Tonal whiplash can often
be a problem in Doctor Who as you can have highly dramatic stories followed by
highly comedic stories or vice versa. It
is a phenomenon where the contrasting tones diminishes the quality of a story
as it changes rapidly and many would argue that The Last suffers because of it.
This is due to the story being summed up in the word bleak. The
Last takes place in a Zone where there is a nuclear winter. Radiation permeates everything and much of
the population has been killed in a war while the government is safely kept in
their security bunker a mile beneath the surface with the leader being
blissfully unaware of the casualties of war.
The setting however isn’t the only thing that is bleak as Hopkins uses
his story to put the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz through hell and back in what
might just be the best of the Eighth Doctor main range stories which I will of
course explain why it isn’t near the end of this review.
The plot sees the Doctor,
Charley and C’rizz go to the next zone where the Doctor immediately realizes
that this is a nuclear winter where they must quickly find shelter when a
massive rockfall paralyzes Charley, separates C’rizz and disorients the
Doctor. The Doctor and Charley end up
inside the security bunker where they meet the leader of the zone Excelsior,
who is mad, and her ministers for war and peace who are all working on the fact
that the world is still at war even if there is nobody left to fight. Excelsior is ready to go to the surface when
the bunker begins to fill up and the rest of the story’s plot is basically
escape the sinking ship. The plot is
traditional but extremely interesting as it focuses on the subplots of the
ghosts of the inhabitants of this zone and Hopkins excels at writing it. The great writing has Paul McGann in his best
performance in ages as the Doctor is pushed to his absolute limit. This is not the breathless romantic of the
other adventures, but a man pushed past his limits and ready to kill so he can
try and survive. The things the Doctor
sees in this story are horrifying to say the least as everyone in the story,
but him, dies. Yes even Charley and
C’rizz don’t make it out of this story alive as they are murdered by Excelsior
played by Carolyn Jones, who has gone mad.
Excelsior is a vile woman in every sense of the word. She has kinetic powers to control acids and
thinks she is doing Charley and C’rizz favors by putting them out of their
miseries. The character is fascinating
as Jones does a subtle performance which works much better than an over the top
performance other actors may have given.
Charley Pollard actually
has stuff to do in this story as she gets paralyzed from the neck down and has
come to accept that she is never going to walk again. She offers herself to be sacrificed if
someone has to stay on the planet and die a slow and painful death as she is
only going to slow them down. Her death
is extremely tragic as we have spent the most time with Charley over the course
of the adventures with her as the audience surrogate. C’rizz also gets to have development as he
watches over Charley whom he cares for immensely even though they have only
known each other for a couple of weeks.
Their relationship in this story is great as C’rizz is truly a caring
person who wants to see Excelsior dead when he realizes it could only be her
who killed Charley. C’rizz is also the
only person who can see Requiem, the ghost haunting them. Requiem isn’t a villain as he is the leader
of the dead population on Bortrosoye who has the subplot that all must die so
the titular last can reset everything to peace which segues nicely into the
story breaking flaw of the story.
The following is going to
contain major spoilers for the story which I have to reveal to accurately rate
this story. If you haven’t listened to
this story yet stop reading now, buy the story and listen to it before coming
back here to read the rest of the review.
So it is revealed near the end that the zone has been stuck in what serves
as a time loop with the final survivor of the events having to be the one who
resets everything. He is the Last the
title refers to and in this version of the loop it is the Doctor who remains
standing once the dust settles and Requiem gives him a decision. He can either commit suicide to reset
everything most likely for the last time or just keep going until they
naturally reset. Of course he decides
that he is going to reset everything so he can save his friends and get out
which of course is the path he chooses.
This is just infuriating as Gary Hopkins is a writer with balls who has
made us seen the character development of the Doctor which is only undone by
this major twist that psyche everything is fine. This deus ex machina ending ruins any sort of
dramatic tension you have on relistens as you know that everything is going to
turn out fine no matter what happens.
To summarize, until its
final part The Last is a brilliant
story with a writer who has the balls to kill off major characters and have the
Doctor have critical reactions to the events taking place but it is ruined by
its deus ex machina ending that just hurts.
60/100
No comments:
Post a Comment