The Revolution review [Nev Fountain]

When and Where: Arviem II in the 27th century. The Doctor is travelling alone (having left Ace on Gallifrey) and is wearing his question mark pullover. This is between Many Happy Returns and Good Night, Sweet Ladies.

The Doctor's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "As I thought, there's nothing archaeologically significant about this floor." / "Thanks for that expert analysis." / "No charge."
• "It's a bar. Citizens come in here to imbibe intoxicating liquids for the purpose of inducing unconsciousness."
• "I hope you're not engineering miracles. That is a Category A Science Crime."
• "This isn't easy, Doctor, but I don't want you to come with me. I just don't think this is your kind of adventure. This isn't the kind of adventure where we do something frightfully clever at the end where everybody ends up more-or-less happy. This is the kind of adventure where I fire my guns at them and they fire their guns at me and the one who fires their guns the most number of times wins. It's just a lot of shooting and shouting and you don't fit in here. Most of the time you are the most wonderful, inventive, clever person I've ever met and you have quite definitely the finest brain in the galaxy but here... here you're just an odd little man saying odd little things and you're just getting in the way."
• Everything the robots say.
• The rebranding of the series was presumably to bring in a new audience, meaning that this story has to introduce Benny and let us get to know her. The way that they chose to do this was with something of a reboot, making this a perfect jumping-on point. The presence of the Doctor, too, is a good way of making the series feel accessible to newcomers.
• The Doctor has been affected by Renk Van Magnastein and isn't his usual self, meaning Sylvester McCoy is able to let his hair down, as it were, and not be too dour and dark. This is occasionally taken a little too far but is a nice reminder of the genial and friendly Seventh Doctor of season 24 (with the exception of the abominable characterisation in Time and the Rani). He's the companion in this story and is even referred to as much. It's always good to see him Aceless.
• Aside from Benny and the Doctor, we have Inquisitor Xavier, who's fine, and Renk. Renk is a fun and flirty character who you would never guess was the bad guy.
• This story is probably the funniest Big Finish I've ever listened to, being consistently hilarious. There deserves to be far more good quotations above.

The Valeyard's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• "Doctor, please! Send me a sign!"
• The Doctor does, at times, become too comic a character. This is most noticeable with his worship of his future-self, who he believes is behind the story's events.

I'll Explain Later:

• What's with the McCoy theme song?
• Why is the Doctor wearing his linen suit on the cover? He's said to be wearing his question mark pullover in the story.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: The beginning of a new era for Professor Bernice Summerfield, this audio is a great one. It's laugh-out-loud funny with a decent plot, great performances and a sense of fun throughout. The Revolution is very good, and that earns it an A.

The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Volume 1

In Living Memory  |  The Revolution  |  Good Night, Sweet Ladies