You are cordially invited to Argentia, the galaxy’s most exclusive tax haven, to attend the funeral of mining magnate Carlo Mazzini. The memorial service will be followed by music, light refreshments, and murder!
Carlo’s heirs have come to say their final goodbyes (and find out how much they’ve inherited) but when a masked killer begins picking them off one by one, Argentia goes into lock-down, closed off behind its own temporal displacement field.
Can the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric apprehend the murderer before Argentia – and everyone on board – is forever cut off from the rest of the Universe?
SERPENT IN THE SILVER MASK
The monthly Doctor Who range rolls on with “Serpent in the Silver Mask” by David Llewellyn, a future-set murder mystery that isn’t particularly surprising but is constructed well enough to remain entertaining. It’s a fun, lighthearted tale that doesn’t take itself too seriously, resulting in a breezy, pleasant listen that doesn’t stick around in the memory.
The Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric land on the tax haven Argentia just in time for the funeral of billionaire mining magnate Carlo Mazzini. Present at the funeral are all of Carlo’s various heirs, and each of them has a marked interest in retaining Carlo’s fortune – and so it is that they start turning up dead under increasingly mysterious circumstances. This scenario is like catnip to the Doctor, of course, so he jumps in with both feet, and soon the entire TARDIS crew is living out what could be a bizarre Agatha Christie story. It’s important to remember that the tone is supposed to be lighthearted: there are moments where the Doctor’s companions remind him that someone has been murdered and perhaps he should be more serious, but these moments don’t lead to anything in particular. If you’re not expecting them to, you’ll be better off. That said, Peter Davison is audibly having a ball playing the Time Lord detective, and it’s nice to hear some of that “youthful enthusiasm” out of the fifth Doctor that we don’t hear very often anymore.
The mystery is eventually solved, and while the killer’s identity comes as a surprise, it’s drawn from a reasonable list of suspects: we don’t shockingly discover that the third extra from the left is the killer. It’s difficult to sympathize with the killer’s motives because the Mazzinis are largely drawn as Scooby-Doo caricatures, but everything lines up and largely makes sense. Samuel West plays the entire Mazzini family in a succession of silly voices that had me grinning throughout – this is a fantastic way to save money on casting! It sounds cynical, but when the result is this good, I’m not going to criticize. We also get a nice little romantic subplot for Tegan, which is probably the most believable part of the script: it’s not maudlin or overblown, just two people meeting under unusual circumstances and forming a connection. We know, of course, that Tegan isn’t going to stay behind, but Llewellyn gives her a plausible reason to do so such that her choice feels consequential.
Credit should also go to Phil Cornwell – his turn as the gruff, by-the-book Superintendent Galgo is good, but he’s absolutely hilarious as robot steward Zaleb 5, whose mix of information and advertising never gets old. Nyssa and Adric are also in this, and neither gets much to do, though it’s fun to see Nyssa’s background in polite society actually put to good use. The play is also delivered with an energy that never gets boring, which should tell you that the director is the talented Barnaby Edwards. Overall, if you want a lighthearted, entertaining Doctor Who murder mystery, “Serpent in the Silver Mask” is your jam. If you’re looking for something any more substantial, it won’t be – but this sort of thing is enjoyable every once in a while.
Recommended.
7/10