Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An epic, 7 Dec 2004
Its really difficult to describe Zagreus. An anniversary story (40th), with about a million guest actors (some playing the roles they did in the series, some not), three discs, and one hell of an epic story. Kudos for not going down the same way as The Five Doctors, but this is a sprawling behemoth that takes everything about Doctor Who and threatens to tear it to shreds. Many times i found myself thinking "no, they can't do that!" before things are fixed moments later. I can't complain about it because it is very very good, (and quite serious) but in comparison to the smaller scale Whopisodes it isn't in my favour. In particular the three disc - three part layout is quite hefty - i much prefer shorter parts, more cliffhangers. That said the two cliffhangers that do occur are excellent. I ended up listening to the final disc in one sitting at 1am in the morning (exam the next day) simply because i was completely hooked. As for the acting...well, Paul McGann shows us again why he was absolutely fantastic in the central role, but India Fisher as Charley really shines. There is some word play between the Doc and Charley which thanks to the acting comes across as somewhat ambiguous. Exactly how do they feel about each other? Will their relationship shatter the hopes and heighten the fears of fans, or are they just...the best friends ever?
The humour, of which i thought there would be close to nil due to the seriousness of the storyline, is spot on. Conrad Westmass' chesire cat is hilarious and Sylvester McCoy is a dream come true.
I spent a year before listening to this wondering who played the voice of Zagreus, expecting a guest actor in much the same way as the previous three dramas, Omega, Davros and Master. When i finally discovered who voices the evil being of anti-time...silly silly me. Should have seen it a mile away.
The Doctor Who universe has taken a beating, but come out smelling of roses. I can only thank Big Finish from the bottom of my heart for not spoiling ANYTHING.Oh and listen out for a very surprising guest voice.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Over-ambitious, over-long, but intriguing failure, 2 Dec 2004
When I first heard Zagreus, having duly waited 16 months to hear the resolution of the cliff-hanger from Big Finish's second 8th Doctor season, I enjoyed it a lot - but re-listening to it now it's flaws become more obvious.
For a start, lets clear up what Zagreus is not - a celebratory 40th anniversary story. Despite the misleading cover this is emphatically not a team-up of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Doctor; Davison, Baker & McCoy all appear, but they spend most of their time playing other characters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but seeing as every other character is played by a returning ex-companion this can be highly distracting (one scene features Colin Baker playing the 6th Doctor playing a vampire, India Fisher playing Charlie playing Rassilon, and Nicholas Courtney playing the TARDIS playing the Brigadier playing a Time Lord.) The hoops the narrative jumps through in order to feature all these old faces is unconvincing, and I can't help but think it would have been a more successful story without this distraction.
Other bad points - at 3 and ¾ hours long this is over-extended by at least an hour, with the majority of the first 2 discs given over to over-padded exposition regarding the divergent universe; an archival appearance by the late Jon Pertwee is a nice anniversary touch, but you can barely make out anything he says; the universe-threatening menace of Zagreus himself turns out to be a virtual red-herring, Paul McGann shouts a bit, throws some books around - and that's it; the central story, while dealing with central parts of Gallifreyan lore, with Rassilon's ordering of the universe and expelling magic and controlling evolution seems to have been lifted wholesale from the book ranges; and having avoided explicit anniversary story tropes for so long the story descends into a barrage of continuity winks at the last ("There should have been another way", "It this death?", etc etc)
Inevitably there are positives too - Nicholas Courtney is superb as the surprisingly convincing TARDIS, and the silky smooth Don Warrington does a good turn as Rassilon, while Sylvester McCoy's Walt Disney clone is fun.
Ultimately though, Zagreus ends up falling between two stools: it's too deliberately obscure to be successful as an anniversary romp, and there's too much distracting flimflam for it to make a really successful 8th Doctor story about Zagreus or the Divergents. Make no mistake - Zagreus is a failure, but it's so over-ambitious that it is at least an interesting failure.
If you've already followed Big Finish's first two 8th Doctor seasons then this is essential listening for its continuation of a cliff-hanger, but if you're looking for a standalone anniversary multi-Doctor story, for gods sake look elsewhere.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fantastic piece for the 40th anniversary, 15 Jun 2004
I've always known of and watched repeats of Doctor Who through my brother who is an avid fan but this is the first thing that really got me hooked. This piece challenges expectations and is a fantastically inventive way to have a multi-doctor, multi-companion story for the anniversary. I have to admit I listened to this before I heard 'Neverland' or many of the Eighth Doctor audios other than the outstanding 'Chimes of Midnight' but the palpable fear at the beginning set the tone for a fantastic story questioning many of the fundamentals of Doctor Who. The familiar voices in wholly different roles was a wonderful facet of the idea that the Doctor, the TARDIS and Charley were all trying to make sense of the chaos around them using what memories they had. The acting of Paul McGann and India Fisher is outstanding and the story stood up to many repeat plays. Well Done Big Finish! This has defiantly got me wanting more.
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