Review: Storm Warning

After a gap of five years since his debut in the TV Movie, Paul McGann returned as the Eighth Doctor in Storm Warning, a four-part audio adventure from Big Finish. Featuring the introduction of new companion Charlotte Pollard (India Fisher), and setting up some story threads that will continue for the next ten releases, this splendid story is one of the series' best.

The Doctor, travelling solo, arrives in 1930 on the doomed airship R101, which crashed on its maiden voyage with no survivors. The TARDIS is jettisoned and the Doctor has no way out, and along with young self-styled "Edwardian adventuress" Charley Pollard, he investigates a mysterious alien passenger . . .

Paul McGann thunders back into the role of the Doctor, bubbling with enthusiasm and energy, and name-dropping just as much as he did in the TV Movie. You can almost visualise him leaping cheerfully around the recording studio as he speaks some of his lines - his performance is a lively and energetic one that still maintains some of the naivety of his single onscreen appearance. He makes a magnificent first impression, really working as an anchor for the story, and instantly making the role his own.

India Fisher is equally brilliant in her first appearance as Charley, brilliantly handling a role that could quite easily have played to stereotypes or been performed camply. She's immediately likeable, and right from the start her relationship with the Doctor is full of promise. She and McGann have a fantastic chemistry, instantly endearing as they work together and bouncing off each other well, which is impressive at this early stage.

As Lord Tamworth, guest actor Gareth Thomas is the best of the other characters, all of whom benefit from splended acting and good development over the course of the story. The score and sound effects create a nice historical atmosphere, and the new theme music is gloriously haunting and sparse, a nice contrast from the harsh electronic melodies and over-the-top incidental music of the Seventh Doctor's era.

The aliens of the story, the Triskele, are a brave choice when the temptation was probably to go with a 'big name' like the Daleks. Ultimately, the best choice is made, as the Doctor is learning about the race at the same time as us, which helps the audience to connect with his character; and writer Alan Barnes has made them suitably interesting and original to sustain the plot.

The only unsuccessful thing, for me, was the Doctor's scenes at the start of the first episode, where the limitations of audio and the lack of a companion mean he talks to himself at length. I felt these could have been trimmed slightly, but ultimately they're necessary and it's hard to see how they could have been done much better.

All in all, then, a splendid effort for McGann's audio debut, and a fantastic start for this initial season of stories. A nice jolly historical adventure - great stuff.