Sarah Sutton returns as the kind, caring and intelligent Trakenite Nyssa in this truly unsettling and creepy story by Nigel Fairs.
Big Finish’s SHORT TRIPS range are always one’s to be enjoyed. The stories are snappy but also have a really good solid bite to them too. And In The Toy, Nigel Fairs has written a haunting piece that somehow manages to create such a wide breath of acting ability from Sarah Sutton. who has always been this reviewer’s favourite!
A pretty intense story
One especially good element is Nyssa’s recollections of her past life, and Sarah really makes you feel Nyssa’s heartache at the loss of her planet, home and family. It is really movingly done, and yet the score to this short trip is really eerie and the build up of tension within just a short half hour is very well handled. Sarah has a great narrating voice, which adds to the drama of this pretty intense story.
What also impressed, or actually delighted, was Sarah’s voice of Tegan, who she nails easily. Her Adric is not bad and her Fifth Doctor is spot on too. This all just reminds me of what’s to enjoy with Sarah Sutton as a companion. She is a genuinely nice and decent character, and full of such warmth and charm.
No interest lost
Nigel Fairs tale here is both haunting and melancholic, but also immediately gripping with many wonderful touches of emotion. One’s interest does not wane from beginning to end in this excellent addition to the Short Trips range. The resolution is neat and tidy, and the story is easy to follow but never tedious. In fact, it is thoroughly enjoyable!
It may not be 100 percent truly original through and through, but it is what many good Doctor Who stories are: dependably solid.
But Nyssa is recreated once more to near perfection in THE TOY. A well deserved 9 out of 10!
‘The Toy’ is available to download now direct from Big Finish.
Synopsis
In her bedroom on board the TARDIS, Nyssa dreams of her long lost home, and a Forbidden Archway that never really existed — or did it?
In the TARDIS corridors she finds a flight of steps, a door marked ‘keep out’, and beyond, a locked room full of secrets. In particular a casket containing a jewel seems to call to her. “Nyssa of Traken, do you want to be my friend?”
So begins a journey that takes Nyssa from snow capped mountains to vast cities, and introduces her to people she seems to know so well. What dangerous landscape has she wondered into — and can she ever escape to safety, and the comfort of her travelling companions?
Producer Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor Nicholas Briggs
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Written By: Nigel Fairs
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman
Cast
Sarah Sutton (Narrator)
