A coup. A stunning one. BBC AUDIO has achieved what BIG FINISH has not achieved to do in nine years - enticing
Septuagenarian Tom Baker from DOCTOR WHO retirement, hand him a moth-eaten thread loosening scarf and tarnished Sonic Screwdriver. Tom Baker's DOCTOR WHO - HORNETS' NEST volume 1 is "event audio" as Christopher Eccleston's first NEW SERIES episode was "event television". A must listened to release.
A tour de force from the iconic Tom Baker as if he had never been away from his equally iconic knit-one-purl-one lines of wool or Pearl Drops whitened teeth character known as the Doctor. The Doctor. A definitive Doctor for all fortysomethings.
Doctor: I can be a very nimble Doctor, when I like.
Even a single word delivered by Baker wrapped deeply in sumptuous velvet is warming -
Doctor: Yes.
-and is enough to literally stop time, allow it to spin on the spot and to take "those of a certain age" back to 1977.
Baker is only as captivating as Magrs' adroit & captivating script. And HORNETS' NEST - THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES is, of course, Fourth Doctor accurate, and I cannot help but think that the lead actor has pedantically (in a positive manner) read the script, red pen in hand, amending & supplementing nefarious "Doctor-isms".
The Doctor: Doctor. I am the Doctor.
And:
The Doctor: Don't be tiresome, man. That's why you've got this room sound-proofed. Muffled and woolly like your own thinking. So you can't hear the noises out there.
And:
The Doctor: I was under attack from a crazed version of THE WIND OF THE WILLOWS.
And:
The Doctor: I set to work. Grimly. I opened up their skulls, working calmly and patiently like a Watch-mender. They're little bones seem to tremble beneath my fingers. I opened their skulls and what did I find? Four little nests of paper.
Add a hint of a Milligan's "Goonism" as a stuffed Weasel leaps from the sideboard and then effectively dispatched by a single bullet replete with suitable comic 1960's wireless sound effects.
With some satisfaction, Yates: "That's the end of him".
However, amid the comic-strip "in-one-single-bound", Magrs demonstrates an eclectic love of the English language, a wonderful obscurity of synonymity and a balance between witticism & pure dramatic terror. The voice he has given to Baker's character, after 28 years absence, is succinct and brilliantly creative.
It seems that Magrs has a wonderful appreciation of food - perhaps a brigade of cookery books on the shelf positioned above his computer (in fact I imagine that Magrs, taps out HORNETS' NEST on manual typewriter) - Marmalade & Bacon sandwich, "a damp Garibaldi" et al. Wonderfully fulfilling.
And his drop-in references to "classic" English writers will add "value" for the older listeners.
The additional incidental is more 1940s "Saturday Morning Picture Show" Buck Rogers-style than Murray Gold's (or even Dudley Simpson's) score for the NEW SERIES, and it's charming, apt and unobtrusive.
As for the plot. Spoilers are not coming from this review. Listen to the "episode" for yourselves. You will not be disappointed. This may not be a "full cast" version complete with overwhelming special sound effects that is adopted by BIG FINISH but that makes this release more rewarding as you focus on the words, the phrasing and the tone as oposed to the gimmics.
I would never oblige you, dear reader, with such a simple statement bit I positively loved BBC AUDIO'S HORNETS'S NEST - THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES, and eagerly await the next "episode" in October. Therefore, I recommend that your pre-order is processed immediately, and if the Recession stops you doing so then steal one. No, better not. A Criminal Record would not be fun. Borrow a friend's copy, turn-off the mobile telephone (or take the landline off-the-hook), grab a Soda (and Whiskey, if age permits), and settle down to be enthralled, entertained and excited by the encounter with him. The Doctor.
The definitive Doctor is back.
Oh, he's back, for five glorious episodes.
Five?
I hope not. I do hope not .
