The Year of the Pig

The Doctor and Peri are on holiday, taking a well deserved rest for a change, but their rest is soon interrupted by the strange goings-on at the seaside hotel they have chosen. Peri receives a mystery thank you gift hours prior to her saving a man's life in the sea - a man who turns out to be a French inspector on the trail of an elusive quarry. Within the hotel sits Toby the Sapient Pig - a well-dressed porcine chap watching his old film reels and dreaming of the past, while ordering lunch and snacks on a rotating basis. And what would celebrity be without the enthusiastic fan Miss Baltitude stalking the corridors of the hotel hoping for a glimpse of her hero? Toby's life is in danger, and very soon the Doctor and Peri are also at risk, but before they can save Toby, they have to figure out who the real threat is.

The Year of the Pig is an interesting title, probably chosen seeing as it's release did coincide with the Chinese New Year becoming that of the pig. Toby himself is an interesting character, being an actual pig cpabale of speech and reason - based in part on the real theatrical character Toby the Sapient Pig who was an exhibit in the ninteenth century. Played by Paul Brooke he sounds like the original Winnie the Pooh, or even Kaa the snake from The Jungle Book ... or someone's kindly grandfather telling stories of when he was a boy. Maureen O'Brien - yes, Vicki herself from the 60s - plays the doting Miss Baltitute, a very creepy kind of obsessed groupie who ingratiates herself into Toby's inner circle when his nurse goes off to help the Doctor look for the threats to Toby's life.

Notes elsewhere online place this tale further back in continuity between Timelash and Revelation of the Daleks, perhaps owing to it's 2 part format as was the case with The Reaping, but the interplay between Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri is more in keeping with later adventures where their relationship is less rocky (which is either the Doctor finally settling down after his regeneration or Peri easing up on the comments that set him off). There is also the question of the version of the opening theme used for the adventure - the version that debuted in the season 23 epic Trial of a Time Lord.

And that's next...

NEXT EPISODE : THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET

I, Davros - Guilt

Now crippled and barely held alive by a life support system of his own design, Davros has risen to levels of power and influence his mother could never dream of. At first targeted for abduction and execution by the Thals, and then rescued by a crack Kaled squad led by an amitious lieutenant named Nyder, Davros forms the elite scientific corps and demands total control of all resources and personnel. His plans for the children of Skaro are met with opposition from the Supremo and the Kaled council of twelve, and thus his first coup is staged - exterminating those who oppose him and carrying him forward on the tide to take his place in Kaled - and universal - history.

Thus ends the final chapter of I, Davros, bringing us within months of the events witnessed in Genesis of the Daleks. The unholy alliance of Davros and Nyder is formed, with Peter Miles reprising his role of over 30 years ago as if it was yesterday, and the Kaled military elite sweep into power with no-one to stop them. There is indeed no going back for the Kaled people, all their new infants are being mutated in the womb through mandatory injections and then placed in the incubation chambers to await the next phase of their lives. Davros no longer sees them as the children of Skaro but as his own, revisiting the oft-alluded-to notion of his "parenthood" despite his inability to be a father in his deformed condition.

There's not much more to say about this; I've gone on and on about how great the epic tale is, how much fun it was to see Davros emerge as the ruthless man we know him to be, and now to see the final link to his first appearance in the televised series - that of his association with Nyder - is just perfection.

I will say one thing though ... we are left hanging. This started as a trial, and there is no closing scene with the Daleks delivering any kind of verdict on Davros. Where does he go from here? We know he makes a return in the future in both audio and on television, but the essential step to those appearances is still missing. Maybe there is more story to tell?

NEXT EPISODE : THE YEAR OF THE PIG

The Reaping

While visiting a lunar history archive, Peri discovers that a childhood friend's father has passed away, and she begs the Doctor to take her to the funeral in Baltimore. Their arrival on Earth in 1984 is not the happy homecoming Peri had hoped for; her mother, Janine Foster, has split with Peri's stepfather Howard over Peri's disappearance on Lanzarote, and a lingering anger between mother and daughter remains. The Doctor undertakes an investigation into the dead man's past and discovers that he had come into contact with the Cybermen in another of their attempts to repopulate their species before they vanish from the universe, and the graves of the recently departed may contain a threat to the future of humanity...

I was a bit thrown by the decision to make The Reaping as a 2-part story instead of a 4-parter as was the arrangement for the previous discs following Revelation of the Daleks, but it made for good storytelling regardless, building to one big climax point as opposed to breaking the story up into smaller ones. The strength of the adventure lies not in the pace, though, but in the tension created from Peri's sudden return to her normal life after no explaination of her absence - indeed, her mother thought she was dead as did her friends. There's a fun flashback at the start of the adventure to Lanzarote the morning of Peri's fateful meeting with the Doctor and Turlough; Nicola Bryant manages to perk up her voice a bit and sound like the teenager she was back then. And speaking of voices, Peri's mother, Janine, is played by the incredible Claudia Christian who sci fi geeks will know best as Ivanova from Babylon 5.

This play is the prequel to the earlier-reviewed The Gathering, wherein the fifth Doctor meets Tegan again in Australia. The surviving members of The Reaping appear in it as well, bringing a Cyber-conversion unit with them as spoils of the adventure, as it promises to cure cancer if used properly. I'm not a huge fan of the intertwining storyline when it operates like this; a similar experiment was done with the novels Blood Harvest and Goth Opera in theVirgin Books range and it worked okay, there was always the problem, though, of keeping continuity straight. I'll say this much though; I don't like the ending.

NEXT EPISODE : I, DAVROS - GUILT

I, Davros - Corruption

As the war against the Thals rages on, the Kaled people retreat underneath a massive dome that covers what is left of the city. With the help of his mother, Davros continues to gain influence and notoriety to the point where he is the subject of an attempted kidnap by Thal soldiers. Davros' focus has gone beyond the creation of weapons, though, and all his energies are put into the survival of the Kaled people, a fact that stays his execution long enough to warrant as escape. But Davros' life is about to change - a rogue Thal shell will alter his life forever and make him into the man the Doctor will encounter time and again in the future.

The Big Finish team once again deliver a fine chapter in the life of Davros, evoking a creeping air of desperation as the war against the Thals drags on longer and longer, and bigger weapons are brought into play. Resources are starting to dwindle, and the heightened parinoia amongst the Kaleds results in an even deeper divide between Davros' surviving family members. Davros' own egotism will cause him to turn on a close ally, recreating events alluded to in Davros, not so very long ago.

The thing about this adventure series is you don't actually miss the Daleks. There is a requisite exchange between Davros and a Dalek at the start and finish of the CD as a reminder that Davros is on trial, but after that it's right into the war on Skaro where extinction is the price of pride. Just as with Spare Parts and the origins of the Cybermen, the story of survival on Skaro is fascinating and definitely warrants the length of examination across 4 CDs, building towards the climax that will lead into Genesis of the Daleks.

But before we go there...

NEXT EPISODE : THE REAPING