Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Doctor Who Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker Doctor Who: Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker. A Bad Quotation: " The girl from Perivale hits the jackpot again! " (Ace) The Terileptils, who created a sculpture placed in the Doctor's playroom, appeared as the main villains in the Fifth Doctor story The Visitation . The Doctor references the Fourth Doctor's City of Death when talking to Ace about the Mona Lisa. Bev Tarrant previously met the Seventh Doctor and Ace in The Genocide Machine . The Master's previously used aliases include Colonel Masters ( Terror of the Autons ) and Sir Gilles Estram ( The King's Demons ). The Master threatens to shrink Klemp to the size of a toy, referencing his tissue compression eliminator first used by "Colonel Masters" in Terror of the Autons . I'll Explain Later: The Master clearly disapproves of Madame Salvadori and her beguilement, as well as that of all of her guests, describing them as base peddlers of human misery and calling them uncivilised. How come this Master is so moral? This is the same incarnation who inhabited Nyssa's father Tremas, who would never have espoused such views. The Inquisitor's Judgement: Dust Breeding has a number of good ideas; the eeriest painting of human history being painted as a way for Munch to exorcise the screams of an alien life form in his head, the Master behind a bejewelled mask mixing with the corrupt upper echelons of society aboard an airborne art gallery, a planet with Daleks' screams echoing from the sands. Unfortunately the final script is too busy for its own good, with none of these ideas being given the focus or properly fleshed out. Instead, Dust Breeding messily jumps between various things as though it hopes it might be able to avoid good storytelling by distracting you with cool ideas. Without the first Big Finish appearance of the Master, this would be a forgettable, below average release. I'd rank this story as a D . Doctor Who: Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker. Released June 2001. ‘Dust Breeding’ finally brings the Master into the Big Finish universe, with Geoffrey Beevers reprising the role. Big Finish apparently originally intended to have Anthony Ainley return as the Master, but his demands were too much to make his reprisal a realistic possibility. As it is, however, Beevers possesses a voice that simply exudes everything that is the Master, and so his presence in ‘Dust Breeding’ is superb even if the plot contrivance to explain his being back as a post-‘Survival’ Master is rather overly complicated. The Master’s nefarious plan is to gain control of the sentient Warp Core weapon by using eggs of the Krill, a humanoid creature first seen in the novel ‘Storm Harvest;’ of course, it doesn’t go exactly as he envisions and the Doctor ends up intervening. Actually, though, ‘Dust Breeding’ is full of intriguing concepts, notably a planet as a work of art and sentient dust-like beings that spend centuries trapped inside the painting ‘The Scream’ with the Doctor rushing to save that same painting before its destruction. Unfortunately that sentient superweapon that became more powerful than its creators foresaw never really reaches its full potential and in a sense becomes just another routine power for the Doctor to go up against. However, the story also makes good use of the Daleks without actually having them present in the story. The planet Duchamp 331, the setting of ‘Dust Breeding,’ has a legend that the background noise on the planet is the result of a Dalek saucer having crashed long ago and its crew being sucked into the omnipresent dust. It’s quite disconcerting to hear what are clearly Dalek cries so continually, but the effect is a great one nonetheless, and one that has never before or since been replicated. The Doctor and Ace are fantastic as always, Sophie Aldred bringing a more vulnerable side of Ace to the forefront, and Beevers effortlessly returns as the Master at his most conniving and menacing. McCoy and Beevers capture the nuanced relationship between the Time Lord foes excellently despite never having confronted each other on screen, and this relationship truly drives the story along. However, the rest of the supporting performances are quite strong as well. Louise Faulkner’s Bev Tarrant, last heard in ‘The Genocide Machine,’ returns as another surrogate companion for McCoy and she fills the role admirably while rounding out her character a bit more fully. Johnson Willis’s portrayal of the crazed Damien is inspired, becoming even more emotionally manic when he joins with the Warp Core, and Ian Ricketts is also quite fun as the heroic Guthrie. Undoubtedly, though, the other notable big piece of casting is in Caroline John who, while not returning to the role of Liz Shaw she made famous alongside Jon Pertwee, gives a very memorable performance as the art dealer Madame Salvadori. Her accent is maybe a little ostentatious, but it never detracts from her scenes, and it’s immense fun to have the real-world couple of Shaw and Beevers together in a Doctor Who performance. Mike Tucker again proves that he’s something of an expert on the Seventh Doctor and Ace era of the programme, and the characterization of both is top-notch. With strong supporting performances and a rich atmosphere, ‘Dust Breeding’ comes as a genuine surprise from Big Finish that should quite successfully stand the test of time. The Doctor’s collecting of art treasures at points when they ‘historically vanish’ is a little suspect and, although it keeps in line with references about his collection he made in ‘City of Death,’ seems like a quirk more in line with the Meddling Monk than the Doctor. Still, it sets the plot in motion and what follows is a fun and emotional tale that tonally fits in well with the late 80s and The New Adventures range. Doctor Who: Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker. 159c 'Dust Breeding' CD audio adventure released June 2001, 4 episodes. Writer: Mike Tucker Director: Gary Russell. Roots: Dust Breeding by Man Ray. The Blakes 7 episode 'Sand' (a sentient sand possesses bodies), Sapphire and Steel (force being captured in pictures), Star Trek (the Warp Core, plus the Voyager episode 'Warhead'), Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (backwater desert planet, hyperdrive, plus a character called 'J Binks'). Beyond the planet being named after the artist Marcel Duchamp (who also created a picture called 'Dust Breeding', a copy of which was coincidentally hanging in the Big Finish studio, and which appeared on the CD cover), some character names appear to be based on artists, including Salvadore (Salvador Dali), Klemp (Gustav Klimt), and of course Damien Person (Damien Hurst - he even uses clear isolation tanks in his 'art'). Bev paraphrases Casablanca ('of all the planets, I had to pick this one. '). A Nightmare on Elm Street and sequels (Ace asks of the Master 'Who's Freddy Krueger?'). Intertextuality: The Krill were created by Mike Tucker for his BBC Book Storm Harvest , the events of which are related to Bev by Ace (despite Bev knowing of the planet Coralee, this obviously took place after she was last in contact with anyone from there - see 'The Genocide Machine') Goofs: Bev has visited Coralee before (see: 'The Genocide Machine'), yet Ace does not pick up on this when describing her and the Doctor's first encounter with the Krill [presuming that she was alluding to the events of Storm Harvest - see 'Roots'. If this is so, the events of the book may have taken place on a future date from this adventure, explaining Bev's ignorance of Coralee's invasion]. She identifies the Krill twice to Bev. The Krill alternate from being afraid of Bev because of the Core-affected dust on her, to one punching its way through a star cruiser hull into space to attack the planet. Technobabble: The Doctor manages to "reverse the polarity". Double Entendres: 'I'm sorry ma'am. I couldn't resist him.' 'It's evil, Damien' (must be an omen!) 'You can't know, not until you've been touched.' Dialogue Triumphs: 'You've spent your life looking at masks Madame Salvadore, without ever wondering what lay beneath them. Would you like to see beneath my mask. ' Continuity: The Doctor collects masterpieces of art, usually rescuing the works in question just before they are due to be destroyed or lost forever. Among his private collection are one of the seven 'Mona Lisa' painted by Leonardo da Vinci (not the one hanging in the Louvre, but another - presumably retrieved from Count Scarlioni's basement before it was destroyed), and Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' (rescued from the 33rd century before fire was to have destroyed it). He also has an untitled example of Terileptil sculpture, which Ace compares to 'an explosion in a glass factory'. The Krill are a living weapon created 'long ago' by an unknown race. Virtually indestructible, they attacked the planet that was to become Duchamp 331 before its inhabitants developed a super weapon, the Warp Core, to defeat them. Though not utterly defeated, the Krill were scattered and, like the Core itself, instinctively seek out their enemy. After its victory the Warp Core sought to explore the Universe, and in its attempt destroyed its creators and their world (reducing it to a barren planet covered in a shifting dust ocean) before escaping and roaming the cosmos. At one point, exhausted, it rested on earth in the nineteenth century, where, in Norway the artist Edvard Munch encountered it in his famous recollection of this inspiration for his most famous painting 'The Scream'. Entering Munch's subconscious, the weapon tormented the artist until he 'exorcised' it onto his canvas, where it was trapped for several centuries, dormant, but able to reach out to telepaths and 'sensitives', including artists. Presumably it was through Damien that it made its way to Duchamp 331. It was in the National Gallery in Oslo that the (post-'Survival') Master encountered the Warp Core, having tracked it to Earth and intending to use it to power his TARDIS. Unprepared for its power and underestimating its outside awareness, he was attacked by it, having the body he stole from Tremas of Traken stripped from him, reducing him to his previous, decaying form. He captured six Krill eggs from space and, adopting the guise of 'Mr Seta' (work it out), tracked the Warp Core's eventual destination of Duchamp 331. In this guise the Master wears a series of expensive looking masks (and presumably, gloves also), but carries his TCE, which he still uses. His TARDIS continues to bear the form of a stone pillar. The latterly named Duchamp 331 is now a refueling station off the major space lanes. Six huge fuel tanks lie floating beneath its surface, topped by six way stations and a crew of around 250. No other human inhabitants live on the planet, save for a community of 50 artists in a remote commune nicknamed 'the Outhouse'. Years ago a crippled Dalek taskforce landed on the planet, their saucer sinking beneath the dust. Trapped, their dalekanium power source was still active, and, according to Guthrie, their screams can still be heard on the winds of the planet. Bev suggests the sound is merely the dust sharks crying out in hunger. Bev is 29, a thief, and a smoker. Ace carries 'redub' (?) pennies in her pockets. Her O-Level art teacher was Miss Parkinson and she loved abstract art. Links : 'City of Death', 'The Keeper of Traken', 'The Genocide Machine' Location: The planet Duchamp 331, the luxury space cruiser Gallery . The Bottom Line: "I am the Master. " He's back - and unexpectedly too. Anthony Ainley's refusal to participate is our gain; Geoffrey Beever's spine-chilling voice adds an atmosphere to the adventure that Ainley could never have provided. Let's hope that this version of the Master will be back to confront the seventh Doctor again, soon (though how many more secret anagrams can one create from the word Master?). While the 'return' of the Krill didn't quite live up to its hype, 'Dust Breeding' is a fun addition to the ever- growing post-Season 26 catalogue. RETRO REVIEW | Doctor Who: Dust Breeding. Guest contributor Lincoln Wilson handles this week’s Retro Review . Read on for his thoughts! So, the time of reckoning is at hand. After (almost) 275 monthly releases, stretching way back to July 1999 and the release of very first story ( The Sirens of Time ) of Big Finish ’s flagship Doctor Who audio range, the end is nigh. Well – it is, and it isn’t. As Big Finish moves in to a new format of releases (box sets of some form) for the ‘classic’ Doctors, now seems a good time to start looking back at the good, the bad and the ugly stories that have thrilled, annoyed and perplexed listeners for over 20 years. And this week we start with Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker . The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) are heading for the barren, dust world of Duchamp 331 to add ‘ The Scream’, the 1893 painting by Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch, to the TARDIS Art Gallery before it is destroyed in mysterious circumstances. A distress beacon from the planet intervenes, and the Doctor and Ace find a lone survivor at a devastated refuelling station. All evidence points to the elements – the howling wind and the rolling dust – as the main culprit. But as usual the Doctor thinks that there must be more to it, and after bumping into an old friend, Bev Tarrant (played by Louise Faulkner and first seen in Tucker’s earlier story The Genocide Machine ), they start to investigate a remote artist’s colony that just happens to house ‘ The Scream’. Also en route to Duchamp 331 is the luxury space-liner Gallery, where art patron Madame Salvadori (played with flamboyant gusto by Caroline John ) and her side kick, the ever loyal and efficient Mr Klemp ( Mark Donavan ), have promised the wealthy passengers the art event of their lifetime when they reach Duchamp. But one of the VIPs on board, the mysterious Mr Seta ( Geoffrey Beevers ) and his even more mysterious cargo, has larger – and of course nefarious – plans of his own. Dust Breeding has a lot of elements to it but take a step back and it is a fairly standard Doctor Who story. It is also a very enjoyable Doctor Who story. Sylvester McCoy is on fine form and the supporting cast all add wonderfully to the mix. Duchamp resident Mr Guthrie ( Ian Ricketts ) and the slightly unhinged leader of the artist colony, Damien Pierson ( Johnson Willis) , both have roles to play as events unfold. We even get Alistair Lock of Blake’s 7 fame, playing a short-lived Gallery security guard who encounters Mr Seta in one of his less charitable moods. The sound design is also excellent – with a familiar-ish roar or scream on the wind of Duchamp that is hard to place – but lacks the polish of Big Finish ’s later output. A bit like listening to a slightly crackling vinyl record or a good old-fashioned valve amp. Was that a first pang of nostalgia creeping in there? With 275 releases and even more stories making up the Monthly Range , fans of audio Doctor Who have a huge back-catalogue of releases to dip in to….but I don’t know. Doctor Who Audio Book Review: #21 – Dust Breeding. Big Finish Summary: On 19th century Earth artist Edvard Munch hears an infinite scream pass through nature. Centuries later his painting of that scream hangs in a gallery on the barren dust world Duchamp 331. Why is there a colony of artists on a planet that is little more than a glorified garage? What is the event that the passengers of the huge, opulent pleasure cruiser ‘Gallery’ are hoping to see? And what is hidden in the crates that litter the cargo hold? The Doctor’s diary indicates that the painting is about to be destroyed in ‘mysterious circumstances’, and when he and Ace arrive on Duchamp 331, those circumstances are well underway. *Warning: This review contains spoilers relating to the plot* ‘Dust Breeding’ is the product of some good writing, a plot that successfully links to the show to the mystery of ‘The Scream’, and some good characterisation of both the TARDIS crew and the antagonists of the story, both returning and new. This is an audio book that successfully adds to the wealth of quality in the Doctor Who Big Finish archives. The biggest standing out point of this audio book is that it is the first appearance of The Master in this Big Finish monthly series. I noted after that Geoffrey Beevers portrayed him; he was also this character in the TV story ‘The Keeper of Traken’, but had no idea of the actor when listening to the audio book. Big fans of the classic series, myself included, will see this twist coming well before it is revealed, since the character uses an anagram of the word ‘Master’, and a slightly obvious one at that. This Master has once again been stripped of his regenerations and has degenerated into a rotting corpse-like creature, which makes him all the more dangerous and powerful, as he will do anything to regain his power. There was a lot of attention of detail towards the way this character acts that stays true to himself, including attempted hypnosis of less intellectual individuals and the way he uses other monsters and creatures in the hope he can double-cross them down the line and take the power he craves, which is good to see from the writer Mike Tucker. Geoffrey Beevers makes a good Master on audio, full of well-spoken menace in a way that makes it feel like the other characters are his playthings to manipulate. The plotting and pacing of this audio book feel good, apart from a second part barely over twenty minutes where it feels like the result of a writer who wanted two reveals to happen in quick succession. Connecting a barren dusty backwater of a planet with one of the most iconic paintings in Earth history was definitely a good choice; it feels like not enough is done with the many wonders of the planet. The painting itself is pretty horrifying and does make you wonder what the message or the inspiration behind ‘The Scream’ is, so it was good that the writer managed to integrate this artwork into the narrative directly. The dangerous entity/weapon behind the painting (literally), the Warp Core, makes for another solid villain because it is pretty eerie and unhinged when it talks, particularly when it takes over the essence of an individual and speaks through them. Between the Master and the Warp Core, there are some good villains here. I’m not sure whether the Krill were as successful, mostly because they kill nearly all of the inhabitants on a ship the characters are on, and then are used as an obstacle course. Funnily enough, they made an appearance in a BBC book a couple of years before this audio book was released, again featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace and written by Mike Tucker, so maybe the author wanted to use them again. In spite of this, ‘Dust Breeding’ is a good listen and the shortened runtime compared to previous stories in this series means that it feels exciting and to the point. I think that the writer got the characterisation of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) near perfectly. What makes his incarnation so interesting is that he always seems to have a motivation behind a certain action that may not be shared by his other selves. The confession that he ‘rescues’ artworks when their galleries are burnt down and then keeps them in the TARDIS seems very in line with his character, and he is firm with companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) and returning character Bev Tarrant (Louise Faulkner) when telling them what they can do to help. Speaking of Ace, she was written very well here again and works well against the Seventh Doctor. Bev is decent here, but she doesn’t really have as much of an impact as she did in her previous appearance, ‘The Genocide Machine’, mostly because she isn’t that different from Ace in terms of personality and attitude. As a side note, Caroline John (previously companion Liz Shaw on the TV show in 1970), gives a bold and very different performance as the opulent Madame Salvadori. In terms of characterisation of both the main protagonists and the villains of this audio book, writer Mike Tucker does a good job. ”Dust Breeding’ is another successful story in this Doctor Who Big Finish audio book series, further consolidating the fact that the later classic TV series could have been better received had it included stories like those that have been featured by Big Finish to date. This story is further improved by a surprising appearance from the Doctor’s old adversary, the Master, as well as some decent characterisation and a good concept around Edvard Munch’s mysterious painting, ‘The Scream’. This is definitely one that I would recommend fans of the show to listen to. Star Rating : 4/5. ‘Dust Breeding’ is available to listen to for free on Spotify or for £2.99 to download from the Big Finish site. The link to this audio book is below: The next audio book in this series sees the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn arrive on the Galapagos Islands, which are shrouded in mystery to the new arrivals, amongst them one Charles Darwin, but something deep below the surface is starting to rise to reclaim their planet, thousands of years after going into hibernation… You can read my review of Audio Book #22 – ‘Bloodtide’, very soon! If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then please like this post, and subscribe to The Blogging DJ to receive notifications when new posts are published. Thank you to all of my subscribers, I appreciate every one of you. If you have any recommendations of audio book or Doctor Who related posts for my blog in the future, please leave a comment below. Your comments are used as inspirations for future posts. I will see all of you very soon for my next audio book review in this series – ‘Bloodtide’.