Starring Billy Treacy, Daniel Sherratt & Christopher Thomson, with Sam Dimitrijevic as the Master and Benji Clifford as the Daleks and the Cybermen.Written by Billy Treacy (Episodes 1-2 & 4) & Daniel Sherratt (Episode 3)
Evil Of The TARDIS:
The Doctor and his newest companion Martin the Pug confront an enemy within the walls of their own home.
Patience Of The Daleks:
A long line of spaceships are queuing up towards Earth, and a set of old enemies are within it.
The English Country Garden:
It's Oxford in the 1940's, and the TARDIS landing on a flowerbed sets off an extraordinary chain of events.
The Pug Masterplan:
The Doctor discovers the truth about Martin's purpose in the TARDIS during a confrontation with his best enemy: the Master.
Now, many of you won't know what the Aimless Wanderings series of audios are. If not, let me give you a quick rundown. In 2013, the YouTubers known as FiveWhoFans decided to start doing their own audio productions, based upon their own 'FiveWhoFans' Doctor, who had appeared in a few of their videos previously. And what they produced has gone on to become infamous in fan production circles, and have gone on to create five bizarre, whacky and downright surreal incarnations of the Doctor, in a timeline a bit like the official one, but without Colin Baker, David Tennant or Peter Capaldi, and "where the Shalka Doctor still isn't cannon" as they proudly proclaim on their website. While some of their later stories have gone on to have great acclaim in the Who community (such as the dark and dramatic War Of The Doctors and the laugh-a-minute cleverness of Doctor3), this initial wave of four adventures for the (as he has been later termed) "Pompous" Doctor was the springboard for all of that amazing material. And, even though the stories are much shorter than the later instalments, these are the tales that started it all. And, despite their limited cast, scope and length, they are still four of the most creative and imaginative stories in the Aimless Wanderings cannon. They are also perfect for showing off the versatility of the Who formula, and how any topic, if taken with the right level of humour and seriousness can make a great story. These four are mostly parody, but with just enough serious elements so that it doesn't feel like pure parody and send up.
The series begins with Evil Of The TARDIS, which is less a story, and more a couple of scenes stitched together to form a narrative. However, that's not to it's detriment, as it's brevity makes it a very enjoyable listen. The basic story revolves around weird goings-on in the TARDIS, and the Doctor coming up against an evil interface of the ship. To say that this is a clever narrative is an understatement, as this story only features one actor and is simply a hoot. The interplay between the Doctor and the interface are, in particular, very well written, and I loved the way that the pompous Doctor is vey quickly defined as well: he's arrogant, opinionated, and very full of himself. But, then again, all of these versions of the Doctor are all exaggerations of various TV portrayals of the Doctor. I also really like the combination of the Doctor and Martin, not just here, but across the whole series. Paring this version of the Doctor with a pug dog just seems to accentuate his pomposity even more, and bringing a dog in as the Doctor's companion is just the sort of thing JNT would have done to boost the ratings back in the 80's. I'm surprised he never did. Across all of these stories, not just this wave, but in the whole Aimless Wanderings series, Billy Treacy is the actor who seems most in tune with his Doctor. Sure I love Benji Clifford's take on Tom Baker, but Billy Treacy lives and breaths Pompous in these audios. He just fills the role excellently, and it's his Doctor that, to me at least, binds these audios together and has given them the longevity that they deserve. And here, since he is the only actor involved, he has the chance to be pushed to the fore. It's an amazing performance, and he is possibly one of the only people to get close to Colin Baker in terms of sass. The music and sound design by Daniel Sherratt and Billy Treacy is fantastic too. While a little more basic than some of the later stories, it still sets the scene fantastically. Topped off with a decent cover from Billy, Evil Of The TARDIS is a great start to these audio adventures, and just a delight to listen to from start to finish.
The second story, Patience Of The Daleks, starts to see the series dabble with something that would become a running theme of the Aimless Wanderings series in it's earliest days: mocking an aspect of the programme which, in most cases, doesn't make any kind of sense whatsoever. The simply audacious idea of having a group of different aliens all queuing up to invade the Earth plays on the age old saying about the Jon Pertwee era with style and panache. Here, of course, marks the first appearance of the Daleks to the Aimless Wanderings series, and they are an absolute hoot here. While some of the other TV series monsters perhaps haven't been treated as well as others during Aimless Wanderings' lifetime, the Daleks have always been perhaps the best treated: everything that they bring to the table is still respected and admired, but they are gently poked fun of in that inimitable way that makes Aimless Wanderings' productions so special. Of course, this is the first 'shock reveal' of the Daleks that we get in the show, and, I have to say, it's an absolute hoot, possibly one of the best. More than any of the other actors to play the Doctor in these stories, Billy Treacy is really good at doing that 'mock surprise' acting that is quite often required in these stories. And, of course, his confrontations with the Daleks shine with sparkle and wit, in the way that all the best Doctor/Dalek confrontations should. Of course, Benji Clifford makes his Aimless Wanderings debut (not as the Fruit Pastel Doctor, but as the Daleks), and he very quickly stands out as the best person for the 'monsters' of the Aimless Wanderings universe. I have to admit, when they released The Dark At The Start last year, I did miss Benji's Dalek voices quite a lot, because he's just such a pro at them. No wonder he's now working for audio giants Big Finish. I have to say, though, that I did find the end a little bit abrupt. Of course, this is just perhaps a limitation of the tight timeframe the early Aimless Wanderings stories were working in, but I did feel that the Doctor and Martin just scuttling off in the way they did at the end did just leave the story hanging a little bit at the end, and didn't to me feel like quite the satisfactory conclusion I was perhaps hoping for. However, this is of no real detriment to Patience Of The Daleks, which, while not being quite as good as Evil Of The TARDIS, also proves that these audios aren't just good by fluke, but by design.
Story three is the first not to be written by Billy Treacy, and is, unfortunately, the weakest in the bunch. The English Country Garden is founded on a great premise, but I just feel that, perhaps in comparison to the other stories in this wave, it just falls a little short of the mark. The idea of a killer plant taking residence in the 1940's in order to get some peace and quiet is laugh out loud hilarious, and there are some highly amusing exchanges between the characters. In particular, I loved the heightened sense of artifice about the whole thing, which just felt totally in keeping, and perfectly pitched. It reminded me of a Douglas Adams Who story; while being a wacky pitch, this story does have echoes of Shada, and certainly features some excellent humour. However, and I'm not quite sure about this, is just wasn't quite my cup of tea Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed listening to it, but there was just something which didn't enamour me to the story either. It probably features the weakest performances of this wave as well, although there is some excellent music and sound design that really capture the atmosphere of the story. However, since the Doctor is rather side-lined in this instalment, Billy Treacy doesn't quite get the chance to shine in the part as one might hope. His voice for Codsworth is also utterly ridiculous, but he doesn't have that many lines. Christopher Thomson also guest stars, but the voice sounds oddly distorted, and unfortunately it's probably his weakest guest role in the Aimless Wanderings. However, there's only one word to describe Benji Clifford's Cybermen: "excellent!" Sure, they're campy as hell, but hey, that's ok. I do think the Cybermen have been a little ill-treated as far as monsters go by the Aimless Wanderings team, however here they're appearance is particularly justified, and they're not really an important part of the story, it's just a cameo, truth be told. Overall, The English Country Garden is a bit of a disappointment in comparison to the rest of the wave. Sure, it's early days, and this does have a lot of promise, so I think it's fairer to say that this is a misstep, rather than an abject failure. Although it does have my favourite cover of this wave, I'd like to mention.
The final story in the wave, The Pug Masterplan, is probably the only one to come close to rivalling the first story, Evil Of The TARDS, in terms of quality. It's about the same length, and tells a small, but very funny tale, involving epic revelations, surprise cameos and some amazing audio spectacle. And yes, all of those things are mocked in the story, meaning that it could come across as a little bit silly. However, the devil is in the detail, and Billy Treacy has written an excellent parody of the kind of grand epic revelatory stories that are now commonplace in Doctor Who, picking apart the problems with stories like this and gently mocking them. The twist of Martin having been forced onto the Doctor by the Master was quite clever though, although the part that Martin has to play in the Master's plot is nebulous at best. But then, that's the whole point - it's mocking of the kind of grand schemes that the Master has to bring about the Doctor's downfall. The resolution to this story is so blindingly obvious that it makes his plan in The Time Monster look like it had a small chance of success. But it works - the humour that it's trying to present is laughable and enjoyable, and there were points during the story where I was doubling up with laughter. The 'alien spy' bit was brilliant, and the revelation of the Master's involvement in the story was a hoot, particularly the over dramatic music. The Pompous Doctor is probably at his strongest in this wave here, with some amazingly funny lines, particularly when taking on the Master. I also loved his interaction with Martin, something that has grown over the course of the wave. Billy Treacy is fantastic here, and, while he doesn't get that much time to shine, Daniel Sherratt acquits himself admirably as the Sorry Doctor, however the real standout star of this story (and one of a few people involved in the Aimless Wanderings series who doesn't get as much credit as he deserves) is Sam Dimitrijevic as the Master. He's perhaps the closest anyone has ever got to the camp heights of Anthony Ainley (although Eric Roberts did come close), and Dimitrijevic's Master borders on pantomime. I think he was utterly perfect and while his best work is yet to come, I really loved what he does here. Coupled with some great music and sound design once again, this still stands as one of the most notable Aimless Wanderings stories, and with good reason, because it's such an enjoyable release with lots of humour and some amazing acting.
Overall, for the most part, The Pug In The Machine is a great start to the Aimless Wanderings series. While not perfect, and, yes, a little rough around the edges, one thing these stories do have is great character and charm. These four mark the bedrock of the Aimless Wanderings series, and, while not perfect, nor the scaling heights of what would come later, this wave is a big success. A well characterised Doctor, some great performances and some imaginative scripting all make this very much worth listening to, and it's a very strong start for the series.
Evil Of The TARDIS Rating - 8/10
Patience Of The Daleks Rating - 7/10
The English Country Garden Rating - 5/10
The Pug Masterplan Rating - 8/10
The Aimless Wanderings stories can be found here at http://aimlesswanderings.co.uk/. They are also available to download on iTunes.
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