ALL-CONSUMING FIRE

My review of All-Consuming Fire ends in a typical Doctor Who / explosion style ending.

Once it was over, I found myself wondering what Sherlock Holmes and Watson were really doing in the story.  After the second episode, they contributed little.  In the third episode, Benny took over for Sherlock and the Doctor while Ace pretty much led Watson around by the nose.  In the fourth episode, we’re left with the Doctor figuring out a typical Who-type solution and the impending catastrophe is avoided.  There’s little to no involvement from Sherlock Holmes.

Other than the use of Sherringford Holmes who, really, could have been any generic gullible person/victim, it’s really just like any other Doctor Who “invasion Earth” story.

The adventure ends with a 10-minute behind the scenes interviews in which it becomes fairly clear that the intent was just to have Sherlock Holmes and the Doctor in the same story and, secondary to that, to have Watson and Benny become a “thing”.  Given that Watson spends more time in the company of Ace, when climbing that mountain, than he does with Benny, it would have made more sense for him to be interested in her, not Benny, but I guess the writer wanted it to be Benny, and so it was.  Presumably that was the whole reason for inserting her in the story in the first place.

The final 15 minutes is made up from music edits.

In conclusion, whilst it’s not a bad way to spend two hours and you do get to enjoy the idea of Holmes and the Doctor in the same story, I have to say that it’s not as good as it could and should have been.  It’s rather dulled my interest in further crossovers/team-ups, in fact.

I would still recommend this story as, despite my reservations, it has a lot going for it.