‘The Great White Hurricane’ (Audio)

‘THE GREAT WHITE HURRICANE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Terrible Blizzard in New York 1888 with The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan

Tim Bradley’s photo of William Hartnell from ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ signed by David Bradley

Tim Bradley’s photo of William Hartnell and Carole Ann Ford in ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ signed by Claudia Grant

Tim Bradley with David Bradley at the ‘MCM Birmingham Comic Con’, NEC Birmingham, November 2017

The second of ‘The First Doctor Adventures – Volume 1’ box set is ‘The Great White Hurricane’ by Guy Adams. It’s a four-parter. I greatly enjoyed this historical tale with the First Doctor TARDIS team.

It’s rare that I come across a historical adventure in ‘Doctor Who’ and find myself really compelled into it. But this one I had no problem with as every scene was compelling and very interesting to listen to.

In the story, the TARDIS lands in New York on Earth 1888. There are crime gangs in the streets. Susan gets easily caught by one gang member as the four TARDIS travellers get separated from each other.

As Susan gradually develops a friendship with Patrick who kidnapped her and as our heroes try to reunite with each other, snow begins to fall in New York. The snow gets heavier and never stopping.

I must admit I’m not very familiar with 1888 New York and I’ve never heard of the Great White Hurricane before. But it was fascinating to hear in this story and how our main TARDIS heroes coped.

I like how this story became a drama and while the educational values were included in this, it didn’t bog down or get very boring. You worry for our TARDIS heroes and what what’s happening to them.

David Bradley is excellent as the First Doctor in this audio adventure. The Doctor becomes worried for Susan. He tries to get the police to help find her before he gets locked up in a jail cell with Daniel.

Jamie Glover is equally excellent as Ian. Ian got shot at the beginning of the story, but thankfully he gets into hospital whilst having a mild concussion. He does copes well as he and Barbara go outside.

Jemma Powell is very good as Barbara in this story. Being a history teacher, of course she knows about the Great White Hurricane in New York at the time. I like the scenes she shares with Ian here.

Claudia Grant is great as Susan in this adventure. I like how she interacts with her captor Patrick and how the two form a friendship. I like how she’s resourceful and shared her TARDIS family to Patrick.

Clearly by this point in the series, Susan considers her grandfather; Ian and Barbara as her family. I liked how Susan reflects how much they’ve been through and her grandfather likes Ian and Barbara.

Jackson Milner guest stars as Patrick in the story. Patrick seems young and reckless when he’s initially Susan’s captor. It gets revealed that Patrick maybe dangerous as he accidently killed one gang member.

Cory English guest stars as Daniel, Patrick’s older brother in the story. Daniel shares a lot of scenes with the Doctor when they are in the jail cell together before they go and look for Patrick and Susan.

Carolina Valdes guest stars as Rosalita, a woman whom Barbara meets at the hospital where Ian is. I liked the subplot where Ian and Barbara assist Rosalita look for her son as his abusive dad took him.

It goes to show how Ian and Barbara come across as truly caring and compassionate people. They put others first before going off to find the Doctor and Susan who they’ve been separated from here.

Ronan Summers guest stars as O’Connell, a man who comes to Daniel’s house to threaten him to take him find Patrick. Patrick killed one of the Alley Dog members and O’Connell wants his revenge.

There’s Christopher Naylor who plays a number of characters in this story. This includes a policeman, a man with a ladder, a gang member and Henry, Rosalita’s wife who tried to steal their son from her.

It was tense when Susan and Patrick were on one of the ice islands when the river in New York broke up. Thankfully the Doctor, Daniel, O’Connell and a policeman manage to get the two back to safety.

I liked how Ian and Barbara reunited with the Doctor and Susan back at the TARDIS at the end. It was tense once Ian and Barbara thought the Doctor was dead when they arrived back at the TARDIS first.

‘The Great White Hurricane’ is a superb first pure historical adventure with David Bradley as the First Doctor. I liked how this story kept me interested and concerned for the four main TARDIS characters.

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES BONUS DISC

Claudia Grant, Jemma Powell, producer David Richardson, Jamie Glover and David Bradley.

The behind-the-scenes bonus disc of ‘The First Doctor Adventures – Volume 1’ is divided into two sections featuring behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews into the making of the two stories featured in the CD box set. I did enjoy listening to the interviews on the making of these two stories.

The first section of the bonus disc looks into ‘The Destination Wars’ of course. It starts with an introduction by producer David Richardson and director Nicholas Briggs on how ‘The First Doctor Adventures’ came to be, following off the wonderful reception of ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’.

There are then interviews with David Bradley, Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell and Claudia Grant who share how much they enjoyed working on ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’ and how they’ve enjoyed reuniting with each other via the Big Finish audios. It was so nice to hear them interviewed.

The other interviewees for ‘The Destination Wars’ include writer Matt Fitton and the actors James Deyfrus Raymond Coulthard, Sian Reeves and Deli Segal. It was great to hear the thoughts behind the inclusion of the Master in ‘The Destination Wars’ and how he encountered the First Doctor here.

For ‘The Great White Hurricane’, David Bradley, Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell and Claudia Grant are interviewed again as well as producer David Richardson and director Nicholas Briggs. There’s also Jackson Milner, Cory English, Caroline Valdes, Ronan Summers and Christopher Naylor interviewed.

‘The First Doctor Adventures – Volume 1’ has been great to listen to. I enjoyed both ‘The Destination Wars’ and ‘The Great White Hurricane’ as First Doctor stories and it was lovely to hear the ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’ cast play the characters from ‘Doctor Who’s first season in the audios.

David Bradley has been fantastic as the First Doctor as well as Jamie Glover as Ian, Jemma Powell as Barbara and Claudia Grant as Susan. I’m glad I’ve been able to hear these audio adventures from Big Finish and I hope it won’t be the last time. There are some more First Doctor adventures to listen to!

‘The Great White Hurricane’ rating – 9/10

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The previous story For the First Doctor was ‘The Destination Wars’ (Audio) For Ian was ‘The Destination Wars’ (Audio) For Barbara was ‘The Destination Wars’ (Audio) For Susan was ‘The Destination Wars’ (Audio)	The next story For the First Doctor is ‘The Invention of Death’ (Audio) For Ian is ‘The Invention of Death’ (Audio) For Barbara is ‘The Invention of Death’ (Audio) For Susan is ‘The Invention of Death’ (Audio)
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