The TARDIS arrives on a sunken World War 2 submarine. But there is more to this crippled ship than meets the eye, and a mystery to solve before the outside pressures rip it apart…
The TARDIS arrives on a sunken World War 2 submarine. But there is more to this crippled ship than meets the eye, and a mystery to solve before the outside pressures rip it apart…
DETHRAS
The fourth release in the sixth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, “Dethras,” comes from range newcomer Adrian Poynton. While it’s not a particularly interesting story, it has the advantage of being quite well written, leading me to want to hear more stories from this author.
I really enjoyed the storytelling in “Dethras.” The characters speak with a more naturalistic tone than the mannered speech we often get in Big Finish Doctor Who, and the scenes aren’t presented in purely linear fashion. In other words, we get flashbacks and visions and all sorts of devices designed to get the listener paying active attention to the story. I’m less sure about any particular themes besides the obvious one of hubris leading to science run amok, but the structure and the bizarre plot held my interest throughout.
I mentioned in a recent review that I’m always leery of stories named after places or characters introduced in those stories, because that often implies that there’s not much worth remarking upon in the script. “Dethras” is a character in the story, and the cliffhanger is devoted to him revealing his identity: “I am Dethras!” That’s great, but we don’t know who or what Dethras is. As it turns out, he’s a scientist who unlocked the secrets of evolution, designing beings that would evolve into forms perfectly adapted for their environments. This leads to humans transforming into creatures that can survive the vacuum of space; the story is less clear on how significant the environmental changes need to be. We also see characters evolving traits of people around them – the Doctor and Romana’s latent telepathic abilities manifest and intensify in Dethras’ creations. But that’s not really evolution – acquired characteristics are quite the opposite, in fact.
The characters tend to stay away from stereotype, which is nice – everything seems to be setting Dethras (Alistair Petrie) up as a deranged mad scientist, but his failure arises from his trusting, naïve nature, not from any malevolent intent. Less successful was Flague (Sheila Ruskin), the dictator who wants Dethras’ discoveries to form an army. Poynton tries valiantly to give her some shade: she’s not just insane, she actually has an understandable motive driving her actions. But her actions are still those of a megalomaniac, and it’s hard to give the character the benefit of the doubt in the moments when those traits come to the fore. She also experiences a complete personality reversal in the story’s final moments, and this coupled with the confusing resolution makes for a weak ending. There’s also an intelligent chimpanzee hanging around, played by John Banks – and unfortunately he sounds like a man trying to do chimp noises. Because he eventually starts talking, you can charitably argue that this may have been intentional, but I seriously doubt it.
There’s a lot to like about Dethras. The structure is interesting, the direction from Nicholas Briggs and sound design from Jamie Robertson are first-rate, and there are some good ideas at its core. But the overall execution is flawed, leading the story to sound more disjointed and less rewarding than it otherwise could. Not bad, then, but it could be better.
6/10