‘Iterations of I’ (Audio)

 

‘ITERATIONS OF I’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The I with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric

Tim Bradley’s CD box set cover of ‘The FIfth Doctor Box Set’ (front) signed by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse

Tim Bradley’s ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ cover (rear) signed by director Ken Bentley and writer John Dorney

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison at H-Con, Eastleigh in Hampshire, July 2015

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison at ‘H-Con’, Eastleigh in Hampshire in July 2015

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton at ‘H-Con’, Eastleigh in Hampshire, July 2015

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse and Janet Fielding at Big Finish Day 6, Slough, January 2015

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania 22’, Milton Keynes, November 2014

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania 22’, Milton Keynes, November 2014

Tim Bradley’s ‘Iterations of I’ script (front page) signed by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, Joseph Radcliffe, Andrew Macklin, Sinead Kinean, Teddy Kempner and John Dorney.

Tim Bradley’s ‘Iterations of I’ script (front page) signed by Sarah Sutton

Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding, Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton in ‘Iterations of I’.

I…I…I enjoyed this ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventure. ‘Iterations of I’ is a four-part story by John Dorney. It is the second audio adventure in ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’, which was released in August 2014. 🙂

‘Iterations of I’ is a mathematical ghost story. John Dorney writes a compelling tale for us to listen to. I listened to this story on the second part of my family’s journey to Scotland for our summer holiday.

This was in the daytime on the 23rd of August 2014. I know this because it was on the same day that my parents and I saw ‘Deep Breath’, the first ‘Doctor Who’ story with Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor.

‘Iterations of I’ is set between ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘Earthshock’. I presume this story also occurs after ‘The Darkening Eye’. I also wrote a Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Adric and Billy tale during that period. 😉

In the story, Adric attempts to pilot the TARDIS to Heathrow Airport in the year 1981. But when it goes wrong, the TARDIS ends up on Fleming’s Island off the Irish coast. Adric is dumbstruck by this. 😐

After the TARDIS falls off a cliff, the TARDIS foursome seek help at a manor house on the island. But there is something terrible happening inside the house where a series of computers are operating. 😐

The computers are running the certain letter ‘I’, which happens to be an imaginary number in the world of mathematics. The number ‘I’ could also mean the death of every human being on the planet Earth.

John Dorney begins his story by introducing us to Imogen Frazer. Months later, Jerome Khan reports his girlfriend missing and soon, we have our first Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric TARDIS scene.

I like how the story is placed after ‘Black Orchid’. The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric seem to be at ease. They have formed a camaraderie. I like the character-driven moments shared between them. 🙂

The story has an earthbound setting, which is nice. It helped to visualize the atmosphere of Fleming’s Island. It was also really nice to have an Irish setting, especially with the characters and their accents.

The story does contain a lot of mathematics, echoing the Christopher H. Bidmead stories from his era. I told Sarah that I wasn’t good at maths and she said, “You and me both, Tim”, which was nice. 🙂

Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison and Janet Fielding in ‘Iterations of I’.

Peter Davison is great as the Fifth Doctor. He’s found his persona by this point and has balanced out his responsibilities for his companions. I like it when the Doctor is working out what’s going on here.

He does get annoyed when having to explain things to people, especially when they don’t realise that the ‘I’ is a sentient number. He also acquires a bulky calculator which helps in defeating the ‘I’. 🙂

Janet Fielding is equally great as Tegan. By this stage, Tegan has got over wanting to go back to Heathrow and seems happy to ‘stick with the crew for a while’. She still can get cranky at times here.

Tegan gets to say the jokes featured throughout this story and she has sharp banters with the Doctor. I enjoyed it when Tegan kept asking questions about what is going on with the ‘I’ and such. 🙂

Sarah Sutton is lovely as Nyssa. Nyssa is easily scared when she and her friends visit the manor house. I became anxious when she kept saying, “I…I…I…” in certain moments throughout this tale. 😐

When I saw Sarah at ‘Collectormania 22’ in Milton Keynes in November 2014, I jokingly asked her if she was doing her impersonation of the seagulls in ‘Finding Nemo’ that went “Mine, mine, mine!” 😀

Matthew Waterhouse is equally good as Adric. This story suits Adric, especially as his mathematical skills are put to good use. I enjoyed it when Adric was able to work out the iterative process of the ‘I’.

It’s definitely a standout character moment for him. It was a shock when Adric got shot in the leg by DeValley and was taken away as his prisoner. Thankfully, Adric managed to get out of the helicopter. 🙂

The story’s guest cast are also very good. There’s Sinead Keenan (who was in ‘The End of Time’) as Aoife (pronounced ‘EE-fuh’) Dineen, and Teddy Kempner as Donal Dineen, Aoife’s father in the story.

There’s Joseph Radcliffe as Jerome Khan and Andrew Macklin as Constable Robert DeValley. And there’s also Alison McKenzie as Imogen Frazer, Jerome’s girlfriend, and John Dorney as Martin Tuck.

The story concludes with the Doctor and his friends defeating the ‘I’ monster. There is a debate about whether Adric is to blame for landing the TARDIS on Fleming’s Island when using his calculations.

Tegan has also made her choice to stay aboard the TARDIS, which pleases Nyssa. It’s interesting how this audio story sort-of leads into ‘Earthshock’, knowing what’s going to happen to these characters.

The cast of ‘Iterations of I’. From left to right: Teddy Kempner, Sinead Keenan, Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding, Peter Davison, Joseph Radcliffe, Andrew Macklin and Sarah Sutton.

‘Iterations of I’ is a pretty good atmospheric ‘Doctor Who’ ghost story, which also has mathematics in it. I don’t fully get the maths aspect of the story, but I still found this a pretty fun story to listen to. 🙂

John Dorney writes well for the four TARDIS characters, and Peter, Sarah, Janet and Matthew are very good as the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. Be careful now and be very weary of the ‘I…I…I…

At the end of Disc 4 of ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’, there are two tracks of incidental music to enjoy.

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BONUS DISC – THE MAKING OF THE FIFTH DOCTOR BOX SET

Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Peter Davison in ‘Iterations of I’.

I listened to ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ for a second time after my family summer holiday in Scotland in 2014. Disc 5 of ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ contains ‘The Making of The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ behind-the-scenes documentary, which I enjoyed listening to about the making of ‘Psychodrome’ and ‘Iterations of I’. 🙂

The documentary contains interviews with Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse, who talk about Adric’s return and the Fifth Doctor TARDIS team reunion. There’s also director Ken Bentley, writer Jonathan Morris and writer John Dorney who talk more on these things.

The documentary has two halves. Each half delves into the making of the two stories. There are interviews with Robert Whitelock, Phil Mulryne, Camilla Power, Bethan Walker, Sinead Keenan, Joseph Radcliffe, Andrew Macklin, Teddy Kempner and Allison McKenzie, who guest star in the stories.

I enjoyed Sarah Sutton’s comments on both stories. They include Sarah reflecting on the character journeys featured in ‘Psychodrome’ and being pleased about the Ireland setting in ‘Iterations of I’. I found it amusing when Sarah shared how she failed her O Level Maths exam. Oh dear! Poor Sarah! 🙂

I do like the CD covers for the two stories, although I’m dismayed they’re not put together as 2-disc CD sets. There was a fiery debate about it between Sarah, Janet and Matthew at ‘Big Finish Day 6’ in January 2015. The cast photos in the CD covers are good, especially Sarah who’s lovely in all of them.

I was at ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ in Brighton in November 2014, and I won a signed script of ‘Iterations of I’ by Sarah, plus the front page of the script with every cast signature on it. I received the script in the post with a nice message from Sarah. I thanked her for it at a ‘Timeless Collectors’ sci-fi fair in Fareham two weeks later before Christmas.

I really love ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’. It felt like watching Season 19 all over again, as it features my favourite TARDIS team. I’ve written my own story featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Adric and Billy from this. ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ has a lot of nostalgia of the Peter Davison era throughout it.

I’m very pleased I’ve heard the two stories ‘Psychodrome’ and ‘Iterations of I’ from the box set. I highly recommend ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’! I hoped there would be ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set 2’ with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric from Big Finish. It didn’t quite turn out the way I expected. 😐

Thankfully, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse have done more audio adventures since then, including ‘The Star Men’, ‘The Contingency Club’, ‘Zaltys’, ‘Kingdom of Lies’, ‘Ghost Walk’ and ‘Serpent In The Silver Mask’, which I’ve enjoyed listening to on CD very much.

‘Iterations of I’ rating – 10/10

‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’ rating – 10/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Constant Doctor’ (SS) For Tegan was ‘The Constant Doctor’ (SS) For Nyssa was ‘The Constant Doctor’ (SS) For Adric was ‘The Constant Doctor’ (SS)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Toy’ (ST/Audio) For Tegan is ‘The Toy’ (ST/Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Toy’ (ST/Audio) For Adric is ‘The Toy’ (ST/Audio)
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