‘He can’t be alive…’
After a last, futile fight-back against the Daleks, Lucie, Susan and Alex are heading home to England in the desperate hope of saving the Doctor’s life. But the true, terrible nature of the Daleks’ plan is beginning to emerge and the Monk has blood on his hands.
To defeat the Daleks, it can only be a struggle… to the death.
TO THE DEATH
For all intents and purposes, this is a series finale. Yes, the eighth Doctor will continue his adventures with Big Finish, but Nicholas Briggs’ “To the Death” brings to a close the new series-inspired Eighth Doctor Adventures, a series that began and now ends with the Daleks. In many ways, it excels; in others, it does not, and perhaps serves as a demonstration to some fans to be careful what you wish for.
To begin with: “To the Death” is exceptionally bleak, almost inarguably the most downbeat Doctor Who release in Big Finish history. Many characters die, others lose friends and family, still others have their faith shattered, and the Daleks are in the middle of it all behaving at their most ruthless. Some fans love to complain that cowards run the television series, that Russell T. Davies was chickening out by hinting at upcoming deaths but revealing those deaths as metaphorical rather than literal. Apparently, for these individuals, Doctor Who is about gruesome violence and hopelessness – and while I agree that Doctor Who can be about whatever it wants, “To the Death” demonstrates exactly what the series is like when that opinion is allowed to dominate.
Tamsin is a perfect example. Over the course of both “Lucie Miller” and this play, she comes to realize exactly how twisted and desperate the Monk is. She sees his true identity: a coward who exploits the suffering of others for his own personal gain. And she confronts him on this point, finally switching her loyalty back to the Doctor in the end. (Brief aside: this substantially undercuts “The Resurrection of Mars” by eliminating the moral dilemma that led Tamsin to abandon the Doctor in the first place.) But after Tamsin comes full circle, she is abruptly executed by the Daleks, who declare her “surplus to requirements.” If that’s not authorial voice coming through, I don’t know what is: she’s finished her arc, so now she has to die. This moment adds nothing to the drama: yes, it provides the impetus for the Monk to admit his wrongdoing and likely leads to the Monk rescuing the Doctor and Susan at the conclusion, but that perspective reduces Tamsin to a plot device. And despite the brilliance of Graeme Garden’s performance after Tamsin’s death, we’ve never actually seen this deep affection for her from the Monk, so it seems to come out of nowhere. Some have argued that this scene makes the Daleks truly threatening; I think it’s unjustified and somewhat immature.
Even worse, though, is the death of Alex. Here’s a character in only his third story, introduced as a rabble-rouser in “An Earthly Child” and presented as a maturing youth in “Relative Dimensions.” Over the brief narration of “Lucie Miller,” Alex matures into a responsible, heroic adult, eager to lead the human resistance against the Daleks and showing an aptitude for tactical thinking. Here, he sees an opportunity to destroy the Daleks, and sacrifices himself so it can be achieved. It’s a rather clumsy character arc: he was a bit misguided in his first appearance, but he requires no metaphorical atonement through self-sacrifice, nor was he ever represented as a cowardly character. Much like Tamsin, killing Alex off adds nothing to our understanding of his character or to the themes of the script. But at least Tamsin’s death prompted the Monk to change his ways. When Alex dies, on the other hand, Susan lets out a tortured, heartbreaking wail – and then nobody mentions him again! By the next scene, Susan and the Doctor are carrying on as though they didn’t just watch her son’s brutal murder happen right in front of them. I’m honestly not sure what Briggs was thinking, or even if he was thinking in the first place; just because you write a bleak script doesn’t mean you have to write something this unfulfilling.
Fortunately, Lucie’s eventual demise is much more meaningful and the writing is noticeably better. While Briggs seems determined to write her as some sort of bizarre regional caricature – actually saying “Adam and Eve it” at one point, going to her death bellowing “LUCIE BLEEDIN’ MILLER” – he also writes it in a deeply poignant way. Lucie essentially asks the Doctor’s permission to sacrifice her own life, and he approves of her decision, something which quite clearly shakes him to the core. It’s a brave, heroic decision, perfectly in keeping with her character and actually seeming as though it’s there for a reason other than shock value. Paul McGann gives one of his greatest performances in the aftermath – his rage at the Monk is shocking – and the final scene in the TARDIS is both shattering and foreboding. I’m not sure if this is supposed to hint at the upcoming Time War – it’s an awfully strange way to end a series, with the main character irreparably changed – but it’s not something I’ll soon forget.
It’s also interesting that Briggs decides to tie this story so closely to “Patient Zero,” the sixth Doctor and Charley story from the monthly range. I don’t mind a little cross-series continuity, but this almost obligates the listener to have some familiarity with the virus storyline. I do enjoy the Dalek Time Controller – it’s one of Briggs’ best performances. But if we’re going to introduce continuity from the monthly range, then we have to ask why the Doctor is so easily considering interfering with the web of time, given that he almost destroyed the entire universe and ended up with the Divergents last time. Obviously, including that sort of discussion would ruin the script, so I’m not asking for it, but it does obligate us to consider character backgrounds and motivations.
Whatever my questions with the script, I cannot dispute the skill of Briggs’ direction. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith, and Graeme Garden at their absolute best. The downbeat, doom-laden atmosphere is relentless – Niky Wardley and Jake McGann acquit themselves well, especially in their death scenes, and Carole Ann Ford’s reaction to Alex’s death is possibly the rawest performance she’s ever given in the role. Andy Hardwick’s sound design is masterful and the music skillfully supports the tone of the play. Big Finish has outdone itself with the production values in this season, and the trend reaches its pinnacle here.
Overall, it’s difficult to evaluate “To the Death.” On the one hand, the performances are excellent, the production is magnificent, and it’s full of scenes and set pieces that will stay with me for a long time. On the other, there are serious writing flaws that seem to exist only to make the script that much more miserable. This just isn’t one of Briggs’ better offerings, sad to say, but fortunately there’s enough good in here to save it.
Recommended, but it could have been so much more.
7/10