The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'Is something wrong? You look a bit, I don't know, edgy?'

'I'm just hoping my memory is playing up, that's all. I can name every Pharaoh that Egypt ever had and I'm certain there was never a Pharaoh Erimem.'

Iain McLaughlin's The Eye Of The Scorpion marks the return of the Fifth Doctor, this time accompanied by the lovely Nicola Bryant reprising her role as the Doctor's companion Peri. The last time these two were reunited in a Big Finish audio, the finished product was the worst story that has been released so far, but this wasn't the fault of Davison and Bryant though as their performances were the highlights in a very weak story. Happily their performances here are matched by a script which compliments them.

Following the path trod by both The Marian Conspiracy and The Fires Of Vulcan, The Eye Of The Scorpion is a historical story based in Ancient Egypt where the new Pharaoh is set to be crowned within a few weeks. The Doctor and Peri arrive there after a curious incident in the TARDIS forces their arrival, and they become instantly embroiled in the troubles of Egypt.

Although historical stories were usually the sole reserve of the Hartnell era on television, since the publishing of original Doctor Who novels featuring all the Doctor's began, its been very rare to have either purely historical, or pseudo historical stories featuring other Doctors apart from the First Doctor, and it always seemed odd that the latter Doctors didn't venture back into history often the way that the First had done. There still aren't many novels featuring the other Doctor's in historical stories, but with The Eye Of The Scorpion, Big Finish have provided another historical based story for the later Doctors, and a very favourable one it is too.

McLaughlin's script is on the whole good, although there is a lot of expository dialogue in setting many of the scenes up, but this can be forgiven here as it's necessary to a certain extent to establish the setting of ancient Egypt. It does fall occasionally into the trap of having the characters describing their location through overly descriptive dialogue which just sound awkward within the context of the drama, but this is only a minor blight on what is a good solid Doctor Who story. The Eye Of The Scorpion also has a lot of humour in it, and a lot of this comes from Peri and the sense of humour she exhibits here. This is at its best in her scenes with Peter Davison where their repartee positively radiates, thanks to the combination of their acting and the scripts' witticisms.

In the last Fifth Doctor release, Loups-Garoux, Peter Davison put in one of his best performances as the Doctor ever, and his performance here is quite superb again. He really seems to have settled back into the role of the Doctor now whereas occasionally in his earlier ones he seemed a little uncomfortable with the part. The characterisation of the Fifth Doctor is satisfactory, capturing the spirit that was shown in The Caves Of Androzani on television and also showing just what a good combination this Doctor and Peri make. In an attempt to evoke the spirit of the Hartnell historicals, the Doctor is missing for almost the whole of the second episode, and whilst Davison is missed, the effect isn't as great as it was during his other absence in the first episode of Winter For The Adept.

Nicola Bryant's performance is particularly strong here. With the Doctor absent for most of the second episode, Nicola really gets the chance to show her considerable acting talents. During times in the first episode she seems to struggle a little to get her American accent right, but by the start of the second episode she's got it perfectly. McLaughlin indicated in the preview of the story in DWM 308 that Peri's role in the story was rewritten to be stronger, and this is show well throughout the four episodes as Nicola Bryant demonstrates just what a good actress she really is with a commanding performance.

Of the guest cast, the stand out performance is easily Caroline Morris, who plays Erimem who is about to be crowned Pharaoh within a few weeks. Her performance as the young lady torn between her sense of duty in becoming the living God, and her own personal feelings. She really works well with the script to build her character into one of the best to appear in a Big Finish drama. The only slight downside to her performance is that Morris occasionally sounds uncannily like Sarah Sutton, who plays the Fifth Doctor's earlier companion Nyssa. The rest of the cast all put in good performances, with Harry Myers' Yannis being a particularly convincing one, and Stephen Perring and Jonathan Owen also being very noteworthy.

A slight problem with The Eye Of The Scorpion is that when some of the characters are introduced, they're not named, and although it becomes obvious who they are throughout the story, it's a little distracting trying to identify everyone at first.

The Eye Of The Scorpion is another very enjoyable audio, and it keeps up the high standard of stories that have been released this year. Iain McLaughlin's script on the whole is good, although the action scenes, particularly the Chariot one in the first episode, don't come off particularly well on audio. But where The Eye Of The Scorpion really shines though is in its performances, where each and every one of the actors and actresses gives solid performances, played with gusto, and it lifts the whole drama. This is easily the best performance that Nicola Bryant has done in a Big Finish audio, and it's because she's given a strong role and by doing this it really puts her into the limelight. Peter Davison's showing is very impressive too, despite him disappearing for the entirety of episode two. Caroline Morris is also the best of the other cast as Erimem, whose brings the character to life superbly well. The Eye Of The Scorpion, is a good piece of drama. It has an interesting premise, a good script, and most importantly good performances from the cast. Although it doesn't reach the same level of quality as some of the other recent releases, judged on its own merits, it's highly enjoyable.

And although it's not been unknown for the Fifth Doctor to take people onboard the TARDIS only for them to disappear before the next story, it seems as though the Doctor has got himself a new companion at the end of this story...