The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

"Others may have greater intelligence, stronger, more adaptable forms but none has a greater will to survive. That is why we overcome all obstacles..."

One of the most frequently suggested reasons for the longevity of Doctor Who is its inherent flexibility. Through the device of the TARDIS, the series could essentially go anywhere in time and space, employing many different styles of narrative to divert and entertain and opening up an infinite number of possibilities for stories to tell. Yet, there is definitely a reluctance to embrace this scope entirely and there is certainly a perception that a typical Doctor Who story will involve all the associated clichés such as monsters out to take over the world, running up and down corridors and so forth. In their infinite wisdom, Big Finish have stripped away one of the core elements of Doctor Who - the ability to travel through time - by moving the Doctor into a new, timeless divergent universe and after the brilliance of Scherzo which re-established the relationship between the Doctor and Charley, it falls to a returning veteran Doctor Who writer to begin to explore the nuances of this new scenario. So while Philip Martin's The Creed Of The Kromon is an opportunity to show the strength of this new direction, it is unfortunate that in substance it feels so familiar and unadventurous that it seems like nothing has changed...

Part of the problem of this is that for his inspiration for his debut for Big Finish, Martin has plundered the same section of the thematic vault which he visited for his two television Doctor Who serials, Vengeance On Varos and Mindwarp, which featured Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor during the mid nineteen eighties. Both of these presented prominently the idea of genetic experimentation and how this could provoke monstrous transformations as well as satirising contemporary business practices through his most famous creation - the grotesque Mentors embodied by the supercilious Sil. Martin cherry picks some of his best ideas from these two adventures, such as the Doctor's female companion having her humanity distorted in an experiment, the Doctor seemingly conditioned into acting against his nature and the central featured race, the Kromon, being used as an allusion to corporate politics but whereas the Mentors were fanatical about the pursuit of financial wealth, the Kromon are obsessed with "the minutia of middle-management."

The idea of the Kromon, a race so adaptable that they will thrive wherever there is the water to sustain them, is an intriguing prospect but it is badly executed. While we hear in boasts how efficient the Kromon are and witness this in practice as their slaves are put to work in whatever capacity they are most suited or if they have no useful function the resource of the slave is not wasted as they are converted into fertiliser to assist the growing conditions of the Kromon's food, they never seem a genuine threat. As Martin sees them ultimately as a joke on the nature of bureaucracy, the idea that they can sweep away every civilisation if they gain the secret of space-travel never really seems believable because there isn't enough danger or tension in the script to make it believable.

Possibly the most striking element of the opening episode is its unusual atmosphere. While the content of the story is tremendously familiar, Martin does attempt to create a genuinely alien atmosphere that will unsettle the Doctor and Charley as much as it does the listener. Whether deliberate or not, the scenes set within the Interzone evoke the feel of Scherzo and wary of this the unexpected presence of the Kro'ka, lurking in the dark recesses of the mind, proves most startling. The casting of Stephen Perring in the role initially calls to mind his last significant part in an Eighth Doctor production - as the memorable Sebastian Grayle from Seasons Of Fear - but his voice takes on an almost maliciously playful quality as he begins torturing the intruders to discover their knowledge. It's a frightening thought that even the Doctor cannot escape his malign influence and begins The Creed Of The Kromon in an extremely intriguing manner, and as a character who is destined to return at least once more, a fascinating debut for the Kro'ka.

Based on the evidence of this story, the Interzone appears merely to be an opportune method of replicating the function of the TARDIS to take the Doctor and friends to a different setting for each new story but these opening scenes instil a surreal sense to the drama that it never quite shakes off due to some suitably offbeat sound and music from production maestro David Darlington. This does prove something of a substantive problem though as the atmosphere is very much at odds with the ultra conformist trappings of a conventional Doctor Who adventure and this conflict between two stark contrasts threatens to pull the story apart. While ultimately the traditional story wins out, it often comes across as playing to the caricature-like perception of a typical story, with an insufferable amount of padding added to the story as the Doctor and his companions are constantly escaping and being recaptured. All of this lends the production a far too familiar air, which is even more so given the reworking of Martin's previous scripts, which makes this story too average and too predictable.

The Creed Of The Kromon is perhaps at its most successful when it is raising questions regarding the Divergent universe itself, but annoyingly these appear to be merely foreshadowing future events and are unimportant in the context of the story itself. While it doesn't answer the questions, issues such as who created the Interzone structure and why, who the Kro'ka is working for, and who were behind the Company that the Kromon based their creed upon are genuinely interesting and engaging for the listener and more so than the actual play in question. Given that Philip Martin was given the brief, per the production notes, to write a "good old-fashioned traditional Doctor Who monster romp" an opportunity has been wasted to show why the introduction of the Divergent universe was a good thing as basically it seems no different from the old one. Indeed, substitute a typical TARDIS-style opening for the Interzone introduction and the story wouldn't be undermined in anyway. This lack of appreciation in the scope of the recent events also extends to the characterisation where the significant changes and traumas the Doctor and Charley's relationship has gone through in the last three stories is completely ignored, making it seem as if a great big reset button has been pressed.

Despite competently achieving its simple intent as a "monster romp", The Creed Of The Kromon fails to deliver in a number of key areas. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with a writer revisiting his themes of past work - provided the new examination contributes some new insight or adds depth to what preceded it. This is not the case here, as Martin seems content to tread old ground in much the same way that he did before. The only real exception to this is the insight into the "soul of the Kromon" which the characters experience after taking their elixir but while it's an interesting idea it isn't probed thoroughly enough. That the Kromon's bureaucratic mentality is such a human facet highlights another failing of the play in that its alien characters are far too human in nature, which again undermines the whole idea of this strange new universe and as such these creatures like the friendly Oroog, C'rizz and the Kromon themselves just seem like typical stock Doctor Who monsters and characters.

Since the announcement of the third season of McGann plays, it's been well known that The Creed Of The Kromon would introduce a new companion to join the Doctor and Charley. C'rizz was billed as the first truly alien companion to the Doctor yet despite some optional extras and special skills the script is adept to point out that he's humanoid in appearance and, like the other characters in the play, he's written in a very human way which is emphasised further by the fact that no modulation is given to Conrad Westmaas' voice in his performance. Big Finish has been very successful at introducing interesting characters as companions in the past and so it's very surprising that C'rizz should come across as so bland and uninspiring. Aside from the love he shows in the face of his partner L'da's transformation into Kromon breeding stock, there's little here that makes him as an interesting character and little that shows what he will bring to the already strong dynamic of the Doctor and Charley. The play's final moments which suggest that there is more to C'rizz than meets the eye is an extremely welcome move, but despite some foreshadowing such as his reluctance to accept a gun and the manner of the Oroog's address towards him, it feels - however undeservedly - tacked on in an attempt to make the character more interesting.

The task of highlighting the alien qualities of C'rizz compounds one of The Creed Of The Kromon's biggest problems in that much of its dialogue is overly descriptive. This is particularly true during the first episode where the Doctor and Charley often resort to describing what they are observing, for the express benefit of their listeners. The worst example of this comes immediately after they meet C'rizz, who has just evaded capture by a Kromon ship and is badly injured as a result of the experience. Instead of actually helping him, the Doctor and Charley stand around talking about him at him, commenting on his alien physiology with dialogue like:

"His eyes! They're open. Look at them! Yellow, like a jungle cats."
"Have you noticed his skin tones? They've lightened in the water"
"Almost blue. Like a chameleon."

These lines are merely one example, but show well the script's problem in that the more exotic the creature or scenario the more Martin feels the need to describe them in detail to convey to the listener how they should experience the sense of wonder they evoke. It would have been far more effective to merely plant the seed of the image and allowed the listener's own imagination to nurture it, rather than use such clumsy dialogue. Given the earnestness of the script, there's very little way for the performers to inject any irony or subtly into the way these lines of dialogue are spoken meaning much of these attempts to enforce the alien quality just seems forced and unnatural.

In his author's note, Philip Martin talks about how audio writing "gobbles up story like an army of ants on speed" and nowhere is this truer than in the ending which is so abrupt that after such an unhurriedly paced script it cannot be anything other than anticlimactic, relying as it does on the actions of an unseen - or should that be unheard? - race, who could easily have been called the deux ex machina, and keeping the Doctor's own involvement in bringing down the Kromon to an absolute minimum. It's difficult to begrudge such a likeable character as the Oroog a moment of glory but when Martin throws in an extremely convenient way to reverse Charley's own metamorphosis, seemingly without any consequences whatsoever, it leaves the play with a thoroughly unsatisfying and bitter denouement.

Paul McGann gives a dependable turn as the Doctor, despite having very little to do. The dark and brooding Doctor of Scherzo is sadly all but gone here and he's less interesting for it because it would have made the Doctor's actions whilst under the elixir during part three all the more effective had he been seen in a more ambiguous light previously whereas with the lighter characterisation returning it seems inevitable that he's merely playing along with the Kromon until he can find a means of escape. He conveys the Doctor's terror at the possibilities of the Kromon and their abilities well too, but, again, this is undermined by the fact that the race ultimately pose little substantive threat which is demonstrated by the relative ease of their demise. The subplot of Charley being turned into a Kromon breeding Queen does mean that India Fisher disappears for long stretches throughout the play but it allows her to do something a bit different to her usual plucky self.

Brian Cobby stands out of the small remaining cast for his performance as the Oroog. While the character is ridiculously human in its outlook for a creature supposedly so alien, it's hard not to like him because of the warmth that Cobby instils in his acting that makes it such a charming little part. Stephen Perring and Dan Hogarth take on the task of voicing all the Kromon and do well, despite the fact that given that there is more than just two Kromon characters they all eventually begin to sound a bit similar. Although you could argue that this is intentional to demonstrate the scale of the Kromon ranks.

The Creed Of The Kromon is most definitely Doctor Who of the old-school vintage, featuring all the types of devices and plot twists that come with that status but also all of its faults. In this respect, as an uncomplicated run-around romp, it is very competently done but listening to it you can almost sense that it had the potential to have been so much more with more focus. On a basic level the play suffers from an extreme lack of tension and is massively overwritten given the paucity of its underdeveloped plot and ideas and without the fallback of strong characterisation for redemption, it makes for a largely tedious and depressingly average affair.