On the planet Cicero Prime, the kingdom of Cardenas is divided, with the whole population forced to swear allegiance to either the effete Duke or the fiery, hard-edged Duchess. This is a situation both parties have grown tired of. What use is half a kingdom when, thanks to a carefully engineered murder, you could have it all?
Surely, neither of them would be rash enough to summon the deadly off-world assassin The Scorpion to help with their problem? And surely, this terrifying figure wouldn’t arrive wearing a long cream coat and striped trousers…?
KINGDOM OF LIES
The 2018 release year kicks off with a main range Peter Davison trilogy, and the first of these is “Kingdom of Lies,” from Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky. Similar to their recent Early Adventure “The Ravelli Conspiracy,” this story has an offbeat tone; unlike that story, “Kingdom of Lies” doesn’t quite achieve consistency and feels disjointed.
I very much like the plot structure of this story. I think the four-part format has become obviously outdated, and the fact that we’re still forcing three cliffhangers into every story in 2018 just makes me roll my eyes – but Khan and Salinsky make each episode distinct enough that the format adds to the enjoyment of the story. They follow the age-old strategy of dividing up the TARDIS crew, and it works remarkably well. It’s fun to hear Tegan and Adric paired up for most of the running time because of the self-aware relationship between their characters: Matthew Waterhouse plays Adric as a teenager needling Tegan for amusement; Janet Fielding comes across like an annoyed older sister. There’s affection underneath it all, in other words, and it works quite well. That the Doctor and Nyssa pair well is in no way a secret, but I particularly like their relationship here, where Nyssa dives into their assumed assassin roles with both feet and has to drag the Doctor along with her. It’s rare to see that Nyssa’s aristocratic tone is actually an acting choice by Sarah Sutton, but it definitely comes out here.
For the most part, Khan and Salinsky write with an absurdist, comic tone. The relationship between Duke Sebastian (Jonathan Firth) and Duchess Miranda (Charlotte Lucas) has degraded to the point that they’ve drawn a line across their entire kingdom dividing it in half, and anyone who crosses the line is arrested by the other side. While the Duke is effete and indecisive, the Duchess is prone to emotional outbursts and much more determined and calculating. And while the story seems as though it will be entirely about this conflict, by the third episode the Doctor is playing marriage counselor to the royal couple in a particularly amusing scene. There are also the Duchess’s parents, Lord (Tim Bentinck) and Lady (Richenda Carey) Crozion – Lord Crozion is a warmongering gambling addict while his wife is mostly put-upon and irritated by him. “Kingdom of Lies” is a fun listen for the first three episodes, as the authors slowly introduce more and more about these absurd characters and blend the TARDIS crew and their cover stories in perfectly.
The problem comes in the fourth episode, when the mysterious assassin known as The Scorpion (Patsy Kensit) shows up. At this point, the story loses its absurdist bent and shifts into a very traditional, predictable corridor runaround. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but the tone of the final episode is all over the place, and that sinks it. Kensit’s performance is dead serious, but her lines aren’t: when she says “Goodbye, losers!” without even a hint of irony, it just sounds confusing. There’s also a moment at the end of the story where the Doctor is presented with a seemingly impossible choice. This, again, is played with the utmost seriousness: suddenly the companions are tearfully begging the Doctor not to become a murderer, and so forth. It’s wildly out of place with the rest of the story, and even on its own terms it’s not convincing: we know Big Finish isn’t suddenly going to break the mold and show the Doctor killing in cold blood. It’s confusing and unsettling, neither of which are appropriate feelings given the rest of the story.
Overall, though, “Kingdom of Lies” is entertaining. The first three episodes are quite good, the regular cast gets a lot to do and they’re all on top form, and the guest cast has a lot of fun with the material. Barnaby Edwards has always been one of Big Finish’s best directors and his work here upholds that standard, while the sound design from Martin Montague and the music from Andy Hardwick match the story expertly. It’s just unfortunate that the final episode is such a confused, disjointed letdown – but that’s not a reason to sink the story’s score entirely.
Recommended, with reservations.
7/10