The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

"You are used to being a Lord, and here you are nothing. You're a fraud, a sham, hiding under a façade of confidence."

When the Doctor entered the divergent universe at the conclusion of Zagreus, it was an opportunity to tell different stories in a fresh new setting where everything was uncertain. But, like The Creed Of The Kromon before it, Will Shindler's debut script for Big Finish The Twilight Kingdom revives the Doctor's greatest enemy. This is not a specific villain or monster, but the curse of the formulaic plot that disappointingly rears its ugly head for the second time in this third season of Eighth Doctor plays.

In a year where there has been a conscious decision by the producers to expand the pool of Big Finish's writers, Shindler is the first true member of the new blood having never written for the series in any medium previously. His author's note states his intent "to recreate something of the spookiness that grabbed me as a child" which is a noble aim as Doctor Who has always been at its best when dealing with horror rather than out and out science-fiction, but in doing so Shindler latches onto one of the most conventional and overused scenarios of the series - the base under siege, albeit with the unusual twist that the threat is both internal and, to the rebels themselves, unnoticed. But despite an engaging opening which establishes the spectre of death surrounding the harshly oppressive jungle environment the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz have found themselves in this time, the familiarity of the basic storyline is compounded by a whole host of clichés deployed in the service of the plot from the separation of the protagonists as a means to establish backstory, to the Doctor taking on an assumed identity to further his investigations and a cast of stock characters like the paranoid-but-brutal rebel officer and the old favourite, the jaded-yet-broadminded scientist who realises the Doctor is right and that not everything is what it seems at Major Koth's rebel training camp.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with what we'd label "traditional" Doctor Who but to succeed it must either be so compulsive and well written that its lack of originality can be overlooked or use the familiar conventions in a wholly unexpected manner. The Twilight Kingdom attempts the latter approach, with Shindler using the confined environment of Koth's subterranean lair to hide hidden horror within. While the first episode is successful, it features distinct Heart Of Darkness overtones as the Doctor and his companions discover that the respected authoritarian figure, in this case Major Koth, has withdrawn into the savage jungle, inspiring devotion in his followers who join him in his retreat, while the authorities send in people to retrieve him. Koth is presented as the fallen hero, the loyal soldier who turned away from his people after a command decision was taken to not inform him of the death of his family in an atrocious attack so he could continue to perform his duty to the best of his abilities without distraction. In many ways the idea of him leaving his own civilisation and seeking solace away from the familiar echoes the Doctor's own choice in venturing into the divergent universe and this parallel is at the heart of the story as Shindler brings these two characters together to confront and challenge each other.

And that is where The Twilight Kingdom falls down. The back cover blurb hypes the possibility that the Doctor "may have met his match" in Koth, as he is the all-seeing character who can instinctively see the Doctor's weaknesses and turn his friends against him in pursuit of his goal, but it is a conflict that is bereft of tension due to the way that Shindler characterises the Doctor. Rather than the titanic battle of wills that the writer would like it to be, the Doctor's attitude towards Koth is of casual nonchalance, treating him as if he were just the latest monomaniacal madman to cross his path. While the listener knows that's true, and on a basic level the Doctor will always survive to fight another day, when the character gains self-awareness of this and becomes impervious to the threat posed, the drama looses its tension and its effectiveness. The Doctor must never become infallible, as he is not a superhero and the way that none of Koth's taunts or the betrayal committed by Charley effect him in any way really undermine what is essentially a very intriguing core concept.

The Twilight Kingdom also suffers structural problems in that the plot effectively grinds to a halt during the middle episodes after the promisingly robust opening. Shindler clearly has good ideas of where he wants the story to go, but after the establishment of the necessary backstory and positioning of the characters, he falls back on tried and tested plot devices to bridge the gap, such as the old escape and recapture routine. With lots of heavy-handed hints about the nature of the cave system the story is set in liberally deposited in the dialogue, the inevitable twist is telegraphed early although the relationship between Koth and the surroundings is rather more ambiguous. Without the sustained momentum of a driving force behind the plot, many of the scenes in these sections feel inconsequential with two scenes involving new companion C'rizz standing out as the worst offenders. When a hard-nosed commanding officer decides to submit the Eutermesan to a truth serum, C'rizz gets out of it simply by informing her that he's telling the truth and before you know it he's in Vayla's "Freedom Fighting For Beginners" training class. While it's symptomatic of the answers behind the mystery at the centre of the story, it is very unconvincingly done. The best example of the frivolity comes when the extent of the manipulation is revealed and C'rizz angrily turns on Charley, brutally attempting to choke the life out of her. As a dramatic scene it allows Conrad Westmaas to finally show some genuine fire, but it is an act without consequence as it has no discernable effect upon Charley afterwards as she doesn't mention it again nor does it change the way she relates to C'rizz. After witnessing such hate and viciousness first hand, it seems ludicrous to think she could go back to normal so quickly without being even slightly wary of him.

As it's the end of the season, although one which has only scratched the surface of the potential offered by the divergent universe scenario, there is a thoroughly gratuitous scene tacked on at the end, designed to tantalisingly point the way forward for the next run. It's something of an anticlimax though given that the character the Doctor believes is behind the crucible world they have found themselves on, seemed fated to return following their last appearance…

As the script affords the Doctor little depth, Paul McGann is very much constrained by the lack of complexity within the characterisation and he gives his most limited performance for some time. India Fisher fares poorly as Charley comes across as an incessant whiner even before she is manipulated into turning against the Doctor. While he's relegated to a minor supporting role, it's surprisingly Conrad Westmaas who is the most impressive of the regulars due to the fact that Shindler's script begins to flesh out C'rizz's character through recognition of how the exposure to new ideas has opened his mind and reduced his naivety. But that said, when one of the themes of the play concerns the relationship between the individual and their environment, it seems somewhat wasteful that a character with the "special skills" to adapt readily to his surroundings isn't more directly involved with the plot. The guest cast is dominated completely by the performances of its two most prominent members, Michael Keating and Alan Rothwell. As Koth, Keating adopts a very understated approach that plays against type, as while it is fundamentally the archetypal Doctor Who villain his quiet sinisterness is far more satisfying and effective than the usual histrionic ham. As already noted, Rothwell's character - the cynical scientist Janto - is very much the non-conformist cliché amongst Koth's army. But he provides a welcome distraction with his deceptively light portrayal and, notwithstanding the predictability inherent in the character's ultimate fate, the emotional performance of Rothwell imbues the part with the right degree of empathy to make it resonate strongly.

Despite the engaging opening and the borderline compelling conclusion, The Twilight Kingdom cannot escape from its weak plotting and the misuse of its central conflict, which neutralises the drama's danger. There are good ideas present but Shindler cannot sustain them over the fullness of the two-hour running time and the resulting play is very uneven, which is not helped by the underwhelming performances of the main regulars. This is a disappointing end to a season that promised so much, and while it delivered two of arguably Big Finish's best ever stories in Scherzo and The Natural History Of Fear, collectively it is the weakest of the three produced to date due to both its lack of progression and the failure to exploit the full potential of the divergent universe setting.