Twenty-five years ago, with Richter’s Syndrome running rampant throughout the galaxy, the brilliant biochemist Nyssa, formerly of Traken, bade a painful farewell to her young family… and set off into the space, in search of a cure for this deadly disease.
She never returned.
Now, her grown-up son continues her work on the penal colony of Valderon, still desperate to make the breakthrough that eluded his presumed-dead mother.
So when the TARDIS lands on Valderon, bringing the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa to its fortress prison, the scene is set for a painful reunion… but not only for Nyssa. The Doctor’s past is about to catch up with him too…
PRISONERS OF FATE
Despite outward appearances, there has been a plot thread running through the past few years’ Peter Davison main range stories: Nyssa’s eventual return to her own time to attempt to cure Richter’s Syndrome. Finally, with Jonathan Morris’s “Prisoners of Fate,” that story – and the 2013 fifth Doctor trilogy – is brought to a close. And while there’s a lot of effective material here, character flaws – specifically those surrounding the ending – keep the story from reaching what should have been dazzling heights.
For three episodes, this is one of Morris’s best scripts, and that’s definitely saying something. From the moment the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, and Turlough land on Valderon, they’re thrown into a series of events largely outside of their control. Nyssa is finally reunited with her family, including her son (Alistair Mackenzie), a medical researcher into Richter’s Syndrome who uses the assumed name Galen. But the TARDIS was pulled off course, and her arrival is twenty-five years too late. The implications here are obvious, and Morris dives right in: the emotional toll on Nyssa and Galen is not avoided, nor are the millions of Richter’s victims in the decades since Nyssa’s departure. The author also playfully skewers “Minority Report” in a brief courtroom scene where the Doctor embarrasses the entire concept of precognitive crime fighting – but a brilliantly subtle moment in episode 4 undercuts that by demonstrating the “chronoscope” was right all along!
Morris’s choice of villain is ludicrously unlikely to work – the Doctor’s first TARDIS from his youth on Gallifrey is the stuff of bad fan fiction. But somehow he pulls it off, making the old TARDIS’s jealousy-driven campaign of revenge oddly sympathetic, something that may not have been possible prior to “The Doctor’s Wife” hitting TV screens. The concept also dovetails with “The Name of the Doctor” by improbable coincidence. Really, after three episodes the story is well on its way to becoming the best monthly release since “A Death in the Family” – but then, unfortunately, we run headlong into the conclusion.
After spending so much time establishing the characters and their relationships, these same relationships should form the basis for the conclusion. But with his fascination with time paradoxes, and a brief instructing him to incorporate far too much Big Finish continuity, Morris charges off down a plot alley and leaves his characters behind. The entire play builds toward Galen’s telepathic conversation with Nyssa, but when it arrives it ends shockingly quickly. Still, things could have been salvaged if, as the thematic structure demands, that was the last we saw of Nyssa – but instead, she suddenly lands in a spaceship, having waited 25 years to rejoin her friends! It’s a cute idea, and the plot hangs together, but that decision introduces complications into her character that would take hours to resolve. Instead, she declares that over the past 25 years she’s become a bitter, cynical, lonely person, but she does absolutely nothing to demonstrate this, nor does Sarah Sutton do anything at all to distinguish her performance in this state.
I’ve had this sort of complaint about Steven Moffat’s era of Doctor Who – the tendency to focus on snappy plot contrivances over characterization, and that’s exactly the problem with the ending here. And the very end is even worse – yes, it bookends Galen’s life, but it also ignores the preceding four episodes which basically demanded Nyssa’s departure. Is this it for “old” Nyssa? The ending is entirely unclear, but it would be very much like Big Finish to create a new version of Nyssa and then conspicuously fail to satisfactorily resolve her plot. Yes, there’s a nice reference to “Circular Time,” but good lord – who thought it was a good idea to have a major plot twist require familiarity with one part of a story from 2007? And then resolve the paradox by having the Doctor declare that it isn’t one? Between this and “Gods and Monsters,” Big Finish isn’t shy about retconning their own material, that’s for sure.
I’ve spent a great deal of time criticizing a story that I generally enjoyed, so for some balance, this is a showcase performance for Sarah Sutton. Apart from the one questionable decision, she’s on top form here, showing an emotional, sympathetic side to her character that has so rarely been on display in the past. Peter Davison plays brilliantly off her, giving his Doctor a sadness and humility that’s both rare and enjoyable. Neither Tegan nor Turlough have anything to do in this story, but I’m used to that after so many releases featuring this group. Credit, too, to Alistair Mackenzie, whose performance as Galen is strong without becoming obvious or overwrought. The production is excellent: Ken Bentley’s direction drums up the atmosphere, and the sound design – especially the score – from Fool Circle Productions wonderfully evokes the scores of the mid-‘80s. Overall, “Prisoners of Fate” has a lot going for it: three excellent episodes to start, great performances throughout, and fantastic production design. But the ending is a serious misstep that detracts from the experience.
Highly recommended, with reservations.
8/10