Sunday, 22 March 2015

REVIEW – REQUIEM FOR THE ROCKET MEN



First off, let me confess two things: Number one is I went into this title without having heard Rocket Men or Return for the Rocket Men. Number two is I kept confusing the Rocket Men with the Robomen villains so feel free to have a laugh at that one.

So did either spoil my enjoyment of this piece? Hell no! This is one of the best Fourth Doctor audio stories yet. For one thing, it’s got Geoffrey Beevers as the Master who feels a little underused here, but is still so enjoyable to have as it really sets things up for the next story. Having that link really helps connect us to Death Match which is set to be released next month.

The ‘associate’ villains for this piece are all very interesting as well. There’s more to some of them than meets the eye and that fits in so well with the other elements present in this story. The plot for one thing is really clever, but at the same time very straight forward. There’s a Hustle feel going on here that at first had me wondering if I had accidentally played the episodes in the wrong order, but the eventual pay-off is fantastic. It really does and John Dorney has penned a very exciting story for the Fourth Doctor who himself is quite on the a ball here.

I’m not going to lie, a part of me felt that this story would’ve worked better with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but it didn’t take long for Four and Leela to strip me of that notion. The Fourth Doctor is almost unstoppable here and perfectly written at least for me. He is phenomenal. Requiem for the Rocket Men is easily one of his greatest outings with Leela and the fourth season of the FDAs finally used K9 properly as opposed to the other lackluster outings he’s had so far.

The TARDIS team is fantastic in this and Leela’s evolution with Big Finish really comes full circle here in arguably her best story. The Doctor’s ‘bodyguard’ companions are always a bit more interesting for me to watch/listen to and Leela proves that she deserves to be amongst the other greats like Jamie, Ace, River and Jack.

Rating this story: 9/10. A fantastic tale that I can’t recommend nearly enough.

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