It’s 1999 all over again as the dynamic duo of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa return with some standard, but well made, Doctor Who
Over the past several years, the Fifth Doctor Adventures have become one of Big Finish’s most reliable Doctor Who ranges. A large part of the reason for this consistently high quality has been the relationship between Peter Davison and his companions Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse. In particular how that spills over into their characters to make one of the most engaging and fun TARDIS teams. It’s perhaps because there’s such a thing as too cosy that new boxset Shock and Awe mixes things up. It introduces a new dynamic, with the Doctor and Nyssa travelling together alone.
Or rather, it’s a return to an old dynamic. In Big Finish’s earliest days Fielding and Waterhouse had yet to be convinced to come out to play. This meant an awful lot of Fifth Doctor stories set in the gap between Season 19 and Season 20, when the Doctor and Nyssa were on their own. It’s a combination that never got a single episode on television. Yet it still provides a hit of nostalgia to long time audio listeners. (As unlikely as being nostalgic for Land of the Dead sounds.)
It’s remarkable just how well Davison and Sutton slip back into this very specific time in the characters’ development too. Sutton in particular instantly inhabits this version of Nyssa. She brings back the earnest, righteous, naivety of a young nobleman thrown from her alien utopia into an unkind universe. The script provides details like her still not being entirely sure what tea is. But it’s Sutton who provides the potent mix of anguish, confusion, and outrage in the face of sadism and genocide.
Lair of the Voltaxa is Who at its cosiest and most familiar
If the choice of leads mixes things up, the two stories in this set balance it with cosy familiarity. They’re the sort of story you could listen to at the end of a long day, confident that if you doze off momentarily, you won’t be lost when you snap back awake. So firmly do they keep to some standard Doctor Who patterns, you could probably fill in the blanks pretty accurately.
This is particularly true of the four part story Lair of the Voltaxa which makes up most of Shock and Awe. Its basic set-up goes back at least as far as 1968’s The Invasion. Moreover, it unfolds in much the same way as stories like The Sontaran Stratagem. It’s compounded by enough previous Big Finish releases to fill a bookcase, also sharing the same essential plot.
There’s a powerful tech millionaire, Miranda Moss (Beth Goddard) and her revolutionary new AI product on its way into every home in the country, the Miri Cube. Of course, this tech-oligarch is aligned with forces even darker than late stage capitalism, if such a thing is possible. Soon it’s up to the Doctor and his friends to shut down this product roll-out and send these domestic invaders packing.
There’s no denying the quality with which the story riffs on these tropes, however, or the performances of the cast
Even though Lair of the Voltaxa is straight off the shelf of Who Ikea, the real test is how well writer Ronald Moore assembles those flat-packed pieces. Fortunately, there are no awkward angles, evidence of overenthusiastic hammering, or left over screws, here. Everything is beautifully paced, with a good mix of action, drama, and lighter moments. The Tweflth Doctor almost certainly had a well thumbed prompt card for “I’m sorry but that’s not your family member/lover/friend/pet/robot anymore. It’s the thing that killed him/her/them/it. Stop trying to hug him/her/them/it.” But this Fifth Doctor adventure provides one of the best examples of a character’s mind telling them the tragic truth that their heart can’t accept.
A lot of Voltaxa’s success is due to the confident performances of the cast. Especially Clive Hayward and Alex Stedman as a father and son duo hunted when one steals a Miri Cube. Wanda Opalinksa also does great work the potentially annoying Ania, shop manager and Moss’ unlikely companion as they search for the stolen cube.
March of the Colossus may have been done before, but it fizzes with the wild excesses of a comic
March of the Colossus makes up the final two episodes of Shock and Awe. If the Voltaxa brought the shock with their electric powers, the Colossus certainly bring the awe with their sheer gargantuan size. Unrestrained oligarchy is again the root of all evil. Though this time it’s with all the larger than life energy of a Doctor Who Adventures comic strip. Stuart Milligan’s Austus Zebeck certainly channels DWM villain Josiah Dogbolter, with his plan closely resembling that of Berakka Dogbolter in The Warmonger. This time, though the scale of Zebeck’s plan is vastly bigger. Literally, as instead of 20 foot tall alien warriors, the battling Colossus at the heart of his pay per view fight empire are the size of mountains.
It goes without saying that that’s bad news for the Dianasa tribe who happen to live on those slumbering mountains. These comic book visuals do sometimes extend beyond the ability of Alan Ronald’s script to describe them. You’d think people falling through the air as their village suddenly pivots 90 degrees from horizontal to vertical would be less helpfully descriptive for instance.
The story’s real heart is the conflict between an obnoxious tech oligarch and the outraged Nyssa
Where March of the Colossus really sings is the battle of wills between Zebeck and Nyssa. The Doctor’s companion viscerally recoils from perhaps her first encounter with not the banality of evil but its cartoonish stupidity. Destruction, torture and death in pursuit of universal power is at least rational. But wiping out a whole civilization, and torturing innocent creatures to the point of insanity, just to earn a quick buck and get your face on TV… Sarah Sutton plays this knife to Nyssa’s very soul, and her subsequent grief and rage, with power and truth.
This Doctor and companion pairing may deny us the amiable four way banter that’s made recent Fifth Doctor Adventures so enjoyable. However, is the result is giving the space for moments like these, it’s worth the trade.
Doctor Who: Shock and Awe
The Doctor and Nyssa face alien menaces on Earth and on a far-off unnamed world.
Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Shock and Awe is available to purchase now for just £19.99 (download to own) or £24.99 (download to own + collector’s edition 3-disc CD box set). Please note: the collector’s edition CD box set is strictly limited to 1,500 copies and will not be re-pressed.
