Taking the TARDIS team of
Season Four to a space casino is an interesting way for Steve Lyons to explore
their characters in a different way. The
story of House of Cards is a twofold
plot. The first plot involves Polly
going into time high jinx with a time traveler while time travel is outlawed in
this casino while the second concerns Ben Jackson getting into debt with the
Sidewinder Syndicate, those in charge of the casino and is taken to the Game of
Life where he has to compete until his debt is repaid or he dies, whichever
comes first. Of course the situation
really works well as the plots intertwine with the sinister Miss Fortune being
the figurehead behind the casino and all our hero’s problems, and Polly trying
her hardest not to change things around with the story. The Sidewinder Syndicate are interesting
villains being taken from the 1960s. They are giant snakes that were once stuck
in Chicago during the Prohibition so when they came back to the future, they’ve
become gangsters. Anneke Wills with
quite a lot of voice modulation is excellent at the snakes, giving them these
nice hissing sounds on the s’s quite like the Ice Warriors yet distinct. If I had to complain I would say there could
have been just a little less on the voice modulation because it does get in the
way of Anneke Wills’ acting. Wills also
plays Miss Fortune using her natural voice plus a little accent to make the
character feel terrifying. Miss Fortune
is a character that had to be done that way, but I would have preferred that
she was played by a different actress, even if it was just Lisa Bowerman.
Lyons does an excellent
job of making each of the four main cast distinct from each other. Ben Jackson like in The Macra Terror is the one to be put under the hypnotic influence
of the casino. He is the one in the
story from the working class so does have a lot to do with gambling. It really works with the character of a
sailor that the original series did with him which is of course how Anneke
Wills plays him. Frazer Hines as Jamie
McCrimmon actually tries to be the voice of reason for Ben while he’s
gambling. Jamie knows about gambling
houses and knows how people are swindlers and cheats, but Ben doesn’t listen. As Ben is put out of action Lyons has Jamie
be the one to save a lot of the creatures in the casino. It’s still early days for Jamie, but he is
still able to figure out how to disable robots by stabbing them in the eye with
his knife which is an excellent way to disable them. The Second Doctor is similarly portrayed to
the version seen in The Moonbase
which is an excellent portrayal, but again he is often in the background. Anneke Wills again steals the show as Polly
for the story as she is the one who goes on to save Ben. She knows she can’t change history, but is still
going to try. This leads to the high
jinx as she finds someone using time travel to repay her debt. The girl is a sympathetic character, but
there really isn’t much done in the way of closure to the story for her
character arc.
To summarize, House of Cards is Steve Lyons’ great
story about a space casino and feels very much like it could have taken place
outside of The Macra Terror. While there really isn’t everything to happen
to each member of the TARDIS Team Lyons does excellent in the way of creating
realistic portrayals of each of them.
Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines really make the story feel like a full
cast audio with each of them taking up supporting characters which all feel
like they’re created with their own lives.
The ending is excellent but a bit of the production just takes you out
of the story. 85/100.
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