In
the early days of Big Finish, before they had their Companion Chronicles range,
they would use companion actors from the first four Doctors. This was done as a way for them to gain more
revenue as fans would be more likely to buy stories that have what would be
Doctor Who celebrities. This story is
one such story where Big Finish have brought in William Russell to play a major
supporting character in the form of peace negotiator Darzil Carlisle which is
really what makes this story stand out from the crowd. This is due to the premise on the surface
sounding quite dull as it involves a planet where a civil war is playing out in
the form of a sports tournament, Naxi, where the goal is to literally kill as
many people before time runs out.
Everyone is forced to play Naxi at one point in their lives and the fans
are entirely rabid and it is Darzil Carlisle’s job to negotiate peace between
the two teams. This is the focus of the
first four parts of the story as this story is split up into six parts with the
major twist being that Carlisle’s peace negotiator career is a sham as the Doctor
is the one who has negotiated the end to those wars and when the Doctor shows
up it is their first meeting for him and Carlisle’s last.
The
end of Part Four however adds in a twist where there are creatures living on
the planet Cray and it is revealed that Carlisle’s assistant is working with
the primary villain on a gambling ring to make money. This occupies the final two parts which is
where the story loses a lot of its credibility as the villain, Morian played by
Christopher Ellison, is your standard power mad dictator who wants to get more
money. He also is played as an abusive
boyfriend as he emits a drug and forces Carlisle’s assistant, Faye, to work
with him as she basically becomes a nymphomaniac. His plotline is sort of tacked onto the end
to pad out the story to two hours when it would have worked a lot better if the
story just focused on Carlisle and the Doctor’s relationship and how Carlisle is
a fraud. There are even forced in
monsters because this is Doctor Who and you have to have monsters, don’t you?
Well, no you don’t, the monsters in this story are awfully integrated and
really only serve as extra padding for the plot.
Peter
Davison as the Doctor does however shine throughout the story and serves as the
saving grace for the final two parts even if they are already mercifully
short. The Fifth Doctor wants to meet
Carlisle and is utterly destroyed when he finds that he is a complete fraud and
he has to go on to save three dozen worlds.
Davison’s performance here actually feels a lot more like his character
is older after some devastating events in Spare
Parts and Creatures of Beauty. It is an effect that is really nice for the
story.
To
summarize, The Game has a great start
and a great first four parts but after a twist the final two parts turn into
your traditional Doctor Who story which really doesn’t work. William Russell, Peter Davison and Sarah
Sutton are highlights here in some great events as well. 75/100
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