Starring Nigel Fairs, Linda Bartram, Lizi Hann
Written by Nigel Fairs. Music by Alistair Lock.
Non-canonical, but after The Huntress and before Lyr
“Where are you? I see nobody!”
“That is because there’s nobody to see, Pisces! Only the darkness.”
“That is not possible.”
“Who are you to say what is possible and what is not?”
“Without a form you cannot-“
“There is nothing I cannot do. Especially here, where it is always night.”
“Always?”
“My powers are strong here. Be aware.”
“You need a form, a host body. How else are we to fight?”
“There are other ways. The rules of the game are changing, Pisces, as we reach the end.”
“The end?”
“It’s nearer than you think. Be aware, Pisces.”
“I shall be prepared.”
“I too! In the meantime we play the game.”
“It is no game!”
“The rules are changing, Pisces! Darkness approaches!”
In 1984 a group of Doctor Who fans began producing their own audio adventures of Doctor Who, under the name of Audio Visuals. From the timing I’m going to assume it was a reaction to the new Doctor and his less than stellar first adventure. My thought is they saw it and thought “I don’t like this, let’s make our own”. They began to meet up and record stories together. In the pre-digital era everything was on cassette and multi-track equipment meant a reduction in quality with every dub. CDs were still very new and I don’t believe anyone but professionals had the equipment to burn CDs even if the costs weren’t prohibitive. Also, computers were still in their infancy; desktop publishing was not available to all so the packaging of the cassettes was photocopied artwork onto coloured paper. It was the best they could do back then.
By the time of the second story, Nicholas Briggs had stepped into the role of the Doctor and would remain in the part until 1999 when Big Finish Productions (with a much better budget and equipment) was able to cast the fifth, sixth and seventh Doctors in the part. The chronology of it goes something like this:
Bill Baggs, Gary Russell and Nicholas Briggs were Audio Visuals. Eventually Bill Baggs went his own way with BBV; Russell and Briggs went to form Big Finish. Nigel Fairs was Nick Briggs’s second companion and had also started writing. When he was written out of the Audio Visuals he started a third arm as Cranfield Sound Productions. The four seemed to have parted amicably as there is some crossover of the roles in each of the three arms. Nick Briggs worked with Baggs, Nigel Fairs worked with Baggs and now works with Big Finish.
There’s a very good interview of Nigel Fairs on the AudioVisuals tribute site, here which will fill in all the details.
Cranfield Sound Productions were recording a series of linked adventures called Pisces. Each story was involved with a sign of the zodiac and there were twelve episodes to be recorded. There are five in existence, but the Pisces website indicates that the sixth story was recorded.
The first story is about a man who’s training as a professional swimmer (Aquarius, see?) when he meets a mysterious woman, Pisces. It turns out that this man, Anton Savage, has a power. He can roll back time. Pisces is some sort of mystical being who has come to recruit him in a fight against a villainous power, Darkness (Nicholas Briggs). Her power is that of healing. In the third story they meet another woman with powers, Alitza. She is a savage very much in the mould of Leela. Her power seems to be over the elements, both creating and dispelling a violent storm in The Huntress (Sagittarius, you see?).
They’re in a perpetual battle against a non-corporeal force called Darkness. It just cackles a lot and occasionally possesses people.
The next story is Guests for the Night, which will later be remade by BBV with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred replacing Pisces, Anton and Alitza. In order to compare the two productions I have listened to the CSP version and here are my thoughts.
+++++
In a remote house, after midnight, a Master Harold is playing a cruel practical joke on his butler, Webster, when his sister Vena enters to tell him that three people are approaching. These three people are Anton Savage, Pisces and Alitza. Alitza the huntress has been checking the grounds out and reports back that the place is full of booby traps, setting the scene that this is a dangerous place.
Vena commands the now-released Webster to get out the best silverware. Their guests are going to be spoiled. Webster lets in the three strangers who are immediately taken to the dining room for a meal. Their hosts are not there. Anton describes the place as being “like Frankenstein’s castle”. In the hallway a monstrous hound has killed the pet cat and Alitza shares the kill with the dog, taking the legs for herself, which she begins to eat. Raw.
Vena appears, at first horrified but very quickly she gives up the pretence of caring. She tells them that her father is away on business, but they will meet her brother in due course. Officially recognised as guests they are then shown to bedrooms. Alitza, unhappy with the knife she has taken from the dining room heads to the kitchen to get a better one. Pisces has a room of her own, leaving Vena alone with Anton. She flirts outrageously and then gives Anton a drink while promising to slip into something more comfortable.
Pisces has been taunted by the voice of Darkness. She goes to check on Anton and finds him drugged and alone. She wakes him, only to hear the clock strike twelve. Midnight. They decide to find Alitza.
In the kitchen Alitza is doing battle with a robot that has attacked her. There are a series of robots, all created by Harold. As she defeats one he wheels in another, more advanced model for her to fight. His robots are not enough for him, he wants a cyborgs and decides Alitza will be a good survivor of the organic components.
On the stairs Anton falls through a trap door into a room off the kitchen. Webster intercepts Pisces and takes her to Vena.
Running from Harold’s needle, Alitza locks herself in a dark room which Anton fell into, moments before. There are many animal bodies, all drained of blood. Alitza’s keen eyesight finds another exit. In the next room they find three empty coffins. A robot breaks in and Alitza is paralysed by an injection. Anton is taken away by Webster, wondering where the pipes in the cellar go.
Vena is not happy with Pisces’s snooping but offers to give her a tour in the morning. Webster brings Pisces a drink. Shortly after drinking she realises she has been drugged. The clock strikes midnight. Before passing out Pisces touches Vena’s skin. It is cold to the touch, Vena cackles that she is dead like everyone else in the house. Vena sends Pisces’s body up to her ‘granny’ in the attic.
Harold has Alitza strapped to a table and gagged. He boasts that he cuts people up at night for experiments. Webster intervenes, surly and angry. Harold and Vena are wasting time, he says he will tell Harold’s father so Harold reluctantly leaves. Vena is tormenting Anton when Webster interrupts her too. Informing her that it is ten to the hour, she leaves hurriedly. Webster sends Anton and Alitza up to the attic for Granny.
In the attic Granny is ready to cut up the still alive bodies for meat when Pisces persuades her that she should be released. Granny has painful arthritis which Pisces heals. Suddenly it’s morning. Pisces realises that Darkness will be weak at this hour. She finds that Granny is warm to the touch, the only living person in the house. She makes Granny show her where the pipes lead. Granny is scared of Harold and Vena. She’s told she is safe while it’s morning, so complies.
Granny takes her to a body in a vat, in suspended animation. It is “Daddy”, Vena and Harold’s father. Vena, Harold, Webster, Granny and Daddy were all infected by a disease. Vena, Harold and Webster died and Daddy put himself in suspended animation while his undead children went on with their undead existences. Daddy, even in suspended animation, has the power to hold back time, creating nights that go on endlessly. His power slips sometimes, causing the occasional morning, when Granny (his wife) ages. Darkness has tried to possess Granny, but she has managed to resist him, to his fury.
Alitza and Anton are free. The hound, now possessed by Darkness, leads them to Pisces.
Suddenly it’s midnight again. Harold and Vena appear. Harold is angry with Granny and sets his robot on her to punish her but accidentally kills her. Harold and Vena fight, not wanting to do the hard work that Granny did. Pisces tells them she can heal their father and they will not have any more work to do. Webster calls them idiots. Their father was a tyrant who will have them buried as soon ass he returns. Harold has the robot kill Webster. Pisces heals Daddy and while distracted Alitza kills Harold and Vena, to Pisces’s ire.
Darkness reveals that Daddy has been in his thrall all along and spirits him away. Pisces, Anton and Alitza have more battles to fight.
+++++
A complaint I have about the Audio Visuals is that pseudonyms abound like mad. I don’t know if this has spread to the Cranfield players so I can’t be certain that everyone listed is under their real names.
Pisces, played by Linda Bartram has gone on to be involved in BBV’s Faction Paradox productions and appeared in one Big Finish play.
Anton Savage is played by Nigel Fairs, the production’s author. He has previously been Truman Crouch, the Doctor’s assistant in the Audio Visuals series. He is still an actor and writes regularly for Big Finish.
Lizi Hann (Alitza) is apparently still an actress though there’s virtually nothing on the internet about her. She wrote a book in 1998 about Dementia.
Penny Horder played Vena. I can find nothing about her, but she played the part with such an outrrrrrageous Southern Belle accent that she could easily be Lizi Hann or Linda Bartram doubling up.
Harry was played by Michael Adams, such a common name that it’s not even worth researching.
Webster is John Ainsworth, mentioned in several previous entries of this blog!
Darkness is Nick Briggs, of whom little needs to be said. A stalwart of audio productions since 1985 and the head honcho at Big Finish Productions.
Each of the actors here are very early in their careers and the performances reflect that. They are awkward but doing their best. It’s an amateur production and you should suspend your willing disbelief when listening to any of these or any AudioVisual productions. Just listen to the words and try to imagine they’re good actors.
The same is true of the music. Alastair Lock has provided great music in some things… but not this.
There’s also a feature about Lizi Hann on the cassette which just shows what a bubbly funny person she is!
+++++
There’s more than a whiff of Paradise Towers here. Everyone’s a bit over the top but it’s such a wild plot that I can forgive it. It’s a story of undead people performing medical experiments in order to cure a time-freezing semi-unconcious man in a vat. You can’t really expect it to be terribly serious! It’s not clear why Harold, Vena and Webster aren’t dead nor why Darkness has an interest in the place.
It’s not clear why Pisces and Co have gone there, either. There’s references to vampires and coffins but the plot doesn’t actually seem to imply that at all. Harold and Vena just are undead, they don’t seem to ingest any of the human flesh or blood. Harold seems to be a medical genius, carrying on his father experiments but there’s no indication of scientific equipment. He makes robots but seemingly for no purpose other than to fight each other.
Essentially… it’s a mess. It’s all about the atmosphere and the wacky machinations of the family. There’s very little to get your teeth into, it’s just a runaround. Lots of independent scenes and not much logic. A bit of an 80s schlocky low-budget video nasty. You shouldn’t think about it as much as I have.
If you can get over the performances I’d say it’s a fun romp, but there’s very little value here. The ending is sudden and an anti-climax, if listened to as a stand-alone drama, but as part of a twelve part what-happens-next? serial it’s an acceptable ending. If you’ve ever seen Into the Labyrinth it’s just like that. A time-filler, leading you on to the next story.
Megabyte Modem Audio Reviews 