Phantasmagoria [AUDIO/1999.10.4]

★★★☆☆

  Fairly confident as the sophomore Dr. Who outing for Big Finish but still showing signs of an audio company finding its feet, Phantasmagoria is an atmospheric and quaint little audio drama. Everything down to the soundscape design and performances scream a production that's barely touched the surface of its potential, full of participants wading the waters throughout and slowly getting into their tiptop shape. If you like your early-noughts audios a little wonky and experimental (though not to misrepresent this adventure as ambitious per se), this is going to be a nice treat for you. There's the Doctor playing cards, there's a shapeshifting alien -- maid at day, highwayman at night -- and Turlough gets to enjoy some pantomime theatre. Mark Strickson seems to be having a lot more fun recording this than Peter Davison is, but who can blame them? The Doctor doesn't get to do much in terms of Doctorish action, and while Turlough isn't exactly central to the plot either, at least he gets to muck around in Restoration era London without any care for the story. Phantasmagoria is probably a lot more forgettable for most other people, but I always found this lowkey adventure endearing in its own way. The sound effects, the ambience, they all remind me of old Big Finish so much; I love that aspect. I sometimes revisit it just to get an uncomplicated, low-stakes Dr. Who adventure.