Doctor Who: Red Dawn

Big Finish: Monthly Range #8

by Justin Richards, Peter Davison (Narrator), Nicola Bryant (Narrator)

Ares One: NASA's first manned mission to the dead planet Mars. But is Mars as dead as it seems?

While the NASA team investigate an 'anomaly' on the planet's surface, the Doctor and Peri find themselves inside a strange alien building. What is its purpose? And what is frozen inside the blocks of ice that guard the doorways? If the Doctor has a sense of deja-vu, it's because he's about to meet some old adversaries, as well as some new ones...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Time Travel, Media Tie In, British Literature

MP3 CD

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

Justin Richards is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has also written for television, contributing to Five's soap opera Family Affairs. He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children. His Doctor Who novel The Burning was placed sixth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's "Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel" category of 2000.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very traditional Doctor Who story that sees The Doctor and Peri up against The Ice Warriors during NASA’s first manned mission to Mars.

With both the story and the sound of The Ice Warriors speech, this audio drama really invokes a late 60’s episode of Who.
It’s a slight shame that the villains appear on the cover, as the reveal at the end of part one could have been a great surprise.

At times you can tell that this one of Big Finish’s earlier stories, but it’s still an entertaining listen.

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There is more to honour than Winning."

'Red Dawn' is about NASA's first man mission to Mars, to se whether there is any life on Mars. When they discover an anomaly. The Doctor and Peri arrive in a strange alien building with frozen blocks of ice. The overall story was ok. It would have worked better as a short story. It was too padded and I felt weakened the story. The pace is slow and the climax, when it happened was rushed. I felt that the Ice Warriors were wasted.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the real monster is man, scooby doo taught me that, and its still relevant to this story you have the ice warrior a noble race where honor is a key signature to there race. And then you have the doctor and peri who get to see the first interaction between man and ice warrior as it plays out. What i loved about this story is that you got to see the ice warriors in a way different light, not vicious or evil or waring, they simply want peace but as always human greed ruins what could be a golden age of peace!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually a decent audio adventure for the 5th doctor and Perri, the Ice Warriors are easily one of the better monsters in all of doctor who, with the daleks and cybermen.

This was more about honor than anything else and it was nice to hear the ice warriors talk about honour instead of just the plain old "destroy" everything.
I still can't get how Perri has a deeper accent but there we are.

Very easily comfortable story and rather enjoyable.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

...and this was going so well!

This drama started well with Fivey and Peri stumbling around on a strange planet and finding a weird tomb. But it's Mars! How are they breathing on Mars? Once we're introduced to the main players - a NASA mission funded and partly staffed by a private corporation, and the Ice Warriors, another classic monster, things grind to a snail's pace. Never have I heard a less exciting series of space collisions and emergencies. The monster's voices are just awful, breathy whispers that sound like someone sleazing down your nape (shudder!) and they're supposed to be these highly honourable warriors, which annoys me too - the romanticisation of warmakers and all that. I could hardly follow the plot, everything took so long to happen. Very nondescript stuff. Hope the next one is better!

[Seb Hasi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Red Dawn is an incredibly short Big Finish adventure, and it’s no surprise why. This is the 5th Doctor at his blandest, with a two-dimensional plot that’s been done a hundred times before; underdeveloped cliche side characters, and boring villains. That’s not to say the Ice Warriors are boring in themselves, it’s more that they are only really there to provide some not very well achieved suspense, monologue, and eventually kill some side characters. There is no great plan, and the voices sound really off. Even if the Ice Lord is implied to be out of his shell, the voice is just a normal actor speaking, no rasping voice effect, just a guy talking. Each episode is barely twenty minutes long and they’re all packed with the odd bit of imagery, and only towards the end of episode 2 does anything begin to happen. There are some easy to predict twists that are meant to amplify the suspense, but you can put as much dramatic backing music as you want, it doesn’t mean the scene with be in any way more tense.

The story is just some humans go to Mars, turns out one is evil, causes problems with the Ice Warriors, and the Doctor saves the day. It’s so formulaic that you can tell how it’s going to end before you even finish episode. It really doesn’t help that the Doctor does so little in the story, I mean it’s no surprise Peri doesn’t as the cast is already way too big, but the main protagonist genuinely spends the story in different rooms; talking. I wish the story could’ve done something different and more experimental, as there are definitely interesting things you can do with the Ice Warriors; having them wander around threatening and occasionally shooting people is not original really. The cliffhanger to part one is ‘can they land this rocket’ and it says a lot about little presence the Ice Warriors have as antagonists, and at no point in the story do they feel like a real menace. The antagonist role is occupied by a money-obsessed human and at times it really is painful watching him deny the logic that would end everything amicably, just for the stereotype role he’s playing.

Without the real involvement of a believable enemy there isn’t really much to raise the stakes in the story, and it’s only the fact that the story ends rather quickly and the odd bit of fun dialogue; that really make the story in any way worth listening to. There is also the fact that this is a weird companion pairing, and given 5 and Peri have literally just met, there isn’t much chemistry there. Peri mostly goes around describing and reacting, and any dialogue with the Doctor is exposition or plot development. There are no brief moments of comedy and charm, and with no bonhomie there, it doesn’t really invest you in the characters and their plight. They are by no means the most two-dimensional characters in the story but they don’t exactly make it jump off the page with charisma. There is the weird stuff like the idea of the character played by Peter Davison’s daughter being some Ice Warriors human cross-breed. This idea is introduced so late in the story, and almost nothing is done with it so I really don’t see why the story would jam in another bit of character development when we aren’t long with these characters.

The sound design is fairly impressive for a story released in 2000, and I do appreciate the excellent effects used to create the imagery present in the story. The only problem there is that there isn’t much to visualise in this one. I mean there is of course the face of Mars, the ship, and the Ice Warriors tomb, but those are fairly plain and open areas. There are no intricate designs to try and imagine, it’s just all single tone, flat spaces. I think the story is bearable, and inoffensively boring, and narrowly avoids being totally awful. There are some tiny bits of merit, and that is the one positive in listening to this adventure.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a Five and Peri story, which means I'm reluctant to consider it part of my own personal Doctor Who canon. For those not in the know, Five and Peri only had two stories together on-screen. The first was when they met, the second was Five's regeneration story. I find the latter much more impactful if Peri is some random person the Doctor has just met and barely knows, than if they've gone on hundreds of adventures together. It's a shame though, because this story is damn good. It's also an Ice Warrior story, and the Ice Warriors are one of my favourite Doctor Who species. This story definitely does not disappoint with their portrayal. Something I have to note immediately is that I absolutely love the music for this story. It's not something I've noticed in previous stories, but in this one it's great. The characters are pretty regular stock archetypes of a classic Doctor Who story, but one in particular is a very well-written version of his archetype, and a very compelling character in his own right. The voice acting was a little spotty in places, but the aforementioned character was always voiced perfectly. The story is tense and exciting with a brilliant climax. Something interesting is that the Doctor and Peri barely do anything in this story, for the most part they are carried by the movements of the side-characters. It's an interesting thing that rarely happens in Doctor Who. The story itself was basic, but tense and exciting, and the climax was absolutely brilliant. It has a couple of ideas that are just sort of tossed in there though. Overall this is a basic classic Doctor Who story, but it is a very strong execution of a basic classic Doctor Who story, and I loved it.

[MrColdStream · Rating 2 out of 5]

Red Dawn suffers from a lot of noise with little substance. Despite flashes of potential, the story feels stagnant, bogged down by a thin plot, unremarkable characters, and a lack of innovation in handling its titular monsters. While it demonstrates the Ice Warriors’ complexity, it also underscores the limitations of their traditional portrayal, resulting in a disappointing first Big Finish outing for these classic adversaries.

Full review at https://tardis.guide/reviews/story-re...

[John Parungao · Rating 4 out of 5]

My personal favorite of the Big Finish Doctor Who audios because it features the Fifth Doctor and the Ice Warriors. After multiple listenings it finally came to me that this story has some similarities to Tomb of the Cybermen. The Ice Warriors are awakened by the entry of The Doctor and the astronauts from Earth. The difference is that the Ice Warriors aren't the villains of this piece. This story makes them more like the Klingons from Star Trek, and at least one of them is the hero of this story.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall good listen this one. To begin with the main antagonist seems a bit one dimensional, and while they remain so, this audio drama becomes strong as it really dives well into what makes an Ice Warrior an Ice Warrior. The actors in good form here, with the Fifth Doctor and Peri true to their on screen selves, and the overall plot an interesting one, and allowed me to learn about the Brookings Report :)

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peri has never been a companion I cared much for so I had less invested in her safety then I would if it had been Ace, Charley, Evelyn, Bill, or even Frobisher.
I have always appreciated the Ice Warriors of Mars, with such honor. Even if they take it too far sometimes it’s intriguing to see how something good in copious amounts can become bad, or at least a false good. This book did not take that as far as they could. The plot itself was acceptable.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

あらすじ

Part1
ドクターとペリはターディスは壁に閉ざされた空間に到着。建物の内部らしいと探索に出かける。緑の有機物に覆われた通路を進んでいくと扉に突き当たった。ロックがかかっていたが、ドクターが適当に弄っていると扉が開く。その頃、NASAからの探索チームが火星に到着していた。メンバーはリー、スーザン、ポール、タニヤだ。指揮官のリーが探索のため外に出るが、リーからの通信が��然途絶える。ほどなくリーは宇宙船に戻ってくるが、ヒューストンとも通信ができない。リーは人工建造物らしきものを見つけたと、スーザンとともに再び探索に出る。ポールとタニヤは船内でヒューストンとの通信を復旧させることに。人工建造物に入ったリーとスーザンはドクターとペリに遭遇。ペリはスーザンと宇宙船へ。ドクターはリーと共に建造物の探索を続けることに。建物はアイス・ウォリアーの霊廟であり、ドクターとリーは霊廟を守護するアイス・ウォリアーの指揮官ザーラルに捕まる。

Part２
扉が敵意の有る無しを感知するセンサーで管理されているとザーラルから説明されるドクター。二人に攻撃の意図がなかったため、扉は開き中に入れたのだという。リーを心配したスーザンが救出にくるが、ドクターとリーがスーザンを止める間もなくセンサーが働きスーザンは落命してしまう。一方ペリはNASAがなぜ火星に興味をもつのか不審がる。すると、ポールがNASAのスポンサーがウェブスター・コーポレーションであり、18年前の探査で火星に生命が存在する証拠を地球に持ち帰っていた。異星人の高度な技術を手にいれることが今回の探査の本当の目的だと話す。ザーラルは宇宙船に他のメンバーを連れてくるよう部下のスカーンを向かわせていた。ドクターはペリにスカーンと一緒にきて合流するよう通信で伝えるが、アイス・ウォリアーを恐れたポールが捕らえたサカーンを盾にして宇宙船を火星から離陸させようとする。それが指揮官ザラールの逆鱗に触れ、宇宙船を撃墜するよう命じる。

Part３
ドクターはそれを阻止するためにリーの通信機を使って高周波を発生させ、アイス・ウォリアーの動きを封じる。しかし、すぐに攻撃の意図はないと通信機を指揮官ザラールにわたす。殺すチャンスがありながら、ドクターがとどめをささなかったことに指揮官ザラールは感銘を受け、ドクターの信頼に応えるためにリーにタニヤに通信機で連絡をとらせ、宇宙船を安全に火星に着陸できるよう互いに協力し合う。しかし、ポールはアイス・ウォリアーと地球人のハイブリッド戦士を生み出すというウェブスター社の本来の目的を果たすため、アイス・ウォリアーのDNAを手に入れようと暴走する。

Part４
指揮官ザラールはドクターとタニヤ、そしてアイス・ウォリアーの名誉と誇りを守るため、大きな決断を下す。

 

感想
物語の出だしはなかなか面白かったのですが。ウェブスター社の陰謀とタニヤ出生の秘密に重みも説得力もなく。ハイブリッドだからといって、知識もなく勘だけで異星のテクノロジーをガンガンつかいこなせるというのは、いくらなんでも眉唾すぎるかと。その他ではアイス・ウォリアーがいかに名誉を重んじ高潔な種族かということをたっぷりきかされ、アイス・ウォリアーはつくづく渋い種族なんだねーと聴きながらぼんやり宙を見つめてそのまま意識が遠のく感じでした。

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was the eighth of the Doctor Who stories that Big Finish produced, and it clearly shows that they had yet to perfect this audio medium for the series. There is also something lacking in the script and in the way it is directed. The writer assumes that the listener is a fan of the show and will be familiar with the Ice Warriors, meaning there is no explanation as to what this alien is or looks like, other than the fact that the Doctor defends him.

As much as I disliked Peri on the original television show, I have enjoyed Nicola Bryant's portrayal in every story so far--and this is no exception. Peri comes across as likable, smart, and capable--the perfect companion for the Doctor. However, Peter Davison is a bit of a disappointment as the 5th Doctor here. He is a good actor, but it takes something different to communicate the character and his emotion with just your voice.

Not horrible, not great; but it is still Doctor Who.

[CJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

008 Red Dawn 2.5/5
Red Dawn was a solid idea, let down by a combination of poor writing and an overdramatic acting choice. The basic premise has a decent amount of things going for it, and to start with everything was good, but about 1/3 of the way through there is a dramatic 'twist' that unfortunately makes the rest of the story almost unbearable. Mostly this is down to the way one character is written and, ultimately, portrayed. The overdramatic performance makes it so about 2/3 of the way through the story, there is little imaginary set left to chew on. There are little gems left here and there, but ultimately it doesn't save this story, which is a shame because the Ice Warriors are well realised in this story.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird Fifth Doctor adventure that had him almost surprised or caught unawares that they had ended up in an Ice Warrior structure despite his past run-ins with the Martians. I appreciate the classic story beats of the darker aspects of human nature leading to unnecessary complications and how the Ice Warriors may be the initial antagonists but they aren't necessarily evil or "bad" in a bad guy sense.

The narrative structure was a little messy and the middle acts weren't so great. The end resolution was decent, sort of in the Classic Doctor Who tone, but still a little underwhelming.

[Gail Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

5th Doctor, Peri, and the Ice Warriors in a very boring story where there is little advancement of plot. As usual Nicola Bryant's American accent is sketchy. The Ice Warriors speak in their usual hissing whispery voices. The only exciting thing I can think about is that Peter Davison's real life daughter actress Georgia Moffett plays a character in the story. It should be noted that she acted in this story before she met her future husband David Tennant and eventually changed her name to Georgia Tennant.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first listened to this one several years ago and I've listened to it again now. In fairness, it's actually a lot better than I remember it being. The Ice Warriors are well characterised, as are the Doctor and Peri. I like the cover art too, which is surprisingly neat for early Big Finish.

However, I felt the Ice Warriors were also fairly limited in what they could actually do here, both because most of them spent the whole story in the same room, but also because the story itself is noticeably shorter than average length. They get pretty solo'ed by that one evil astronaut guy which is embarrassing for a self-proclaimed Warrior race.

The Ice Warrior voices sound a bit too human for my liking, and I think Nyssa would have been better suited to this story than Peri, but I was surprised to find I did actually enjoy it quite a bit more than I remembered.

Overall, I think this was a decent way to give the Fifth Doctor an Ice Warrior story, it just could have done with some expansion, both in terms of the Ice Warriors' fear factor and also the actual duration of the story itself.

[Natira · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*
Hm.
Die Präsentation der Story war erneut sehr gut (und die Hauptdarsteller sind selbst dabei), aber die Story selbst ... Nichts gegen die Prämisse (under-siege), aber allein darüber war mir die eigentlich kurze Laufzeit der Story verrückterweise noch zu lang mit dem Hin und Her und "but you promised". Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass man hier etwas mehr Spannung hätte produzieren können - vielleicht im Tomb selbst und/oder Tanjas Charakter (Backstory o.ä.).

[ani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really care for the Ice Warrios, I don't really like Peri and I don't really vibe the 5th Doctor. For all those reasons, I was actually surprised by how much I ended up liking this story. Just knowing that, it could've been an easy two-star listen, but there actually were some quite interesting elements to it and I can't say that I was awfully bored either. Yet, it's not a story that will stuck with me either.

[C S · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ice Warriors, chivalrous and moral-bound Martian samurai, are interrupted in their eternal slumber by an idiotic survey team of human astronauts, sparking conflict between the two races as the Doctor desperately tries to broker peace. After a promising opening, however, this just descends into a hopeless runaround.

[Kate Priest · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't believe this is considered the worst of the early Big Finish stories. It was only 89 minutes, had excellent incidental music, and was competently performed by the guest cast. The previous story, The Genocide Machine, and Land of the Dead, were worse in almost every way. Red Dawn is just a generic base-under-siege - think Tomb of the Cybermen but with Ice Warriors.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written short story featuring the Doctor and Peri. I think Peri is an underrated companion and I loved that we see her use her botany knowledge in this story however briefly. Overall I enjoyed this adventure and think it worked well as a short story.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very standard old Doctor Who story that seems to come up when anyone is talking about old stories. There wasn’t a lot to be amused by but it moved swiftly and was in keeping with the Doctor Who storyline.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent story

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifth Doctor, Peri and the Ice a Warriors-in all their honour and nobility.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was meh. It's definitely similar to the Tomb of the Cyberman. Thought the 5th Doctor was very in character. Peri didn't annoy me as much as she usually does.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very typical of what I remember of the "traditional" Doctor stories. It didn't grab me like they normally do, but it was decent.

[anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was pretty good considering I don't give a single fuck about the ice warriors

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple story. This is an early Big Finish story so the writing is coming along. This is the roots of the future we will bask in soon.