Well this one is just
plain complex. There’s no other word to
really describe the story but calling it complex. On the surface it sounds like it is doing the
standard Dalek invasion of a planet plotline, but then we get quite a few
twists and turns that just sort of cause for the complexities of what the story
actually entails. The Doctor, Charley
and C’rizz arrive on a planet invaded by the Daleks from the cliffhanger of The Next Life. Davros wishes the Doctor to help him create a
clone or kill him as he has become insane, C’rizz is stuck going off with a
Dalek agent called Gemma, and Charley gets herself stuck in a party on the
planet where the people refuse to admit that the Daleks are causing any real
threat to them. Now I really cannot go
on without giving some pretty hefty spoilers about this story as some reveals
are made about the characters and the Daleks’ plan that impacts the quality of
the story.
Let’s start with the
plotline of the Doctor and Davros. The banter
between Paul McGann and Terry Molloy rivals that of Tom Baker and Michael
Wisher in Genesis of the Daleks. While it isn’t as intense as that story, the
dark themes of the story lead to the same feel and it is increased in quality
with Paul McGann giving one of his best performances in ages. He becomes extremely flippant to Davros and
the danger he poses, not due to recklessness, but because he is back in his own
universe he feels one thousand times better as a person. McGann is just having that sense of fun back
in the performance and I sincerely hope that it stays that way for the foreseeable
future. Now that doesn’t mean he is all
light hearted as he gets to indulge in some brooding when everything hits about
halfway through the story the Doctor is emotionally affected by some of the
reveals that disappeared into his mind.
Terry Molloy’s Davros is also a delight as the creator of the Daleks as
for him this story picks up after the events of Remembrance of the Daleks where Davros has gone more insane than he
was and developed multiple personality disorder. There are two personalities, the Emperor
Dalek personality which wants the genocide of the universe which allows Molloy
to flex his shouting muscles for some of the scenes and the kind hearted Davros
who just wants to clone himself so he can actually attempt to change his evil
ways. Of course he doesn’t actually wish
to change his ways and still goes crazy by the end, but the performance is some
of the best Davros has ever gotten.
C’rizz after the
Divergent Universe Arc remained lackluster on his character, but Joseph Lidster
reveals quite a bit about what is going through C’rizz’s mind and what his
faith believes about death. He only came
to this universe because Charley and the Doctor were going home and he wanted
to be with his friends. Now he is almost
having second thoughts as he feels extremely out of his element for the
majority of the story which is only made worse by the experiments done on him
by the Daleks. They want him to become
their new Emperor as his DNA is compatible and Lidster puts him through hell in
this story which is great to watch leading to a final scene that just feels
like development. Now here’s a spoiler
but C’rizz as a priest has the ability to save people by what seems to be
absorbing their souls into himself as he does with Gemma. Gemma Griffin played brilliantly by Lizzie
Hopley is the Dalek agent who is along with C’rizz and is introduced as one of
the good guys but turns insidious as the story progresses. She and her brother are the subject of the
biggest twist of the story which I will get to quickly. I do have some criticisms when it comes to
this section of the plot. Mainly Gemma’s
deception of C’rizz almost feels a bit forced, but not in the way you may
think. The acting is fine but it is the
script that makes the twist come out of nowhere when the plotline is viewed on
its own as there are hints in Charley’s portion of the story which are
blatantly obvious.
Charley gets her own
plotline where she infiltrates a party and tries to comfort Samson Griffin,
played by Lee Ingleby, in a pastiche of her home time period in the 1920s. Charley’s portions of the plot are the most
enjoyable as the reveal is that before she travelled with the Doctor, he had
two previous companions who fell into the hands of Davros. Davros then made the Doctor forget them and has
been watching the Doctor’s TARDIS ever since and used the two companions,
Samson and Gemma Griffin to conquer Earth.
Yes the planet which can’t be Earth actually is Earth and the party is
the resistance which allows for some great dark comedy as the Hokey Pokey is
used to show how they are keeping the Daleks off their scents. It is intensely funny and creepy as the
Griffin twins’ mother Harriet is the leader of the party. Harriet is the leader of the resistance and a
pastiche of the upper class in a really comedic way that Julia Deakin imbues
into the performance. The reveal of
Samson and Gemma being former companions is done really well as we flashback to
their first and final adventures which allows them to have fleshed out
characters. I won’t give away too much
more as I will be ruining some great stuff.
To summarize, Terror Firma is a great story that shows
just how good of an author Joseph Lidster is.
While not as good as his magnum opus Master,
the story does a lot right in my book which is a great way for a story to be
measured. 85/100.
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