The body of Davros is recovered and on revival the galaxy’s leading Multi-national Corporation employs the (evil) scientist as scientific advisor. The Doctor, however, doesn’t have the trust that the company’s CEO has, and well who can blame him?
The premise to this is most intriguing what would Davros do when separated from the daleks, would he just skulk off into a corner, plot and find a new evil, or turn good. The last of the suggested ideas can be binned immediately as this audio takes place before Davros returns to the series in Revalation of the daleks where he is back to his old ways. This doesn’t stop there being a fair bit of ‘has he turned over a new leaf or not?’ through out the play.
Another striking change to form is the introduction of the two disc two parter, where each part is just over an hour in length. Artistically the longer episodes might not be a bad step as it works very well, but I wonder how many people listen to these cds on the way to work as one episode is just the right length for the journey?
Colin Baker is back on form as ever as the Peri-less Doctor and I am beginning to think that he can do no wrong with the part, please don’t prove me wrong Colin.
The plot seems a little contrived at the beginning, that Doctor just happens to be helping an old acquaintance on the self same planet as the AI corporation headquarters. It is here he just happens to see a ship fly into a hidden hangar and then (on investigation) he just happens to see the ‘body’ of Davros being off loaded. I am not saying that Doctor Who was never like this but here it just seemed a little out of place. That minor qualm is quickly forgotten though as the play gains steam and it is quite easy to get caught up in it and remain in the car once you have arrived at work just to listen to the end of the episode.
One of the problems in this and the ‘Omega’ audio is that it proceeds to demystify one of the major villains. Without saying too much it is interesting to see that Davros was always bad and his evilness is not just a product of his accident (the accident being why Davros is so damn pretty) and subsequent disability.
Overall if I were to give this a rating out of 5 I would award a 4 if the beginning of the play were a little less contrived.
Good stuff still, next it is Doctor verses the Master.
]]>
