The New Series began a
trend of letting the companion’s previous life and having their departure
actually effect those they left behind, but it was only a matter of time for
Big Finish to do that plotline and when they did it was glorious. They gave the story to Joseph Lidster who has
a three for three track record on excellence with The Rapture, Master and Terror
Firma and had him use the background of Peri, whose ending is still unclear
to this day thanks to Nev Fountain, who doesn’t like to keep things consistent
and who began as already a complete airhead on television before developing
with the Doctor. Peri at the beginning
of her travels with the Doctor was an absolutely vapid character whose mother
had already been through a divorce before her daughter disappeared.
I will get to those
character portrayal later, but first the plot.
The Doctor, trying to find a missing book and wanting to take Peri to
some ice caves lands on the Gogglebox, basically Google in space which Peri decides
to enjoy by looking back on her hometown.
Before I continue a quick note that the Gogglebox has to happen in our
future with an actual intern who has to be cloned billions of times because
that would be pure torture. Of course
she gets the information after she had left that her best friend’s father has
been murdered in the graveyard, but not with the lead pipe, so she demands that
the Doctor takes her home which he does after a little note that Anthony
Chambers has been dead for millions of years.
All is not well in Baltimore, which is nothing new, but things are
slightly worse as there are Cybermen basically doing the inspiration for Dark Water/Death in Heaven, by
converting the dead while Peri and her mother have to go through some damage
control.
While this is a story to
feature some of the best Colin Baker acting which I will get to later, this is
a story that has the focus planted firmly on Peri, her mother Janine and
Katherine Chambers, her best friend.
Peri shows just how much she has grown as upon hearing someone she knew
died she demands to be taken back to her own time just to console her
friends. She breaks down when she
realizes just how awfully she treated her mother by walking off and essentially
ruined her mother’s second marriage. She
even gets the idea that life without her as she was is actually a better fate
than having her stick around and she has to show just how much she has grown as
a person. Nicola Bryant shows just how
much of a range she has as an actress here as she plays the bubbly Peri in a
flashback, Peri in distress and a triumphant Peri who gets everything she
wants. This is helped of course by the
fact that we get to see what Peri’s mother is like which helped form Peri’s
initial character. Janine, while not
wanting to take any of her daughter’s smug self-importance, exhibits a lot of
the same traits as her daughter. She is
self-righteous and downright selfish as she refuses to accept the fact that her
daughter has returned to her and it is up to the Doctor to let her grow by
having Peri have a hand in the action along with her mother and that forces a
catharsis. It of course makes it all the
more heartbreaking with her eventual fate which I will get to later.
Other than her family we
actually get the chance to meet Peri’s best friend Katherine Chambers played by
Jane Perry who is in mourning in the loss of her father. She is happy of course to see her best friend
and is of course glad to see her again, but has her doubts that it’s going to
be a good life and of course with the death surrounding this story that is
extremely accurate. Yes this is a story
that heavily deals in death and the body count is extreme. Basically everyone in this story dies as per
the title, The Reaping. It’s another perfect example of how to do the
Cybermen, force them into a bleak scenario where to survive they must go to
extremes and here those extremes are converting the dead. Honestly that idea is extremely dark as there
are more dead people on the planet than the alive and if the invasion succeeds
the human race is most certainly doomed.
Colin Baker as the Doctor of course is great at giving off that sense as
he has no idea of what he’s getting into and it comes across as a very dark
performance except in the few comedy bits with Mrs. Van Gysegham which is of
course a delight. Now don’t read any
further into this review if you haven’t listened to this story as I’m going to
spoil the ending. You have been warned.
So The Reaping sees Peri decide to leave the Doctor to spend time with
her mother and Kathy once the Cybermen are defeated and Kathy’s brother Nathan
is left paralyzed. She takes a little
piece of Cyberman technology as a parting gift which amounts to a paperweight,
but several months after the events of this story and several months of
enjoying time with her friends and family the technology activates. Peri’s house explodes, her mother dies in the
blaze while Kathy and Nathan have fled in the aftermath. Peri is left at her absolute lowest and the
Doctor sees it all occur at the Gogglebox.
He comes and gets her and actually gets to comfort her showing just how
much he’s grown and explains the main theme. The theme is the uplifting one that is echoed
throughout the audio with Mrs. Van Gysegham’s many husband’s having scrapes
with death making her grateful until they die, the backstory of tramp Daniel
Woods’ wife who died in a bus crash three years after having a near death
experience with cancer. Death is
inevitable, but every moment spent with loved ones is worth it.
To summarize, The Reaping once again shows just how
great Joseph Lidster is great at writing Doctor Who and delivering the
emotional gut punches. It is one of his
best works yet as it really gives the themes the time of day to reflect on
itself. Everything about the story
reflects that and it makes a great middle to the Cyberman trilogy. 100/100
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