While looking for employment on Jupiter’s premier moon, Callisto, the Doctor finds that he’s having insect trouble.
While looking for employment on Jupiter’s premier moon, Callisto, the Doctor finds that he’s having insect trouble.
VALHALLA
I’m a big fan of Marc Platt’s Doctor Who writing, going all the way back to Ghost Light and proceeding through his novels and audios. I find his conceptual writing his best: his ability to spin whole societies or whole cultures from a few short scenes, and the way he ties them together with brilliant ideas and a sort of poetic grace. All of this is present in his latest script for Big Finish, “Valhalla,” but yet it’s a bit too padded and plot-oriented to match his greatest heights.
The first two episodes are exceptional, and had me planning the appropriate hyperbole for a 10/10 review. From Sylvester McCoy’s melancholic, lonely Doctor, to his quiet, creepy scenes in the tunnels with Jevvan (Michelle Gomez), to the surface both before and after the termites attack, to the brilliant second cliffhanger with its crescendo of ringtones, this is uniformly excellent drama. The play gives a sense of scale that Big Finish sometimes struggles to capture, effortlessly communicating the growing unrest and eventual decay on a planetary scale. The termites are the sort of obvious monster you’d think we’d have seen in the last 44 years, and yet the design makes them suitably intimidating. The atmosphere is a further delight, evoking both the “dark Doctor” feeling as well as some gentle humor. Indeed, everything seems to be building toward an epic conclusion in the third episode.
Naturally, “Valhalla” is a four-part release. While Platt does an admirable job of stretching out the action through the third episode, revealing facets of the Doctor’s scheme as things continue, it carries more than a hint of padding. The TARDIS telepathic circuits disgusing the Doctor as a termite “general,” for example: a great concept, and useful for some funny moments inside the ship, but ultimately not very beneficial to the drama. Considering the quietness, the elegance of the Doctor’s plan, this part especially seems crude and forced, and jars more than it otherwise should. There are fine moments in the third episode, however — Our Mother’s first glimpse of the sun, for example. Fortunately, the fourth episode restores events to their natural course. The Doctor’s final moments with Our Mother are haunting, and the closing scenes show us a character I wish we could see more often: the quiet demigod looking for purpose beyond simply defeating evil. This Doctor is, in many ways, the opposite side of the same coin we see from time to time in the new series, and he’s an important part of the mythology.
McCoy has rarely been better than he is in “Valhalla,” without a single one of the bizarre line readings he has delivered in the past. He clearly relishes the chance to perform this blend of humor and sadness, something representative of his Doctor at his best, both here and on television. This is a dominant performance: even with Susannah York, unmistakably over the top as Our Mother, McCoy remains in control of every scene. York herself is as good as expected, and though she does venture OTT, it’s never to the detriment of the play. Much of the rest of the cast is forgettable: Gomez handles the “one-story-companion” role well enough, but Philip Jackson and Donna Berlin barely make an impression. Fraser James plays the role of Gerium quite well, but Platt has written the character as a cliché — and the futuristic cursing, this time represented as “scrummin’,” comes off as unconvincingly as it does in every other science fiction story that has tried it.
It’s no secret that I think very highly of Big Finish’s stable of sound designers, but Steve Foxon outdoes even their usual high standard with his work here. The termite sounds give them both imposing and terrifying qualities, and sound utterly convincing — this is some of the best design work we’ve heard for a BF alien race. Simon Robinson handles the score, and though it follows the recent trend of being used mostly for scene transitions, it gives the play an appropriately apocalyptic feeling. And while the material of the later episodes is padded in places, the actual pace of the play never bogs down, held together as it is by director John Ainsworth. I also like Alex Mallinson’s cover design, which is very evocative. Extra features include interviews with Dominic Frisby, York, Gomez and McCoy, as well as several tracks of Robinson’s music.
I felt a bit frustrated when putting this review together: while I felt “I.D.” and “Exotron” could use fourth episodes, I found myself wanting “Valhalla” reduced to the 3/1 format. It also sees Marc Platt in a more traditional mold, something which I also found damaging to the Unbound “A Storm of Angels.” Yet these complaints should not detract seriously from what is otherwise a very accomplished piece of audio drama, featuring a fantastic central performance, some delightful concepts, and a rare, enjoyable atmosphere. I’m still waiting to be blown away, and to give out that elusive 10/10 rating that hasn’t been seen since “The Kingmaker,” but until then I’ll gladly recommend this play.
Great stuff.
8/10