The Twilight Kingdom
stars Paul McGann as the Doctor with Michael Keating as Major Koth, India
Fisher as Charley and Conrad Westmass as C’rizz. It was written by Will Shindler, directed by
Gary Russell and released in March 2004 by Big Finish Productions.
This third season of Main
Range Eighth Doctor Adventures has been hit or miss as it only features four
stories with two of them being brilliant and the other two being complete duds
of stories. I’m sad to say that as I’ve
already reviewed the two brilliant stories it is time for me to take a look at
the other dud, the finale of the season The
Twilight Kingdom. The Twilight Kingdom is a two hour play
that has some of the hardest audio to listen to as it plays up as a combination
of different established Doctor Who tropes taken from the show’s track record
of the 1980s, particularly the Peter Davison era of the show. The plot sees the Kro’ka send the Doctor,
Charley and C’rizz to a jungle zone which is basically the jungle from Kinda where an unrelenting military a la
The Caves of Androzani is hiding out
in a cave where their major has psychic powers a la Kinda and Snakedance
while there is a twist near the end, even though it is revealed on the front
cover that the cave is alive and the major has been absorbed into the cave a la
many monster reveals of the 1980s. The
entire story is obviously trying to be an homage to the history of Doctor Who,
but it comes across as a reminder of other better stories instead of creating
what could be an ultimate Doctor Who story.
The story also suffers much like The
Creed of the Kromon in that it is way to traditional to be taking place in
this Divergent Universe as there is nothing that couldn’t be done in the main
universe. This is however only one of
the many elements of the story that fails to do anything interesting with what
could be a really good concept.
A bad plot can be made up
for if the characters are interesting, but that would require the leads to be
on top form here. This isn’t the case
especially in the performance of Paul McGann who plays the Doctor extremely
bored here as every single line he delivers in an almost monotone. He just can’t seem to bring any sort of
emotion into his performance which just shows how McGann has to have a good script
or else he just phones in whatever performance he is awarded. Shindler doesn’t help as he writes the Doctor
as extremely bland in this story except for the last five minutes or so which
actually sound interesting as the Doctor is hoping to find Rassilon in this
universe which is just one thing that can shine through the boringness of the
story. Shindler doesn’t know how to
handle the character of Charley Pollard as here she is just a whiny rich girl
who gets on the Doctor’s case and does nothing that makes you think this is the
same character from any other story.
C’rizz almost strangles her in this story and when listening I hoped he
would finish the job as she is just whiny and acts like she knows more than the
Doctor, which of course she doesn’t.
India Fisher is trying her hardest, but she really shouldn’t have as
there is nothing for her to do here. The
only character Shindler does anything interesting with is C’rizz who actually
gets to have more of a chemistry with the main cast for the final scene and
stops being as whiny as he was in The
Creed of the Kromon. Conrad Westmass
has some of his best work and breaths a little life in every scene he is in,
but it isn’t enough to save the story from being boring.
The supporting cast
follows suit in being just as bland as the main cast with a few
exceptions. A story like this needs a
strong villain, but Michel Keating as Major Koth is just way too campy to do
anything interesting as a villain. His
voice in itself isn’t enough to make the character seem evil even if he gets
people to shoot their friends while keeping a straight face. The rest of the cast is also extremely dull
as they have no sort of characterization outside of standard military people
and a lot of the actors are giving monotonous performances to match McGann in
lack of ambition and enthusiasm. The
only supporting cast member giving any sort of performance is Alan Rothwell’s
Jano who is another light in the darkness as he is the only one not under
Koth’s influence which could have made for an interesting character, but he is
still a very one note type of person.
To summarize, The Twilight Kingdom is the worst Big
Finish story since Nekromanteia and
is one of very few stories that doesn’t do much to be interesting or deserve
its place in the Divergent Universe Arc.
The main cast are all giving only fifty percent of their acting prowess
as they don’t care about the script and the supporting cast aren’t much better
with only a few people shining through a rather weak script. Yes there are good ideas, but nothing is
going to save this story. 25/100
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