Saturday, February 9, 2013

Audio: Doctor Who - Omega

Audio: Doctor Who - Omega


Big Finish start a trilogy of plays where they delve a little more deeply into three classic villians, starting with Time Lord Omega. Dead Ringers writer Nev Fountain has fun with the idea, suggesting as a villain, Omega is pretty rubbish; in his sleeve notes he jokes that 'all he's managed to do in thirty years of fist-waving vengeance is upset some office equipment and kill a gardener' but then goes on to add that, as a hero, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) is pretty fallible, leaving 'a trail of carnage and destruction behind him.' Omega then, becomes a tale that looks into the character of the Doctor as much as Omega himself and Fountain produces a story that is funny, clever and containing one of the best twists in Doctor Who ever.

The Doctor arrives on a spacestation run by Jolly Chronolidays, a firm that recreates history for tourists. Fountain has much fun here, positing a future where, while time travel is possible, it's over rated with real history being dirty and having no toilets or refreshment facilities. Holiday makers prefer their history reconstructed, a theme which runs deeply and cleverly throughout the whole play. The spacestation is situated in the 'Sector of Forgotten Souls', the area where Omega disappeared after detonating The Hand of Omega, the Stellar Manipulator that gave Time Lords dominion over time. Here, actors such as shallow Daland (an excellent Hugo Myatt) and Tarpov (the reliably wooden Conrad Westmaas) dress up and act out Omega's story. But something is wrong and Tarpov finds himself being taken over by the spirit of the character he plays, a Time Lord who stood up to Omega and lost his hands. What is happening here? How is Stewardess Sentia (Bond girl Caroline Munro) involved? Is there more to visiting Omega scholar Professor Erikus than meets the eye? When Omega turns up the Doctor is not surprised but can the Doctor trust what he is seeing?


Continuing Big Finish's confident phase of using audio to their advantage, Omega is a story that can only work without pictures and is in fact essential for the tale to work. it's one that may have listeners giving the story a second listen, so audacious is the twist that occurs at the end of part three. While Omega is very funny in places and the Doctor, with all his jokes, seems as if Davison has become Tom Baker for a story, the tale is also very clever and has a thematic throughline that Fountain develops well. Omega to some, including in earlier times the Doctor, is a great Time Lord hero while to viewers of Dr Who, he is a ranting egomaniac. The truth is neither, with the play delving not just into his tortured mind (as a result of events related to the play's twist) but into his backstory, revealing a character who is not hero, villain or martyr but scientist. Fountain also mischeviously makes us totally reconsider what the name Omega means. Both Davison and the returning Ian Collier as Omega put in excellent performances, knowing the material warrants it.

It's difficult to write more without giving away the twist and, while I'm sure most readers of this have heard it, I'll spare spoiling it on the off chance someone reads this and decides to pick it up. Fountain shows himself, after the less than satisfying Death Comes To Time webcast, to be in fact an excellent new writer to the range, giving us an original and enjoyable tale.

GK Rating: **** The Blog of Delights

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