"Invaders from Mars"
by Mark Gatiss

The Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard's second series of adventures together begins with a trip to New York in 1938. It's Halloween, and Orson Welles' War of the Worlds is being broadcast on radio, causing many listeners to panic about the fictitious alien invasion. But perhaps it's not fictitious, perhaps aliens really are preparing to invade Earth... The Doctor will be able to investigate, just as soon as he's done with posing as a private investigator, searching for a missing Russian scientist.

Reading a summary of the plot, Invaders from Mars by Mark Gatiss sounds like it could be one of the best Doctor Who audios ever made. The core story is a fantastic idea, and the time and place lend themselves perfectly to a Who adventure. Disappointingly, the story doesn't quite manage to fulfil its potential, and is a diverting but essentially unimpressive production.

The first - and most frequently-voiced - area for complaint is the voice acting. Having apparently learned nothing from the criticisms levelled at Minuet in Hell, Big Finish has employed English actors and actresses to play American and Russian characters, resulting in some inaccurate and laughable vocal performances. It doesn't take too long to become used to the characters' voices, and to suspend one's disbelief somewhat, but improved casting would make the story a lot more accessible. It's worth noting that the guest cast features impressive names such as Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, but by giving them non-English roles to play, they're less recognisable than normal, and it feels like Big Finish has failed to cash in on the potential draw of those actors.

A fairly large number of characters are introduced to the listener at quite an early stage of the play, which (combined with some of the issues mentioned above) means the first episode can be quite bewildering, until each character's role and identity has been revealed and developed. I had to listen to the first episode two or three times before I felt I was familiar enough with the characters to continue, whereas earlier serials like Storm Warning have been more successful with a smaller cast.

Despite niggles like these, writer Mark Gatiss is clearly very talented, and is especially adept with the story's more comical moments. This is the most lively and amusing story that the Eighth Doctor has had so far, with several moments of laugh-out-loud humour. The Doctor is characterised brilliantly here, enthusiastically throwing himself into the role of a private detective, with some hilarious scenes arising from his attempts at contemporary slang. The addition of comedy to the Eighth Doctor's character is very successful, and Paul McGann carries it off well, showing how he's made the role his own in such a short time. However, it sometimes feel like Invaders from Mars doesn't know quite what it's trying to be - it would work brilliantly if everyone took it seriously and played it straight, or it would work brilliantly as an entirely tongue-in-cheek piece, but it feels like the writing and acting both switch between the two, and it's hard to know where to pitch your reaction and how to judge the story.

There are a lot of story threads in play simultanetously in this adventure, and some of the most interesting ones aren't introduced until a later stage. Even though it's much shorter than the stories of the preceding season (episodes coming in at a little over twenty minutes each), a lot of plot has been packed in, and whilst the "busy" feel is successful, it feels at times as if the two main characters have been sidelined, and some stories are neglected.

Production values are high, with a contemporary (i.e. typically-melodramatic and repetitive) musical sting underlining dramatic revelations in a beautifully inappropriate way, the score complementing the action nicely throughout; sound design as a whole evoking the mood and tone of the time with skill. In those instances where the acting and writing fail to convince, you still feel like you're part of the era, thanks to the highly-polished production.

Ultimately, Invaders from Mars is a bit of a marmite play - likely to provoke a strong reaction, whether that reaction is good or bad. There are numerous areas that one can point at as flaws, and an equal number than can be praised as moments of genius. But what these elements combine to make was, for me, hugely disappointing as a start for the Eighth Doctor's second season. He and Charley deserve better.