The Conquest of Far by Nicholas Briggs
Earth Alliance, the future… Fleet commanders receive their orders from the President of Earth. Operation Far is ‘go’. As soon as the planets are suitably aligned, the attack will go ahead.
The Doctor and Jo arrive on the planet Far. The Doctor wants to attend the grand opening of one of the human race’s greatest achievements. A huge Hyper Gateway built to make travel around Earth’s great empire more convenient, bringing relief to many starving outer colonies.
But they land in the wrong time period, long after the Gateway has been in service, and the Daleks have conquered Far! It’s the middle of a war and a deadly game is underway. When everyone has an agenda, betrayal can happen at any time, from any side. The endgame is approaching and maybe this time no one will survive.
Storm of the Horofax by Andrew Smith
During a North Sea military exercise, the crew of the destroyer HMS Nemesis detect what they suspect is a submarine following them. But it’s actually a futuristic ship with an alien occupant, Arianda.
The Doctor and UNIT are called in, but things are already running out of control. The damaged craft is leaking particles and contaminating the Nemesis with time disruption.
But that’s not the biggest problem. For Arianda is being followed by the warships of the Horofax, who have picked precisely this moment to invade. Soon the destruction of humanity’s future will begin.
THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE CONQUEST OF FAR
I’m fairly sure that Big Finish is just mocking us at this point. We’re into the third set of Third Doctor Adventures, which means it’s time for a Nick Briggs Dalek story! This time around it’s called “The Conquest of Far,” and it’s expectedly mediocre. At this point, Briggs basically writes one of two stories: a gritty Dalek story based on an old war movie or a massive explosion of continuity porn. “Far” is the former, which is good, because at least Briggs makes Dalek war stories entertaining – but it should go without saying that there isn’t anything even remotely interesting about the story.
For some reason, we pick up immediately after “Planet of the Daleks,” with Jo asking to return to Earth. But the TARDIS is drawn off course, onto a planet (Far) that has been conquered by the Daleks! What follows shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Doctor ends up with the military planning to retake the planet while Jo cycles between a Dalek prisoner and a prisoner of the resistance. We have betrayals and double-crosses. We have military pig-headedness pitted against Dalek extremism. We have the possibility of Robomen working as spies. We have two rebels in love, torn apart by circumstance and their different moral compasses. We have a patently ludicrous Dalek scheme that nonetheless almost works until the Doctor foils it at the last moment. In short, we have yet another generic Dalek war story told by the man who’s been repeating the same ideas over and over since Dalek Empire. I don’t understand why there’s a market for this – even if you like traditional Doctor Who, there are already a bunch of other Big Finish stories just like this one.
The production is solid. Briggs directs his own script and could work with this kind of material in his sleep by now. Tim Treloar turns in his best performance yet as the third Doctor – while it’s not note-perfect, he’s finally capturing some of Pertwee’s emotion instead of just aping his voice. I found myself forgetting I was listening to an impression on multiple occasions, which I suppose is a big compliment. Katy Manning is great as well, easily recapturing Jo’s demonstrative idealism. Beyond that, though, I have very little to say about “The Conquest of Far.” You know what this is and you know if you’ll like it. Hopefully the second story will make this set more worthwhile.
5/10
THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES: STORM OF THE HOROFAX
I’ve noticed a trend in Andrew Smith scripts – “Full Circle” notwithstanding – to introduce fascinating concepts and then disregard them in favor of standard Doctor Who plotting. That’s definitely the case in “Storm of the Horofax,” which spends its first two episodes setting up a thought-provoking conflict and then abandoning it almost entirely.
I was genuinely interested to find out what would happen next. During a naval exercise, an alien ship lurking underwater is accidentally damaged. The alien vessel is brought aboard the Navy ship, and the Doctor, Jo, and a UNIT operative, Major Paul Hardy (Robert Hands) arrive via helicopter to investigate. The sole occupant of the alien vessel is a time-traveling historian named Arianda (Robin Weaver), a woman who has the ability to perceive the future and even manipulate time itself with her mind. The script sets up a mystery: what is the extent of her powers? What is her true intent? Is she really a historian? What was the relationship between her people and the Time Lords? Will the Doctor be forced to intervene against a person with no ill intent? For two episodes, we ask these questions and set up what should be a thought-provoking conclusion.
Guess what happens next? Yep – turns out she’s been lying the whole time and she’s actually a deranged megalomaniac in charge of a band of fanatical mercenaries who aims to destroy the Earth and kill every living human being. Why does she want to do this? Because her people lose a war with humanity in the future, which breaks apart their empire. Instantly, all ambiguity and intelligence is stripped from the script. We’re back in a world of absolute good and absolute evil with nothing even remotely resembling a moral dilemma, and at this point it’s just a question of how many times the Doctor and Jo will be captured and escape before they finally save the day. Sure, a few other things happen. Hardy vanishes from history, then reappears, then dies, and then Jo cries over him even though we never got to know him and therefore have no sympathy for his loss. The Doctor isn’t affected by the time weapons of the Horofax because he’s a Time Lord. He even identifies Gallifrey by name, which seems to contravene Big Finish’s continuity rules – he’s not supposed to do that until “The Time Warrior,” right? Oh, who cares.
The production is fine. Nick Briggs directs, the sound design comes from Joe Meiners, and Jamie Robertson contributes the music. The performances are solid across the board, though Jo has a cold for some inexplicable reason but Katy Manning only remembers her stuffy nose acting about half the time. Ultimately, it seems as though the Third Doctor Adventures are going to head down the same road as every other range. Don’t try anything new, don’t try anything different, don’t take advantage of having a genuinely convincing actor to play the third Doctor – just write generic Doctor Who and sell it based entirely on nostalgia. I’m sure lots of people like this, because they simply won’t stop making it, but I’m so, so bored.
5/10