The Game by: Darin Henry directed by: Gary Russell: Playing the Game To the Death

The Game stars Peter Davison as the Doctor with William Russell as Lord Darzil Carlisle, Christopher Ellison as Morian, Jonathan Pearce as Garny Dibilick, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.  It was written by Darin Henry, directed by Gary Russell and released in February 2005 by Big Finish Productions.

 

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