The brilliance of the Big
Finish trilogy format is that it allows for mini seasons for the Doctors and
have well done story arcs over the course of a couple of releases. The flaw in the system is that if a part of
the trilogy is below average, one third of that trilogy has its quality
diminished exponentially. Hexagora previously known as Hex is a story that is definitely the
weakest link in the trilogy of Fifth Doctor Lost Stories. It is by no means a bad story in any sense of
the phrase, but it’s definitely lower in quality than the other stories in the
trilogy. It is written by Peter Ling,
famous in Doctor Who for writing The Mind
Robber. Anyone who is expecting
something as surreal as The Mind Robber
should get rid of those preconceptions as the story is closer to a standard
Doctor Who adventure. Its plot sees the
Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan on the trail of Mike Bretherton, a friend of Tegan’s
who was abducted to the planet Luparis, ruled by Queen Zafira which hides a
dark secret. It is a standard Doctor Who
story for the most part which really works in the first half. There are whispers of creatures called
sleepers stalking the streets and for some reason the city looks like Tudor
London, down to a tee. The plot has a
few good twists with the Hexagora of the title not being humanoids, but termite
aliens who have been driven to the point of extinction. Now here’s where the spoilers really kick in
as well as the confusion happens. Queen
Zafira has been abducting humans to put the Hexagora in, but since the bodies
are dying she wants to marry the Doctor and make babies with him to continue
her race. The DNA crossing wouldn’t work
even if Gallifreyeans could reproduce sexually.
Mike is in a Hexagoran
body while a Hexagora is in Mike’s body and both are played by Toby Hadoke
along with the regular Mike at the end.
Hadoke is good in the role, but the character really falls flat as he is
merely a plot device and someone for Tegan to talk to. Dan Starkey plays one of Zafira’s husband’s
Lord Zellenger who is at least over the top in his performance. I mean the man gets totally jealous and tries
to kill the Doctor because Zafira has fallen in love with the Doctor. The supporting cast member to really steal
the show is Jacqueline Pierce as Queen Zafira in a complete over the top
starring role as her motivation while noble leads to hilarity. I mean she sees the Doctor as intelligent and
long lived so her mind automatically jumps to wanting to marry him. It’s a hilarious idea and Pierce is simply a
terrifying actress in the role that you really buy into it.
Peter Davison however
cannot be said gives a good performance in this story. He obviously isn’t taking this one seriously
and has the Doctor almost act like a drunk throughout the story. Davison is actually doing the story as a
complete pantomime and really I don’t understand why he would. It is a silly script sure, but there is some
dark imagery there to bring the comedic moments down to Earth. There is some interesting stuff near the end
explaining how the hive minded Hexagora have become closer to humans as they
believe in individuality now, but really that’s about all there is for this
story. Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet
Fielding as Tegan both have better outings in this story. Nyssa is immediately praised for being
royalty which gives a nice exploration of how the destruction of Traken has
affected her on the inside and how she really doesn’t feel like she’s royalty. This is a very good angle to approach the
character and one that wasn’t explored that often on television. Janet Fielding as Tegan also steals the show
as well in this one she is treated like a complete peasant which of course
royally pisses of the Australian mouth on legs.
Fielding is having a blast working off the other characters in this
story as Tegan has to see her friend turned into an insect and demand attention
from the royalty which is hilarious.
Tegan actually is the one to wander off and try to figure out the
mystery of the planet which has her in the front and center which gives off a
really good vibe.
To summarize, Hexagora is a definite step down from The Elite in terms of a plot. The ideas are really bog standard for Doctor
Who and there really isn’t a reason for this to have been made for
television. The supporting actors do
give really good performance as well as Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding, but it
is the oddly flat performance from Peter Davison as the Doctor that really
decreases the quality of the story. Ling
really should have kept with the surreal stories if he wanted to succeed and
Brian Finch really brought in an above average adaptation. 60/100
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