Doctor Who: Masquerade

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive at a mansion in 18th century France, with no memory of how they got there, or, indeed, who they really are. It's clear from the beginning that there's something very strange about the mansion and its inhabitants, with ghostly sounds from the cellar and the grounds, and the regular characters' memories not being the only ones that are affected.

It doesn't take terribly long before it becomes clear, at least in general terms, what's going on, but, unfortunately, very little of it makes any sense. Cole seems to think he's created something that's at least reminiscent of Dangerous Liaisons, which he manifestly hasn't, beyond some superficial resemblance of the setting in the first 30 minutes. And then it's all about robots, aliens, and alternate realities in what's really quite a confused mess.

This is, quite honestly, the weakest Big Finish release I've listened to for a long time. This is not to say that there are no good points, mainly based around the fact that the actors are doing quite a decent job with some muddled material. Davison and Sutton are good as always, but the guest cast are effective, too, with those called on to play two parts (that is, the same characters, but with and without their real memories and identities) doing so in a way that adds verisimilitude.

It may well be that the whole thing is just too complex to really work as an audio drama, and that it might work better in the roomier, text-based, confines of a novel. Even so, I'd be inclined to give it 2.5 stars, and round it up, but what just pushes it over the line for me is the unusually poor sound balance - the incidental music is too loud, and, crucially, drowns out some background noises that are a key element of the plot. (“What's that sound?” asks a character at one point, and it's a while before I realise that the answer isn't supposed to be “an organ playing”).

It's not as bad as, say, Nekromanteia, or as charmless as Time Reef, but it's surprisingly weak nonetheless.