Undergoing repairs in deep space, the TARDIS is caught in a collision with the huge, decaying wreck of a starship. Zoe, spacewalking, is separated from her companions in the crash, and the Doctor and Jamie wake to find the TARDIS fused to the side of the ship.
Venturing inside to rescue their friend, they discover that they are on board The World, the very first colony ship to leave Earth, lost mid-voyage under unknown circumstances.
And they are not alone. A terrible suspension chamber is filled with dead, withered human bodies, and a team of gun-toting astronauts are stalking the corridors. But a far greater threat lurks deep inside. The terrifying force responsible for the scuttling of the ship is active once more – and if it can’t be stopped, it won’t just be the end of this World. It’ll be the end of all of them.
THE EARLY ADVENTURES: THE WRECK OF THE WORLD
The final Early Adventure of 2017 is “The Wreck of the World,” by award-winning playwright Timothy X. Atack. The script is an interesting mix of elements: it features some of the best character work in the range and yet doesn’t do anything else particularly compelling.
I understand that the classic series framing means that Big Finish can’t push the boat out too far when it comes to established characters, but too often they go in the opposite direction, relentlessly refusing to say anything interesting, especially outside of the Companion Chronicles. This is not the case here, specifically when it comes to Zoe: Atack is one of the only authors (Simon Guerrier also among them) to directly engage with her history on the Wheel, specifically the “programming” she experienced after being separated from her family. The story introduces us to Twenty (Adam Newington), a human subject to the same training – and we watch as he builds a rapid bond with Zoe, their similarity drawing them together. Perhaps most significant is the moment Zoe describes learning to cry, something that nicely reinforces just how different she is to a “normal” human. Yet we also see how much her TARDIS travels have humanized her, as she stands in contrast to Twenty’s more mechanical view of the world. (There’s also an actual robot wandering around, showing the most distant end of the spectrum.) Wendy Padbury gives a very strong performance – like in her Companion Chronicles, she’s clearly energized by the opportunity to do more than the usual precocious genius routine.
There’s also an interesting relationship for Jamie with Porthintus (Don McCorkindale), a holy warrior who communicates almost entirely through violence yet reveals hidden depths with each conversation. By the time he reveals that he knows the TARDIS crew are time travelers, and that he even knows what happened at Culloden, you want to learn more about him – so of course that’s when he sacrifices himself and is never mentioned again. Jamie then spends the rest of the story right back in his predictable behaviors. It’s disappointing, because there was room to flesh Jamie out just like Zoe.
The story itself is fairly generic. The TARDIS lands on a deserted ship, which turns out to be a lost colony ship that has been adrift for close to a million years. The first episodes are spent exploring, and encountering a salvage crew that has also discovered the ship – and then of course the colonists are resurrected as zombies, there’s an evil force powering it, a cult worshipping the force, and so on. It’s very traditional sci-fi horror material. Fortunately, Atack and the production team present this material in effective fashion: despite the immense size of the ship, events feel increasingly claustrophobic. There are also great performances from the supporting cast, especially Richenda Carey’s two-faced turn as Professor Blavatsky.
Overall, “The Wreck of the World” is a strong story, one of the strongest in the Early Adventures range. It’s worth hearing just for its treatment of Zoe, fleshing out a character with a ton of potential who has often been underserved. And it’s an effective, suspenseful horror story to boot. In spite of all that, it’s still pretty shallow, keeping it from the highest grades – but I’d recommend this to any Doctor Who fan.
Highly recommended.
8/10