Big Finish Reviews+ The Behemoth by Tony J Fyler

The Behemoth begins a new set of three adventures for the Sixth Doctor, and a merging of two of his previous streams – with both Flip Jackson (now Mrs Ramon after her marriage to Jared) and Mrs Constance Clarke, former leading WREN at Bletchley Park, aboard the Tardis. Colin Baker has proved over his history at Big Finish to be astonishingly adept at altering the nuance of his Doctor to accommodate different companions with different demands and rhythms, and in this script by Marc ‘frequently confusing as hell, but always worth a listen’ Platt, he proves that adaptability once more. Platt also does some work here that is genuinely wonderful in building a sisterly bond between the thirtysomething 1930s WREN and the barely 19 year-old 21^st century girl.

So, the first reason to check out The Behemoth is for the quality character-work laid down by Platt, and elevated by Baker, Miranda Raison as Constance and Lisa Greenwood as Flip, all of whom are on top form in this adventure.

The second reason to check it out is because it goes somewhere that for all its toing and froing, Doctor Who has seldom if ever gone before – the existence of the slave trade. Not the science-fiction, blue-skinned underclass slave trade of some potential future, the actual slave trade between Britain and the Americas, where people were judged to be chattel simply by virtue of the colour of their skin. We pay a visit to the super-sophisticated city of Bath in 1756, and we see the lives of those in polite society, those in the murderous, messy business of slaving, and we go down the social ladder to the slaves themselves, to witness some of the grimness of a life literally owned by other humans. It’s a brave move, and Platt plays it with a straight bat – it’s far easier to empathise with the slave characters here, Sarah and Gorembe (Diveen Henry and Ben Arogundade respectively), than with anyone else, but there’s nevertheless sympathy to spare for some of the more genteel, privileged characters who are duped and tricked along the way by some of the slavers. The slaver characters are more or less straightforward in their evil and their immorality, so there’s little by way of murkiness to interfere with the message. Slavery bad. To which of course the modern response is ‘Ya-huh!’

As to what the ‘behemoth’ of the title actually is – ooh, it’s a Plattish peculiarity of the first order, and to reveal what it is would rob you of some of the pleasure of the audio, because the nature of the Behemoth is a point of contention at least halfway into the story. Suffice it here to say that whatever you think it might be, you’re going to be wrong. Oh, so, so wrong.

It would be true to say that the mysterious nature of the Behemoth means that you’re kept guessing for a long while as to what ‘kind’ of story The Behemoth is. When you finally realise what it is, you’ll smile at the slightly old-fashioned nature of what you’ve just experienced, especially when contrasted with the exceptional characterisation work of the three leads and the subject matter. Like many Platt stories, it’s an odd listen, but you’ll finish it, scratch your head, smile a bit, listen to one or two more releases and then find yourself drawn back to The Behemoth for another listen. And when you hear it the second time, with its secrets already known, you’ll get a lot more from it in terms of the dance on which it leads you, through the strata of society of a pretty, privileged, grim, bloody, complex, horrifying world, the stain of which still marks our societies to this day.