‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ (Audio)

‘THE PERILS OF NELLIE BLY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Nellie Bly with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc

Writer Sarah Ward, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Ryan Forde Iosco, Daniel O’Meara, George Watkins, Sydney Feder, Carlyss Peer and Peter Davison in ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’.

I found this a pretty fun adventure when I heard it! ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ is a two-part adventure by Sarah Ward, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc. It’s also a pure historical audio story.

This is the first time I’ve come across Sarah Ward as a writer and I believe this is her first contribution to ‘Doctor Who’ with Big Finish. Sarah happens to be a well-renowned crime novelist. 🙂

I’ve checked out her website and she goes by another name – Rhiannon Ward. Sarah has also penned an episode of ‘The Lone Centurion’ with Arthur Darvill. I hope she’ll write more Big Finishes.

I could easily visualise this audio adventure when I heard it, especially with being on a sailing ship – the RMS Oceanic – and aboard a steam train. A lot of this audio adventure was very exciting to hear.

In the story, the TARDIS ends up on the RMS Oceanic and the Fifth Doctor team meet up with the notorious journalist Nellie Bly. Nellie is on the final leg of her voyage to travel the world in 72 days. 🙂

But trouble ensues when a saboteur is on board. The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc help Nellie to complete her journey and reach her destination in order to save history. It’s a fun romp of a ride! 😀

Like Rosa Parks, Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan, I had no knowledge of Nellie Bly before hearing this audio adventure. It was nice to find out who she was when the Doctor and his friends met her. 🙂

Sydney Feder guest stars as Nellie Bly in the adventure. I don’t know if this story depicts an accurate depiction of Nellie Bly, but I’m convinced she would be very feisty and daring in travelling the world.

I liked how Sarah Ward provided variety in this story with having most of ‘Part One’ aboard the sailing ship and ‘Part Two’ aboard a train. The story could have easily been all aboard the sailing ship.

It was lovely to hear the Fifth Doctor TARDIS team when they interacted with each other and with Nellie Bly. It’s also very nice to hear them having some fun for change compared to previous stories.

The previous times that the Fifth Doctor and his companions have had pure historical stories include ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘The Peterloo Massacre’,* I can’t say ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ is on the same level, but it’s still a fun adventure.

I’m sure people like Sarah Sutton would have found this adventure easy to follow with very few sci-fi references in it. Like the cast, I was wondering when the aliens were going to show up in the story. 🙂

Once again, Peter Davison delivers another excellent performance as the Doctor. It’s intriguing how he gets to know Nellie Bly and he’s determined to secure her place in history with her world journey.

By the story’s end, it was amusing when the Doctor placed a bet on how long it would take for Nellie Bly to complete her journey. He didn’t even receive his prize, as he and his friends left in the TARDIS.

Sarah Sutton is also very good as Nyssa in this audio adventure. I was afraid that Nyssa would be written out for most of the tale since she became seasick. I thought Nyssa was made of strong stuff.

Thankfully, Nyssa takes one of the Doctor’s ‘seasick tablets’ and she’s a lot better. It’s nice how Nyssa is involved with saving Nellie Bly’s future, helping the Doctor to relocate the TARDIS on a train.

Janet Fielding is equally good as Tegan, as she has quite a lot of interaction with Nellie Bly in the tale. It was amusing when Tegan and Nellie exchanged clothes, which echoes ‘The Prince and the Pauper’.

It doesn’t bode well for Tegan when she’s mistaken for Nellie and put atop a sailing mast (I believe). Thankfully Marc saves her. I can imagine Tegan being in Nellie’s clothes and Nellie in Tegan’s clothes.

George Watkins is also excellent as Marc in this adventure. Marc seems to be his calm self by this point, having got over his cyber conversion. He becomes helpful when rescuing people from danger.

This is the case with saving Tegan aboard the Oceanic and saving Nellie aboard the wrong train. Marc does have tussles with Ryan Forde Iosco as the Second Mate, putting his cyber strength to use.

The story also features Carlyss Peer as Marion Jones, who happens to be the saboteur working for a competitor against Nellie Bly. There’s also Daniel O’Meara as the Growler featured in this audio tale.

In the story, Nellie has a pet monkey called Horace. Apparently, Nellie Bly did own a pet monkey in real-life. I couldn’t help think of the monkey from the film ‘Monkey Trouble’ when hearing this story.

‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ has been a nice, fun audio adventure to listen to with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc meeting Nellie Bly. It’s certainly a pretty fun romp provided by Sarah Ward. 🙂

The CD extras are as follows. On Disc 3 of ‘The Lost Resort and Other Stories’ CD box set, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, George Watkins, writer Sarah Ward, script editor/producer/director Scott Handcock, etc. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy.

*Thanks to WilliamsFan92 for pointing out to me about ‘The Peterloo Massacre’.

‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘The Lost Resort’ (Audio) For Tegan was ‘The Lost Resort’ (Audio) For Nyssa was ‘The Lost Resort’ (Audio) For Marc was ‘The Lost Resort’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’ (Audio) For Tegan is ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’ (Audio) For Marc is ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’ (Audio)
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