Isn’t it odd how The Axis of Insanity is a story that is
essentially sees the Fifth Doctor and company taken out of the normal universe
and placed in an Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland type surrounding released immediately after The Twilight Kingdom which is supposed to take place in a setting
like that, but comes across more as your traditional Doctor Who story. The plot sees the Doctor, Peri and Erimem
pulled into the Axis which is where the Web of Time compensates for the Time
Lords’ actions whenever they interfere with time which is a fascinating
idea. The Axis is usually looked after
by the Overseer who has asked for the Doctor’s help as he is dead and his
position has been taken over by the Jester who is basically the Joker from Batman, but in a Doctor Who
setting. The story is simply finding a
way to defeat the Jester and discover who it is (it as the gender is constantly
changing) all the while escaping its traps and trying their hardest to
survive. The odd thing about this plot
is that it feels like it should be placed in the Divergent Universe with the
Eighth Doctor while The Twilight Kingdom
would have worked a lot better as a story for the Fifth Doctor. The story also feels a lot like it is a comic
book which feels like a breath of fresh air as we get to see some silly situations
in all their silly glory actually come across in a good manner.
The performance by Peter
Davison as the Doctor and the Jester at certain points is just sublime as he is
giving it his all to make a triumphant return after Nekromanteia was just a total and complete failure of a story he is
having a ball with a script. His turn as
the Jester is extremely creepy as he preys on Erimem whom the Jester doesn’t
understand to be from a different time which has a great way for him to reveal
himself. The scene with Caroline Morris
is just sublime in every way as it is like a game of cat and mouse. This may as well be Caroline Morris’ best
performance as Erimem as from the start she is trying to learn how to read English. It is a silly language to her as there are no
pictures in the way English works contrasting the hieroglyphs of Ancient
Egyptian. She can think on her feet even
if her intelligence is low which is great as she is put in danger multiple
times in this story by the Jester.
Morris also has some great chemistry with Nicola Bryant’s Peri who is
the weaker link here as she acts as the standard companion. This isn’t that bad as Bryant is great here
and obviously having a lot of fun making the story easy to listen to, but other
than that there isn’t much else to the performance.
The Jester is just a
fascinating character as it is an all-powerful being obsessed with gains and
wants the Doctor’s TARDIS so it can escape this reality. The performances by Garrick Hogon and Liza
Ross are some of the best from a supporting cast in a while as there is this
sense of comedy but also a sense of insanity and danger as the Jester is a
child with a hand grenade. It is
eventually going to throw it and there is going to be an almighty explosion
which no one is going to be left unscathed from the blast radius. It is the Joker from Batman in everything but name as it wants to create chaos in the
universe and needs the TARDIS to do so and its eventual defeat is in a very
clever way which I just love. The rest
of the supporting cast doesn’t matter as they all don’t really exist and are
just lapses in the Web of Time which is a cause of some of this story’s flaws
as there is no one else to get invested in and when people die there really is
no suspense as if one of the main cast were to die.
The direction by Gary
Russell is just feeling very samey as he has directed every story since Creatures of Beauty. That isn’t a problem as he can direct but
here he feels like he is losing steam as he is taking care of every story in
the range until John Ainsworth gives him respite in release 70, Unregenerate!. This is just a big problem as the pace just
doesn’t feel right with a stop start style story that happens.
To summarize, The Axis of Insanity is a breath of
fresh air after The Twilight Kingdom felt
like a lot of problems rolled into one.
The plot feels wholly original and most of the acting actually feels
like the actors were giving it their all.
Sadly the direction is completely lackluster and any suspense from supporting
characters are just nonexistent. It
seems to be highly underrated and while it isn’t a great story it is still a
pretty good addition to the Doctor Who range coming highly recommended for some
fun storytelling. 75/100.
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