Reviewed By Steve Parkes
Bald Mage Rating 6.5/10
‘Mel the nicest person in the whole universe, and you got her to point a gun at you’
The year is 2085, and planet Earth remains on the edge of a nuclear precipice. At any moment, either of two vast rival power blocs, to the West and the East, might unleash a torrent of missiles, bringing about the terrible certainty of Mutual Assured Destruction.
If you’re a Doctor Who fan this will sound familiar if it doesn’t then I will enlighten you. This story follows on from a Peter Davison story that was shown on TV called Warriors of the Deep, where the Silurians and the Sea Devils attack a sea base that contains weapons of mass destruction and they want the humans to destroy themselves so they can claim the Earth back.
So that’s the history sewn up for you, now for this story; I can say from the start it’s not the best story I’ve heard since Big Finish started and this story was probably the worst in the trilogy of Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor with Ace and Mel.
The Doctor is at his darkest here as he thinks the Silurians have had a rum deal over the years and he has decided that the Silurians deserve the Earth back. I like McCoy as a dark Doctor but the previous two adventures didn’t portray him in this light and I preferred them over this story if I’m honest. One thing that was interesting was the fact that Mel couldn’t believe how the Doctor was acting, this was all new for her and she questions her place in the Doctor’s life on board the Tardis, whereas Ace is all too used to this side of the Doctor’s nature and her actions are very interesting during the duration of the story.
The best parts of the story are with Ace and Mel mainly because this story does push them into uncharacteristic actions. One scene in particular with Mel, who is the one of the most gentle companions ever to grace Doctor Who, does something I would never have thought she would do and her reaction after was acted really well by Bonnie Langford, she really is brilliant on audio. Ace is on top form here with her distrust of the Doctor as he looks like he is betraying the humans, so she takes matters into her own hands, only Ace would ever do this to the Doctor in my opinion and this is one of the reasons why she is one of my favourite companions ever on the show and how Sophie Aldred manages to sound like she does thirty years ago is just staggering.
Overall the story is a basic re-write of Warriors of the Deep with numerous mentions of past stories to keep the listener up to date with the adventure, but if you are a fan of classic Doctor Who like me you might find this a little annoying. The supporting cast all do a decent job during the story, I did find Chairman Bart Falco a little over the top and at times I just wished some one would have killed him off just to shut the man up. But as I say farewell to the 7th Doctor, Ace and Mel for a while I can honestly say the trilogy overall was a success.
TWO BALD MAGES 