The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

"There are many who consider my past deeds unforgivable. The only way for me to escape their castigation was through engineered deception."

It must take a brave writer to tackle the return of three old monsters simultaneously in their first Doctor Who audio play, but that is precisely the challenge given to Scott Alan Woodard with The Juggernauts. Featuring Davros and his famous creations, the Daleks, it also mixes in another long forgotten Terry Nation creation in the bulky shape of the Mechanoids from 1965's The Chase. These elements and the choice of regulars all create a heavy weight of expectation as Woodard's play combines elements used with great success previously in other Big Finish productions. This is the first Sixth Doctor and Mel adventure since 2001's phenomenally triumphant The One Doctor; it's also the first (proper) Doctor Who Dalek story since Robert Shearman's superlative Jubilee as well as the first to use Davros in a meaningful way since Lance Parkin's masterful and intense character study of 2003. With all this in mind, can Woodard's multiple-monster script hope to compete with these past glories?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. While the threat of excessive backwards looking indulgence in the history of the show is effectively sidestepped by focusing upon Davros and his plans for the Mechanoids, leaving the third part of this triumvirate of nostalgia lurking in the shadows, Woodard's script suffers from a host of problems ranging including unoriginal ideas and significant plot inconsistencies. The script's essential idea is pitched far too close to Parkin's Davros, centring on the same premise of an apparently benevolent Davros seeking atonement through working for the greater good of humanity by the creation of his new service robots, the Juggernauts of the title who are, in fact, modified Mechanoids. As the third variation upon this idea (Revelation Of The Daleks did something similar first in portraying Davros as the Great Healer) the onus is on Woodard to provide something that distinguishes his play significantly from those that went before. While Saward's script was typified by its terrific black humour and Parkin's was perhaps the most complete character study the character of Davros is ever likely to have, Woodard chooses to tell a far more plot-orientated narrative, but because much it feels so familiar this is a play lacking in individuality.

The first episode of The Juggernauts nevertheless shows promise. Throwing the listener straight in, the drama quickly splits the Doctor and Mel apart after the space vessel they are visiting comes under fire. Mel escapes in a lifepod but as she drifts away, she witnesses the ship's destruction unaware of whether the Doctor has been able to recover the TARDIS or not. Meanwhile the Doctor finds himself a prisoner of the Daleks, who claim not to have incarcerated him but to have recruited him to their cause. They want him to investigate Davros, who they suspect is up to his old tricks once more on the mining colony Lethe where he is plotting a new threat that could wipe out the Daleks forever.

One of the inherent difficulties of using a character like Davros in a "past" Doctor story such as this is that the writer's scope is considerably constrained by our existing knowledge of what will happen subsequently. Therefore, whatever happens in The Juggernauts, we know that Davros is en route to becoming the Emperor of the Imperial faction seen in Remembrance Of The Daleks. With this in mind, it's strange that Woodard chooses to try to subvert expectations again by featuring a Davros who's trying to atone for his actions when it cannot help but recall that there's a superior play with similar themes out there. Whatever good intentions Davros has in creating a race of ultimate Dalek killers, we know he fails as it's only a matter of time before his warped sense of ethics pushes him into committing an extreme act to ensure the success of his latest pet project. Nor does this story seamlessly setup the civil war scenario between the Daleks seen in Ben Aaronovitch's serial although there is an attempt to differentiate between two Dalek factions that comes over very confused as the Doctor seems to refer to the main group of Daleks here as both "renegade" and "imperial."

Although the premise is derivative, Woodard's presentation of Davros himself is interesting as for once it is precisely what it appears. Rather than using the Mechanoids-become-Juggernauts as a means to augment his own powerbase, Davros is motivated by revenge upon his creations who have spurned his genius and offended his ego by outgrowing their maker. Helping humanity is simply the excuse and a secondary consideration for Davros. As with Revelation Of The Daleks and Davros, its his own lack of a reasonable moral code which pushes Davros' scheme too far as he thinks nothing of arranging the death of one or twelve innocents if their demise will ultimately prove beneficial to mankind in the long run by improving the Juggernauts' effectiveness. Thankfully, the Sixth Doctor is rightly outraged by Davros' actions and doesn't want to shake his (newly acquired mechanical) hand, whilst telling him to keep up the good work, this time. There are some good character moments for Davros such as the scene where he remarks that "You are nothing to me, just another pawn to push across the game board of my own design" as it is a perfect summation of his attitude towards life. He will use them in pursuit of his aims but once they have outlived their usefulness, they become expendable.

Woodard makes his intent clear to explore Mel's character from the outset and he does this mainly through integrating her flawlessly into the community of scientists and miners present on the Lethe colony. But by setting her first scene there approximately three months after her parting of the ways with the Doctor, Woodard glosses over many opportunities to add some extra substance. Mel has often been portrayed as a one-note cipher, but separating her from the Doctor for this prolonged period could have been a chance to show her vulnerable side as she faces the prospect that her existence on Lethe, far away from anything she knows as home, might now be her future. Without exploring the transition more thoroughly, her unswerving belief the Doctor is on his way to rescue her seems a little too optimistic - even for Mel - and her friendships with her colleagues never seems quite genuine enough. Her acceptance of everything as stated is a typical Mel trait, but by not showing any sort of doubt in her mind about her inevitable rescue, the chance to add another facet to the character is lost. The rather sketchily-drawn supporting characters befriended by Mel could have done with being fleshed out themselves as it would have made their roles within the story - particularly Mel's almost romance with colleague Geoff - much more interesting and engaging.

Langford's performance is certainly acceptable enough but you can't help but feel that more could have been done here. In some respects, Woodard does subtly show the development of Mel through how she deals with people, but is reluctant to take it that much further than her onscreen persona. Mel's instincts are important to her as she prides herself on being a "good" person, so the situation she finds herself in when her oldest friend tells her a man she has come to admire and respect is actually a diabolical megalomaniac is an intriguing dilemma. The powerful confrontation between Mel and Davros in the final episode shows how plausible the evolution of Mel has been as rather than just decry him as "utterly awful", she stands up to the crippled Kaled and faces him down in a way the Doctor often shies away from. It's quite disturbing to hear this much more aggressive side to Mel, particularly as there isn't that much foreshadowing for the severity of it, but as an instinctive reaction to lies, death and betrayal it works. The way Woodard scripts it is certainly a good example of how to actually show character growth as opposed to, say, the previous (full) Doctor Who release where one companion spends fifteen to twenty minutes telling the audience how much she's changed.

The Juggernauts is couched in very traditional terms, and this contributes significantly to the failure of its concluding episode that also mortally undermines the lightweight but agreeable tale constructed during the first three quarters of the play. There seems to be an unwritten convention that the Daleks' means of achieving their goals has to be something ridiculously convoluted. Paul Cornell memorably drew attention to this in his Professor Bernice Summerfield play Death and the Daleks and one of the reasons why Nicholas Briggs' Dalek Empire series has been so successful is that he's played against this view with an uncompromising portrayal of Daleks who use their might to eliminate all resistance. Woodard's justification in keeping the Daleks in the background, the "potentially lethal toxin," is credible - despite all those oh-so-conveniently placed observation devices - and it puts the Daleks into the fascinating position of having to turn to their best enemy to assist them. This is certainly a sound basis for the plot, but the revelations Woodard feels are needed in the final episode to show the Daleks have had more influence upon the story show these Daleks as perhaps the most hare-brained of them all.

There are two aims the Daleks wish to achieve, capturing Davros and thus ending his Mechanoid experiments being the primary focus. Their secondary aim is to capture the Doctor and extract the mechanics of time travel from his mind. Rather surprisingly, they achieve the first part of the latter in the first ten minutes of the play, but rather than getting on with probing the Time Lord's secrets, they let the Doctor go free as they need him to go to Lethe and stop Davros.

Except, as it turns out, they don't need him at all. Once the Doctor calls in the Daleks it transpires that - surprise, surprise - there is no airborne poisonous-to-Daleks toxin in the atmosphere on Lethe and Daleks can function there without impairment. They steam roll in, capture Davros and exterminate "with ease" several Mechanoids. Things get even sillier when they admit orchestrating the whole scheme by separating the Doctor from Mel and guiding her escape pod to the mining colony as this shatters the basis of the story. Why would the Daleks be content to observe Davros for over seventy days (this timeframe also begs the question of what they were doing to the Doctor when he was taken at the same moment Mel escaped) when there was nothing to stop them going in and getting him themselves? Why create an elaborate convolution of a plan involving the Doctor when he was superfluous to it in the first place? And if they have a time-scoop capable of plucking the Doctor and his TARDIS off an exploding starship, why not simply apply the same technology against Davros to bring him into their power?

Of course, the obvious answer is that there wouldn't be a story otherwise but by hideously overcomplicating matters this twist renders the script absurd and spoils any hope of a satisfying conclusion. Woodard's take on the Mechanoids is limited by their nature (their stunted vocabulary hardly making them the most interesting old monster for an audio play) but the unexpected combination of them and Davros together should have been enough to create something inventive. Big Finish have served the Daleks well (mostly) in the past, but The Juggernauts would have been much better off without them as the attempts to justify their presence cause the script to loose its logic, rendering the plot highly dubious.

The performance of the three leads is the most consistently enjoyable aspect here. The greater focus on Mel and Davros ensures a disappointingly limited role for the Doctor, but the script's leanings towards the television's characterisation of the Sixth Doctor proves an unexpected delight as it enables Colin Baker to play the role more flippantly and curmudgeonly than the softer version that has been developed in this medium. While the vocal arrogant swagger he used to possess has mellowed with age (just listen to Slipback, if you can brave it, to see the difference), it is fun to hear him sparring in this manner again. Terry Molloy offers good value too as Davros but it lacks the intensity of his Davros appearance as the script just doesn't afford him the same depth. Some impressive touches allow Molloy to show a different side of his acting abilities, again, which gives the first episode a pleasant twist that the cliffhanger doesn't quite make enough of.

The supporting characters are rather anonymous with only Paul Grunert's arrogant investor Brauer adding any real spark although Peter Forbes is agreeable enough as Kryson, inheritor of the standard mantle of becoming Davros' unwilling accomplice. Bindya Solanki is likeable but suffers from being in a thankless role while Klaus White is far too flat to convince as Mel's nearly-beau Geoff. This deprives his scenes with Langford of any frission, which makes it difficult to care about their relationship at all. Solanki and White aren't helped by their big escape subplot in the final episode involving neither the Doctor nor Mel, as it just seems like a sideshow distraction to the main drama.

The Juggernauts feels as if it needs a further redraft as while it has interesting, if unoriginal, ideas not enough thought has been put into exploiting them to their full potential. It was always going to be difficult getting the right balance for using three old elements. Woodard wisely spends most time developing the most interesting of them in Davros, but his take on the Mechanoids is far too generic and the Daleks are handled badly, as the final episode makes them seem incompetent and impotent rather than an implacably malign force of evil. Despite its many flaws, there is some fun to be had with this play but the plot is so fragile that if you begin to think about it the whole thing unravels in a spectacular fashion, leaving far too many inconsistencies to be ignored and not enough substantive drama to be appreciated.