Two thousand years ago, all civilisation on the planet Teymah was wiped out in an AELE – an Anomalous Extinction Level Event. Now, the galactic entrepreneur Lyam Yce hopes, at last, to learn the reason why the ancient Teymahrians went extinct – by funding a huge archaeological dig.
While the Doctor probes a strange sphere found by Yce’s diggers, his companion, former Bletchley Park cryptographer Constance Clarke, agrees to help translate symbols written in the lost ancient language of the Teymahrians. And soon, they’ll learn that ancient Teymah’s secrets were best left buried deep beneath its shifting sands…
ABSOLUTE POWER
I haven’t made a secret of my opinion of the “main” Doctor Who audio range – it’s quite low – but as I’m a die-hard fan, and I know Big Finish is capable of greatness, I continue to press on. Unfortunately, my patience has not been rewarded with Jamie Anderson’s “Absolute Power,” which is yet another example of a pointless retread of Doctor Who clichés that offers absolutely no entertainment or, indeed, any reason to listen.
A greedy businessman (because they are all greedy) named Lyam Yce (Paul Reynolds… or is it Payl Reynylds?) (and that’s pronounced Liam Ice, if you’re wondering about the terrible sci-fi naming) is funding an archaeological dig on the planet Teymah to determine what wiped out its ancient civilization. He is working with Professor Aryan Wyke (Neil Edmond) and his assistant Ammar (Arian Nik) to this end, but of course there’s an unseen motive here that’s actually driving the dig, as Yce is working with an alien to help them and, in return, receive more money and power. The Doctor and Constance must step in before unexpected consequences threaten everything, et cetera.
Look, I don’t have anything to say about the plot. You can predict exactly what’s going to happen as the story goes along while at no point does it have anything interesting to say. You mean the American businessman is actually a bad guy! However could I have guessed? (As an aside, are there actors in the UK whose American accents aren’t straight out of Newsies or Foghorn Leghorn? I’m sick to my back teeth of American characters that sound like they grew up in 1930s New York.) There’s only one sympathetic guest character in this story and he’s an uninspiring wet blanket who longs pathetically after Constance. A recent thread on Gallifrey Base encouraged users to post common Big Finish writing clichés, and the Doctor exclaiming “That was unnecessary!” after a supporting character is murdered was the most popular submission. In “Absolute Power,” Anderson gives us not one but two bites at the apple – we get both “There was no need for that” AND “You didn’t have to do that!”
The last episode is particularly irritating. The Doctor and Constance save the day about ten minutes in – so Anderson whips up some utter nonsense that extends the story for another “exciting” fifteen minutes in which the characters run around the TARDIS interior flicking switches. Then, when it’s finally over, Constance suddenly remembers that her husband went missing and demands the Doctor return her home immediately. Evidently we’re supposed to understand that her travels have been a means of avoidance, and that her time with Ammar has reminded her of what’s really important. This would have been easier to understand had this been seeded in any way in the previous stories featuring the character, or indeed if this story involved any foreshadowing prior to the revelation at the end, but of course none of that happened. I’ve advocated time and again for more complex plotting and character development in this range, but perhaps I should give it up – every attempt they make nowadays seems to fail miserably.
What am I supposed to say at this point? This is yet another awful monthly release. Even the production isn’t good – Anderson directs his own script well enough, but Joe Kraemer’s sound design is lacking and his score is deeply irritating. I used to look forward to the Colin Baker stories; now they’re excruciating just like everything else. But you know what? I’m just screaming into the void. Go check out the professional reviews, where every monthly release is a new masterpiece, each story a powerful and challenging piece of drama on par with the finest Doctor Who adventures. I’ll be here, trudging ever on, until entropy takes and subsumes me into the endless gray abyss.
Atrocious.
2/10