Colditz stars
Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. It was written by Steve Lyons, directed by
Gary Russell and released in October 2001 by Big Finish Productions.
If there was an audio to
echo the early Virgin New Adventures style it would have to be Colditz.
Colditz is full of tropes from
the Virgin New Adventures with the Doctor being the eternal chess master
manipulating events from the beginning, a threat on a universal scale and of
course Ace being put through the wringer emotionally although in a twist of
fate the Doctor isn’t to blame in this one instead it’s Ace’s favorite,
Nazis. Yes Colditz takes place in the middle of World War II at Colditz Castle
which was a prison for the prisoners of war and this story sees the Doctor and
Ace captured after landing right in the castle.
That wouldn’t be too big of a problem and could lead to a great
historical story but like Lyons’ previous story for Big Finish, The Fires of Vulcan, there is a
twist. The twist is that because of
their interference and Ace leaving her Walkman behind, the Nazis win the war
and the Doctor is shot. This is thrown
for a second loop when it is revealed that this is just a potential future and Officer
Klein has travelled back in time on a mysterious Johann Schmidt’s orders to
ensure the future comes to pass.
Lyon’s plot is extremely
intriguing as everything just seems to go wrong for the Doctor and Ace until
the final part where everything falls into place and the Doctor and Ace can
hightail it out of the camp. Ace in
particular gets put through the wringer as she is harassed by Nazi Officer
Feldwebel Kurtz played by David Tennant.
Kurtz is your stereotypical evil Nazi who hates all who are not
German. He lusts after Ace as she is a
beautiful young woman and becomes extremely violent when Ace doesn’t let
him. Lyons’ script becomes very subtle
with these two as Ace always has just enough time before things become more life
threatening. David Tennant is great as
Kurtz and comparing it to his performance as the Doctor shows just how much
range the guy can pull off as an actor.
Sophie Aldred is also great as Ace as she is channeling the character
seen in the novels Timewyrm: Exodus
and Nightshade which I really
like. She knows how she can get out but
just can’t do it as nothing goes her way.
The Doctor is also paired
up with a Nazi, but for him it is Elisabeth Klein who is from the alternate
future and is just brutal. She is stone
cold and isn’t afraid to get people killed so she can get her way. She tries to out manipulate the Doctor
knowing that messing with the timeline can create a paradox. The performance from Tracey Childs is sublime
and works really well off Sylvester McCoy’s scheming Seventh Doctor who is
content to stay in the background for most of this story as he tries to figure
out how he’s going to get out of it all.
The story also has a pretty well developed supporting cast. Toby Longworth plays Julius Schafer who is a
Nazi who has become tired with the war.
It is never stated but Schafer may have become a Nazi just so he could
avoid the concentration camps. Schafer
even sneaks food to the prisoners whenever he can as they aren’t fed nearly
enough. Longworth is great as he always
is. On the prisoners side of things we
have your standard defiant soldiers which is where the story suffers for me
mainly because of how boring they are as characters. The only one who stands out is war journalist
turned prisoner Timothy Wilkins who is just really whiny. That becomes the only reason I can remember
him.
I’d also like to touch
upon the music of Colditz. The music was done by Toby Richards and Emily
Baker who work at a separate company from Big Finish so it has a very different
feel from the other audios. The music
uses what seems to be an actual band and there are several points where you
hear trumpets and piano playing in a very 1940s propaganda film style which I
really liked. Gary Russell also does
great with the direction knowing just how to set in the transitions between
scenes.
To summarize, Colditz is a nearly perfect story as it
shows just how good Steve Lyons is as an author as he writes an intriguing plot
that is let down by a rather large supporting cast that isn’t fleshed out enough
to be interesting. 90/100
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