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DAVROS (BF Audio)

2 episodes. Approx. 150 minutes. Written by: Lance Parkin. Directed
by: Gary Russell. Produced by: Gary Russell.


THE PLOT

Arnold Baynes (Bernard Horsfall), head of TransAllied, Inc. (TAI), has
come into possession of a new asset: Davros (Terry Molloy), the long-
reviled scientist responsible for the creation of the Daleks. Baynes
believes that Davros' genius will give his company the spark it needs
to expand outside our galaxy. His wife, historian and Dalek apologist
Lorraine Baynes (Wendy Padbury), thirsts to interview Davros for a
"definitive biography." Neither realizes just how dangerous their
newest employee truly is.

The Doctor is at TAI on completely unrelated business. He is
determined to look into the corporation in a smart, careful fashion.
Then he sees Davros, and all thoughts of caution evaporate. He stalks
into the company, demanding to know what Baynes thinks he's doing.
Within minutes, he finds himself agreeing to work with Davros on TAI's
projects - to keep himself in a position to thwart any plot Davros
might hatch.

But the brilliant Kaled scientist is already several steps ahead of
him...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: You can hear the relish in Colin Baker's voice as he dives
into this high-quality script. Writer Lance Parkin makes sure to
emphasize the Doctor's compassion, his value for life. He agrees to
continue working with Davros to cure the galaxy's famine problem,
simply because he cannot turn his back on such a situation. You can
hear the sincerity in his voice as he warns Baynes that Davros will
destroy him. When Davros is subjecting innocents to high doses of
radiation, the Doctor waits to stop him until after he acts to save
those lives. And yet this is still the prickly Sixth Doctor, who can't
resist baiting Davros with childish behavior or with remarks about the
chair-bound scientist being a "stand-up comedian."

Davros: As good as Colin Baker is, this story truly belongs to Terry
Molloy's Davros. Though we're never fooled into thinking that he has
changed, the first half of the serial does seduce us into empathizing
with him, if only a little. In flashbacks, we hear the "human" Davros,
before the explosion that crippled him. He seems to be a very normal
man. In another flashback, we hear his horror just after the explosion
as he views his savagely burned face. Meanwhile, in the story's
present, he is contemplative. He insists to the Doctor that he
believes he can change, and he may even be sincere in his desire to
change.

Then the second half reminds us of his evil. The flashbacks become
darker, and we see that he was a monster long before his exterior was
burned and scarred to make his nature visible. We get as much of a
look into his psyche as a Doctor Who adventure story can allow, and
what we see is pathetic. Davros is a "spoiled child" who cannot stand
the idea of competition, who only feels powerful when he uses his
genius to destroy. "There can never be too much destruction!" he
declares. As we hear him giggling even while listening to the dying
moans of his latest victims, we realize that he means it.


THOUGHTS

Davros is a genuinely great audio story, one of the best of Big Finish
Production's entire Doctor Who range. It's a long story, taking up the
entire length of the two cd's it occupies. A full 150 minutes. But
it's compelling. It would be a disservice to say that the story goes
by in an eyeblink while listening. Time actually stops while listening
to this story, a story which envelopes the listener in its world and
its narrative.

Lance Parkin was one of the best writers of the Doctor Who book range,
which makes it surprising that he's only written a couple of stories
for Big Finish. He's done superb work here. Given the assignment to
write a story for Davros without the Daleks, he draws on the
background given the character in his televised stories and fills in
the blanks. Flashbacks show us the war-torn Skaro that was the only
home Davros ever knew, the harsh conditions of which molded him into
the man he became.

Credit must be given to Jim Mortimore's sound design. A story which
mixes past and present must always take particular care to
differentiate the two. That's even true of visual works, let alone on
audio. The production team use the Dalek "strobe" to identify the
flashbacks. Every time Davros recalls his time on Skaro, that sound
plays constantly in the background. That and a faint echo lend a
feeling of unreality to the scenes in the past, while transitions
between the flashbacks and the present are extremely well-judged.

Though superb, Davros is not flawless. There's a subplot involving
Willis (Eddie de Oliveira), an investigative journalist following up
on information about TAI. Willis is a weak character, effortlessly
outclassed by the heavyweight cast surrounding him. He exists to
provide an excuse for the Doctor's presence at TAI when Davros
arrives. Better if the Doctor had just been there by chance; I can't
really picture him being concerned with the petty day-to-day
skullduggery of corporations.

Despite the misjudged Willis subplot, Davros is one of Big Finish's
masterpieces. Wonderfully acted, particularly by Colin Baker and Terry
Molloy, and boasting a compelling script, this is one of a handful of
audio Who stories I'd comfortably refer to as "a classic."


Rating: 10/10.

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