Wild Animals [AUDIO/2020.6.17]

★★★★★

  Being too busy to be as active as I was with this review site has quite a few downsides, but the silver lining is that I got to listen to these releases I was following much before writing the reviews for them. I already know that the first Stranded boxset is simply the best Eighth Doctor audio boxset in what feels like a lifetime (I'd argue that Dark Eyes 1 & 3, and Doom Coalition 3 are his run's previous highlights). Certainly, coming after the amalgamation of everything that was "samey" about the Eighth Doctor adventures and their pomp, predictable elements and a huge dose of Eleven fatigue -- I am, of course, talking about Ravenous -- this new take on the Eighth Doctor's adventures comes as a breath of fresh air to me. The Doctor, Liv and Helen without the TARDIS, without the sonic screwdriver, and without the rather overbearing nature of the time-and-space travelling stories inside these Big Finish boxsets. I have been critical of Ken Bentley's direction in my Ravenous reviews, and I still stand by those criticisms (I find it unfortunate that one director helmed over a decade of a Doctor's continuous adventures)... but it seems that even he was able to shine in Stranded. It's as if everyone was fired up for something completely new, and Wild Animals is the shining example of that in Stranded 1. There's no alien invasion, no overarching villains, no world-shattering events. The drama comes from something so real and yet so incredibly tragic, a robbery that takes the life of someone dear to the regulars and almost mortally wounds Liv, and Helen and the Doctor deal with the implications of being utterly helpless for once. The Doctor is helpless against the uncooperative and stuff authority of the police, and Helen has to see her friend lose all hope and descend into borderline madness. For the Doctor, fighting monsters is a coping mechanism, and having no monster to fight means that he's out of his element; it's a watershed moment for the Eighth Doctor as he stops thinking only about himself and what he's lost, instead finding a new perspective on his new responsibilities as a landlord and what he's gained, and Paul McGann delivers his best performance in ages. Stranded makes the post-Dark Eyes 'darker' Eight fun again, and that's one of the strengths of Wild Animals in particular. The Doctor is so fascinating, so tragic and so fun to listen to. The final moments of his accepting his fate and freeing the birds from the park aviary are incredibly poetic -- a sort of letting-go moment, and a representation of his own desire.

  This crucial element paired with Liv's burgeoning romance with Tania (mentioned in this review less but by no means less important; it's one of the key elements of Stranded, and Nicola Walker and Rebecca Root share an instant chemistry that's so real in a way most fictional relationships aren't) means that Wild Animals is an instant classic, and the best Eighth Doctor audio drama we've had in a while. John Dorney mentions in the extras that he always wanted to write a "modern historical" with the Doctor and co. in a modern-day adventure without any science-fiction elements, and Stranded 1 being the boxset that it is, it almost had to be here. Needless to say, I'm incredibly glad it was made, and even more glad that it turned out as wonderful as it is. The mundane becomes the most fascinating, and the real world is brought to life with Bentley giving his all. Just for Wild Animals alone, I'd say that the entier Stranded thread is justified; it is that good.