The Doctor needs a rest, and the tranquil beaches of Majus Seven would seem to be the ideal place. But paradise has its darker side.
The Doctor needs a rest, and the tranquil beaches of Majus Seven would seem to be the ideal place. But paradise has its darker side.
They’re back, and they’re about Briggs!
Previously in the AV reviews, I don’t remember because it’s been a long time. Next up is
MORE THAN A MESSIAH!
If you think this review is meandering and out of place, you’re wrong. All of my review are like this. Get a cold beverage, order something on Ebay, lie to your parents about where you were last night, and drink deep a strange review of a strange story. Drink the beverage too. Drink them together. And eat something, you’re looking thin.
Part 1
The story begins with a bunch of howling. But what kind of howling? Off Broadway Planet of the Apes howling. Forget the howling for now, because we join a couple who appear to be fishing. Ok, back to the howling. There’s more howling. I’m not sure if they’re howling at the dramatic music, or if there is dramatic music because they are howling. This audio chicken and egg problem leads us into the opening credits.
Truman is reading “utter twaddle” in the TARDIS. Ria is preening in her room. Truman finds her and rants about how the Doctor has wandered off to find stark simplicity. The Doctor turns up looking scruffy and acting irritably. We rejoin the couple. They aren’t fishing anymore. I think they were fishing before. The man is discussing his chances at being able to
design the entire planet. Meanwhile, more howling. Apparently they were apes, so it’s good that they were doing the 2001 Monolith howl.
Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS, the crew are in the secondary console room. The Doctor is being very fussy and decides to shut down the TARDIS altogether. He rants and complains about having a terrible headache, saying that he has three of the most annoying companions imaginable, even though he only has two of them. After the Doctor leaves, Truman turns it back on. The Doctor has a sudden attack and apologizes to Truman for his behavior. The TARDIS lands on a seafront. Plot A, meet Plot B.
The couple are chatting again. The man wants to go hunting. The woman, lets call her Charlotte since that is her name, wishes her husband well and sees him off.
Truman and Ria discuss the Doctor’s strange behavior. Ria says that there was something else there in the TARDIS. Truman is incredulous. They find a can of insect spray, then hear music coming from a building. The building is part of a holiday camp that specializes in getting close to nature and its inhabitants. Truman and Ria find partially developed human remains outside, and are suddenly surrounded by apes. Then the spaceship that I forgot to mention that was coming in to land starts to crash. Truman thinks that the Tardis was destroyed by the crash and announces that the Doctor is dead. I hope he isn’t. The rest of the Audio Visuals would be strange and somewhat pointless without him. Maybe it’s just a cliffhanger.
Part 2
Ria wants to go get help, but Truman wants to sulk. The guy from guy and woman named Charlotte mistakenly shoots Ria.
The Doctor wakes up in a confused state, and is offered a mystical spooky drink from a mystical spooky woman.
The husband and wife, officially Charlotte and Bunny (Bunny), tend to the injured Ria. Well, Charlotte tends to her, while Bunny (Bunny) talks about survival and sport hunting, and generally becomes Ben Loman.
Back in the mystical spooky place, the Doctor is tended to by the mystical spooky woman. The Doctor points out that the woman has some deformities, as you do. She says that her people don’t like to talk about it. Charlotte tells Truman that Bunny (Bunny) was called in by his bosses thinking he was getting a promotion, but was actually fired. Bunny (Bunny) is paranoid, as Bunnies are, and wants to lock up Truman and Ria. Bunnies. Mystical Spooky Woman, MSW, senses that the Doctor wants to return home to Gallifrey. She wants the Doctor to Mystically join with her mystically. When Bunny (Bunny) finds out that Charlotte has let the two escape, he’s hopping mad. The Doctor refuses to mystically join with MSW mystically. MSW is mad. Whether she’s as mad as Bunny (Bunny) is as yet unknown. We may never know.
Bunny (Bunny) goes after Truman and Ria after a few rabbit kicks to Charlotte. He takes Truman as a hostage. Ria seems to find herself with Charlotte again. The Doctor and MSW do a mystical chanty future-see-thingy. She wants the Doctor to love her. Who wouldn’t? Subscribers get more! MSW is jealous of the Doctor’s affection for Ria, and tries to mystically kill her mystically with the weather mystically. The Doctor scolds her and she stops. That’s good. But the attack destroyed the force field that kept the animals out. That’s bad. Also, Bunny (Bunny) thinks that the apes are actually corporate spies. Always good to jump into crazy with both feet. That way you get used to it more quickly. Anyway, MSW says that she isn’t just a god of that world, but that she IS that world. The Doctor says that MSW has been scarred inside and offers to help her and take her along with him. She’s angry again. Apparently, the Doctor finds himself back with Truman and Ria, but Bunny (Bunny) shoots MSW in a fit of monkey-conspiracy rage. After she dies, the planet reaches out and consumes him and starts to die itself. The spirit of MSW leads the crew back to the TARDIS. Mystically.
Apparently, the planet created MSW to deal with the people inhabiting it. The Doctor starts getting nutty again, saying that he destroyed the most peaceful place in the universe. Kind of hard on himself considering that he never harbored any monkey conspiracies. At least none that he told anyone about. Anyway, crazy Doctor crashes into the closing theme.
Evualuation
It’s a jumbly kind of mess. Sentient planets creating witchy sorceresses as antibodies, and all the while, corporate monkey conspiracies. It feels more like a couple of set pieces rather than a complete story unto itself. I enjoyed it though. There was a healthy smattering of Davisonian quotes. And Davisonian is a word, regardless of what spellcheck says. 5esque. That’s strange, it doesn’t recognize Davisonian, but it thinks 5esque is a word. What was I saying? The Doctor doesn’t get much of an opportunity to shine in this one. He’s either very disturbed, or quoting lines from past Doctors. Truman and Ria are given meatier roles. As part of an ongoing arc it works fine, but on its own it’s a bit lean. Still, I like it quite a bit.
Overall 7 out of 10
The AV Reviews continue in 2015 when I’ll be reviewing Sword of Orion. In case I don’t get to it by 2015, I give it 9 out of 10.