An Autist Reviews: Conversion (Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures 258.2)

*This is an older review, it is not as detailed as my more modern reviews*

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

With Marc continuing to slowly transition into being a cyberman, he’s just barely able to hold onto himself, but the voice in his head is growing stronger by the minute. With a narcissistic squid as his doctor, he’s going to need the help of The Doctor to pull through. The Doctor and Tegan search for information that could help save Marc or his mind at the least, but on a planet full of cybermen, that may prove to be a fatal choice.

Okay, I won’t lie, this is far worse than Warzone. I knew it the first time I listened through them, and I certainly knew it this time. Of course, in the end, it was still enjoyable! The story has 3 points of view, much like Warzone. You have Marc, trapped in his own mind, miserable and in pain, you have Nyssa and the squid woman and her drones as they try to help Marc, and you have a pissed off Doctor who is done with ‘morality’ and ‘caring’ who is joined by Tegan, who has to be the voice of restraint and reason. The conversations between the Doctor and Tegan and the squid and Nyssa are the highlights of this story, with some intense conversations about morality and the death of Adric. The main storyline is that of the Doctor and Tegan as they try to find how cybermen work so they can save Marc from being fully converted, but things go wrong as two gungho criminals show up and try to use them for their own ends. Nyssa and the Squid butt heads a ton and it ends up being very bad for both of them when things finally boil over. Meanwhile, Marc is literally battling with his cyberman self as to who he is. The pacing is great, right up until the latter half of the latter half, where it all goes out the window and becomes very rushed, although it felt less rushed than logically I think it should have. Also, a lot of dialogue was just as bad as other bits of dialogue were amazing. There’s too much explaining at times, and some conversations feel artificial, while others suffer from ending before they logically should, or by leaving someone out entirely when they should still be there. Also, some extra stakes are thrown in in the latter half which really aren’t necessary and take away from the main conflict of the story. The conclusion of the latter half also feels rushed, but at least it ends with multiple massively emotional scenes. This is a really dark story, but it cuts into it with lots of humor to keep you from getting too depressed, which I think is done really well, especially since so much of it is utterly inappropriate for the situation or is very dark.

-SPOILER SECTION START-

Now, I’m going to use this space to tackle some complaints about this story that were made by a fellow reviewer, since I heavily disagree with his point of view. He makes three major points, although he says he only makes two, and I take issue with these points. His first point is that this story takes away a major part of what makes cybermen scary, saying that the Cybermen have 2 things that make them scary: the reveal and the conversion. This is wrong, there are 4 things that make them scary, and none of them are hurt by this story as he claims. Cybermen are made scary by their introduction occasionally, sure, but what really makes them scary is the idea of what they are. They are us, taken to an extreme. They came from an era of technological development, from when pills were becoming popular, from when people were seemingly losing their humanity, and that fear of losing what we are as technology advances is even more prevalent today than ever before. Another part of what makes cybermen scary would be just how unstoppable they are, and this story shows that off, it shows an entire planet erased, and that’s horrifying. How do you defeat a metal man that can electrocute you?? As for his statement that the fear of conversion is major and that this story erases it, he’s not wrong in the first part of it, the fear of conversion is one of the major things that make cybermen scary, but this story doesn’t take that away. This story centers on Marc slowly being converted from within, but because of how his conversion was started, he’s still in there, his soul remains, he’s not fully converted. With a normal cyber-conversion, I could see the problem here, but the previous story shows just how he was being converted, and this story expands it. If Marc were a regular cyberman, the solution the Doctor came up with would have killed him like it did the leader, or, if it did work, Marc would be a shell of his former self. Instead, we see the psychological damage done by Marc’s temporary conversion, and also see that it wasn’t all undone. He’s still a cyberman, but it was because of the way he was converted that he’s able to survive. The cyber-conversion was unique, and that way it doesn’t take away from the fear of a regular conversion. We also are led to wonder what would have happened if Marc had let go if he had given up? If Marc had stopped fighting, the fix probably wouldn’t have worked. Also, we got a whole new kind of conversion, a whole new idea for the cybermen to use in the future, and that’s awesome and scary as I’ll get out!

Now, his second claim is that this story isn’t dark. His problem seems to be the comedy, to which I must ask if he understands anything about dark stories? This story tries to keep it light with a bit of comedy thrown in every few minutes, but it never overstays its welcome and it never takes away from how dark of a story this is, from how hopeless it is, from how scary it is. The comedy enhances it, it’s dark comedy, it's an inappropriate comedy that you know you shouldn’t laugh at, but that you really want to laugh at. That is what makes it as good as it is. So, that’s all I can say there.

His final point pisses me off to no end. Maybe, like with some of the complaints about Feast of Fear, I just haven’t heard enough Big Finish stories, but to me, this story is not just a cruel and morbid and fan-service fueled use of Adric’s death. That is disgusting to say. Maybe you’ve heard stories that talked about it or used it as a plot point, but this story has just as much right to use it as any others, and it handles it marvelously. Adric’s death is brought up throughout this as the Doctor is actually forced to confront it and his own feelings about Adric as Tegan does as well. This is incredibly emotional and leads to some of the best scenes of the entire story. Adric isn’t overused, he doesn’t take over the story, but he is omnipresent, after all, this is shortly after his death, it’s taken a toll, and why not show the impact that was never shown. Yes, it’s simple to write melodrama after Adric’s death, yes Adric is a major point of this story, but this isn’t morbidly dwelling on it. This is actually dealing with it, dealing with grief that, as far as I know, has been unexplored, undealt with. This closes off the Adric arc, this is where the Doctor begins to face his guilt and his sadness, this is where he gets his redemption, where he saves Marc. Also, I am PISSED at this reviewer’s view of one of the strongest lines in the entire story. At the end, Marc says it’s like he’s not even there, and you’re just looking for issues if you think that line is about Adric. The entire group is talking about him while he sits there with no input. He’s ignored, he’s not seen as himself anymore. He’s not a real person to them anymore. That scene wasn’t about f*cking Adric, it was about the impact of the conversion, which harkens back to point one and just proves you weren’t actually paying attention to the main conflict of the story. Marc is changed, and the group treats him differently, and quite frankly I can’t wait to see Marc come back and see how this is dealt with because, honestly, I pity Marc, he’s been so hurt and now his friends are all looking at him differently, now he’s some new person to them. It’s an existential horror filled with misery and that’s why that line is there. That review misunderstood this entire story, but hey, people can have their opinions I guess… even if they’re annoying.

-SPOILER SECTION END-

The acting starts off nearly perfect. One problem people may have is in the squid doctor, but I personally loved her performance and the way she sounded. Another small problem at the beginning is Marc whenever he speaks in his body, as it often sounds a little strange and unnatural, but that’s a small problem honestly. The real problems come from the latter half of this story. The acting of Marc and the cybermen really leaves a lot to be desired, but to be honest, there is a lot of stuff going on. The acting for these two groups goes up and down so much so that I had to rate it a 7. As for the main characters, well the Doctor can’t quite get his anger out as well as he could at the end of Warzone, and Nyssa and Tegan both take dips in quality that last quite a while and only end at the last scene. Still the acting never actually gets too bad, it’s just annoying to go from a great performance to a less than stellar one. Also, I have some small problems with the drones, as it seems they occasionally lose the voice every now and then, but it’s still alright.

Ooooh boy, the effects were hard to rate here, gonna be honest. The music is solid and is actually very symbolic, going from orchestral and synthy to purely synthy and then to mostly orchestral again. It’s symbolic of the way the story moves, of Marc’s conversion. That being said, the music isn’t that grand and there needs to be much more of it, but it certainly does help the more somber scenes of the story. The action effects are also very good, but they vary in quality. Explosions for instance are far worse than movements or shooting. It gets worse in the second half, but that’s largely because that's where the most explosions are. Also, impacts seem to be very hard to include in sound editing, which certainly makes many scenes less, pun intended, impactful. As for the rest of the effects… they’re amazing. You’ve got some less-than-great ones every now and then, but the single biggest issue is the very last scene of the story. For that scene, the sound editor needed to show we were outside, so to do that they made lots of outdoorsy sounds and cranked the volume up higher than it had any right to be. As for the voice effects, they’re good for the most part. The highlight is the regular cybermen and the squid, as the cybermen sound perfect and also easily distinguishable, and the squid sounds unique and wet, but it doesn’t come off as robotic or obvious, instead, it sits in the back of your mind adding a bit of discomfort whenever she speaks. The biggest voice effect hiccup comes from Marc, because, let me be honest, he doesn’t often sound great when he’s awake and moving around. His voice just has a habit of changing sound randomly and at varying qualities.

Now, how about the replay effect? It’s good to listen to, but there is a big dip in quality in the second half. Also, you won’t find many new details listening over again, and you really won’t want to listen over this again. It’s not bad, but it’s a somber, dark, and sad story that, perhaps, is best left served occasionally, but certainly not often.

All in all, a dark story with lots of humor thrown in. The acting and effects have lots of bumps, but they’re more than satisfactory. This story is a brilliant end to the Marc arc, and I can’t wait to get back to Marc so we can continue our travels with him and, hopefully, see him back to his regular joyful self, instead of the sad and frustrated version we’re given by the end of this story.

            P1 P2 Both

Total - 9 / 8 / 8 (I honestly am disappointed enough at some of the parts of this, that I’m taking one point off)

Plot - 9 / 8 / 9
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Story - 10 / 8 / 9
Pacing - 9 / 7 / 8
Dialogue - 8 / 7 / 8
Enjoyment - 9 / 8 / 9
Twists - NR / NR / NR
Resolution/s - 8 / 7 / 8
Ending - 9 / 9 / 9

Acting - 10 / 8 / 9
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MCs - 10 / 8 / 9
SCs - 10 / 9 / 10
BGs - 9 / 7 / 8

Effects - 8 / 8 / 8
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Music - 8 / 8 / 8
Voices - 8 / 7 / 8
Actions - 7 / 6 / 7
Background - 10 / 9 / 10
General - 9 / 9 / 9

Replay - 8 / 7 / 8
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Re-Enjoyment - 10 / 8 / 9
New Details - 6 / 5 / 6

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