Determined to regain the TARDIS, the Doctor confronts the mysterious Kro’ka in the labyrinth of a very strange world.
Determined to regain the TARDIS, the Doctor confronts the mysterious Kro’ka in the labyrinth of a very strange world.
CAERDROIA
With the accelerated end to Big Finish’s eighth Doctor arc on the horizon, it fell to Lloyd Rose, celebrated author of three highly-acclaimed BBC novels, to provide the story which would prepare the listeners for the grand finale. Her attempt at this, Caerdroia, features some of the best writing seen in the range — but still cannot overcome an inherent, fundamental flaw.
For the first time in a long time, it sounds as though fun is being had in the McGann arc. Rose’s script is full of wonderful scenes and delightful interactions between the characters, and every actor is clearly enjoying the heck out of their lines. It also amuses me that she so clearly lampoons the range up to this point: the Doctor constantly mocks the Kro’ka for being an unimpressive villain, while the Kro’ka himself is given intentionally terrible clichéd villainous dialogue. Rose is yet another author to draw attention to the patently ludicrous concept of a universe without time, and she also manages to make fun of the entire alternate-universe concept with her tongue-in-cheek scripting. As a result, Caerdroia is fun from start to finish, and never fails to entertain the listener.
And yet, there’s a grand failing here: absolutely nothing of significance happens over the course of 95% of the play. The remit here is obvious: get the TARDIS back in the Doctor’s hands and reveal the true nature of the Kro’ka. This is exactly what happens — but that’s also all that happens. We learn that the Kro’ka is a lackey of the Divergents (and Rassilon) but we learn almost nothing about his exact role. We know that the Kro’ka sounds squishy when he walks, but we know nothing about his appearance. We know that this story does not take place within an Interzone experiment but rather, in parts, within the TARDIS itself — but we learn nothing about the Interzone itself. Clearly, questions must be left for the finale to answer, but Caerdroia is remarkably empty of substance, yet again making me suspect that the upcoming The Next Life will feature pages and pages of exposition. I can’t imagine that much of this was Rose’s fault, but, fun as the play may have been, something approaching a plot would have been nice.
Paul McGann, after several uneven performances, hits a home run with this play. Clearly enjoying himself, especially when playing all three versions of his Doctor, McGann brings a wonderful enthusiasm to the role that brought a constant grin to my face. He’s incredibly Doctorish here, full of eccentricities and funny behavior, yet brilliant at the heart of it all. The concept of an embodiment of the Doctor’s pragmatic side is fascinating — and his frivolous side is hilarious — while the inside of the Doctor’s mind is straight out of the New Adventures, something Rose handles quite well. It’s been said before, but there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t have been done for the fortieth anniversary — BF just needed the right author.
As for India Fisher, she rebounds magnificently from her terrible outing in The Last. Charley is written perfectly in this play, and Fisher rises to the occasion, achieving that rare goal of making the character appealing and charming rather than chirpy and annoying. It’s wonderful to hear her paired with the angry Doctor, too — he says many of the things many of us wish we could say to the character.
Conrad Westmaas gets in on the act as well, as for much of Caerdroia we see C’rizz as the pragmatic member of the group, constantly rolling his eyes at and barely tolerating the frivolous Doctor. There’s very little continuity with this character — his brief mention of L’da seems almost crowbarred in as it’s quite out of place — as we learn nothing new about him. Indeed, we haven’t seen this side of C’rizz at all — but Westmaas plays the part well enough that it’s difficult to notice. It’s rare to see an entire TARDIS crew having this much fun, and that reason alone is enough to recommend Caerdroia.
Rounding out the cast is Stephen Perring, who gets to take center stage as the Kro’ka for the first time since being introduced back in season three. Perring obviously relishes his over-the-top villain lines — this performance would fit in very well in The Horns of Nimon (and I love that story, so that’s a strong compliment). He’s a talented actor, from the sound of it; in this story, given the chance to take a leading role, he rises to the occasion, going toe-to-toe with a reinvigorated McGann and carrying himself well. Hopefully the character will make another appearance in The Next Life; it’d be a shame to cut him down after finally seeing what he’s capable of.
On the production front, Steve Foxon handles all the significant sound duties, and turns in an excellent, if subdued, set of work. Considering the wide range of settings featured in the story, Foxon never fails to convince — even his roaring monsters don’t sound comical, something which can be quite difficult to achieve. The score, too, is minimal, but quite effective when it does appear. Gary Russell’s direction keeps the story flowing well, but the obvious love for the script by the cast would have made this a success in almost anyone’s hands. The cover, unfortunately, is absolutely terrible.
It’s difficult to rate Caerdroia. On the one hand, I haven’t had this much fun with a Doctor Who audio in a long while. On the other, I’m quite aware that the play was almost completely bereft of plot and significance. I was thinking an 8/10, but looking at similar plays convinced me otherwise: The Stones of Venice, for example, had a much better setting, while Omega’s plot was greater. So I recommend this play, and I believe you’ll probably enjoy it more than the rating would indicate — but a flaw, unfortunately, is a flaw.
7/10