From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   With Netflix still not having "Dragonfire" available, and it being a   
   story I'm not very interested in purchasing, I will save it for the   
   next McCoy run and instead move on to McGann.   
      
   The TV Movie having been covered last year, we're obviously in "audio   
   only" territory now.  The audios covered in this run will be:   
      
   The Company of Friends: Mary's Story   
   The Silver Turk   
   The Witch from the Well   
   Army of Death   
      
      
   Commencing with...   
      
   THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS: MARY'S STORY (BF AUDIO)   
      
   1 episode. Approx. 31 minutes. Written by: Jonathan Morris. Directed   
   by: Nicholas Briggs. Produced by: Nicholas Briggs.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   Switzerland, 1816. At a villa rented by Lord Byron, the famous poet is   
   spending time with Mary Shelley (Julie Cox), her husband Percy Bysshe   
   Shelley, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, and Byron's doctor John   
   Polidori. After reading from a collection of horror stories, Byron   
   suggests that each member of the company prepare a ghost story for the   
   following day, as a sort of contest.   
      
   This friendly competition is interrupted, however, by the arrival of a   
   badly wounded stranger: A man so burned that Polidori pronounces that   
   he has never seen such injuries on anyone living. The man gasps out   
   that he is a doctor, followed by another word as he recognizes his   
   current company:   
      
   "Frankenstein!"   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: Paul McGann gets to play multiple variants of his Doctor.   
   We see the self-assured Doctor of the last part of The TV Movie, a man   
   with seemingly no care in the world. We also see an embittered Doctor,   
   a man who has lost much and perhaps everything. Then there is the   
   burned and badly-injured Doctor who slips in and out of coherence.   
   Finally, there is the monster - a Doctor so wounded and mutated that   
   he becomes violent, out-of-control, more animal than man. Given the   
   chance to show so much variety within the story's scant thirty   
   minutes, McGann throws himself into it with relish.   
      
   Mary: The title of the story is Mary's Story, and the narrative is   
   seen entirely through her eyes. Julie Cox is very good as Mary,   
   depicted as having run off with the much older Percy at the promise of   
   adventures that never came. The young woman is already jaded by the   
   reality of a man who "does not believe in fidelity" and who is prone   
   to mania under the influence of laudanum. Writer Jonathan Morris is   
   very conscious of this as a companion introduction story, even if this   
   companion also happens to be a historical figure. His script makes   
   sure to highlight the traits needed in an engaging companion,   
   showcasing Mary as strong-willed, compassionate, and observant.   
   Further depth will likely be added by the full-length stories to come,   
   but Cox's performance and Morris' script already have her feeling like   
   a full character even in this short piece.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   The best of the one-episode stories featured in The Company of   
   Friends, and the only of these four stories that Big Finish has to   
   date seen fit to follow up. Mary's Story is far from the first work to   
   explore the summer that spawned The Vampyre and Frankenstein. Like Ken   
   Russell's muddled film Gothic, this episode plays with the idea of   
   genuinely fantastical events inspiring the supernatural tales.   
      
   Bits of Frankenstein can be spotted throughout the piece. Percy   
   Shelley's mania as he cries, "He's aliiive!" is an obvious echo of the   
   Boris Karloff movie, as are references to fire and torch-wielding   
   villagers. There's even a line that winks at the confusion caused by   
   the later film series, wherein "Frankenstein" became the monster   
   instead of the scientist.   
      
   All of this is amusing, though the "monster" scenes tend to be the   
   most jumbled of the episode. Still, the real interest here is in the   
   glimpses of the different variants of the Doctor. This is effectively   
   a multi-Doctor story, showing the Eighth Doctor at two distinct points   
   in his life. The early Eighth Doctor, still innocent and hungry for   
   adventure, contrasts with the bitter, late-in-his-life Eighth Doctor,   
   a man who has traveled with so many companions and ended up alone at   
   the end of it.   
      
   Despite a few rushed moments that were probably inevitable in a single-   
   episode story, Mary's Story is a good one. An introduction to a   
   character worth following, and a glimpse of the Eighth Doctor's full   
   journey at both its start and its end. It's clever and fun, and I look   
   forward to seeing where the Doctor/Mary partnership goes from here.   
      
      
   Rating: 8/10.   
      
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