From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   THE WITCH FROM THE WELL (BF AUDIO)   
      
   4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Rick Briggs. Directed by:   
   Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   An excavation at the village of Trenchard's Fell uncovers a well,   
   blocked by stone and left undisturbed for centuries. Naturally, the   
   workers remove the stone - and in so doing, free a witch who proceeds   
   to butcher them all within minutes.   
      
   Twins Lucern (Kevin Trainor) and Finicia (Alix Wilton Regan), the   
   children of the village squire, have witnessed this massacre and   
   appear destined to be among the victims - until the Doctor and Mary   
   rescue them. The Doctor insists there are no witches, and that they   
   are dealing with an alien life form. He sets the TARDIS controls for   
   the 17th century to investigate the origin of the creature.   
      
   But there is more to Lucern and Finicia than meets the eye. Thanks to   
   the twins' interference, the Doctor and Mary soon find themselves   
   separated by centuries - Mary, evading the witch in 21st century   
   Trenchard's Fell; the Doctor, probing the secrets of the 17th century   
   village. But the Doctor's search for answers will meet a deadly   
   barrier in the form of Master John Kincaid (Simon Rouse), the infamous   
   Witch-Pricker!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: The Silver Turk saw the Doctor focused on destroying an   
   alien being, so it is a good decision here to show his more   
   compassionate side. From the very beginning, he refuses to judge the   
   aliens as monsters. Determining that they are trapped on Earth, he   
   focuses on helping, not destroying. This trait is shown particularly   
   strongly in Part Two, when he discovers a dying creature trapped on   
   the alien spaceship. Unable to free it, he insists on staying until it   
   dies: "I'll stay with you as long as it takes. You won't die alone."   
      
   Mary: Spends the bulk of the story separated from the Doctor, running   
   about the 21st century Trenchard's Folly with the hapless Aleister   
   Portillon (Andrew Havill). Though her function in the story is very   
   much that of "generic companion," writer Rick Briggs has woven in a   
   lot of material from his research on the historical Mary Shelley.   
   Particularly amusing is her reaction to Aleister's worship of Lord   
   Byron and his scorn of Byron's contemporaries (including her). She   
   deals effectively with the "witch" in the modern setting, even as the   
   Doctor deals with the witch-pricker in the distant past. Julie Cox   
   continues to impress, and I hope that the remaining story of this Big   
   Finish "season" does not end up being the last we hear of her version   
   of Mary Shelley.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   Most Big Finish "seasons" have a traditional runaround in the middle,   
   with more ambitious stories on either side of it. The 8th Doctor/Mary   
   Shelley season seems to be following the pattern, with Marc Platt's   
   atmospheric The Silver Turk followed by this more traditional pseudo-   
   historical.   
      
   Thankfully, The Witch from the Well is not just a tedious retread of   
   what some audio writer thinks the show would have aired in 1976 (as   
   too often ends up being the case). Writer Rick Briggs, who previously   
   penned a clever single-part story for the Demons of Red Lodge   
   collection, continues to show structural ingenuity. Separating Mary   
   and the Doctor in time but not in space allows both characters scenes   
   in which to shine. And by giving each character one side of the story   
   to investigate, the Doctor the beginning and Mary the ending, we get   
   to see how the Doctor's actions may impact on Mary's predicament.   
      
   Briggs' script juggles the two strands effectively. The 17th century   
   scenes are the primary focus, with Mary's adventures in the modern day   
   being clearly secondary. The cutting between the two strands is done   
   with care. We cut back to Mary often enough to keep her story alive,   
   but at well-judged points so that her scenes don't interrupt the flow   
   of the Doctor's story. Her scenes also tend to be shorter than the   
   Doctor's, which means that her bits never keep us away from the main   
   story for long enough to lose track of the plot.   
      
   This is a good thing, because the scenes in the past are much more   
   effective than the ones in the modern day. 17th century Trenchard's   
   Fell is a much better-developed setting, with several strong guest   
   characters. Simon Rouse's Witch-Pricker is the most memorable of   
   these. He's clearly villainous, lacking any compassion for any   
   individual in the village. The Doctor reacts to him with all the   
   disdain you would expect, in scenes that see Paul McGann in   
   particularly good form - but in a nice turn, we discover that he is   
   actually genuine in his belief in his work, even if he goes about his   
   gruesome business with one eye on his Bible and the other on his own   
   ambitions.   
      
   The Witch from the Well is a good, entertaining yarn, one which   
   manages to avoid the curse of the "dull middle story" that has plagued   
   so many Big Finish trilogies. It's largely pretty traditional, with   
   superstitious villagers and aliens who are taken for supernatural   
   beings. But it's presented in a way that feels fresh and clever, with   
   solid performances from the entire cast and a satisfying resolution.   
   Another good story, in a set of stories that I'm finding immensely   
   enjoyable.   
      
      
   Rating: 7/10.   
      
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