| Title | : | Doctor Who: The Sandman |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1903654769 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781903654767 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Audio CD |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2002 |
Doctor Who: The Sandman Reviews
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‘So you see Evelyn, I am every bit the monster they perceive me to be…’
The Doctor and Evelyn arrive on a spaceship that is approaching an alien known as the clutch, which are peopled by reptilian humanoids known as Galyari. The Galyari have a history with a man who creates destruction, he is known as The Sandman. Who is also known as The Doctor. The story portrays the Doctor as the villain. I would have I loved the story more if portrayed with Paul McGann for the 8th DOctoroas I could really picture his Doctor. Evelyn also takes a step back in the story as she sees a different side to the Doctor. -
This is a sixth doctor adventure with Evelyn Smythe as his companion and is #37 in the Big Finish main range.
The Doctor and Evelyn appear on a spaceship approaching a fleet of alien spaceships called the Clutch. The Clutch is a nomadic fleet mainly peopled by a species of reptilian humanoids called the Galyari. The Galyari have a long history with a creature of great destruction and violence who wears the skins of defeated Galyari called the Sandman, also known as the Doctor.
I'll start with the positives, which is primarily the Galyari and their fleet. They're a well thought out race, with some thought given to the sort of species from which they've evolved and even the racial obsession with birds. It's also refreshing to see a "villain" race that has progressed from their original nature, but still having trouble with some moral concepts.
There's a couple of issues with this play that I've seen occasionally in other plays in the range. The major issue here is a writer with a clever idea that just doesn't quite fit into the mold, in this case the idea of how a hero is seen by the defeated bad guys when the original battle has been mythologized. You can see how that could work for the Doctor, but some clumsy writing and imagery here just ends up making it feel very out of character.
The other issue is the over-use of voice effects to indicate the aliens. Voice effects in Big Finish are akin to facial prosthetics in Star Trek: the Next Generation, ubiquitous, mostly unnecessary and annoying when overused. In this case they are heavily overused with only the main cast and one other using their natural voices, another one who puts on a silly voice (something like Alpha Centauri from the Peladon TV shows) and every other character having voice effects.
Another slight issue is Evelyn. She's an excellent companion and normally a really good foil for the sixth Doctor, but she's disappointingly underutilized in this one. She's basically reduced to being shocked for about 5 minutes when the Doctor puts on his "evil monster from history" act and then complaining about the Doctor's coat. I'm inclined to give this one a pass. Evelyn is well used in a lot of the other audios and I think it's ok for the companion to take a back seat from time-to-time.
This is a workmanlike entry in the Big Finish range. Worth listening to if you're a completest, but probably skippable if you're looking for the highlights of the early audios. -
Have you ever seen that clip where a TV host struggles but fails to control his laughter while a guest is being interviewed about some condition which left them with a falsetto speaking voice? There's a character here with a frustrating falsetto and I also found it hard to take that character seriously.
In fact it gets hard to take this whole story seriously and I was failing to do so by the third episode. Six and Evelyn are spectacular, but Six plays it up in a big way and I suppose that he had to because in this story he's not just acting for us the listeners, he's also putting on quite a show of force for the Galyari's benefit.
The scenario is fun and interesting to begin with but it kind of spirals out of control in the second act. It's not an entirely believable idea, even initially, but you might try like I did to give it the benefit of the doubt. However, no matter what the "ends" turn out to be, the justification of the means is likely to be unsettling for most Whovians and I think it may have gone a little too far. A few steps back from crossing that line and we might all have been on board with this topsy turvy idea.
Anyway, I didn't hate this story. I was just disappointed because I liked the idea more than the way it was handled. -
Il sesto Dottore e Evelyn, decisamente sotto tono, si trovano alle prese con morti inspiegabili, presumibilmente commesse dallo spirito malvagio che perseguita gli alieni protagonisti. Spirito malvagio, il Sandman, che altri non è che il Dottore stesso.
La struttura sociale ed evolutiva degli alieni è interessante e ben strutturata, peccato che la storia non abbia lo stesso potenziale.
Evelyn non sembra arguta e brillante come sempre, mentre il Dottore si fa valere come al solito.
Peccato, poteva essere decisamente meglio. -
Every culture has a monster that haunts the dreams of small children striking fear in their hearts. Examples being The Boogeyman, The Sackman, El Coco, A Cuca, Babau, or The Baba Yaga. All names given to such a terrifying creature – but what about the Sandman? Have you heard of him? The Sandman is a creature that haunts The Clutch, it has hunted the Galyari people for centuries, wearing their skins for his clothing and ensuring they will never set foot on their homeward ever again. Killings have started escalating and only the Galyari orchestrator can placate him for now. Imagine if you will, this creature is The Doctor himself!! – an amazing premise for an episode if I’ve ever seen one!
“The Clutch is a fleet in constant motion, ships jostling for position, in an endless migration between the stars. For the Galyari, forbidden by an ancient curse from settling on a world ever again, the Clutch is home. But the curse travels with them! The Sandman, a figure of myth and folklore, preys on the young and old alike. He lurks in the shadows and it is death to look upon him. All too soon after the TARDIS arrives, it is evident that the Doctor and the Galyari share a dark history, and Evelyn is shocked to discover that, on the Clutch, it is her friend who is the monster. The Sandman, according to the tales, also goes by the name of the Doctor!”
Sadly, this episode is a little uneven, but still pretty good despite the issues. The issues are that the premise builds to a big reveal that happens in part two, then it turns into a typical “running through corridors” story. When The Doctor is portraying The Sandman, things are pretty crazy. One is left wondering exactly how much bluffing he is doing, or if we are even getting the truth at all. It turns out, The Doctor was pretty ruthless to the Galyari race, but for a good reason…
It turns out The Galyari used to be a colonization-based war race that would overrun a planet, kill all of the inhabitants, call it “Galyar” then move on to the next planet, rinse and repeat. The Doctor was there for one such invasion and stepped in to save the local inhabitants. The only way he could figure out a way to stop the massacres was to create a monster persona and destroy something that caused their warrior culture. The Galyari possessed a large egg-like device called “the racial memory artifact” that existed as some sort of hive-mind that collectively kept the entire race up-to-date on their plans for universal conquest. Without their racial memory to cling to, and with a crippling fear of the Doctor’s wrath implanted into their collective consciousness, they changed for the better. Truly a shame we found all of this out so soon, because the second half is basically just running away from soldiers and trying to figure out who a killer is pretending to be “The Sandman”
One of the funnier moments in this entire episode was the puzzling fact that simply looking at The Doctor causes the Galyari so much pain nobody dares to do it. it turns out that the Galyari were once able to camouflage themselves (much like chameleons, which is also what their overall appearance is like) and possessed super-vision. The enhanced vision stayed part of their biology, even after a millennia of evolution, so looking at The Doctor’s horrendously multi-colored jacket literally hurts their eyes, gives them headaches and causes illness. Pretty great stuff.
Overall I liked this drama, but felt that they “jumped the shark” far too early on, with the reveal happening in the middle. After that, it was basically “paint by numbers” until the end. That isn’t to say the resolution is bad or anything, it’s just not nearly as good as the overall premise promised it to be. That said, The Sandman is still one of the better dramas from this line so far, and Colin Baker and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe are still my favorite pairing. With Evelyn being older, she takes none of the Doctor’s nonsense and calls him out on basically everything. The way she reacted to “The Sandman’s” ridiculous evil incarnate gimmick was great, you could hear her utter disgust seething through her lips. I am sad that Stables is no longer with us, because she was amazing in this role. Check this one out – for the premise alone, it’s worth it. -
コリン・ベイカー主演のオーディオドラマ。6thドクターとイブリンの冒険。
Part1
ドクターとイブリンがターディスを出るとそこは宇宙ジプシーの商人モディカンの宇宙船のブリッジだった。モディカンの目的地がガリヤリ人が管理する巨大巡航船クラッチときき、便乗させてもらうことにする。ドクターはクラッチの管理官ショールにあい、武器の製造取引をやめるように言い渡す。イブリンはガリヤリ人全員がひどくドクターを恐れていることに気がつき、不思議に思って尋ねると、何世代も前からドクターはサンドマンという化け物としてガリヤリ人に恐れられているときき驚く。その頃クラッチ内ではサンドマンによる襲撃事件が頻発しており、今回は指揮官のナローシャの子供達が犠牲になっていた。
Part2
昔、ガリヤリ人がコスカル人を殲滅しようとするのを見かね、ドクターはシュースコブラというガリヤリ人が種族の記憶を受け継いでいくツールを使い、サンドマンへの恐怖心を植え付け、さらにガリヤリ人を惑星から永久追放した。以来、ガリヤリ人は母星を持たずクラッチで移動し続けている。
モディカンはサンバードという小鳥をガリヤリに売ろうとナローシャに商談お持ちかけていた。さらにミンタルを紹介しようとしたがナローシャはサンドマンのことが片付くまで他のことに気を回せないという。モディカンはナローシャが恐れているサンドマンがドクターと知り、ショールにドクターは恐るようなキャラクターではないと話す。それを聞いた
ナローシャはサンドマンことドクターに復讐をしようとベールを呼ぶ。一方ドクターはサンドマンの呪いでガリヤリ人がたびたび不審な死をとげるのをやめて欲しいと訴えられ、ドクターは不審死がどのように始まったのかを尋ねる。最初の犠牲者はショールの前任者で当初疑いは最後に面会していたモディカンにかけられていた。しかしモディカンは商談をしていただけと判明し、サンドマンの仕業であるということになった。それ以降数え切れない犠牲者が出ているという。サンドマンへの恐怖を利用した犯罪が行われていることを悟ったドクターは武器の製造と販売をやめればかつてガリヤリの潜在意識に刷り込んだサンドマンへの恐怖を取り除くと提案する。しかし、話がまとまる前にナローシャがドクターに復讐しようと襲ってくる。
Part3
ショールの前任者について話をきくためモディカンを探すことにしたドクターとイブリン。ドクターを殺そうとクラッチに厳戒態勢がふかれるなか、シャールはドクターがガリヤリに刷り込まれたサンドマンへの恐怖心を無効にしてくれるとその交渉の最中であると話し、いまドクターが殺されるとサンドマンの呪いが解けないと、仲間に打ち明けひそかにドクターを助ける計画をたてる。ナローシャの追跡から逃げる途中、ドクターとイヴリンははぐれてしまい、イブリンはモディカンを見つけ、探りをいれる。
ドクターはサンバードを逃がそうとしているミンタルを手伝い、ガ���ヤリにひどく怯えているミンタルからその理由を聞こうとする。モディカンは自分がここにきたのはモディカンがミンタルがガリヤリにあるものを売りたいから仲介して欲しいと頼まれたからとイブリンに話す。ただミンタルが何を売ろうとし���いるのかは聞いていないという。ドクターはミンタルがガリヤリ星からきたコスカルと見抜くと、ミンタルは自分の仲間がクラッチがガリヤリ星に現れたことから攻撃されると怯え、解決策を探したのだという。そして太古の資料をもとにシュースコブラを掘り出し、それと引き換えに和平交渉しようとモディカンに仲介を頼みここまできたとドクターに打ち明ける。ドクターはシュースコブラの危険性を解き、ミンタルを手伝うことにする。
Part4
イブリンとモディカンと合流したドクターとミンタル。ガリヤリの皮を被った化け物襲われ、ミンタルが負傷してしまう。ドクターはかつてミンタルの祖先をガリヤリの侵略から救った話をする。ガリヤリはシュースコブラでその星が故郷であると刷り込んだ卵を星に仕込み、星を征服するという侵略を繰り返していた。ドクターは脅すことでガリヤリを追い払ったが、すぐに侵略に戻ってきてしまったため、シュースコブラを利用してサンドマンへの恐怖をガリヤリに刷り込み、クスカルに手を出したら皮を剥ぐと脅した。しかしシュースコブラは独自に力を増し、クラッチを掌握しようと暴走したという。事態を取集するためドクターはモディカンと協力することに。
感想
ギャリアリ人のみなさんの声がなかなか聞きわけができなくて状況と関係性を掴むまでに時間がかかった。というか、正直、最後までよくわからなかった。種族の記憶にドクターが恐ろしい存在として刷り込まれているというアプローチは面白いと感じたが、タイムロードの本性やドクターのモラルが絡むようなことではないので、いつも通りの冒険という感じ。ギャリアリ人の個別認識に手間取らなければもう少し楽しめたかな？ あとはドクターの上着の色が凶器っていうのが笑えた。
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Some interesting ideas here: the Clutch, a constantly moving fleet of ships traveling through space, tethered or otherwise locked together, but with ships frequently shifting their place in the great swarm; the Doctor as a terrifying figure of legend, which not only does he not deny, he uses to his advantage, playing his role so well that even companion Eveyln Smythe wonders if the Doctor is really the person she thinks he is.
On the down-side, the voices of the alien lizard people are sometimes hard to understand and even harder to tell apart. Thank goodness for the non-lizard characters populating the story to give us a break from the growly alien voices.
There's some really good world-building going on, but I'm not entirely sure I fully understood what was going on when it was revealed in the final part. It's all a bit too bio-techno-whatsis. However, the mystery of exactly how the Doctor became a legendary angel of death drives the narrative and keeps you engaged.
Chronologically, this episode is preceded by
Project: Twilight, and is followed by
Jubilee. -
A fascinating idea, the Sixth Doctor as a monster that terrorizes and tortures an entire species... and he admits that it's true!
The story rides high, teasing hints of the truth behind the Doctor's "Sandman" persona and playing around with some harder sci-fi with the idea of "The Clutch", an ever shifting, gypsy-esque conglomeration of ships attached to each other as if unto a mother's teat, but eventually the play has to come clean and put The Doctor back in his hero robes (uh, coat) and it kind of plods from that point on.
Nice performances all around and The Sixth and Evelyn continue to be THE team to be measured against in the Big Finish audios, but the payoff isn't quite there. -
Sadly, it's only natural to hate the things we don't understand.
Evelyn Smythe in Doctor Who: The Sandman
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I don't think Simon A. Forward as a writer is for me. I listened to his dreamtime audio, and I did not like this one. It was only a matter of time before I was going to run into a bad 6th Doctor and Evelyn audio, and I think this is it.
It's not the worst story ever, but it's a dull plod. I did not care for the plot or the characters, and there were some bits that were over the top.
Evelyn was criminally under used, but the quote I wrote here was really fitting, especially with the riots happening in the UK. -
I like the way they showed this side of the Doctor but I wish they would have thrown themselves into it a little more. I understand what they were trying to do, but it would have been easier with a different doctor, such as ten, eleven or even eight.
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Evelyn Smythe, travelling with the sixth Doctor, is amazed when he is accused of war crimes, and appalled when he seems to admit to them. Turns out he's been offering tough love to an entire species, but someone has been doing much worse in his name. Not bad, but quite shouty.
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I never get tired of the old trope of the Doctor as a villain to those who oppress. Whenever this occurs I’m usually shocked. Then I realize that of course he would be a villain to the bad guys! He’s ruining all there villainy!
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pro: der Doctor und seine Bedeutung für die Galyari
contra: zu wenig Evelyn, die Galyari waren für mich schlecht verständlich -
6 (Colin Baker) and Evelyn (Maggie Stables) find trouble again.
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This started off with a bit of promise and mystery, but gradually became less interesting.
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3,5
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Even Colin Baker as the Doctor and Maggie Stables as his companion, Evelyn, cannot save this story which ultimately goes to a darker place.
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Quite an interesting story in which we see the Doctor from a different perspective, as a formidable, scheming opponent who is not averse to playing the villain in a good cause. Would that we could see some of this Doctor in the new series! I mean there are glimpses of it with Martha's mother seeing the Doc as bad news etc, but it would be great to really see a side of him that I think we haven't since 6 and 7 and of course best of all with Hartnell himself. The culture of the Clutch is interesting and the whole transformation from marauders to merchants and the thing about their collective-memory egg is all quite deft worldbuilding. I wish Maggie Stables' consistently excellent Evelyn Smythe was given more to do in these stories! She's a scholar, a historian and even if her expertise is Elizabethan England there must be something she can apply from it, knowledge of political currents or something!!!
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I liked the first half of this a bit better than the second half. A culture where the Doctor is legendary as a feared monster rather than a kind of mythical hero is an interesting idea, and the notion that the Doctor deliberately cultivated this idea is even more interesting - and I think it might have actually been explored a bit more deeply. The second half of the play was inevitably a bit more taken up with exposition and the concoction of a clever plot to defeat the bad guy - much more standard Doctor Who fare. But it's standard Doctor Who fare that is still portrayed with quite a lot of interest and energy. This is definitely one of my favorites of the Big Finish stories I've listened to lately.
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I think I've come to the assumption I am not really a fan of Simon A Forward.
Drift was a disappointment with many issues, Dream time was not very well executed when it progressed and I really struggled to get through his unpublished work 'Equilibrium'
The Sandman is his only story I consider good, enjoyable and well executed for the most part.
Has a great concept of The Doctor shown in a different viewpoint. A Villain, A Monster called The Sandman. This alien lizard race are scared of him and see him as a tyrant.
It shows some dark sides of The Doctor and I see it as a good foreshadow to The Valeyard and his more darker and manipulative seventh incarnation.
7/10 -
This is another of those Doctor-returns-to-the-scene-of-a-previous-adventure stories, which generally don't grab me, combined with the Is-the-sixth-Doctor-evil? theme which did so much to blight his years on the programme. Good marks for a complex and detailed alien culture with which the Doctor has to grapple (one of the Galyari is played by Anneke Wills, aka Polly). Poor marks for lots of expository passages and for not really working a plot into the situation. Probably my least favourite Six/Evelyn story so far.
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Not as terrible as most of the reviews make it out to be, the only real problems I found were at points it got quite boring and lacked a bit in plot, also I do feel the "doctor being evil" thing has been played out way too much, if they are going to do it they could at least try and make it a bit more original. Otherwise it was still quite entertaining and definitely worth the listen, I found the conclusion, somewhat predictable, but still satisfying, and the acting was again, wonderful.
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When the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn visit the Clutch — a large community of spacecrafts that never settle on one planet — Evelyn discovers that the Doctor is held in fear by the Galyari. They know him as "the Sandman", a figure from their mythology, an ancient bogeyman — and the Doctor does not deny being that which they regard with fear.
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The Doctor takes Evelyn to menace a species to keep them on the straight and narrow. That species sees him as the mythical sandman, a monster that takes their children in their sleep. Meanwhile, something is killing the aliens. A really good idea, a different view of the Doctor from those he has defeated. Evelyn gets some good bits, especially being the moral compass. A good listen.
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This wasn't the best of plots, it did feel very much like 80s scifi though. It was also lovely to hear a new to me adventure with Evelyn and Sixie. They are just such a wonderful combination and Evelyn had so many brilliant lines. I also quite liked the gypsy trader, especially the way him and Evelyn got on. An enjoyable adventure.
