Doctor Who: The Jupiter Conjunction
Written by Eddie Robson
Published by Big Finish
This audio drama, the second in a current trilogy with the Fifth Doctor and Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa, sees the travellers make a rather precise landing on a comet just outside Jupiter. They discover that the comet is actually hauling commercial freight, and the Doctor and Turlough are quickly accused of purloining cargo. Meanwhile, Tegan and Nyssa befriend a mysterious castaway with a boyfriend in danger.
Eddie Robson?s script has a fairly straightforward set-up once you get your head around the astrophysics of the conjunction in the title, and the first half of this tale predominantly concerns the Doctor and Turlough facing trumped up charges of larceny. Mark Strickson in particular excels here, and his scenes are a delight. It?s a shame, then, that Turlough?s character is rather sidelined in the second half, as the indigenous Jovians enter the story and a potential civil war threatens Earth.
Rebecca Front gives an enjoyable performance as Patricia Walton, head of the comet base, playing the part in a wonderfully understated way while delivering a few droll lines.? But Ben Porter, and in particular John Cummins as Anton Falcao, seem to have their tongues bursting through their cheeks, and this delivery sits rather at odds with a growing darkness in the story.
Fortunately Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton keep the drama and tension heightened to the very end and the drama reaches a satisfying conclusion, with the Jovians an interesting addition to the Doctor Who universe. Let?s hope Jupiter reaches conjunction again sometime soon.
