In the far future, the inhabitants of Tarsus Six face a desperate struggle to evacuate their world before their sun, Tarsus Ultra, collapses into a cataclysmic spatial anomaly.
When the Doctor navigates the TARDIS to a space station orbiting Tarsus Six, Ace assumes that he intends to offer their assistance. But it soon becomes clear that the Doctor has an agenda of his own.
With the TARDIS immobilised, Ace realises that their own lives are as much in danger as those of the fleeing inhabitants. The race is on to escape the destruction of Tarsus Six and the devastating shockwave that will follow, reaching out and destroying everything in its wake.
SHOCKWAVE
The seventh release in the Big Finish/AudioGO coproduction series Destiny of the Doctor, James Swallow’s “Shockwave” continues the traditional bent of its predecessors, this time with the seventh Doctor and Ace. It’s certainly an effective enough story, and the (by now) usual interjections from the future are entertaining, but it’s also becoming readily apparent that this is not a range to turn to for greatness.
I really like how Swallow captures the McCoy era within minutes of the start of the play. The Doctor and Ace land on a space station, minutes from destruction, in the middle of an evacuation, and the Doctor immediately gets them placed on one of the rescue ships. Walking into an unusual situation without divulging any of his reasons to his companion: this is the seventh Doctor’s element, and Ace is stuck in her usual position between trust and mistrust. Swallow keeps the Doctor’s mission secret for a considerable amount of time, and when it’s revealed, it’s a genuinely surprising twist. The story is also action-oriented, but it focuses largely on the Doctor and Ace, meaning that it remains at least somewhat thoughtful. The ultimate resolution may be somewhat predictable, but that’s okay when the author elegantly lays out the steps taken to reach it.
This is definitely a TV seventh Doctor. He has a reason for being where he is, but no master plan to accomplish that goal, and his relationship with Ace isn’t as familiar as it has become in Big Finish. Definitely a younger Ace, too: she’s very impulsive, acting at every opportunity to dash forth and be heroic while displaying little self-control. The other characters are largely ciphers; only the young cultist shows any originality and even she’s mostly there as a plot device.
Sophie Aldred provides the narration this time around, and like those before she’s very good. There’s a noticeable difference between her narrative voice and her Ace voice, and the rare times she voices the cultist it’s a surprisingly distinctive performance. Unfortunately, her McCoy impression is not very good: she tries to capture his accent but goes a bit too far, making him sound more like David Tennant than himself. Her Matt Smith impression is dead-on, though, and I liked his Doctor admonishing his predecessor to be nicer to Ace. Ian Brooker provides the support voice, but his performance as the captain OhOne is largely unmemorable.
John Ainsworth directs, as with every other release thus far in the range, and he extends his record to a perfect seven-for-seven in drawing great narration from his lead. Matthew Cochrane contributes strong, effective sound design, with Daniel Brett’s music certainly inoffensive if not representative of the era. I know something is wrong with me, but I’d love to get a Keff McCulloch-style score blasting out of my speakers on a McCoy audio someday. On the whole, “Shockwave” is a success similar to the other releases in this range. It’s a solid, entertaining story that captures its era and contains another seed of interest for the overall arc – in other words, it’s what we’ve come to expect from the anniversary series. What happens now, as we leave the “classic” era, will be more intriguing.
Recommended.
7/10