An Autist Reviews: Interstitial (Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures 257.1)

*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*

*Any reviews that go lower than 5 honestly come down to my own opinions, because I don't make enough ratings that low to really have an understandable scale for ratings THIS low!*

When something goes wrong in the vortex, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on an empty space station. As Marc is amazed by the scenery, the Doctor gets the feeling that something bad has happened, and when a mysterious being begins appearing to him and Marc, he’s proved right. Meanwhile, Nyssa and Tegan explore the same station, but the Doctor and Marc seem to have vanished and something reminiscent of a primitive human is stalking the halls of the empty station.

Wow. I found it. This story is worse than Orphan-55 AND The Galileo Trap! I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN BUT BY GOD DID CARL ROWENS AND SCOTT HANDCOCK COME TOGETHER TO CREATE THIS MONSTROSITY! So, why is this so bad? Let me explain… It’s almost worse written than My Immortal. I took notes, but I won’t need to use them since I can explain every problem with this entire story easily. The writing quality goes from decent to as bad as possible every 5 minutes, characters realize things out of nowhere with no work being done, every other line of dialogue is so stiff they make wood seem like water, and let’s not even get started on the really convenient things that just KEEP HAPPENING! The worst part is that, if Carl had actually put some work into this, it would have been halfway decent, but instead he seems to have slacked off and turned this in 5 minutes before the due date! There’s a twist at the beginning of part 2, but seriously… you should be able to figure out the ‘twist’ within the first 5 minutes. Carl has made a good idea, but a terrible story that ends in one of the most unsatisfying and confusing ways ever. I literally have no idea if the last line of this was meant to be foreshadowing… but I honestly don’t think Carl is capable of writing foreshadowing, so I’m gonna go with it being yet another disappointment with this release. Also, this release is the reason why BF isn’t at around a year of good monthly range stories… Instead, we’re nearing 8 months…

Hey, look, the acting is bad! The main characters are, of course, the most competently acted, but even they go in and out of quality every minute. You’re rolling a dice every single conversation! Will it be good acting? Bad acting? Will I want to commit die? Probably! The main bad guy is literally so over the top and horrible that I almost think it was a choice of the actress… but I doubt it. The other character, who I don’t care about either, is somewhat decent… occasionally… but most of his lines are painful to think about… I literally can’t say anything else. The quality of the acting is even more temperamental than the quality of the writing!

Let’s start with the music. It seems that there are only 2 tracks in this entire story unless they were so un-noticeable that I missed all of them but 2. Both tracks are boring and so soft you can barely hear them. The second track plays at the end of part 1, but it doesn’t do anything because the music ends before it should and any tension it would have built gets cut off! The effects in part 1 are great, but by the end, they’ve lapsed into being rather crap… it only gets worse in part 2. Part 2 has some decent effects, truly, but by the end, the only way you know what’s happening is that the characters narrate what they’re doing as they’re doing it… It’s bad. The voice effects are also amazing in the first part, but by the end also falter. As for part 2, It’s great… until the end when it dips even worse than it does in part 1! Still, the effects are the best part of this horrific release!

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS A SECOND TIME! YOU WILL REGRET IT! At first, it seems to be halfway decent to relisten to even if every bit of buildup feels repetitive and unnecessary, but by the second part, you will come to realize that this release shouldn’t be listened to.

I do not recommend this. I hate it with all of my being. That being said, Feast of Fear is better, I would still buy this release just for that story and the character-building done with Marc here, but no other part of this story is worth its purchase! I hate this story more than any other story I’ve ever listened to… aside from maybe some short trips, but those are literally known for not being good except for like 1 in every 5… Just, don’t expect anything and maybe you’ll muster through this with half of your will to live still intact. Maybe.

           P1 P2 Both

Total - 5 / 4 / 3 (Fudged a little, but let’s be honest, this hot mess deserves it!)

Plot - 5 / 2 / 3
---
Story - 8 / 6 / 7
Writing - 3 / 1 / 2
Enjoyment - 5 / 1 / 3
Twists - NR / 1 / 1
Ending - 2 / 1 / 2

Acting - 3 / 3 / 3
---
MCs - 6 / 6 / 6
SCs - 3 / 2 / 3
BGs - 1 / 1 / 1

Effects - 7 / 7 / 6
---
Music - 3 / NR / 3
Voices - 8 / 6 / 7
Actions - 9 / 7 / 8

Replay - 4 / 1 / 3
---
Re-Enjoyment - 6 / 1 / 4
New Details - 2 / 1 / 2

-=- If you want to see more of my reviews, some of my craziness, my thoughts on stories I've experienced but not reviewed, and the important libtard things I share around because I'm a filthy liberal snowflake, check out my Instagram page @deadmainmanmax -=-