An English Gentleman: Only the Doctor could set course for New York and end up in York. Actually, that sums up Doctor Who rather well, doesn’t it? He promises The Eye of Orion, he delivers a wet weekend in Wales. He tells Turlough to be thankful it isn’t New New York. The pool has been back for months. Obviously, the TARDIS did not want to do without her. Or maybe she wants to try and entice the Doctor’s companions to stay with luxurious facilities. Had Colin Baker or Peter Capaldi been the incumbent Doctors during this tetralogy of adventures, Kamelion would be scrap by now.
Mouth on Legs: ‘I’m going to ask anyone if they can remember a belligerent Australian?’ says Turlough, forgetting that once Tegan is seen, she’s never forgotten. The last time Eddie Robson wrote for Tegan she was at her witty best but this time around even though he has placed her in a crazy situation that sparkle seems to be missing. Tegan sticks up for Kamelion at the climax, a most uncommon reaction for her.
Over the Shoulder: When asked if Tegan is his girlfriend, Turlough very quickly corrects the assertion by saying that they are housemates.
Kamelion: The signal that he uses to communicate isn’t too dissimilar to Wi-Fi. I’m guessing the big Finish are working towards the conclusion that Kamelion was such a thorn in the Doctor’s side that he had to consign him to a cupboard in the TARDIS before he was written out. Or maybe Kamelion himself will come to that conclusion. Either way each story thus far has managed to highlight a deficiency with the robot that has hampered the travellers on their adventures. This story sees the Doctor and Turlough looking for him, having already malfunctioned. There’s a little fun in trying to play ‘guess who is Kamelion’ in the same way that ‘guess what the segment to the Key to Time is’ was. He’s usually a benign and curious sort of fellow.
Standout Performance: Harriet Kershaw never convinced me as the Hostess of a game show. She lacks the charisma and personality of the usual sort that would be fronting this kind of show.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘We’re looking for a robot that can disguise himself as anyone! We might have already walked past him a dozen times!’
Great Ideas: A game show that is hijacking the television signal and turning up during programmes unannounced. People are being taken and forced to take part in these games. The controllers of the game come from another Earth with different physical laws, one where evolution took an alternative path. The world is in the guise of a game show because that turns it into something that the contestants understand. All of the people who have failed at the games are dead, or at least its never confirmed that they are alive. It’s an energy-based lifeform and it is after special crystals to bring them into our universe with its different physical laws and they are able to refract light in a powerfully destructive way. Vast magnification properties. She’s making a weapons and selling them. Avarice, the most common of failings in a Doctor Who villain.
Standout Scene: Kamelion randomly regains control of his systems where the plot requires him to do so. That’s lucky then.
Result: ‘Yet again it seems I must apologise to you…’ This is a fun idea from one of the quirkiest and most consistent of Big Finish writers but I’m not sure that it comes off and that’s entirely down to the execution of the piece. Big Finish are usually really good at playing up silly ideas like this one (Tegan appearing on a reality TV show featuring aliens) and have enjoyed success with idiosyncratic stories like Bang Bang a Boom, Max Warp, You are the Doctor and Other Stories and Robson’s own Situation Vacant. Power Game features witty dialogue and some lovely twists and turns but the energy and the fun factor is absent from the Power Game sequences. It feels like Ken Bentley was very uninspired by this script and as a result the most important aspect of the story lacks enthusiasm. Kamelion has quickly become tiresome too. Rather than using him as an exciting possibility, Big Finish are determined to display him as an irritating liability. With Kamelion and Mags getting the spotlight over the first 6 months of 2019 main range adventures it really feels like the current script editor is grasping at straws when it comes to selecting continuity elements to explore. The sooner Kamelion is bundled up in the TARDIS cupboard, the better. It’s a script with an intriguing premise, well structured and it fits well into its two-part length but ultimately the uncommon premise is merely smoke and mirrors for what is a very familiar type of Doctor Who story. And the ending is so abrupt I thought I had missed something in the climax. You’d be better off watching Bad Wolf: 5/10
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