An Autist Reviews: Madquake (Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures 267.2)

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

The Doctor has abandoned Nyssa, Tegan, and Marc on a planet with a nighttime that soothes the mind, but that soothing is hardly helping the trio. Marc has been overcome by fatalism and depression while Tegan fights with Nyssa constantly. But for Mison, the planet is just what he needs to help him handle his mental health, and his therapist is joining him on the planet to run tests and keep him healing. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, even if they aren’t good for all. The Slitheen are coming, one of their own is already on the planet, and the planet itself may be more special than anyone originally thought.

Okay, let me get this out of the way quickly: look at the specific numbers, because that will tell you more than the rating I’ve given. I like this story, I do, but it has a LOT of flaws. Let’s start with the blatant metaphors and messages, which are honestly just dull, not even angering, just dull. This story is filled with messages about mental health, but they all come across as dull and hamfisted and so obvious it makes you want to bang your head into a wall. This wouldn’t be so bad if it had ANY emotional impact, but Tegan and Nyssa arguing is repetitive and bland and Mison is an unlikable character who the writer tries to make sympathetic, but his storyline is uninteresting and boring. Basically, imagine if Orphan-55 was slightly subtler, but the message was constantly being brought up. It could have worked if it was handled better, but it simply wasn’t and that just makes this story worse for wear. The twist in the planet itself is, to put it simply, nothing special. If you can’t figure it out from the first, like, 5 minutes, you’re either my biological mother or a preschooler. The twist involving the therapist was really awesome though, though it suffered from poor effects. The resolution is a little too fast for my liking and the acting isn’t great with far too subtle of effects and too little intensity. The dialogue is, as should be obvious, rather annoying with the constant theme of mental health, but there are lots of great moments, mostly involving Tegan and Marc. Oh, and Marc… he’s dangerous. And he is edgy. Like, Twilight levels of edge. I do like that his over-the-top edginess isn’t taken seriously by ANYONE though, but I feel like a more toned-down edge would make more sense.

The acting is the most disappointing part of this, mostly because of Mison. Mison is without a doubt the worst acted, that being said, he never dips into being horrific, but he’s rarely anything other than below average. In general, aside from Mison and the Slitheen, the acting is rather average and simple. Tegan has quite a few poor moments in part one and in part two Nyssa winds up just being crap quite often. The therapist is frankly amazing, being the person responsible for the side character acting rating being so high, as she is frankly amazing aside from the occasional moment where she isn’t sounding as hurt as she should be or where she sounds slightly wooden every now and then, but if she was the only side character, the rating for them would be a solid 9 or 10. Marc is also amazing, but the way he says ‘I’m dangerous’ makes me chortle every time he says it. His narration of the hell his ‘life’ is is frankly one of the best parts of this entire story, largely because of his amazing acting during it. The Slitheen are also amazing, with the female one basically having no bad lines and the male one sounding too human during his first while talking before suddenly sounding more alien later, which is certainly a change for the better. Also, the Slitheen den-mother did NOT sound intimidating AT ALL.

The effects are rather impressionistic, so if you like that, the effects will be pretty good for you, but I like hyper-realistic effects, not impressionistic effects that give a good enough impression. They are often also really quiet and muffled sounding. That being said, the effects are often also very concrete, with lots of great walking sounds and a great fight scene with the Slitheen. The music is very average, very techy sounding, but rather normal. It’s forgettable and quite often doesn’t change or cut out when it should, overshadowing the acting. The transitions are almost all musical, which is certainly a plus, but they rarely convey emotions or themes, and once there’s just no transition, resulting in a jarring shift from Marc’s mind to a spaceship. The voice effects are top-tier, with the Slitheen sounding phenomenal. That being said, it seems like the Slitheen voice at one point just sort of cuts out. Marc’s monologue is also done interestingly, with no voice effect on him or those talking around him, which is a neat choice, but it doesn’t really sit right with me and it might not with you either. The background effects are almost always amazing, with the ambiance of the planet being top-notch and the planet’s panic attack sounding so chaotic and amazing. Despite the often great effects, the first part has lots of iffy choices with how effects manifest, specifically around Marc, and it’s clear that at one point the effects are quieter than the actors were expecting due to how they were acting.

This is an important story and a rather enjoyable one, but it’s not phenomenal and there isn’t a lot of reason to re-listen. Also, when you relisten, there will be a lot of metaphors you actually managed to miss but rest assured, you won’t miss them this time, but you’ll wish you had.

All in all, not a bad story, a good one in fact, but it has so much holding it back that it doesn’t feel like it when listening to it. The acting is mediocre, the effects are way too impressionistic, and the themes of mental health are suffocatingly strong, which is saying something considering how much I care about mental health awareness and such. Still, a fun adventure, so check it out.

Original Guesstimate - 8

P1 P2 Both
Total - 9 / 8 / 8 (Bumped one down because for once in my life I’ve found the numbers way too generous instead of way too cruel when it comes to something I enjoyed a great deal.)

Plot - 9 / 8 / 9
---
Story - 9 / 10 / 10
Pacing - 10 / 9 / 10
Dialogue - 7 / 8 / 8
Narration - 10 / 9 / 10
Exposition - 10 / 8 / 9
Enjoyment - 8 / 8 / 8
Twist/s - 10 / 8 / 9
Resolution/s - NR / 7 / 7
Ending - 8 / 9 / 9

Acting - 8 / 8 / 9
---
MC/s - 7 / 8 / 8
SC/s - 7 / 6 / 7
BG/s - NR / 9 / 9
Narrator/s - 10 / 10 / 10

Effects - 8 / 9 / 9
---
Music - 7 / 8 / 8
Voices - 9 / 8 / 9
Actions - 7 / 9 / 8
Background - 8 / 10 / 9
Transitions - 7 / 10 / 9

Replay - 7 / 6 / 7
---
Re-Enjoyment - 10 / 8 / 9
New Details - 4 / 4 / 4

-=- 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 -=-