Grand Who Review: Phantasmagoria

Title: Phantasmagoria [by Mark Gatiss, 1999]

What is it? It’s a standalone Big Finish audioplay, number 02 in the main range.

Doctor: Fifth

Companions: Turlough

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The plot: 6/10. S’aight! Not bad! I tend to feel of most things Mark Gatiss writes that the plots themselves are not incredible works of art - mostly clear-cut Bad Guy versus mostly clear-cut Good Guys - but the way they’re written is the great thing about them, making them considerably more entertaining than they could be if written by someone else.

The ~feelings: 7/10. Nothing especially emotive, but the play’s entertaining and the characters are brilliant, as is a given with Mark Gatiss, so it scores quite highly for that.

Anything else to add?

Mark Gatiss has, of course, written himself a part in this play (alongside David Walliams, who is way more convincing than I expected him to be, meaning I had to mentally apologise to him for prejudging his non-comedic acting skills). I did not spot which part it was. Even after looking it up, I was sure I’d been mistaken. All I’ll say is that I assume he went through an awful lot of cough drops during the recording.

I think I’ve said “Mark Gatiss” too many times in this review so I’ll stop now! Overall, not a bad audio - it’s not taxing to listen to or particularly stressful. I’ve listened to it a few times and each time have managed it in one sitting. Purely entertainment for your ears, most notably in the form of Peter Davison’s voice, which I’ve begun to form an attachment to quite separate of the man himself or the character he’s playing.

I don’t know why either.