‘RESISTOR’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Visiting Warsaw in 1982 with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan
Daniel Easton, Niky Wardley, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding in ‘Resistor’.
‘Resistor’, the second story in the ‘In the Night’ box set of ‘Doctor Who’, is a two-part adventure by Sarah Grochala. This isn’t the first time that Sarah Grochala has done a Fifth Doctor era adventure. 🙂
In the ‘Forty’ series, Sarah wrote ‘God of War’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. I enjoyed her writing in that story and I especially enjoyed her writing for the TARDIS characters here.
In ‘Resistor’, the Doctor tries to take Nyssa and Tegan to Yugoslavia in 1982. Apparently, Tegan has grandparents living there. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the TARDIS ends up in the wrong place.
Our heroes find themselves in a basement. Not ‘Bradley’s Basement’ sadly. 😀 It’s beneath a club in Warsaw in 1982 where a punk rock band is about to perform on stage once our heroes visit the club.
However, it turns out that one of the musicians is missing. The Doctor offers his services to play the drums. For a brief time, he seems to do well, although I wouldn’t have gone for the punk rock music.
I mean, it’s not exactly the Beatles or the Common Men, is it? I enjoyed the music in ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ more than what Niky Wardley’s character Iza ended up singing in this story. 😐
Sadly, the band gets interrupted. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan find themselves caught up in a series of events involving black cars gliding through the city and the Secret Police picking off bystanders. 😮
The setting of this ‘Doctor Who’ story is fascinating. Warsaw in 1982 would have been during the height of the Cold War. I can’t claim to know and understand all that what went on in that period. 😐
It’s clear that Sarah Grochala is into doing history when writing this story. The political atmosphere around that time is felt throughout. It makes Warsaw a dangerous place to visit when you think about it.
As established, Niky Wardley plays Iza, who’s in the Resistor music band and is a bit of a political activist. Niky Wardley has starred in several Big Finish audios over the years, including ‘Donna Noble: Kidnapped!’.
She’s also been in ‘The Five(ish) Doctor Reboot’ with Peter Davison. I enjoyed her as Iza in this audio story, and it’s very intriguing how her interactions with people such as Roman and Hao are unveiled.
Daniel Easton guest stars as Roman, one of the band members who initially seems to be a villain by the end of ‘Part One’ when she betrays Tegan and Iza. It’s soon revealed that he happens to be gay.
Apparently, Roman was in a romantic relationship with Iza, but he loves another band member called Hao and was blackmailed to turn Tegan and Iza in. Iza and Roman being a couple wasn’t something I picked on instantly. 😐
I just assumed that Iza and Roman were friends, but then, this was from my first listening experience of the story. Also, what puzzles me is that not a big deal was made of Roman being gay by the story’s end.
I mean, Iza, Roman and Hao are with the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan in the TARDIS in the story’s closing scenes, but neither of the three guest characters discuss Roman being in love with Hao more than Iza.
Had ‘Resistor’ as a story been made as a four-parter instead of a two-parter, perhaps that aspect of the story would have been explored more. It’s not a thing to worry about too much, but it’s quite peculiar.
Chris Lew Kum Hoi plays two characters in this story, including Hao, Roman’s boyfriend; and another character called Thanh. There’s also Ben Porter as Zastri, the alien being that appears in this story. 🙂
Peter Davison is very good as the Fifth Doctor in this audio drama. I like how he passes himself off as an Australian ambassador along with the accent to scare a policeman to set Nyssa and Tegan free. 🙂
It seems to work well, which surprises the Doctor. 😀 I thought the Doctor was joking about putting Tegan in the boot of a car by the story’s end. Even I couldn’t that cruel to Tegan when that happened. 😀
Sarah Sutton is lovely as Nyssa. I like how she works well with Peter’s Doctor, especially when they’re pursuing Zastri in a car on a motorcycle. Her reaction to Roman’s sexuality is very interesting. 🙂
I liked Sarah’s comments in the behind-the-scenes interviews on how compassionate and insightful Nyssa is regarding how Roman should handle sharing his sexuality to people like his parents and Iza.
Janet Fielding is equally good as Tegan. I enjoyed it when she had scenes with Niky Wardley as Iza and how she managed to win a way out of an interrogation after she and Iza were caught by the police. 🙂
It was fascinating when by the story’s end, Tegan suggested that they should take Iza, Roman and Hao to the UK, as she recalled seeing the name of their band Resistor when she was in the UK herself.
Just to go on a sidenote, like with ‘The Edge of the War’, it’s intriguing the guest characters don’t have Polish accents in Warsaw. I mean, there were actual Russians with their accents in ‘Singularity’.
‘Resistor’ is another enjoyable and thought-provoking story in the ‘In the Night’ collection. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this story again, especially with Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding in it. 🙂
At the end of Disc 3 of ‘In the Night’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews on ‘Resistor’ with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Niky Wardley, writer Sarah Grochala, etc. As well as Sarah Sutton sharing her thoughts on how compassionate and insightful Nyssa is about Roman’s sexuality, I enjoyed it when mention was made of Sarah liking the English rock band Adam and the Ants, featuring Adam Ant, which I know was a thing for her back in the 1980s.
Incidentally, the idents at the beginning of each story in the ‘In the Night’ box set with the slogan “Big Finish, For The Love of Stories” are read by Peter Davison. Usually, they’d be read by Nicholas Briggs. Sarah Sutton also reads the credits for ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ and ‘Resistor’ at the end of each story, which I found very nice. 🙂
The ‘In the Night’ collection of ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories has been very enjoyable to check out. Like with the ‘Conflicts of Interest’ box set, I can’t decide whether I like ‘Pursuit of the Nightjar’ more than ‘Resistor’ or vice versa, as both have been compelling and thought-provoking in their own right.
With that said, and this is just my personal opinion, I enjoyed the ‘Conflicts of Interest’ stories more than ‘In the Night’ stories. This could be because I found the ‘Conflicts of Interest’ stories more exciting than the ‘In the Night’ stories, as I felt there was more action in those stories than the others.
Despite that, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding, as ever, continued to maintain my interest when I listened to these stories. Their presence as the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan reassured me, as they delivered excellent performances as their characters throughout each story. 🙂
It’s a shame I didn’t get to hear the 2023 releases of ‘The Fifth Doctor Adventures’ audio range of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish before the end of 2023 itself where I would have done my annual ‘Nyssa Challenge’ mini-review season then. I’m glad I’ve made up for it by checking them out in early 2024.
The ‘Doctor Who’ stories starring Sarah Sutton as Nyssa keep me excited and engaged. I’m looking forward to checking out the next lot of Big Finish audios starring Sarah as Nyssa, including ‘The Dream Team’ box set that has the Season 19 TARDIS team and the ‘Goth Opera’ audio adaptation. 🙂
It’s always a treat to check out these ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories by Big Finish, especially the ones featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan. You get to uncover new aspects about their characters, and it’s all thanks to Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding’s performances because of that.
‘Resistor’ rating – 8/10
‘In the Night’ box set rating – 8/10
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Bradley's Basement 