Breathless Romantic: If The Dalek Trap was a showcase for Lucie’s independence, The Revolution Game gives the very sweet and enjoyable eighth Doctor pre-Time War to take the spotlight. God bless the Doctor, he figures a game of TARDIS roulette (basically letting the ship decide with no input from him) is enough of a treat for Lucie for her birthday. Given the sort of hair-raising adventures the Ship usually throws them into that is hardly my idea of being spoilt. As usual the Doctor is being mistaken for a representative of a rival corporation. The Doctor spells out the downfall of this corporation and then makes it happen. Wonderfully he does this by causing an act of untold destruction and setting a race of enslaved children free. What a guy.
Lucie Bleedin’ Miller: ‘If I don’t make this I am so gonna haunt you Doctor!’ She’s been counting down the days since she joined the Doctor and they are way past her birthday and the Doctor owes him at least one day worth of being spoilt rotten. Her mum was once Queen of roller discoing. Once, Susie Dugdale challenger her to race a milk float down Waterloo Road and she ended up copping a broken wrist. I love how they never shy away from Lucie’s working-class background – in fact they revel in it. We’ve clearly reached a point in time where the companion can say the word coccyx…there’s progress for you. Just call her Blackpool Rock because she’s that hard that she’ll break your teeth. Not wanting to talk about it is blokes the universe over. Lucie has that similar quality to Rose in that she is so down to earth that she can pretty much strike up a conversation (and therefore a friendship) with anybody from humanoid to alien, and she does both here. Bionic Lucie or Glaswegian Kiss? On her birthday treat somehow she ends up competing whilst the Doctor winds up nibbling on canapes and drinking champagne. Go figure. She screams ‘come on Blackpool!’ when she participates. She realises that in the grand scheme of things nobody thinks she is important…but also that that gives her a chance to make difference on her travels.
Standout Performance: Jonathan Keeble sounds remarkably like Gareth Thomas. It might be a little too early for Big Finish to be thinking about recasting for their Blakes’ 7 range but he would certainly be my contender if they ever decide to do so.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘It must be strange to be so squishy.’
Great Ideas: Doctor Who has a record of taking normal animal life, flora and fauna and giving it an aggressive science fiction spin. I don’t know what Hyenoids look like but they sure as hell sound pretty nasty. Desiccation tolerance is the biological ability to create a glass shell to protect yourself. When the humans came to Castus Sigma the Jengu waited for them to finish building their colony hoping that they would hibernate but that moment never came. Each time the humans make a new solar cell panel they take the life of a Jengu. Consumerism causing mass murder of young, there’s a terrifying environmental message for you.
Isn’t it Odd: Applying the wrong theme eighth Doctor tune to this box set (they’ve used the Charley Pollard one as opposed to the jauntier upbeat version that accompanied Lucie’s adventures in the past) is the sort of attention to detail that Big Finish doesn’t usually get wrong. Why is Lucie no longer making diary entries? What was the point of that?
Standout Scene: I love the idea of an alien race that is forced to take action because humans have colonised their world and stolen their rain, despite the fact that they love our culture. They are fans of human music and films and entertainment. That’s novel. I like how the story misleads the audience into thinking that it is leading up to a terror attack on the dam but ultimately the aliens want to protest peacefully. How the one person we thought we could trust turns out to be the villain of the piece is quite elegantly done. Perhaps villain is to strong a word. Misguided, perhaps.
Result: ‘They’re just insects, Doctor…’ This is immediately more interesting and engaging than The Dalek Game, with a less congratulatory feel and more striking characters. Rather than the vacuous narrative of Briggs’ opener, The Revolution Game is packed full of incident. It’s a bizarre premise, the outer space roller skating championship, but one that plays into Lucie’s background and has the feel of the high energy stories like Max Warp and Grand Theft Cosmos, which were some of the highlights of Lucie’s original run. Castus Sigma might sound like the sort of unseemly alien world that Doctor Who conjures up for a one-story wonder but it is strikingly realised thanks to some terrific world building, smart direction and the fact that all the actors are taking this story seriously. The aliens are very well done too. What I really like about this story is how the Doctor and Lucie turn up somewhere quite innocuously and immediately sniff out an injustice and put things to right. I wouldn’t want them to be the intergalactic do-gooders of universe on a weekly basis but it’s lovely every now and again to have a story where, without breaking a sweat, they are a massive force for good and leave a positive impression on a world for all the right reasons. This is not the most refined of Doctor Who audios but it flits confidently between its entertaining premise, exotic aliens and environmental message. It was enjoyable to listen to with the Doctor and Lucie providing extra sparkle. Well structured, this is an ideal use of Doctor Who in a 60-minute slot. I would have started the set with this story because it re-introduces the regulars with a lot more skill: 7/10
"Applying the wrong theme eighth Doctor tune to this box set (they’ve used the Charley Pollard one as opposed to the jauntier upbeat version that accompanied Lucie’s adventures in the past) is the sort of attention to detail that Big Finish doesn’t usually get wrong. Why is Lucie no longer making diary entries? What was the point of that?"
ReplyDeleteIt was used for the first season of the EDAs, if memory serves me. Perhaps it's meant to indicate that this takes place between Series 1 and 2?
You're right Urlance, and this set has long been established as being set between series 1 and 2, between Human Resources and Dead London. The box synopsis only references series 1, and The Dalek Trap is implied to be shortly after Human Resources.
ReplyDeleteThe diary entries were probably something just Nick thought of using, as well as serving as a way to deliver exposition for those who don't know about Lucie's backstory. He says in the extras that he imagined it was the same device Jo uses in Planet of the Daleks, typical vanity. He deliberately sidelined the Doctor in The Dalek Trap to showcase Lucie, and the recorder also justified Lucie talking to herself.
Great reviews again, and hooray for Lucie's return.
ReplyDeleteRE: the diary recording thingy. Is it the same one she used in Lucie Miller/To the Death? That'd be a nice bit of continuity - and (assuming it was) indicates that she has possibly been keeping these since then?
BUT... it's just a theory of course :)
No, the one she used in it was the temporal interocitor. It was also given by The Doctor much later, when she left the TARDIS to travel with Alex.
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