The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

"The end of one journey is the beginning of another..."

After the atypically light diversion of Faith Stealer, the continuing story of the Eighth Doctor's time in the Divergents' universe resumes its now obligatory bleak tone in Gary Hopkins' The Last, set on a world in the aftermath of a nuclear war. With this in mind, it is unsurprising to find that this is the harshest story so far with Hopkins using the scenario and the Doctor's involvement to explore questions of life and death. Thrown into "one of the most inhospitable places imaginable" the Doctor will find himself and his friends facing great hardships in a situation which seems a forlorn hope for their survival ...

Initially, the script misleadingly suggests a more lightweight tone when the sublime sound effects which establish the opening scene as a desolated and broken world give way to a dark, ominous speech from the Bortresoye leader which she promptly breaks off to have a rant about the quality of her make-up. But the purpose of this is to show Excelsior's state of mind and that her own agenda is far more sinister than her demeanour suggests. There is also a greater significance behind the seemingly gratuitous continuity of a (non-speaking, naturally) reappearance of two of the Doctor's former travelling companions, which are shown to him in order to provoke his lingering guilt over their fates. This is a reflection of the play's centre as the relationship the Doctor has with his assistants is a core consideration which Hopkins uses to deal each of the three regulars a decent sized part, something which can often prove inexplicably problematical when dealing with more than a single companion.

Hopkins skilfully masks his true thematic intent behind a variety of over-the-top leaders and bickering politicians which when combined with ideas about the bleakness of war and the futility of survival against such overriding odds means that it's difficult to anticipate that the title is actually referring to the last survivor on the planet, the person who will have the final choice between life and death. In any Doctor Who story you expect death, as it is a fundamental convention of the series, but the pattern behind the casualties of war here is so carefully concealed that when the greater purpose is exposed, it does come as a real surprise. Constantly emphasised is the idea that a new journey can only begin when another has ended and this is the true foundation of the story. While the fascinating concepts behind the planet are slightly reminiscent of those in The Natural History Of Fear, this is a society feted to make its mistakes until it gets them right rather than evolve organically through revolution.

While Hopkins crafts his play in an intelligent and engaging manner, increasing the isolation of the characters and gradually escalating the level of danger, the most significant flaws within The Last all stem from the nature of its ending. The denouement is perfect to underline the theme that life is essentially a cycle, it has unfortunate ramifications for how the plot must develop and the story's status as a single part of a continuing series of adventures unusually becomes a severe burden. Even with a Ninth Doctor and a new television series on the horizon, Big Finish should have more creative freedom as to where they can take the Eighth Doctor and his audio companions than his predecessors due to the still open-ended nature of the era and this is something Hopkins seeks to utilise as he pushes the regulars to their limits and forces life changing events upon them With the ability to make this count, this could have produced some powerful drama but the script never convinces that any of these changes will be permanent. So by the end of the first episode when Charley is paralysed and talking about "never being able to walk again," there is little doubt that by the end of episode four she will (and she was). Given this implausibility, it becomes easy to anticipate the inevitable ending when other events befall the regulars and so the cliffhanger to episode three has only slightly more impact than, say, the ending to the first part of The Dark Flame. Without being able to believe in the enormity of what's happening to these characters, it lessens the tension considerably although their reactions remain interesting to hear.

Stories that conclude in this manner are almost always disappointing because they effectively negate the adventure. With The Last this is even more so because it returns its characters (mostly) to a former point in their lives with no knowledge of what they have been through and its hard not to feel frustrated that individuals who were badly in need of development have been matured so well and yet by the next adventure the experiences they had endured on Bortresoye and what their subsequent actions have shown about their identities will exist only as possibilities within them, rather than something that can be built upon by a different writer.

Despite these problems, Hopkins' focus on character is to be much applauded as his presentation of the Doctor, C'rizz and (to a lesser degree) Charley is collectively the best heard since the arrival of the latest member of the team back in The Creed Of The Kromon. But The Last is very much a plot driven story, and the two don't always mix as well as they should. Hopkins has no trouble establishing the setting's background in a clever manner, but as the drama proceeds the pacing becomes laboured - particularly during the middle episodes - where a general lack of urgency disrupts the story's momentum. It would be inaccurate to describe these sluggish scenes as padding, but with tighter editing some parts of the middle, such as the escape to safety which seems to go on forever, would have been far more satisfying and it would have helped sustain the drama's consistency better.

The way the Doctor is depicted here allows McGann to shake off the shackles of the morose version he's been portraying recently and return to the more angry manifestation last heard in Scherzo, who's frustrated at the constant mind games of the Kro'ka and the loss of his freedom which went with the TARDIS and from the power of McGann's performance you feel he is someone who will stop at nothing to change that situation. As well as being forceful and enquiring, The Last shows the Doctor in a very unforgiving mood which gives McGann some excellent dramatic scenes, such as his rebuking of Minister Voss for his failure to take responsibility for his actions which contributed to Bortresoye becoming a barren wasteland. And as the situation seems increasingly hopeless, the Doctor's casualness towards his last act before the final scene is absolutely brilliant as it encapsulates the Big Finish characterisation perfectly but also demonstrates the Doctor's inherent strength of will.

It's also pleasing to finally hear a story that really gets to grips with C'rizz and The Last is exactly what the character needed after his introduction, so it's a pity it's finally arrived four stories later. With the annoying tendency for the Eutermesan to fall under the influence of any passing power discarded, we find that he's a compassionate person whose loyalty to his friends is unswerving but, like the post-Zagreus Doctor, he is mercilessly unforgiving against those who endanger them. His tranquil demeanour hides an impassioned and tortured soul and while other stories have touched on these qualities, this is the first story to really bring it all together in a coherent whole. Conrad Westmaas benefits from this tremendously with this being by far his best performance as C'rizz and it's good enough for the listener to appreciate that he is part of the team, which wasn't really there before this play.

Charley is portrayed in a much more moderate manner than of late as she tries to put the best spin on events behind her brave face and make do with what she's given. It is these very realistic views that reflect how far Charley has come since the Doctor first ran into her life and found her as a wide-eyed idealist, although it's sad in a way as she's changed so much that she's lost that infectious enthusiasm that made her so appealing in the first place. India Fisher takes this blunt, matter-of-fact attitude too far as she treats Charley's paralysis no differently from a more trivial injury as there's very little variance in her performance and from a dramatic viewpoint this blind acceptance of her fate robs the story of the chance to really examine how loosing her mobility and her independence affects her outlook. Fisher's impassive delivery doesn't do anything to reinforce the believability of this plot twist either. Charley's best moment in the play comes when she and C'rizz discuss her self-sacrifice should she hinder their chances of getting off the planet, but it isn't as effective as it might be because there has been no emotional struggle to get Charley to this position.

Carolyn Jones dominates the guest cast as Excelsior, with her exaggerated performance concealing the character's total self-absorption which allows her to go to sink to great depths to achieve her aim of looking fabulous at her victory speech. The fact that she doesn't care that most of her people can't attend due to being dead makes her insanity all the more disturbing. And as Excelsior's threats are anything but empty, this viciousness makes her one of the most callous and despicable villains to appear in a Big Finish Doctor Who story to date. Supported by two of her surviving ministers, played by Ian Brooker and Robert Hines, their story is interesting because of the way Hopkins changes the listener's perception of the characters, and not in obvious ways either, which again emphasises the main theme. Brooker is in particularly good form with Minister Voss' confrontation with the Doctor resonating strongly as he points out that his occupation of the "moral high ground" will deny his friends the possibility of life through the chance to escape. The performance is subtle enough so you can never be quite sure whether the Doctor is right about Voss' selfish motivations or whether he truly wants to atone for his past actions.

The dependable David Darlington turns in some typically classy sound design and music, which adds many extra layers of bleakness to the drama as it is suitably gloomy and evokes the idea of a barren world without being melodramatic about it.

The Last explores Hopkins' idea of a society driven to destruction in a very intriguing manner through asking fundamental questions of life and death and there is much to admire in this grim but quietly impressive script. But, by their very nature, the shocking plot twists are unconvincing and make it extremely difficult for the drama to provoke the emotional response intended as the ending, which is perhaps the only way a story like this could close, is inevitable and rather unsatisfying. Regardless of its faults, The Last is an interesting piece that had the courage to try and develop its regular characters, but is best remembered for its big ideas and its fascinating treatment of the Doctor as his valour and inventiveness are tested to the limit in a situation he cannot hope to win.