The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'What if I prefer to die, rather than compromise history?'

Whilst the Doctor and Nyssa find themselves on a Dalek occupied Earth in the 22nd Century, after a disturbance within the Vortex forces them to land, in the far future, a Thal scientist discovers that something has destroyed most of the universe. But his ship is soon approached by a swarm of life-forms which closes in on them sending their ship out of control. After recovering from being caught in their wake they find themselves facing a very familiar planet, one which they thought they'd never see again - Skaro...

Nicholas Briggs' The Mutant Phase is the third part of the three stories to feature the Daleks in their return to menace the Doctor, this time taking on Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

Although both Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton's voice sound noticeably different from how they were during recording of the series, both of them put in spirited performances which helps the action to flow well. Davison is on good form here, with a performance that builds on his previous appearances in these audios and would ultimately lead to his tour de force performance in Loups-Garoux. Whereas Colin Baker's performances have realigned his Doctor's character radically in the post Trial Of A Time Lord stories, Davison's Doctor has been subtly developing into something more than his television persona too. Part of this is certainly down to his matured voice, which removes some of the 'breathless enthusiasm' that he brought to the role on screen, and gives him more of a vocal presence which is suitably used through the audio format. His acting during the closing moments of episode two is superb.

There are two types of story within the New Audio Adventures when it comes to the size of the cast. There are those with many actors and actresses involved, and those where the whole drama is played out with a very small cast, and The Mutant Phase, despite its broad scope, falls into the later category. This actually works for and against the audio. It gives it a more intimate feel with the same characters appearing, but it feels at odds with the way that the story uses a lot of locations as the story wants to be an epic, but with a small cast. On this respect the story comes across as being quite odd, but somehow it works.

There are some good performances in the guest cast, most notably from Christopher Blake as Professor Ptolem who puts in a dignified performance as the Thal scientist. Jared Morgan's performance is also very good, and Mark Gatiss is given the chance to show his versatility again as Professor Karl Hendryx in a brief but memorable performance.

Part of the reasoning for these Dalek stories was that Big Finish wanted to restore the Daleks to the position of power that they had enjoyed pre-Davros, and this story shows this change well. In The Genocide Machine, the Dalek voices didn't sound right somehow and they had improved considerably in The Apocalypse Element, but it wasn't until The Mutant Phase that they were perfect. Alistair Lock and Nicholas Briggs' performances as the Daleks are spot on, and combined with the correct sound effects it means that the Daleks are more chilling here than they have ever been on audio. The Dalek Emperor is also very well created so that his voice seems to boom out of the speakers in a very menacing manor.

Rather uncharacteristically for Big Finish Doctor Who stories, the drama of The Mutant Phase moves around to many different locations which gives it the feel of a planet and time hopping epic. And while this aspect of the plot works quite well, it's ultimately the downfall of the story too.

As The Mutant Phase feels epic, you would expect it to end strongly in the traditional style of epics, but rather than set up a strong conclusion to the story Nicholas Briggs takes a different route, which essentially negates the events of the story. By choosing this as the method to resolve the story really harms the finished product as it side-steps the difficult questions and takes the easy way out of the story which is a shame. Although the story is very good throughout up until this point, the ending really spoils a lot of the good work that had previously been done throughout the other episodes.

Essentially The Mutant Phase is very good. It has excellent production work, with the time distorted scenes sounding particularly convincing, a good score by Nicholas Briggs, good, if not outstanding, performances throughout the cast and perfectly recreated Daleks. But its plot, and most specifically its resolution, really prevent this story from reaching the level of exceptional quality that was almost in its grasp. But because of the ending this story whilst being very enjoyable for the most part, is ultimately unsatisfying.