Planet E9874 supports a developing civilisation known as the Tarl. The peaceful, technologically advanced Locoyuns are helping the Tarl develop rudimentary technology. What could be more innocent than that?
When the Doctor, Leela and K9 arrive, they find the delicate balance in the relationship between the two cultures reaching an unexpected crisis point. The spears are flying and the threat of all-out war is in the air.
The Doctor must use all his guile to tread a careful path with Tarl leader Ergu, while Leela and K9 discover an ancient power of unimaginable strength which threatens to tear the minds out of its victims.
THE EXXILONS
For many years, Big Finish produced Doctor Who audio stories without the services of Tom Baker, and his absence was, for many people, a yawning black hole. So when Big Finish finally signed him, I was ecstatic: the most popular and arguably best Doctor in new stories? How could this be anything but perfect? It was therefore utterly shocking to listen to the Fourth Doctor Adventures and discover the worst range in the history of the company. And now, here we are, ready to grind our way through another endless series of nostalgia-driven, drama-free stories, and who’s written the first one? Why, it’s Nick Briggs!
You already know what I’m going to tell you about “The Exxilons.” It’s not awful, but you know that. It’s also not impressive in any way: the script is plodding and obvious, the dialogue lacks anything resembling sparkle, the characters are drawn from the most clichéd stock – but you know all of that too. There’s one surprise, in that the cliffhanger to the first episode of “The Exxilons” isn’t that the Exxilons are the bad guys. That’s good, right? Not when you realize Briggs waits until the *second* episode to drop that shocking revelation in our laps! But at least it’s a sequel to “Death to the Daleks,” so you’d expect an exploration of the alien culture from that episode to have some interesting elements, right? Of course you wouldn’t, because you’ve heard other Fourth Doctor Adventures – the mysterious Exxilons, in thrall to their sentient city and sent across the universe to build relay beacons, act exactly like a starship crew from any science fiction series you’d care to name. And there are native aliens, who are presented as backward, yet noble, savages with a poor grasp of grammar. Maybe you didn’t know that, but you should have guessed.
I still don’t have anything to say about these stories, which fits because they have nothing to say about anything. I’ve seen Tom Baker’s performance praised, but for nothing more than his ability to recapture his TV performance – are we seriously so bereft of things to praise in these Fourth Doctor Adventures that we praise an actor for convincingly playing his longest-lasting and most popular role? Briggs directs, which he does passably well. Alistair Lock attempts to recreate the score from “Death to the Daleks,” and it’s a good attempt – unfortunately that score was one of the strangest in the history of the series and it doesn’t really fit this material.
It’s a struggle to write these reviews at this point. You know what these stories are by now. If that’s what you like, more power to you. That is not, however, what I like.
Make it stop!
4/10
I love your reviews, and cite them often. I finally started listening to Big Finish last year…already bought about 70 of them! The best material of Colin, Sylvester, and Paul make Tom’s run unlistenable. Even the fanboy-friendly Doc Oho rated this story 5/10. Thanks for the great reviews!
David Marshall
TARDIS Regenerated