The Rapture [AUDIO/2002.9.26]

★★★☆☆

  An audio production that could well be another Side-Step into the Virgin New Adventures. A tale of loss, familial bond, trauma, addiction and hope. A madcap adventure set in Ibiza, in a club run by angels delivering raptures to the wild crowd. The Rapture is all of these things... and so much more and less at the same time. Confused? Well, it's only natural; it's the nature of the piece.

  I suspect that approaching this as you would a normal Doctor Who story would yield few fruit; after all, there are a plethora of negative reviews of it online. No, I think the best way of experience something like The Rapture would be to regard this as a narrative album; let each track run its course, try to rummage around your head for a narrative that makes sense, and swiftly disregard the idea and continue enjoying the madness. I think this is what Doctor Who needs more... unfiltered madness. How fitting is it that it's penned by emotional drama extraordinaire Joseph Lidster, and set in nightclub central Ibiza?

  Don't get me wrong, I find this to be a deeply flawed piece, but not because it focuses on mood rather than conventional storytelling. Rather, I find The Rapture to be tame compared to what it could have been; I wish it was more ambitious, more hazy and experimental, more overdramatic! The tail end of the second part and the entirety of the third are when it goes downhill quite a bit, and unconvincing acting and unengaging sequences rear their ugly heads. If you're willing to take that chance, however... if you're willing to let the music wash over you and enjoy whatever this spilled-cocktail-and-cigarette-scented adventure of long-lost brothers and loss of loved ones throws at you, let down your hair and start dancing to the tunes. You'll have a rollicking time at the beginning episode, be impressed by the ambitious editing style of the middle portions, and shake your hair wildly by the end. It sort of clicked for me during the climax, and I find this rating quite satisfactory.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  On a more positive note, the combined efforts of Jim Mortimore, Jane Elphinstone, Simon Robinson and Feel for this adventure have created the best element of this entire thing: the trance album of The Rapture. Buy it from Mortimore's website if you get the chance, because it might just be one of my favorite things (that isn't a story) to come out of Doctor Who ever.