The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'As you are so fond of saying Major, this is war. Any means will justify the end. Any means!'

Cynics may argue that the whole Excelis series was envisaged as a manner of keeping the three 'past' Doctors featured in Big Finish's Doctor Who range in the public's perception while the more lavish new season of Eighth Doctor stories took centre stage. While they may be some degree of truth in that, as this phase of Excelis draws to a close with Craig Hinton's Excelis Decays, the validity of this experimental mini series has been justified with three very different tales, all enjoyable to a greater or lesser degree on their own, which form a greater whole when heard together.

After giving the TARDIS a thorough refit, the Doctor treats his old ship to a spot of autonomous control. Rather than taking him 'somewhere nice' as he hoped for, the Doctor finds himself in a brutal and unwelcoming world which he is rather surprised to find is the city of Excelis on the planet Artaris, which has changed radically since his last visit. The Doctor soon finds that he has unfinished business here...

As the culmination of the Doctor Who part of the Excelis series (for there is still the Bernice Summerfield centred 'epilogue' - The Plague Herds Of Excelis - to come), there are several things Excelis Decays needed to do and it accomplishes these well. Firstly, and most importantly, it needed to bring some sense of resolution to the story, and secondly tell an interesting story in its own right. It achieves the former task with more than a considerable degree of style (indeed the finale to this story is a good example of why Doctor Who can be as great as it is) and thanks to good performances from the cast and a taut script from Hinton, the latter is reached easily.

While Excelis Dawns was quite a lightweight romp, and Excelis Rising was a much more claustrophobic affair, Hinton's script marks yet another change in style and mood for the drama, and from the outset of Excelis Decays it's quite evident that this is going to be a very bleak piece indeed. And while this is intentional, as the author's notes show, the degree does come as a surprise. That said, Excelis Decays isn't by any means devoid of humour (Lord Sutton has a nice line in black comedy) or lighter scenes, it's just there is such an ominous feeling running through the whole drama that these tend to be consumed by the overriding sense of foreboding.

In the previous Excelis instalment, the evolution of Excelis as a city wasn't examined as fully as it could have been (mainly because it would have served as a distraction to the central story), but here the changes that have turned Excelis from a city awash with the new science of spiritualism to a brutal totalitarian dictatorship are crucial to the story as they provide the Doctor with the impetus to track down the source behind the changes that have so drastically effected Excelis. As well as maintaining a steady pace to the story, Hinton throws in some surprises along the way with the true nature of the Meat Puppets being quite horrific and a most unexpected reason for why the Doctor finds himself returning to Artaris at regular intervals.

Sylvester McCoy's performance here is impressive, yet at times uneven. The characterisation of the Doctor is taken from shortly before the 1996 Television Movie, and Hinton's script captures the at peace with himself Doctor to an extent, but it's fused with a more solid, New Adventure like characteristics. McCoy has never been the most emotive actor even in his heyday, but here he demonstrates a suitable level of control that results in his best performance as the Doctor since The Shadow Of The Scourge. His tendency to go over the top, particularly in scenes where he's required to be angry, is refreshingly largely absent and the result is a much stronger showing.

Anthony Stewart Head's performance as Lord Sutton is quite exceptional and easily the highlight of the drama. Head injects a great deal of menace in bringing this character to life, making Lord Sutton into one of the most sinister figures to feature in a Doctor Who audio to date. Head conveys just the right about of intensity into his performance for it to be genuinely believable that this is a man who will do anything to accomplish his goals and been pushed to the very limits of his sanity. The slight downside to this is that Sutton is more clearly drawn as the villain from his first appearance, and he lacks the ambiguity that made the threat that Warlord Grayvorn and Reeve Maupassant posed more palpable. But the flipside is that with his role defined more obviously, it gives Head the chance to play the role more villainously, which he seems to relish.

Ian Collier's Commissar Sallis stands out amongst the rest of the cast. His voice is wonderfully suited for audio, bringing a gravitas to the role that makes him totally convincing as the world weary old soldier whose seen it all, and is torn between his duty and the sense of futility he has begun to feel concerning the never ending war Excelis is engaged in. Unfortunately given the relative brevity of the story, Collier's scenes are too infrequent and all too brief. Which is also true of Yee Jee Tso's Major Brant. Best known to Doctor Who fans as Chang Lee in the 1996 Television Movie, Tso gives a quietly impressive performance, but he isn't really afforded the opportunity to develop the character further and comes off as a peripheral player. But overall, the whole cast brings Hinton's script to life well.

As ever with the Excelis series, David Darlington is responsible for both the musical score and the sound design, and both help to increase the sombre atmosphere of the audio. The score itself compliments the dark tones of the story perfectly with a much more heavier, ominous feel than his previous two, and matching the content of the story, almost all traces of the old Excelis are gone from the music.

Excelis Decays is very different from its predecessors in this series and stands out as being something a little bit different to what's expected, which given that the whole Excelis series is something a bit different to the regular Doctor Who releases, is entirely appropriate. With a solid script from Craig Hinton and good performances from its cast, it ends this phase of Excelis in explosive and unexpected style.