‘Castle of Fear’ (Audio)

‘CASTLE OF FEAR’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Stockbridge Castle and Rutans with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa

Tim Bradley’s CD cover of ‘Castle of Fear’ signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison at ‘Regenerations 2016’, Swansea, September 2016

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at the ‘London Film & Comic Con 2011’, Earl’s Court, London, July 2011

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at the ‘London Film & Comic Con’, Earl’s Court, London, July 2011

Well, what can I say about ‘Castle of Fear’? 😀

I greatly enjoyed checking out this audio story when I first heard it in December 2009, as I found it very amusing, entertaining and engaging. Mind you, I’ve had to listen to this story several times to get my head around some of the terminology that would have been used in the Middle Ages. 🙂

‘Castle of Fear’ is a four-part story by Alan Barnes. It’s the first of ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. I had all three stories of the trilogy for Christmas 2009. I was so excited about this new trilogy with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

I’ve had my CD cover of ‘Castle of Fear’ signed by Peter Davison at ‘Regenerations 2016’ in Swansea, September 2016 and by the lovely Sarah Sutton at the ‘London Film & Comic Con’ in July 2011. Sarah is absolutely brilliant in this audio story, and it happens to be one of her favourites.

Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison in ‘Castle of Fear’.

At the ‘London Film & Comic Con’ in July 2011, Sarah told me that she listened to ‘Castle of Fear’ in the car and that she enjoyed working with John Sessions. I greatly enjoyed chatting to Sarah about ‘Castle of Fear’ when I interviewed her on her top five favourite Big Finish audios in York 2017.

‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ is set in a special place in ‘Doctor Who’ from comic book land. I never read any of the Fifth Doctor comic stories featuring Stockbridge before hearing this Big Finish audio trilogy, but it didn’t matter, as it was enough that Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton were in it.

‘Castle of Fear’ sets ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ off to a good start. It does feels like a special Christmas offering, as the Doctor and Nyssa attend a Boxing Day gathering at the Green Dragon Inn in 1899. They watch a mummers’ play being performed with St. George fighting a fiery dragon.

The mummers’ play happens to feature a certain ‘doctor’ in a white coat with a stick of celery on his lapel. As you can guess, this concerns the Doctor, and it isn’t before long he and Nyssa are whisked off back in time to the ‘measly’ Middle Ages at Stockbridge Castle and solve this mystery.

Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and John Sessions in ‘Castle of Fear’.

‘Castle of Fear’ is filled with doses of comedy and drama. The comedy echoes the likes of ‘Monty Python’ and ‘Blackadder’. This is evident in the performances of some of the story’s guest stars, who are outrageously funny, and it did make me think “Wait a minute, this can’t be happening!” 😀

John Sessions guest stars as Roland of Britanny, who is outrageously funny. Roland is a Normandy Knight with a bad French accent and a cruel streak in him. As the story goes, Roland claims to be a famous knight, declaring glory and honour on his noble quest. But Roland isn’t as he appears. 😐

As well as ‘Castle of Fear’, the late John Sessions played Mozart in the episode ‘My Own Private Wolfgang’ in the Big Finish audio anthology ‘100’. In my mind, I’ve cast John Sessions as Gordon Rotenhend in one of my Fifth Doctor stories called ‘The Space Hotel’. He would be terrific in that.

Joe Thomas, who is well-known for playing Simon Cooper in ‘The Inbetweeners’, guest stars as Hubert, Earl of Mummerset. He’s such a delight to listen to in this audio story, as he’s basically playing an upper-class twit, and has good comedic timing when things aren’t going Hubert’s way.

Joe Thomas, Susan Brown, writer Alan Barnes, Teddy Kempner and Richard Cotton in ‘Castle of Fear’.

In the story, Hubert returns to Stockbridge to claim his inheritance. He assigns anyone to rid Stockbridge Castle of its demons, including the Doctor and Nyssa. But as the story progresses, it turns out Hubert isn’t who he seems to be either, which I found funny and fascinating all at once.

Susan Brown guest stars as Maud the Withered, the local herbalist in Stockbridge in 1199. To ‘Doctor Who’ fans, Susan Brown is well-known for playing Bridget Spears in Series 3 of ‘Torchwood’ called ‘Children of Earth’. She’s also appeared in more Big Finish audios over the years.

In ‘Castle of Fear’, Susan delivers a funny performance as Maud the Withered. I liked her scenes with the Doctor when she helped him out of a boar trap to enter the castle. It’s sad she got killed in ‘Part Two’. At least she got to be like Frazer from ‘Dad’s Army’ and say, “You’re doomed!” at lot.

The guest cast also includes Richard Cotton as Osbert, a cowardly peasant that Nyssa and the Doctor befriend in Stockbridge 1199. He has faced the demons in Stockbridge Castle. There’s also Teddy Kempner as Yavuz, the Turkish knight that joins Hubert on his return to Stockbridge. 🙂

Teddy Kempner, Joe Thomas, John Sessions, Richard Cotton and Trevor Cooper in ‘Castle of Fear’.

And there’s Trevor Cooper as Smithy, the blacksmith in Stockbridge who likes to brand people for punishment. He almost brands Osbert for cowardice. Trevor Cooper has been in other ‘Doctor Who’ stories ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ and ‘Robot of Sherwood’, and is well-known for playing Colin Devis in ‘Star Cops’. 🙂

There are also characters played by members of the cast, including the mummers in 1899. John Sessions is the mummer playing the Doctor, Joe Thomas is St. George, Richard Cotton is the dragon (also called Edward), Teddy Kempner is the Turkish Knight and Trevor Cooper is Father Christmas.

There are the yokels in 1189, played by Richard Cotton, Susan Brown and Teddy Kempner. And of course, there are the demons, played by Richard Cotton and Teddy Kempner. When it’s revealed who the demons of Stockbridge Castle are, it took me by surprise as I wasn’t expecting it to happen.

The demons happen to be the Rutans, the enemies of the Sontarans. I like the references to ‘The Time Warrior’ and ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ featured in this story. I listened to ‘Castle of Fear’ before seeing ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ on DVD on New Year’s Day in 2010. It was great to hear the Rutans on audio.

Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is the highlight for me in this story. She does so much as Nyssa when she’s separated from the Doctor. It was nice to hear Nyssa have a wry sense of humour in this. That’s not to say she didn’t have one before, but I did like it when she laughed and found things amusing.

I liked it when Nyssa stood up to Roland of Brittany on his principles about being a ‘mercenary’. She has beautiful line of dialogue when she says, “Well, I’d rather be a peasant than a mercenary.” This demonstrates her compassionate and caring nature, especially when she befriends Osbert.

Nyssa gets to be clever in ‘Part Four’. She fooled me as well as the Doctor when it seemed the Rutans had killed her off and she was one of them. I liked it when Nyssa saved the day from the Rutans. She also solves the riddle of the mummers’ play connecting to the events of Stockbridge Castle.

This isn’t Nyssa’s first visit to Stockbridge, since she met and fell in love with Andrew in ‘Circular Time: Autumn’, my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ audio episode by Big Finish. I’m very pleased that the connections were made to Nyssa’s past in ‘Castle of Fear’ and the rest of ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’.

Peter Davison is fantastic as the Doctor in this audio story. He’s one out of four of my favourite Doctors in the series (the others being Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker). Peter’s energy shines throughout and he has a terrific chemistry with Sarah as Nyssa.

In the story, Peter’s Doctor is initially reluctant to take part in the 1899 mummers’ play, especially when it features a certain ‘doctor’ in it. The comedy works well when Peter’s Doctor isn’t performing his part well and he ruins in the play in the process. But it gets unusually intriguing. 😐

When Edward who plays the dragon in the mummers’ play has a funny turn and claims to be Osbert, the Doctor wants to solve the mystery as he and Nyssa go back in time to Stockbridge Castle in the 12th century. I like how that mystery-solving aspect of the Doctor gets developed. 🙂

The Doctor’s fondness for Nyssa also stands out well in this story, especially when he becomes upset that it might be that the Rutans killed her. I like how Peter explained in the behind-the-scenes interviews how Nyssa works well as a companion to the Fifth Doctor compared to others.

The story ends on a cliffhanger, as the Doctor and Nyssa become trapped inside the Rutan ship and it explodes. I wondered what was going to happen next, and I immediately inserted Disc 1 of the next story of the trilogy, ‘The Eternal Summer’, into my CD player after enjoying ‘Castle of Fear’.

‘Castle of Fear’ is a great beginning to a fantastic trilogy of stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. It’s one of my favourites and it’s one of Sarah Sutton’s favourites too. I enjoyed the comedy-drama in this story, and I greatly enjoyed Sarah as Nyssa, since she stands out very well for me. 🙂

Peter Davison is also very good as the Fifth Doctor, as he continually delivers the energy and spirit of the character he played on TV well in the Big Finish audios. I first heard ‘Part One’ of ‘Castle of Fear’ on Christmas Day in 2009 after first viewing ‘Part One’ of ‘The End of Time’ on TV that day. 🙂

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of Disc 1, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, John Sessions, Joe Thomas, Susan Brown, writer Alan Barnes, director Barnaby Edwards, etc. I enjoyed the comments made by Peter and Sarah, especially when they talk about how these audio stories develop their characters compared to the TV series. At the end of Disc 2, there’s ‘Episode Eight’ of ‘The Three Companions’, starring Anneke Wills as Polly, Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and John Pickard as Thomas Brewster. ‘The Three Companions’ is complete in ‘The Companion Chronicles Specials’ box set. There’s also a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the second story in ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ called ‘The Eternal Summer’, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.

If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘Castle of Fear’ via a 6 or 12 download subscription, you’ll get the following extras. There are extended extras and a PDF script for ‘Castle of Fear’.

‘Castle of Fear’ rating – 10/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘Nameless’ (PT2) For Nyssa was ‘Nameless’ (PT2)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Eternal Summer’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Eternal Summer’ (Audio)
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