Doctor Who: The Wishing Beast by Paul Magrs
01/10/2007 . Source: Sue Davies 
CD. pub: Big Finish ISBN: 978-1-84435-284-1. 12 minute CD. Price: £ 14.99 (UK). Non UK £ ). voices: Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford, Jean Marsh, Geraldine Newman, Sean Connolly, Toby Sawyer, Toby Longworth and Rachel Laurence. Buy Doctor Who: The Wishing Beast in the USA - or Buy Doctor Who: The Wishing Beast in the UK  check out web sites www.BigFinish.com
Here's a tale with a difference. Do you like fairy tales? Then come into the deep dark woods with the Doctor and me. He probably won't save you but he will have a great yarn to tell the other Time Lords. Yes, once again, death follows in the Doctor's wake.
An admirable cast makes what it can of the rather long-winded story. It includes the creepily-voiced Jean Marsh and a matching marvellous Geraldine Newman who perfectly complements her. If anyone is thinking of casting them together again, I say snap them up. They play the weird Applewhite sisters who live on an apparently barren asteroid. In reality, it has an atmosphere and a forest in which sits their cottage. They are there to tend to the Wishing Beast and it looks like Mel (Bonnie Langford) will be its next victim.
This is an overblown and rambling tale with little point to it. It is nice that Colin Baker's Doctor is on an adventure but I would wish him something better than this. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of wailing by the ghosts, which almost drove me to spirits myself. I got very bored, as the plot didn't warrant such an extravagant length.
I did enjoy the single episode tale, 'The Vanity Box' that accompanies the main feature. Unusually, it is related to the main story but tells itself much better probably due to the discipline of the single episode. It also puts a whole new and rather disturbing slant on the main story which leaves the listener thinking more deeply about the unsettling role that the Doctor really plays in the universe.
Sue Davies
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