The TARDIS has landed in a futuristic space casino, where the Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie find fun, games… and monsters everywhere. There are vicious robot dogs, snake-headed gangsters from the Sidewinder Syndicate and a mysterious masked woman called Hope.
In this place, time travellers are to be tracked down and arrested. Yet, as events spiral out of control, time may be Polly’s only ally…
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: HOUSE OF CARDS
After bingeing another season of House of Cards, the Netflix adaptation of the original Andrew Davies series, I popped in “House of Cards,” the Companion Chronicle from Steve Lyons. And while I knew I wasn’t going to get a story of political intrigue, I was hoping to get the kind of intricate storytelling that marks the best stories in the range. Instead, I got a standard runaround in a casino. Can’t win ‘em all, I suppose.
“House of Cards,” get it? Like playing cards? Yes, it’s a space casino, and the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie get to explore this temple dedicated to gambling. And that’s basically all that happens in the entire first episode: the characters wander around the casino and try their luck at different wagers. Yes, we meet some of the important supporting characters, and naturally there’s a run-in with security that leads up to the cliffhanger ending, but this is exactly the story you would expect from that concept – nothing more, nothing less. Fortunately, the second episode introduces some much-needed complexity by giving Polly a time travel device and allowing her to move back in the story and give events a nudge in the proper direction. And Lyons handles this with notable skill: Polly doesn’t actually change history but works herself into it in a way that doesn’t appear to have any flaws. It’s structured quite well, but it feels quite empty.
And that’s why I don’t have much to say about “House of Cards,” because there’s really nothing to talk about. This is another Companion Chronicle starring two companion actors, but despite matching narratives, it doesn’t even begin to try to get into Jamie’s or Polly’s heads. We don’t learn anything about Ben – apart from apparently being stupid enough to take out a line of credit from a casino – and the Doctor just flits around in his usual display of chaotic influence. There’s a race of snakelike alien gangsters, there’s an attack by some robot dogs, and there’s an American cowboy stereotype who’s convinced he’s just one game away from his lucky break. I suppose there’s some interest in hearing these disparate elements tied together, but ultimately there’s nothing here you haven’t heard before.
If not for the time-travel plotting, “House of Cards” would feel like it was thrown together at the last minute. The Doctor saves the day by winning a random game of what sounds similar to Go Fish? Why not? I do like the sound design from Matthew Cochrane and the score by Daniel Brett, which actually capture the feeling of being in a casino, but apart from that, I really don’t have much to say. It’s very rare for the Companion Chronicles, but I was bored throughout.
At least it ended.
4/10