Neverland stars
Paul McGann as the Doctor with Lalla Ward as President Romana, Don Warrington
as Rassilon and India Fisher as Charley.
It was written by Alan Barnes, directed by Gary Russell and released in
July 2002 by Big Finish Productions.
This is the culmination
of the entire story arc involving Charley Pollard and the tearing Web of
Time. The plot sees the Time Lords catch
up to the Doctor with Romana and the High Council wishing to use Charley to
open a breach into anti-time so they can go through it and get the Web of Time
stitched up and rescue a certain Lord Rassilon who explored there and
died. There isn’t just Rassilon in the
universe of anti-time where a conspiracy is uncovered where to every person
ever sent to be dispersed on Gallifrey has become a being of anti-time which
goes further when it is revealed that as they have never really existed, no one
remembers that they were dispersed once the dispersal actually takes place.
This allows us to really
see into Romana’s mind as she has unwittingly been the cause of over 200 deaths
over the course of her Presidency.
Romana is brilliantly played by Lalla Ward who gives every line powerful
emotion. She is the only one speaking
sensibly to the Doctor as he was her mentor even though he has broken many Time
Lord Laws. When she realizes that
Vansell has gone behind her back to see her Presidency undone and what she did
to all those people she has an almost subdued fit of pure rage and sorrow as
there is nothing she can do to save them.
She gets some of her best lines near the end of the play when she gets
to talk with Rassilon who is there to be mysterious, but tells her that even
though this adventure is over there is something coming in the future that she
has to be wary of for it will be there soon.
Add this to the cliffhanger that anti-time has infected the Doctor who
has become the embodiment of Zagreus and you get some great set up for the 40th
anniversary celebration.
Paul McGann as the Doctor
is really at his most emotional and romantic.
His reaction to the Time Lords coming to find him is to try and hide
Charley away at an eternal party so he can sort it out and get everything to
the status quo. His emotion escalates as
everything leads to the idea that he is going to have to shoot Charley in the
head to repair the damage. This makes it
all the more satisfying when he professes his love to her and actually finds a
way to save her by materializing the TARDIS around the breach to close it. He and Lalla Ward share a scene of a possible
future which is just haunting in how foreboding it is with Romana basically
turning into a dictator and bringing about a conquest of the universe which I
could see happening. This is by far
McGann’s best performance yet as the Doctor, due in no small part to just how
well Alan Barnes understands who this Doctor is as the breathless romantic. Barnes’ script makes his travelling be so
tantalizing to go to, but still makes you almost want Charley to go to this
party just to see how good it would have been.
India Fisher as Charley
serves as the emotional centerpiece for this story which allows Fisher to show
just how much acting skill she has in her which works for the best. She loves travelling with the Doctor and from
the beginning of the story, Charley knows that escaping the R101 in Storm Warning was wrong and is ready to
face the piper. She even tells the
Doctor to shoot her as it seems to be the only way to save everything. She also stays upbeat throughout as when she
sends the TARDIS into the hands of the Time Lords she gets tied up but still
refuses to be treated like she has lesser intelligence. She still cares about those Time Lords when
they get infected with anti-time in Part Two.
Fisher also voices the main villain of this story Sentris who took
Charley’s form so she could feed off our universe. Sentris has the character range of being
sympathetic one minute, but totally evil the next. She is the one who voices everyone’s feelings
just to toy with them and her eventual defeat
This story also sees the
true introduction of Don Warrington’s incarnation of Rassilon who really doesn’t
get much to do except be pretty much the watchful god which makes for the best
as he pretty much is a god. He is the
one to point out the fallacy that he never went to the anti-time universe and
couldn’t be trapped there as he is still in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. Anthony Keetch’s Vansell also has his magnum
opus here as he becomes a power hungry villain who wants to become Rassilon’s
right hand man. The rest of the
supporting cast all is either anti time beings or is infected by anti-time
which is very emotional for this as you see people destroyed by the universe.
To summarize, Neverland is another perfect story which
sees the emotional catharsis of the Doctor and Charley in such a good story with
a great cliffhanger to lead into Zagreus.
100/100
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