Charley Pollard, Meet the Men From Mondas

Big Finish Productions

Doctor Who: Sword of Orion

Written by: Nicholas Briggs

Directed by: Nicholas Briggs

Released: 26th February 2001

Characters: Paul McGann as the Doctor, India Fisher as Charley Pollard with Michelle Livingstone as Deeva Jansen and Bruce Montague as Grashe and Nicholas Briggs as Cyber Leader

Timeline: This story takes place after the TV Movie

Summary: When the Doctor sets out to educate Charley on the darker side of her race's future, he does not anticipate being embroiled in the protracted Orion War. The front line may be light years away, but the human race's struggle for victory has led to desperate measures.
Trapped aboard a mysterious star destroyer in the Garazone System, the Doctor and Charley find themselves cast as scapegoats. But the real danger has yet to awaken...
The Cybermen have received the signal for reactivation.

Introduction: After the very succesful start of this new Eight Doctor range of audios, the production team has decided to return to the classics in this second story. They wanted a known villain and at the same time a good enough story set in the distant future.

The Daleks were very well known adversaries but were a too obvious choice and besides they already featured in audio with the Seventh (The Genocide Machine) Doctor so the Cybermen were due to make an appearance.

In the foreword of this audio the author Nicholas Briggs (also giving voice to most of the Cybermen) notes that the original story was written on an old type-writer machine and was left aside years ago, until it was finally edited and adopted for audio.

Storywise Mr Briggs shows his preferance for the Robert Holmes/Phillip Hinchcliffe era and of course his love for the cybernized humanoid race and if you’ve ever got your hands on any of his creations you’d know his affinity for certain deadly pepperpots from Skaro.

One thing good to note is that this story doesn’t resolve that ‘sort of’ small cliff-hanger-like ending to the Storm Warning, though there are some references to it.

(I recommend you get the previous story anyway because some things still might confuse you.)

And so after an eerie preview the story begins with the Doctor and Charley already being on some kind of an alien planet and wandering through the bazaar, looking for medicine for the apparently ill Ramsay – the vortisor they rescued in the previous story.

In their search they stumble onto a shop whose owner originally works on a scrap-ship but as the Doctor correctly points out he’s also into smuggling of stolen goods. The shop-owner - fearing to have been discovered by the authorities – informs his accomplice of the two strangers.

After some time it ends up being pretty similar to any other Doctor Who story – the Doctor offers to take his newest companion somewhere she’s never been before but before they even enter the time ship, it’s been pulled on the ship of the shop-owner’s accomplices - leaving the Doctor and Charley temporarily stranded. But soon enough the Doctor finds some kind of a flying craft (imagine the one Tom Baker piloted in The Pirate Planet) and shows his flying skills.

Robert Holmes type of storyline comes into play here, when the Doctor and Charley arrive on the space ship and pretty soon get accused of murder of one of its crew. (Robots of Death anyone?)

But of course the murder accusation is the least of their problems as something deadly lurks in the background, pretty soon taking out the members of the crew, one by one and the ship’s captain who is not who she appears to be…

I really enjoyed this play, not for its originality, because it’s obviously been done before but for its execution and performances from the cast and crew.

Once again McGann shows his enthusiasm for the role by perfecting his performance and showing us how great of a Doctor he might have been if the series was commisioned after the telemovie.

India Fisher is also brilliant and shows her character’s intelligence, stubborness but also bravery when confronted by the men from Mondas.

Other members of the cast are also good, especially Michelle Livingstone as the ship's captain Deeva, who appears to have hidden agendas of her own and Bruce Montague as the rebbelious Grashe.

Overall this is a very good play, well written – though at times you could have a hard time distinguishing who is who of the scrap-ship's crew…but on another listen everything becomes perfectly clear and then you wonder why it wasn't in the first place.

I would give it 9 out of 10 for the above mentioned reasons. You can get it here.