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The Stones of Venice Review Continuing the first series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures starring Paul McGann is The Stones of Venice. By this time, the characters of the Eighth Doctor and Charley are becoming somewhat established, along with the actors playing them. The stories also appear to be quite well linked to each other and flow nicely, really enhancing the thought of it being a 'missing series' from the Television archives. After escaping from being shot at, The Doctor and Charley set out for Venice in the 1600's, but only succeed in landing in the 23rd century, when Venice is about to be consumed by the sea. They take a gondola, sailed by Pietro, a fish-man, and land to see the art owned by the Duke of Venice, Orsino, and meet Ms Lavish, an eccentric old local on the way to encountering the curator of the Duke's art, Churchwell. The Doctor and Charley become separated, with Charley being taken away by the fish-people to impersonate the long dead Duchess, Estella, as a distraction for the Duke so that the curse that is destroying Venice cannot be broken. The Doctor and Churchwell meanwhile are captured by The Cult of Estella, a faction built on many myths surrounding the long gone Duchess. Charley and Pietro confront the Duke, and arrange a wedding between him and Charley, who is impersonating the Duchess. The Doctor and Chruchwell are then taken to the Ducal palace by Vincenzo, head of the cult where he hopes to acquire a portrait of Estella, not believed to exist. When arriving, it is revealed to the Duke that the cult hold the coffin of the Duchess, and they all go off to the cult headquarters, leaving the mysterious Ms Lavish on the throne. The coffin is found to be empty, and the party return to the palace where Ms Lavish reveals herself to be the Duchess, and an alien. She has caused this because of her love for the Duke, and they eventually sacrifice themselves to save Venice from the sea. Whilst The Stones of Venice sits nicely in context with the surrounding stories, it can be considered as a stand alone adventure, with only Ramsay the Vortisaur needing explanation.Achieving this is good, as should someone pick the CD off a shelf it should encourage the listener in rather than confuse with contextual continuity. Audio also provides the means to visit places like Venice easily, without ever setting foot outside a sound recording booth. As far as the sounds go, one aspect doesn't seem to sit well in this story. The background chatter that is added to some parts of the story, particularly in the palace scenes late on doesn't sound natural. It sounds like effects added in post production, which is likely to be exactly the case, but it should sound right in context. The rest of the sounds don't leap out as wrong, but when there is occasion 'unreality' it does affect the mood of the story. The cast for The Stones of Venice is a celebrated one within science fiction circles. Alongside the increasingly excellent Paul McGann is India Fisher as Charley once more. Fisher is improving, but I still feel her performances come accross as a little forced, not entirely natural. McGann however is proving to be an excellent choice as The Doctor, combining thoughtful whistfulness with inner strength and charisma. In the guest cast there are two names that have a long association with Doctor Who. Firstly, the late great Michael Sheard plays Orsini, and Mark Gatiss plays Vincenzo. Gatiss does excellently, and Sheard gives a typical performance of both fragility and power. The other cast members are Elaine Ives-Cameron as Ms Lavish, Nick Scovell as Churchwell and Barnaby Edwards as Pietro. Scovell and Ives-Cameron both deliver celebrated performances, and Edwards is strong throughout, rounding out a good cast. The Stones of Venice is not a bad story, but there seems to be some muddled and pointless aspects to is. Firstly, there appears to be no real reason for Estella being an alien. This seems to have been thrown in to add a bit of sci-fi colour to the story, rather pointlessly in my opinion. The storyline of Charley impersonating the resurrection of Estella also seemd to be somewhat pointless. The storyline didn't go anywhere, and the conclusions drawn to end it were no less true at the start, and I really struggle to believe that Charley would have gone along with the doping anyway. Largely, aspects like this appear to be fillers in the story, padding out a basic idea at short notice rather than expanding upon what could have been a much better story. The Stones of Venice therefore becomes what can be seen as a wasted opportunity. There is a great cast, a decent basic story idea and a setting with many possibilities that appears to have been rushed and padded out to four episodes. Overall, The Stones of Venice is a story that comes accross as a rush job. There are many delightful aspects to this story, such as a great cast largely delivering magical performances, but the production from the script through to the sound effects appear to have been rushed and padded out needlessly. This therefore can be seen as a bit of a waste, and a disappointing continuation of the first series in the audio adventures of the Eighth Doctor.  |