Responding to multiple maydays, the TARDIS lands on the planet of Death’s Deal, but the distress calls are old, the final echoes of terrified lost souls. This is an exotic world of lethal creatures, nicknamed ‘The Deadliest Planet in the Galaxy’, and only the brave, foolhardy or greedy would ever dare to visit.
Finding themselves stranded among a motley bunch of space-tourists, the Doctor and Donna must lead a struggle for survival against the frenzied wildlife, as they slowly realise that other members of the group have very different agendas.
And soon the Doctor learns of an even bigger threat hiding on Death’s Deal. Somewhere deep below the surface, is something that must never be unearthed.
Time is running out, and only an impossible survivor holds the key…
DEATH’S DEAL
The penultimate release in the cooperative “Destiny of the Doctor” series from Big Finish and AudioGO, Darren Jones’ “Death’s Deal” takes us back into the recent past and the David Tennant era. Much like the rest of the series, it’s a solid if shallow homage to the era – and also easily the most action-packed of the series thus far.
Darren Jones unites two genres in his script: the disaster movie, with a diverse crew of tourists thrown together by unpredictable events, and the sci-fi/horror of films like Pitch Black, with a deeply hostile planet mercilessly killing off the unready. It’s simplistic to call “Death’s Deal” a crueler “Planet of the Dead” but the format is basically the same, right down to a crashed transport, an encroaching alien threat, and characters hiding secret agendas. I use the word “crueler” for a reason, though: “Death’s Deal” is a brutal story, throwing out scene after scene of horrible alien monsters devouring people in violent, disgusting ways. It’d pass the “no blood” rule of the current TV series, but this story is as callous as the Hinchcliffe or Saward eras about its supporting cast. The number of characters that don’t get eaten is low, even though the ones that are intended to be surprising really aren’t.
Entertaining as the story may be, there’s unfortunately not a great deal going on below the surface. The tenth Doctor switches back and forth in his usual pattern of flippancy and seriousness, but there’s no sign of the dangerous instability that marked the character at his best. Donna is brash and demanding, but you’d never know about her vulnerability if this was your only experience with this companion. It’s very much a “greatest hits” package – here’s the Doctor getting angry, here’s Donna thinking she’s been propositioned, and so forth. Of course, the entire “Destiny of the Doctor” series has played at this level, so it’s unfair to be overly critical of “Death’s Deal” for following the format, but the disposable nature of almost all new series spinoff media causes me to shake my head at yet another missed opportunity.
Catherine Tate handles the narrative duties for this release, and generally she turns in a strong performance. She’s emotional in all the right places without going over the top and never loses the plot in the more complicated moments of the script. It’s interesting to hear how much of Donna is an act when her lines are right up against Tate’s narration. Her impression of David Tennant is solid – she really nails his mannerisms, but the voice is questionable. The biggest problem Tate has is with the number of characters in the script and the fact that they’re all together in virtually every scene: there are so many funny voices any actor can put on, and it’s obvious in places that she’s running out. At least Duncan Wisbey gets to play two parts instead of the usual one – making Tate read Krux or Erskine would have been a step too far.
The production is to the usual strong standard that has defined this range. John Ainsworth once again directs well, doing everything he can to keep the action scenes as understandable as possible. The sound design from Jamie Robertson is immersive as usual, supplementing the narration without overpowering it, though there’s nothing particularly memorable about it. But then that’s what you can say about “Death’s Deal” on the whole: it’s a solid entry into the tenth Doctor’s continuity that doesn’t linger in the memory. Come for Catherine Tate, stay for the gruesomeness, but don’t expect to be blown away. For better or worse, that’s what this series is.
Recommended.
7/10