Picture from Big Finish.
Originally published by L.S. Media. November 27th 2011.
Cast : Paul McGann, Julie Cox, Simon Rouse, Andrew Havill, Serena Evans, Lisa Kay, Alix Wilton Regan, Kevin Trainor
L.S.Media Rating ****
The Witch from the Well is the second of Paul McGann’s Doctor Who stories since he returned to the main canon of stories and away from a four year stint in his own series of audio plays. There has been talk in recent weeks of a new film being bandied around various forums and in some national newspapers and if the audio plays that Mr. McGann have been involved with since being lured to Big Finish and reprise his role as the eighth Doctor, if the man’s work is anything to go by and if the talk of a new movie comes to fruition then the producers could do a lot worse than give Paul McGann another shot as the time travelling detective.
The listeners who buy these new stories written and produced by the team at Big Finish in their thousands would no doubt agree, for with very few exceptions of note, every story that Paul McGann dons his Victorian look and shows his companions the real history of the Universe and the hidden stories behind some stories and events is well written and that Paul McGann is one of the finest Doctors around.
What Paul McGann and Colin Baker share as their tenure of the audio Doctor series is pure believability in the role, the utter absorbing nature that they bring to the table and the twinkle in the imagined eye as they deliver 100 per cent commitment and conviction.
This is true also in The Witch from the Well, in lesser hands and with a cast that didn’t take the subject matter seriously, it could have been held to account as one of the poorer tales in the series of 154. However with a compelling story by Rick Briggs and Julie Cox settling into her role as the young Mary Shelley, The Witch from the Well has all the classic ingredients of “Whoville”. Rumour, intrigue, death and destruction all seem to follow in the Doctors wake but this time the story focuses on those around the Doctor with Julie Cox given almost free range to show her skill and bravery away from her fellow traveller.
In Tranchard’s Folly, something of terrible and diabolical nature has been unleashed and it’s up to the Doctor to stop the wrong people being accused of witchcraft and dealing with the Witch-Pricker, (played with some considerable brilliance and 17th Century outlook by Simon Rouse), Master Kincaid’s over-zealous and almost primitive look at superstition and heretical stance of those within the village. Amongst those accused is the strange and outcast Agnes Bates who is played with some heart rendering subtlety by Serena Evans. Drawing images from the past, the Salem Witch Trials for instance, of the nature of gossip when innocent people are accused by their nature rather than their acts is nothing new but this particular play deals with it in a fresh and exciting way.
The Witch from the Well shows perfectly how good the writing is on the audio plays by Big Finish to the sometimes more ludicrous episodes of its television sister show. The real reason behind this can be seen as the writer and the cast have to work harder to get the terror, the frightening nature of what the listener cannot visualise across.
It seems that the excellent work has continued in this particular arc of tales and it’s with some excitement and little trepidation for the final Paul McGann story this year before Big Finish concentrate on Colin Baker’s Doctor. It looks like it’s going to be a fantastic 2012 for Big Finish and the earlier Doctors.
Ian D. Hall