The place is Easterm Europe. The year is 2015.
The TARDIS lands in mid-air, and Captain Lysandra Aristedes is dropped into a daring mission in her own past. There are enemies and creatures out there in the night, and the Doctor is waiting at the rendezvous point.
Because this is all part of his bigger picture. And Aristedes is going to learn something about herself…
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: PROJECT: NIRVANA
On rare occasions, the Companion Chronicles serve as companion pieces to the monthly range. We saw that with “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” and “Night’s Black Agents,” and now we have the final story in that vein: “Project: Nirvana” from Forge creators Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. And though it’s set in the middle of one of Big Finish’s worst ongoing plots, this story is surprisingly excellent.
Set during the “Black and White” arc, “Project: Nirvana” follows a mission by the Black TARDIS crew as part of the Doctor’s attempt to defeat the Elder Gods. In this case, it’s Derleth, god of jealously, whose spirit is stored in an artifact being transported aboard a secure Forge train. And so it’s up to Lysandra Aristedes and Sally Morgan to infiltrate the train and carry out whatever secret, manipulative plan the Doctor has in mind. Fortunately, Scott and Wright make this into a character piece: they don’t focus unnecessarily on the Elder Gods arc and instead focus on how Lysandra has changed over the years. What the Doctor hasn’t told them is that Lysandra’s younger self is aboard the train – but she doesn’t remember because of some traumatic event, and the Doctor wants to find out what that was. So we end up with some fantastic scenes of a younger Lysandra interrogating Sally, with Sally seeing the humanity lurking beneath Lysandra’s impassive surface but unable to get through completely to her. This does more to flesh out Lysandra as a compelling, sympathetic character than all of the monthly releases in this arc put together – and that’s a credit to the authors and their understanding of their character.
Derleth himself is also a harrowing, threatening character. With almost unlimited power to control the emotions of those around him, he can create an army of devoted followers just by walking into a crowded room. Only Lysandra shows the ability, drawn from her Forge training, to resist him – even the Doctor’s resistance crumbles over time. He’s on the train in the first place because of some insane plan by Nimrod to clone the Elder God and deploy those clones into battlefields, leading the enemy to turn on itself in fits of rage and jealousy – the “nirvana” of the title. It’s scary to hear how easily people fall under Derleth’s thrall, especially someone like Sally that we’ve come to like. There is genuine tension in this story, something that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like in Big Finish – but then Scott and Wright have always proven themselves the best in Big Finish’s stable at writing action epics that are legitimately tense and thrilling.
This is the final Companion Chronicle set in the Sylvester McCoy era, and it features McCoy himself in a rather significant supporting role. Indeed, while most of the story is delivered through narration from Lysandra or Sally, the final confrontation between the Doctor, his companions, and Derleth is presented as a full-cast scene. It provides an interesting look into the dynamic of the Black TARDIS: the Doctor is the same manipulative bastard we know and love from his travels with Ace and Hex, but here he treats his companions like the soldiers they are. The seventh Doctor is often found playing the game from the sidelines, but to hear him giving out orders like a superior officer is still a bit disconcerting.
The production from Richard Fox and Lauren Yason is suitably epic, backed by Ken Bentley’s able direction. The performances are great across the board. Overall, “Project: Nirvana” is an unqualified success. It’s an atypical Doctor Who story featuring unusual characters taking place within a misguided story arc – and it works in spite of all those things. This is a further reminder that Scott and Wright are two of Big Finish’s best writers.
Highly recommended.
9/10