Big Finish, Fourth Doctor Series
Wow! Morax is definitely lent a more sinister air by Gareth Thomas and my only complaint about this entire story is there’s almost too much “mystery” leading up to the reveal of the big “power” of the villain. Nurse Torvik can speak so she should reveal it, not have this long, drawn-out scene where it’s revealed and the deaths commence. It’s still very good and well worth listening to and obviously, that’s just my aversion to suspense coming through but wow, this is a villain worthy of Leela’s talents! Finally someone who half-way challenges her skills.
The Doctor brings Leela to a dead planet to have a holiday picnic and relax. And naturally, a presumably Earth-based ship lands on a survey mission at about that time. “Emperor be praised” – could that phrase refer to the next story and the Eminence in any way. That creature is really becoming a long standing threat in Big Finish Doctor Who for the 6th, 8th, and 4th Doctors. So there is a transmission from the “base” where Morax is languishing and the team, plus the Doctor and Leela, go to investigate. And there they find Morax and Nurse Torvik, both driven a little mad by their centuries of enforced solitude. Thus the shenanigans begin and away we go! I did wonder how long it would take the Doctor to figure out the “clue” that Morax wasn’t listening at the end of the story. There are definitely a lot of climactic scenes in this story and Morax is one clever, homicidal character!
Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, Gareth Thomas (Morax), Jane Goddard (Nurse Torvik), John Voce (Chief Surveyer Hardwick), Jessica Martin (Deputy Surveyor Sutton), Blake Ritson (Pilot Kellaway)
Writer: Jonathan Morris
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Release: May 2014