Review by Cavan Gilbey
The Doom’s Day event is a weird one. The last time we have a multimedia event like this was Time Lord Victorious, a story which didn’t do much to separate itself a lot of the Time War media which had come out around the event. But some of the stories stood out as being pretty good on their own, namely those two Master starring Short Trips and Genetics of the Daleks which worked because of how standalone they were. Dying Hours feels like it really needs the prior hours of the story to fully appreciate what was going one, especially in the final story. The problem is most people will do what I do and listen to this in isolation because these multimedia events always have a high buy in price. It’s a lot easier to just buy this one boxset than all the linking comics, DWM strips, novels and BBC Audio releases. So I want you to keep that in mind, I haven’t heard anything else from Doom’s Day. It might shock you to hear that this boxset is actually quite good.
Hands down the element that sells this boxset the best is that central performance from Sooz Kempner as Doom. Her performance is one of the strongest we’ve had in a Doctor Who audio story for a long time. From the first seconds of the first episode, Kempner perfectly gives you everything you need to know about Doom. She’s feisty yet with a gallows humour that reminds you of the grim implications of Doom’s career. Despite being quite a hardened killer, Kempner injects a strong emotional core into her role and her performances in the second and final episodes especially show how that extra element of humanisation really just helps Doom feel one of the best character additions we’ve had in a long time. The only sin is that we didn’t get her in a story with River because I can see Kempner and Kingston getting on like a house on fire.
Jacqueline Rayner brings us the first story in the set, Dawn of an Everlasting Peace. It’s also a good idea to up a set about an assassin with a classic hitman story where Doom is instructed with bumping off one of the diplomats present at the ceremony which underscores the events of the beloved The Dalek Masterplan. But don’t worry, a deep understanding of that serial is not needed at all to get the full enjoyment of this story, it helps with a couple of the little jokes about Zephon’s squeaky voice but they are funny on their own as Kempner does a good job showing the exasperation that comes with attempting to mimic something that high pitched. What Raynor’s script actually focuses on is a touching and heartfelt bond between a mother and her son, who has been affected by the same weapon that ultimately killed Sara Kingdom. There’s some great dialogue that explores the time they’ve lost and how its difficult to be in public because of how their relationship looks, as well as the way that the son misses his father. The chemistry between cast members Trevor Littledale and Susie Riddell is perfectly maternal and they both do a great job at capturing the tragedy of their personal lives.
Where I think this story does slightly fail is that the second half ends up becoming slightly convoluted and a bit of a generic run around, with the central antagonist not really ever getting much time to be developed as much of a personal threat to any of the characters or even much of an ideological threat. Which is a shame because the twist reveal could have been a really effective bit of commentary on the question ‘who do cops truly protect?’
As an opener to Dying Hours, this is a brilliant character piece that really does its job of setting up who Doom is well. By the end of this story, you’ll have a strong grasp on the dark and light sides of the character and Raynor’s emotional heart beats strong at the core of what could have been a generic rerun of countless assassination tropes.
8/10
Robert Valentine’s A Date With Destiny follows and is perhaps my highlight of this boxset. It actually echoes a lot of the same positives I had for Harvest of the Krotons from the most recent River Song boxset. The main focus is placed on the strong chemistry between Kempner and Coduri and how Jackie’s emotional development makes for some of the best domestic work in the franchise. Valentine does a good at capturing how lonely these two characters are, but also how they feel like their lives are governed and driven by that loneliness. Jackie and Doom have trouble with finding romance, and it gets to them, there’s a great deal of sympathy towards both of the characters and the way they bond over a mutual need to always find the Doctor. Doom and Destiny provide a good comedic duo, with Kempner and Bannerman firing on all cylinders to perfectly time their bickering and arguing that is laced with both jealousy and patronising venom.
The major flaw is that the general flow of the plot is structured around being one long chase sequence, so expect a lot of sudden and quick scene changes. This does leave the script with having to rush through a couple of the major emotional beats because of the nature of needing to keep the story dashing along at the pace it does.
A Date With Destiny is a powerful little emotional study between two characters who are more alike than they think, but it is let down a story structure that doesn’t always allow itself to breath in those quieter character focused moments.
8/10
The Howling Wolves of Xan-Phear by Simon Clark follows this and it’s a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. On the surface I love the concept; a lone Silent is controlling the outcome of this war for their own needs and everyone is oblivious to the fact they are being manipulated with Doom trying to convince them otherwise. That’s a story I could really get behind but so much of Clark’s script is focused on a very generic war story, with the Silent being ironically forgotten for most of the run time only to have them hastily defeated in the final moments of the story. The story is one of those ones that you can clearly tell with vivid visuals in mine because the whole werewolf aspect of this story isn’t particularly evocative in terms of the soundscapes created, the sound design team are clearly doing their best but there’s only so far that faint howling in the background can get you without it feeling like a crutch.
I can’t really think of much to say about this one because it is somewhat predictable, there’s a couple of moments which would provide funny visuals with Doom knocking a Silent out but nothing that manages to quite sustain the imagination for the full runtime of the episode. It’s the first sign of the boxset losing steam after a pair of strong openers.
6/10
Finally the set ends with The Crowd by Lizzie Hopley, and Doom finally finds her target as she is united with The Doctor and Charley Pollard to stop a group of beings who feed off of the energy created from disasters and devastating events. Hopley sets the story around the murder of Thomas Beckett, but the historical aspects of the story barely make an impact as much of the story is taken up with scenes of Doom and The Doctor arguing, with a notably subdued performance from Paul McGann who doesn’t sound like he is much enjoying the script. There’s a really strong concept at the core here, much like the previous story, but the historical setting and alien threat both feel like they should be full stories on their own but are trapped fighting for focus in a story which barely breaks 55 minutes. The early moments of the episode are by the strongest of the story, especially with how Doom reacts to the scene of the crime and her seeing the Doctor after searching for so long. Kempner does a good job at showing a professional hiding their excitement and her performance is really the thing carrying this episode, especially when she gets to so the humanity of Doom in the later scenes.
The dying hours of Dying Hours are something of whimper, and if I’m being honest the inclusion of The Doctor actually brings the story down for me since it takes away the focus from Doom’s emotional arc getting its conclusion. With a pair of narrative concepts desperately fighting for airtime and a supporting cast which don’t seem all too invested in the episode, The Crowd feels like the set is just spinning its wheels before coming to an ending which doesn’t satisfy much.
5/10
On the whole Dying Hours is way better than I think people are going to give it credit for, simply because it is attached to a multimedia event that has been mismanaged and barely advertised from the start. This set does give you a good enough idea of the core concepts which run throughout the event, and if you have to experience anything from it make it this set but do so knowing that the back half undersells the potential significantly.
7/10
Order on CD/Download from Big Finish
Order on CD from Amazon
Check out the rest of our Big Finish reviews!
Indie Mac User 