When the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Lucie to the Haven, it seems like the Assemblers’ long wait might be over. Living beings! Except – they’re headed for the lower levels and that is where the Cannibalists live.
When the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Lucie to the Haven, it seems like the Assemblers’ long wait might be over. Living beings! Except – they’re headed for the lower levels and that is where the Cannibalists live.
THE CANNIBALISTS
I’ve seen a number of reviews of Jonathan Morris’s “The Cannibalists,” the sixth story in the third season of Paul McGann/Sheridan Smith stories from Big Finish, praising it for originality and enjoyability. So it was that I went into the story expecting great things, but instead found myself so disinterested that I struggled to pay attention. A second listen proved somewhat more rewarding, but ultimately I don’t see the big deal: yes, it’s a story populated entirely by robots, but does that excuse an utterly formulaic plot and unimaginative characterization? I think not.
I like the concepts on display. There’s a grand city in space, populated entirely by robots, many of whom worship the gods of Protocol as they wait for the arrival of the legendary human race. As a statement on religion, it’s a bit muddled, but effective nonetheless — and has the knock-on effect of casting Lucie as a de facto Christ figure in a robot religion, hilariously undercut by the robots’ confusion over her “unorthodox protrusions.” There’s a great line by McGann near the conclusion of the play, too, in which he reprimands Lucie for calling something that gives people hope “stupid” — while the Doctor has always been a champion of rationality, I’ve never pictured him in the aggressive Richard Dawkins vein. The explanation for the presence of the robots is painfully obvious, but it works in context, fitting thematically with the rest of the script.
Unfortunately, there is very little else to distinguish “The Cannibalists” in my mind. To call the plot predictable would be an understatement: while there’s some amount of depth present, anyone with any experience in science fiction is going to know what to expect right from the start. There’s an awful lot of running up and down corridors for a story checking in under 60 minutes. The Doctor and Lucie are also fairly passive, swept along by events and simply allowed to discover explanations at the conclusion. Morris’s “Hothouse” from earlier in the season struggled to inspire in similar ways, something which bothers me as I consider Morris one of my favorite authors of Doctor Who audio.
Paul McGann doesn’t have too much to do in this story, though he does get a couple of fantastic confrontation scenes which allow him to portray his most intimidating Doctor. Sheridan Smith, meanwhile, puts on another tour de force performance — Lucie has been put through a ridiculous amount of stress in this season, and Smith’s performance is always up to the challenge. As for the supporting cast, both Phil Davies and Phill Jupitus give excellent performances: Davies imbues Cannibalist leader Titus with a true sense of deranged menace, while Jupitus gives the poet robot Servo a bizarre sense of dignity, creating one of the more memorable guest characters of the season in the process. The problem is with the rest of the supporting cast: the roles on both sides played by Nigel Lambert, Teddy Kempner, and Oliver Senton are utterly indistinct and unmemorable to the point that I can’t remember which character was which, and I listened to the play no longer than ten minutes before I started this review. Perhaps their dual roles demonstrate that this was the idea, but I don’t like dramatic decisions along those lines.
Special mention to Andy Hardwick’s sound design: the Doctor and Lucie are the only organic characters in the story, and the mechanical sound effects on display are incredibly effective. I’ve read criticism that the effects are overwhelming — I agree, but this isn’t a bad thing. Lucie feels out of place and overwhelmed throughout the story, so it’s only natural to try to recreate this feeling in the listener. Credit to Jason Haigh-Ellery’s direction as well for capturing this atmosphere.
Overall, “The Cannibalists” is a predictable, uninspired story that is elevated above mediocrity by an excellent soundscape, a good sense of humor, and just enough depth to make it palatable. Much like “Hothouse” before it, it’s a decent enough piece of drama, but I’ve come to expect more from the author.
Recommended nonetheless.
6/10