The Doctor and his companion Greg arrive in a deserted subway – but this isn’t Earth. The trains are without crew or passengers. A shapeless horror is waiting to induce a ghastly compulsion.
The Doctor and his companion Greg arrive in a deserted subway – but this isn’t Earth. The trains are without crew or passengers. A shapeless horror is waiting to induce a ghastly compulsion.
My brain was in meltdown for the last few days. The only things I can remember are the words Connection Thirteen. It was all blackness after that. But my pediatrician says I’m fine now, so the cavalcade (what is a cavalcade anyway) rolls on with a major improvement, CONGLOMERATE!
Blurb The Doctor and his companion Greg arrive in a deserted subway – but this isn’t Earth. The trains are without crew or passengers. A shapeless horror is waiting to induce a ghastly compulsion.
The story begins with the Tardis landing in a Subway (or Underground) tunnel. The Doctor and Greg explore, and find that there are no people around. While trying to bypass the toll gate, the Doctor gets zapped with a “molecular agitator” which momentarily knocks him off his feet. After composing himself, the Doctor continues on with Greg. All the while, they are pursued by a gooey massive blob of globby blobby goo (5 times fast, I dare you). Greg falls through the “agitating beam” that the Doctor was agitated by, finding himself temporarily legless. Meanwhile, the large gooey blob (lets call it Orson) advances on the pair, trying to absorb them. Suddenly it disappears, but the Doctor can still sense it. Greg finds himself able to walk, but still trapped behind the barrier, but the Doctor begins acting strangely after meeting with Orson. The Doctor walks through the barrier, again paralyzing himself. He demands that Greg help him into the oncoming train, talking about having to meet his responsibilities. Yep, he was zapped with a capitalism beam! Once on the train, the Doctor starts talking to imaginary commuters. Greg wants to get off where the Tardis is, but the train won’t stop. The Doctor is pleased, as he wants to get to “The Center”, and starts talking about economic protocols. A robotic voice alerts the two passengers that arrival at The Center is imminent. ~Cue Music~
Greg tries to shake sense back into the Doctor, but he is resolute that Conglomerate has selected him and that he must get to The Center to see the Chairman of the Board. When they reach The Center, drudger robots restrain Greg. The Doctor is given a test by another robotic voice (it may have been another drudger) to judge his administrative abilities, which he does very well on. The Doctor believes that Greg is a spy and initially orders the drudgers to destroy him, but hesitates and tells Greg to run back to the Tardis. The Doctor vasalates between crazy man and himself. Greg reminds The Doctor of Nadia’s death, and he snaps out of it for good. He tells the Drudgers to return to their stations. A voice tells him that he has failed his evaluation. The Doctor and Greg escape into the Tardis. The Doctor tells Greg that it was The Multi-Galactic Conglomerate Empire. The Doctor had been offered a cozy middle management position by Orson if he would eliminate Greg and give up his past life.
Evaluation
A lot of fun! Two-handers can be so good sometimes. There is a constant eery claustrophobia. The entire first part, culminating with the train arriving at The Center, is excellent. Lots of questions and not a lot of answers. Perhaps let down a bit by a comparatively short part 2. The story was still good, but the pacing of the second part felt rushed. It’s slightly more annoying when the remainder of the tape is the AV people interviewing themselves. Nothing against interviews, but I hate interviews. Chris want story! But more on that later. I thought it was funny that Greg brought the Doctor back to normal by getting him to remember Nadia’s death in the most convoluted story so far, Connection 13. If I were mentally unbalanced (…) the last thing I’d need is to be reminded of the most confusing thing imaginable. In other words, if I were about to jump off a bridge, the last thing I’d want to hear is someone trying to explain Twin Peaks to me. But that’s faint criticism of Conglomerate. Actually, it’s just further criticism of Connection 13. I tend to hold grudges. This was a great story, but god I wish there were another 10 or 12 minutes to part 2. It’s also less shooty and more talky. You can follow it because you can get into The Doctor and Greg’s heads.
Overall 9 out of 10
Despite being underlong (Some people say ’short’) it’s a lot of fun. This is the first of several stories for Conglomerate in the AV run. I’d love for Big Finish to resurrect this as a proper length 2 parter with 5 and Turlough.
Continuity: Drudgers. I know they’re in The Sirens of Time, but not sure if they are in any other BFs. (Addition by Phill – Yes, they are also in Dalek Empire).
The ON TAPE section
After the story ends, there is a 14 minute special where the AV people interview each other. Gary Russell talks to Bill Baggs (I think he was a hobbit) and Nicholas Briggs about their involvement, etc. It’s the same thing they have on a lot of the Big Finish releases. I suppose it’s interesting, but I really would have enjoyed 14 more minutes of Conglomerate! I admit that it is fun hearing these high faluttin’ folks back when they were still fans like you and me. It’s like Muppet Babies. They sound so young and precious 😀 (There officially goes any chance of anyone involved in the production piping in with their two cents)
NEXT TIME
The Doctor faces his own mortality when he sees his own tomb in CLOUD OF FEAR.