The Side of the Angels [AUDIO/2017.3.7]

★★★☆☆

  Back when I first listened to The Side of the Angels, I thought it was a hot mess that fundamentally did not work as an audio drama. I thought the plot was all over the place, the direction was uncoordinated, and that the Weeping Angels were severely underused. After my most recent revisit, I've decided that I was a bit too harsh one two of the three counts on display up there. The plot is actually pretty interesting if you dig a bit deeper into it, and I think Matt Fitton does a pretty good job laying it all down for us listeners. The Time Lords already know of the Doom Coalition's dastardly plan and are making do with setting up a new citadel in New York -- that's a fascinating idea, and for about half of this audio drama's runtime, the political and temporal implications of that exodus is... well, it's talked about. Ken Bentley's direction, this time around, actually deserves praise for being handed such a Gordian knot of a script (not necessarily referring to complexity, but rather a sense of throwing all sorts of disparate elements of Dr. Who into a can and hoping for the best) and turning it into an adventure that I'm able to follow. I don't think I was at the right state of mind the first time around to make heads or tails of it.

  As for the Weeping Angels issue, I still think they're woefully underused here. I've heard all the arguments about how the Angels' novelty became diluted as the years went on and I disagreed; now, with The Side of the Angels using them as disposable aliens that really could've been replaced with any number of recognisable monsters, I'm starting to see their point. The Angels are the huge letdown in this one, the story structure is the minor inconvenience (simply because of the sheer number of plot elements Fitton has to fit in!), and the Doctor, Liv, Helen, Ollista and Rufus Hound's spectacular incarnation of the Monk are the saving graces. Overall, then, it's a keeper -- but only just. This really should've been a four-parter.