Audio Review: Doctor Who: The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories

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Doctor Who: The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories by Jason Arnopp

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I always enjoy Big Finish's releases containing four 30 minute stories - the short format offers opportunities for little side-trips into the Whoniverse, often giving the opportunity for humorous stories or character pieces that wouldn't stretch to a full 2-disc story treatment. While I don't think this one is as good as 45 or Company of Friends, it's quite enjoyable.

"The Demons of Red Lodge" has a wonderfully creepy opening, with the Doctor and Nyssa waking up somewhere with no memory of how they got there. It heads into more conventional territory pretty soon after that, but has a nice twist at the end.

"The Entropy Composition" by Rick Briggs was the winner of a Big Finish script pitch contest. While it's certainly a worthy winner, I can't help but be slightly disappointed by a story which revolves around a lost prog rock symphony in which we don't hear any actual prog rock. (Some might find that a relief, but after Horror of Glam Rock set a bar which I think all future music-related BF audios have to clear: if a script involves music, we need to hear the music, in all its glory.) The scene where Nyssa is mistaken for a groupie is, however, priceless.

In "Doing Time" the Doctor has shown up on an alien planet with warnings about an impending disaster, and gotten thrown in prison for his pains. My favorite part was the running gag involving Nyssa repeatedly trying and failing to get arrested in order to join him.

"Special Features" takes place at a DVD commentary recording. It gets some fun out of spoofing cult movie/TV commentaries, and then strange stuff starts happening.


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