As what would be the
biggest part of the fortieth anniversary celebration for Doctor Who, Big Finish
released a trilogy of stories to explore a classic villain in the three months
leading to the November release of the special four hour long anniversary special
Zagreus. The first of these releases stars Peter
Davison and takes place immediately following story Arc of Infinity and features the return of founder of Time Lord
Society, Omega. The plot sees the Doctor
take an intergalactic space tour to the Sector of Forgotten Souls which is the
portion of space where Omega used his Hand and was transported to another
universe. Now he is back in our universe
after beginning to decay in Arc of
Infinity and just wants to go home and marry Sentia a tour guide who leads
a group of tourists into Omega’s trap.
Fountain’s script is a great balance of the comedic and dramatic with a
comedy duo of two old ladies who pop up every so often to interrupt the plot
which eventually pays off and of course the Doctor trying to deal with Omega
who has gone completely insane. Then the
end of Part Three comes with a twist to end all twists which on second
listening is very subtly set up in a brilliant way that I just love here. I won’t spoil the twist as the thing is done
brilliantly and Fountain knows how to do a twist.
The acting of this story
is also stellar with Peter Davison having a blast revisiting what was one of
his favorite stories of the classic series to work on. He gives every moment his all as he is trying
to keep Omega calm as he acts basically like the companion as both Nyssa and
Tegan are off on a holiday and the Doctor needs someone to talk to. Ian Collier is also great as Omega as we
delve into his past which shows Gallifray much like the Gallifray seen in Marc
Platt’s novel Cat’s Cradle: Time’s
Crucible. Omega here is also very
sympathetic as he had a messed up childhood which gets a bit over handed for a
long period of the story as we just see how everyone hated him for no real
reason. He also seems to fall in love in
this story which I find really funny as Sentia, his love interest, is just as
crazy as him. The supporting cast of
this story is also great as Conrad Westmass plays Tarpov an actor who goes
insane in this story and tries to kill his costar during an act which leads to
hilarity, with Hugo Myatt plays the actor playing Omega, Daland who is a great
foil. Daland is prideful as he is washed
out from a role in a soap opera in what seems to be left over from the original
idea of the story featuring the Celestial Toymaker as Daland would probably
have been revealed to be one of the toys.
The way he is used here however still works really well with the story.
The story has quite a few
problems with its plot as the story’s Part Four is about double the length of
the other parts and you can really tell as the story just drags on. It seems like Fountain had to rewrite the
script but didn’t want to shorten anything.
I love the climax with the two old comedy ladies which wraps the story
around, which still feels a bit out of place.
The opening is the monologue from the end leading into the opening as a
lead in as this is a story being told, which sort of feels out of place with
this being about Omega and not the Celestial Toymaker.
To summarize, Omega may have its problems, but it is
still a great story and a great opening to the villain’s trilogy. The acting, direction, music and story is
great but the pacing starts to slow down in the back half with ideas meant for
another premise. 85/100
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