In The Sandman, the Galyari are given one of the most exotic cultures of any "monster" in the Doctor Who catalogue. IN this way, the motivations of various characters are much more believable and their personalities rounded than many other creatures. And of course, we get to see the Doctor from the perspective of one of his apparent enemies.

The descriptions of The Clutch, a grand migration of vessels across space, is a very vivid one. Evelyn's exclamation about the colours gives us a mental image which transcends simply an ordered collection of hardware. It's a visual spectacle, reminiscent of a shoal of fish, giving the whole a feeling of movement and life. A wonderful concept, realised with quite minimal intervention.

The story of how the Doctor became The Sandman allows us to hear both sides of one of his adventures for once. The way in which each side will interpret and emphasise different parts is significant, not only in the way the tale is passed down, but how it can be wilfully misused. Even the Doctor himself exaggerates parts of the narrative to retain his mystique as long as possible. We are used to the 6th Doctor being more aggressive, but here his actions are seen as those of a monster, despite his good motives.

Evelyn starts off in her usual well-humoured way, acting as a steadying influence on the Doctor's atitude. But for a while, even she has to deal with the evidence that an entire race has come to fear him as something from their nightmares. And in the time period she meets the Galyari, there is very little to show her that these civilised creatures were ever evil or despotic. We revel in the thought that the bad guys might be afraid of the Doctor. But when it is a species whose nature is much les obviously malign, then hearing their legends begins to undermine our confidence, and Evelyn's. She is, of course, made of stern stuf, and soon makes it clear that whatever his effect on the Galyari, she won't suffer any nonsense from him herself.

The Galyari themselves are well portrayed. Anneke Wills, famous as Polly Wright back at the end of the William Hartnell and beginning of the Patrick Troughton eras, does an excellent job as a mother obsessed by anger and revenge. The effect used to produce the Galyari voices occasionally muffles the dialogue a bit, but not so much as to spoil the detail. Most importantly, all the actors playing Galyari are able to put as much emotion into their lines as they need. At a Doctor Who convention in Swansea, back in 2005, Anneke Wills admitted that the recording of the Galyari roaring with rage was quite an envigorating and enjoyable process.

Mordecan and Mintaru form quite a good double-act. It's hard to see how Mordecan managed to get anything done with Mintaru being so cripplingly timid. But it adds to the humour of the partnership. The idea of Star Gypsies is a quaint notion, and could provide quite a lot of cultural material in itself. This is not so thoroughly explored as that of the Galyari though.

The one area I did find a little awkward was General Voshkar. The acting of Ian Hogg seemed to be so over the top, that it did momentarily raise the image of Joseph Furst as Zaroff in The Underwater Menace. Whether this was intentional or not I can't tell. But it did jangle a bit with the rest of the performances.

The sound detail is perfectly tuned to give us texture and depth to the environment within The Clutch. The way in which birds feature so strongly in the Galyari culture is repeated in the chirping tones of the door mechanisms. Yet in Director Nrosha's quarters, the background music indicates a suitably different musical aesthetic from ours.

This is an enjoyable introduction to the Galyari for those not familiar with them from other materials. It also gives Colin Baker the chance to revel in performing a darker interpretation of his Doctor. It's well-paced, and a good listen for old and new audiences alike.

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All the best,

David

Simon A Forward's two Big Finish Doctor Who audios are slow burners IMO. Repeated listenings reward greatly, as there is so much depth to his stories - and I love that kind of thing. The stories are never immediate, though, and with The Sandman, the first thing that struck me was Colin Baker's acting.

Big Finish and Baker have done wonders to mellow the Sixth Doctor and still make him consistent with the volatile character he played on TV. To be honest, I find his 'evil' acting in this story a huge comedown. Whether or not he was trying to compete with Ian Hogg's larger-than-life performance is unknown - whereas Hogg was playing a desperate vilain, Colin was playing the Doctor gone evil. There is no need to be as over the top as he was here.

Apart from that, I love this. Evelyn is proving by this point to be the Doctor's most naturally amusing companion. The way she undermines some of the Doctor's excesses is often hilarious, but skillfully, Maggie Stables also plays Evelyn's serious side equally as convincingly. Her suspicions that the Doctor really has gone bad are subtle and very effective.

The story is awash with incredible visuals, cleverly described in the dialogue (similarly impressive are those in Forward's later Dreamtime). The Clutch, the Galayari are all wonderful, magical ideas brought to life.
My favourite scene, together with the Doctor's stand-off against General Voshkar, is the moment where the Doctor's coat has a detrimental effect on one of the Galayari (at the beginning of part 4, I think). It is one of the cleverest, and perhaps most obvious, ways the Sixth Doctor has ever escaped from a sticky situation.

I love The Sandman more each time I hear it, even now. Let's hope Forward gets to write another audio soon!

Ah yes, that is very true. Funnily enough, the review spurred me on to listen to this again today when doing some decorating. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Must listen to Dreamtime again soon too!

Not that I would wish to influence you in any way, but in Dreamtime, the Galyari voices have been re-treated and are a lot easier to understand. :)