The universe stands on the brink of a dimensional crisis – and the Doctor and Raine are pulled into the very epicentre of it. Meanwhile, on Earth, UNIT scientific advisor Dr Elizabeth Klein and an incarnation of the Doctor she’s never encountered before are tested to the limit by a series of bizarre, alien invasions. At the heart of it all is a terrible secret, almost as old as the Time Lords themselves. Reality is beginning to unravel and two Doctors, Klein, Raine and all of UNIT must use all their strength and guile to prevent the whole of creation being torn apart.
A 4 CD Box Set.
Note that this review in particular contains MASSIVE, RUINOUS SPOILERS.
UNIT: DOMINION
Late 2012, and the Big Finish foray into long-form storytelling begins with “UNIT: Dominion,” a four-hour epic story by Jason Arnopp and Nicholas Briggs that peculiarly labels itself as the second series of UNIT audios. The result is a production with a truly big-budget feeling but an almost total lack of depth that ultimately keeps the story from reaching anything more than average heights.
To begin with, “UNIT: Dominion’s” four-hour running time makes it longer than all but three Doctor Who episodes in over thirty seasons of television: “The War Games,” “The Daleks’ Master Plan,” and “The Trial of a Time Lord.” All three of those, for various reasons, are considered landmark serials in the history of Doctor Who, and while it would be churlish to expect that level of achievement from “UNIT: Dominion,” it’s not unreasonable to ask it to surpass the level of a basic runaround. But when you look at the script, that’s exactly what you get with this story: a 1990s-style update of the Pertwee era, complete with generous padding, one-note characterization, and empty storytelling. The idea of the walls between dimensions breaking down is an interesting one, but Briggs and Arnopp do precisely nothing interesting with it; all we see as a result is a series of increasingly bizarre alien invasions. Yes, giant floating baby-heads is a cool image, as is a hydra-like creature wrapping itself around Tokyo skyscrapers, but what do “dimensions” have to do with this, apart from providing a convenient excuse to bring them all to Earth at the same time? There’s nothing significant going on here: whether it’s the baby heads or the lava-spewing spiders or the deadly cubes, the characters just rush from place to place and engage in technobabble until the threats are defeated. One illustrative invasion would have been enough, but then the story wouldn’t have been four hours long.
Of course, the main attraction of “UNIT: Dominion” is Alex Macqueen, billed as “The Other Doctor,” a supposed future incarnation of the Doctor. This led to a great deal of pre-release speculation, but within the story it’s painfully obvious who he is: he doesn’t have his memories; he has a ruthless, end-justifies-the-means mentality; he thinks nothing of killing; he’s recently been to the planet Terserus and hypnotizes people with a look. Of course it’s the Master, and while it’s fascinating to have a new actor playing the part, it’s not like Briggs and Arnopp do too much with the character. He’s at his best while impersonating the Doctor, and Macqueen’s performance is exceptional: he’s putting on a jovial front while secretly growing irritated with the humans surrounding him, letting his façade slip more and more as the story progresses. But once his identity is out in the open, what do we learn? He aims to rule all the dimensions, of course – and unlike the James Bond villainy of Roger Delgado’s Master in the UNIT era, this scheme is much more in line with the nonsensical lunacy of the Anthony Ainley incarnation. The character became a figure of mockery for a reason, and here the Doctor outsmarts him so quickly and so easily you wonder how he was even a threat in the first place. Why reinvent and recast the Master if you’re not going to do anything interesting with him? At the end of the story there are some ponderous lines about how the Doctor and the Master are two sides of the same coin, and how the Master almost seemed to be enjoying his role as protector – and that’s all great, if it had actually been in the preceding four hours!
“UNIT: Dominion” also reintroduces Elizabeth Klein, last seen in “The Architects of History” with her history altered and installed as UNIT’s new scientific advisor. This is by far the best character in the story: she’s got the same personality as before, but it clashes because she’s no longer a Nazi, and Tracey Childs brilliantly portrays this uneasiness. She doesn’t trust the Doctor, because she doesn’t know who he is but she’s seen him checking up on her from the shadows. The Doctor also speaks threateningly of the dangers of letting her rediscover her Nazi past, and even appears willing to work with the Master to prevent this from happening – so naturally, when the Master tells her anyway, absolutely nothing of note happens. Maybe this will be explored at a later date, but again, you’ve got four hours here to deal with some actual character fallout.
It’s a good thing that Klein is such an interesting character because the rest of UNIT is utterly uninspiring. Colonel Lafayette (Julian Dutton) is portrayed as a spotlight-seeking idiot, which is apparently intended to endear us to Klein and the Other Doctor at his expense but mostly just made me roll my eyes. That he’s killed off is no surprise – he’s the most paper-thin character in the story – but his replacement, Major Wyland-Jones (Sam Clemens) is equally uninspiring. He’s nothing more than a generic, gruff military leader concerned only for the mission. And then there’s Sergeant Wilson (Bradley Gardner), the clear audience identification character. How do I know? He’s a husband, a father, and a regional caricature, something he will remind you of at every conceivable opportunity. These are three significant characters in a four-hour production, and the most interesting of them is a complete idiot who gets murdered halfway through. This is not the sign of interesting drama. And don’t get me started on Sylvie (Miranda Keeling) literally birthing a child in front of a marauding alien invader.
After the Lost Stories released the “season 27” audios, this is the first story since then to feature companion Raine Creevy. One of my major complaints about that series was its failure to provide any significant depth or characterization to its new companion, and unfortunately “UNIT: Dominion” follows eagerly in the footsteps of its predecessors in this regard. This is not to take away from Beth Chalmers’ performance, which is energetic and very appealing, but after four hours we still don’t know much about Raine apart from that she’s posh and she’s a safe-cracker. She spends the first half of the story following the Doctor around and asking questions, so I was excited to hear her switch to the Other Doctor… and she promptly followed him around and asked questions, but slightly more suspiciously.
I’m running out of superlatives for Sylvester McCoy, who turns in another fantastic performance in this story. Of course, he’s sidelined for practically the entire second episode, while he and Raine wander around a dimensional corridor, and spends the third episode in the Other Doctor’s shadow. Those scenes are fun in how they approximate a multi-Doctor story. The fourth episode, though, is where McCoy shines: after learning the identity of his adversary, his tone darkens sharply and he delivers his lines in a threatening growl. While I appreciate the Doctor’s ability to defeat the Master even while totally unable to move, all he does is point out to Arunzell (Alex Mallinson) that the Master is a bit of a bastard and then watches the dominoes fall. It’s a strangely damp conclusion – but then, for all the noise and bombast of the story, it’s a remarkably thin script, so perhaps it fits.
I often speak highly of Big Finish productions, but it is not an exaggeration to say that the design work on “UNIT: Dominion” is arguably the best in the company’s history. Briggs also directs and embraces the epic scope of the script, and Martin Johnson’s sound design is an absolute treat. The “voices” of the giant baby heads are just one in a series of truly memorable effects, and that’s not even mentioning the brilliant score that hits all the right notes throughout. Overall, though, “UNIT: Dominion” is a bit of a mess. The amazing design masks what is basically a ton of empty spectacle and uncertain, shallow characterization. And while I keep belaboring this point, there’s absolutely no reason for this story to be spread across four discs. Four hours encompasses over nine episodes of the classic series and over five episodes of the new series, but here it’s put to the service of a shallow Pertwee-style runaround with a massive budget. I was most interested in learning the details of the Master’s plan and what would happen when Klein finally met the Doctor – and when the answers were “take over the universe, again” and “not much,” respectively, I didn’t feel like I’d invested my time productively. Still, if you’re interested in hearing Doctor Who on a big-budget, action-movie scale, “UNIT: Dominion” is worth your time – or if you’ve got a four-hour drive in your future and nothing else to listen to.
Not impressed.
5/10