Doctor Who - The Twilight Kingdom

STORY PLACEMENT

THIS STORY TAKES

PLACE BETWEEN THE BIG

FINISH AUDIO DRAMAS

"THE NATURAL HISTORY

OF FEAR" AND "FAITH
STEALER."

PRODUCTION CODE

WRITTEN BY

WILL SHINDLER

DIRECTED BY

GARY RUSSELL

RECOMMENDED

PURCHASE

BIG FINISH CD#55

(ISBN 1-84435-037-1)

RELEASED IN MARCH

2004.

BLURB

Deep underground,

an army of light

prepares itself for

the oncoming war.

The Doctor's used to

winning. Stumbling in,

reading the face of

the enemy, and then

beating the odds. but

what if this time he's

got it wrong?

Stripped of all that

is familiar, just who

is the Doctor? Major

Koth thinks he knows.

IN the dark caverns

of AN UNKNOWN world,

has the Doctor met

his match?

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The Twilight Kingdom

MARCH 2004

(4 EPISODES)

I’m sorry to report that The Twilight Kingdom is a bland, forgettable affair; a mere shadow of recent rousing efforts. Of the four stories that constitute Big Finish’s third

run of eighth Doctor adventures, this is the one that I’ve enjoyed the least, and unfortunately

it has been by a long, long way.

The characters are a lame bunch,

save for Major Koth and Janto, who

acquit themselves reasonably well.

The story itself is a rather trite and

overly-familiar jungle romp, which

really doesn’t do this new, Divergent

universe justice at all. Particularly for a season finale, this is unforgivable.

C’rizz is developed a little by Shindler’s ~~list~~ script, but not nearly enough when one takes into account his character’s absence for the preponderance of the preceding story. The Doctor’s coping with being “a Time Lord out of time” is addressed a little more satisfactorily, but even so, the only real development of note here is the Doctor’s parting shot to the Kro’ka right at the story’s death, which I strongly suspect was tagged on by the script editor in order to stir up some intrigue and serve as a pseudo-cliffhanger to the run.

More positively, the performances of the cast are all top-drawer, and as usual the wonderful soundscape helps the listener to build up a vivid picture in their mind of this alien jungle and the terrors lurking within it. Sadly though, this isn’t enough to salvage an adventure that’s only outstanding quality is its failure to stand out.

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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