as The Doctor and Vilmius face off using the power of the dimension, Sarah’s mental will and belief in him giving The Doctor power while his foe forces the power into himself, both of them taking on different astral forms in the process (The Doctor a while knight, Vilmius a devil). The Doctor succeeds at cutting Vilmius off from his real world body and then watches on as his N-Form explodes due to taking on too much energy. It’s an exciting climax, but not worth the effort to get to…
Okay, fine… I guess I’ll post the Vinyl cover again, for completion’s sake!
Hogan Reviews 