Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Top drawer, 17 Nov 2007
`An interesting moral dilemma'...Medicinal Purposes is one of those historical yarns that Big Finish (and indeed the BBC) does so well. Mysterious medical men, feisty harlots, leering murderers and simple-minded vagrants abound and there is even an appearance by future TV Doctor, David Tennant. The soon-to-be Tenth Doctor is just one of a top-notch cast - Leslie Philips provides a sleazily enigmatic Doctor Knox, receiver of first-class cadavers, whilst Kevin O'Leary and Tom Farrelly excel as `misunderstood' grave-robbers Burke & Hare.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful atmosphere, great characters, 25 Aug 2004
This is great fun - how do you re-create the atmosphere of 19th Century London, Sherlock Holmes and Jack The Ripper without the story being seen as a copy of The Talons Of Weng-Chiang? Answer: Set the story in Burke and Hare's Edinburgh! Writer Robert Ross hits just the right note in the setting of this story, and the sound design and acting support this more than adequately. Leslie Phillips is brilliant as the Doctor Knox character, and within a few minutes of his first appearance, all thoughts of silly-ass sub lieutenants dropping their trousers will have vanished. David Tennant gives a terrific performance as Daft Jamie, and one would almost hope that he had been written in as a full-time companion to the Sixth Doctor. Talking of whom, Colin is at his best in this sort of setting; it gives him a chance to show many different facets of his Doctor's personality. Evelyn is similarly well-performed by Maggie Stables, however Ross doesn't seem to write as well for the regular cast as he does for his own versions of the historical characters. Evelyn is a little too sarcastic and ironic at the start of the play, sounding more like she had Peri's lines, and the Doctor shows an amoral streak which veers dangerously close to the end justifying the means. Now we know that the Doctor isn't human, and Colin Baker's version is perhaps even less human than most, but problems arise when the attitude to morality is inconsistent. I would venture that the Doctor in this story isn't just inconsistent with his other appearances, but is also inconsistent within the same story. Apart from this, the story is a delight to listen to and one that I may pop straight back in the CD player and play again!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice ideas, uneven execution, 21 Nov 2004
Medicinal Purposes has the 6th Doctor and Evelyn encountering infamous Scottish murderers and grave robbers Burke and Hare. It's a suitably macabre setting, and the backdrop for an interesting tale of a time traveller vivisecting humans to find a cure for an alien disease. Leslie Philips makes an engaging villain, but unfortunately the interesting vivisection angle gets pushed aside for some boring nonsense about providing grand guignol entertainment for aliens, and the plot gets tied up in time loops leaving Evelyn a virtual spectator. The Doctor is also curiously a big fan of the murderous Burke and Hare, which while being suitably alien goes against the grain of the Doctor's usual morality. An interesting play, with some great central ideas, but ultimately the execution is very uneven, resulting in a fairly average story.
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