Tony’s
bloomin’ ravenous…
Four box sets.
More or less sixteen hours of storytelling.
It all
culminates here.
No pressure.
Ultimately, the
tale of the Ravenous – a very odd species that are pitched as the Time Lord’s
natural predator from the dawn of Time Lord history and that look strangely
like evil clowns (because go figure) – has taken the Eighth Doctor’s Tardis
team on quite the journey, including a stop-off of a year or so for Liv Chenka
to allegedly mend some fences with her sister (We’ll hear how that goes in
upcoming spin-off series The Robots), Helen Sinclair ageing more or less
to the point of death, only to be rescued from a fate very much like death by
something which would be spoilery if you haven’t heard an earlier Ravenous
box set, and the Doctor going on a journey of attempted redemption of a
long-held enemy.
But this set is
where the story of the Ravenous ends, so it needs a few things to happen: it
needs either to explain the Ravenous properly or to defeat them utterly; it
needs a sense of the epic, of scales so enormous they warrant the previous
twelve hours and the four of this set. It needs to pay off story arcs, to
reward characterisation and development, and to make us nod once we’re done,
satisfied that we’ve come to the end of a full-on saga.
…
Mission
accomplished.
The set opens
up in the suitably low-key Whisper, by Matt Fitton, with the Doctor and
friends – loosely including the Eleven in that collective – needing a break and
some recuperation time after the high-stress ending of box set 3.
Bless.
They arrive on
a planet with a predator which hunts based on loud sounds – so every
conversation on the surface has to be conducted in whispers. For those who know
the movie, this will be familiar territory from A Quiet Place. Lots of
planets, it turns out, have a quiet place. This one though has something
altogether more creepy going on. We mean that literally – when the Doctor and
Co are separated, they each encounter survivors of an expedition to the planet,
who have a subterranean base, where the predator can’t catch them.
Or…
Can it?
Events unfold
like a smashing together of a classic base under siege story with a dash of
post-modern horror movie (Did you lock the enemy out, or trap them inside with
you? And, which is worse to contemplate, how do you find out without risking
your life?). Matt Fitton creates a situation which is inherently tense and puts
people on edge – the idea of whispering is instinctively linked to secrets, to
hiding, to doing something wrong and not wanting to be found out, so you listen
to this story with a heightened intensity, not just to clearly hear everything
that’s being said, but because the very premise puts your fight or flight
response on high alert. The revelation of the truth of the planet is delivered
with practiced aplomb – you almost feel it coming, and yet when it arrives, it
craaaawls up your consciousness, taking its time to deliver the fullness of its
horror to your brain.
And then you
yelp, and whimper, and rely on the Time Lord with the once-floppy hair to get
you out of the story alive.
So with nerves
freshly jangled, you’re almost relieved to escape to a seemingly barren desert
world – the Planet Of Dust of Fitton’s second story. There’s a touch of Revelation
of the Daleks about this one (Disclaimer – no Daleks appear in this story),
in that the Master is coming over all ‘Great Provider’ on the planet Parak,
despite of course being in reality a life-stealing, slave-driving cowl-covered ultra-git.
More than in most Geoffrey Beevers Master stories though, there’s an edge of
urgency in his sadism here, because the Master is running out of time. Finally.
Actually. The constant reversion of his stolen bodies to the decayed, burned
appearance of the Pratt and Beevers Masters is wearing thin, and wearing him
out. So the Master is on Parak looking for one very specific thing. And if he
finds it, he hopes, he’ll be able to avoid the destiny of his death and go on
again.
But the Doctor
and friends arrive to mess up his desperate archaeology (Oh for a pal with a
sonic trowel – it’s not like the Doctor doesn’t have a couple to spare), while
the Eleven becomes a major factor – will he join with the Doctor to stop the
Master’s obscene and terrifying plan, or will he jump ship and join the Master
in his excavations for the secret of an immortality beyond anything Rassilon
ever hoped for? Or, just possibly, does he have a gameplan of his own in coming
to Parak? And what of the Ravenous? With the Master seeking to uncover an
endless supply of Time Lord life, how long can the Ravenous be held at bay?
There’s a feeling
in The Planet Of Dust of it not being an Eighth Doctor story at all, but
actually the long, hard, action-packed version of a Caves Of Androzani
for the Beevers Master, his ultimate facedown of his own mortality showing his
diligence, his monstrosity, his determination to burn the universe to death if
it will let him live as king of the wasteland. It’s a powerhouse piece that
showcases the Beevers Master, while allowing room for many other forceful
characters to run about, make plans, connive, rebel, revolt, and try to steal the
potential of his triumph from under his fingertips. Without giving away too
much, if you’re a fan of the Beevers Master and the journey he’s so far had on
audio, this is always going to be a special story for you. It’s also got enough
underlying oomph to offer listeners more directly interested in the story of
the Ravenous their fair share of the action and story development too. And if
you’re a fan of Liv Chenka’s no-nonsense pragmatism about people in the
universe in which she lives, you’ll love and laugh at this story too, as Liv’s
appraisal of what’s going on turns out to be blisteringly accurate.
It’s possible
you could have got all the way to listening to it without realising that the
culmination of the Ravenous story arc is a two-part epic entitled Day Of The
Master and written by John Dorney. It’s not likely you’ll have done
that, but if you have, apologies. There are Masters everywhere you look in this
final two-hour extravaganza – Derek Jacobi’s War Master matching wits and
bullets with Liv Chenka. Michelle Gomez’s Missy reprising her pointy stick
routine, but this time with the more acquiescent Helen. And the Eric Roberts
Master…
Well, the Eric
Roberts Master has gone somewhere very, very special. Tres dangereuse.
Maximum ‘Are you out of your tiny freakin’ mind?!’
Needless to say
of course, it’s where the Eighth Doctor decides to go too, so there’s a pitched
battle between these two reunited adversaries, for the heart and soul of Time
Lord history. You know of Omega. You know of Rassilon. You’re about to meet a
third figure from the days when time travel was new and regeneration was just a
glint in a Gallifreyan eye. You’ll know their name, but never necessarily have
appreciated their place in the Time Lord hierarchy. So, buckle up – your
understanding of the Doctor Who universe is about to change, probably forever.
In addition to
which, there are significant, important callbacks here to earlier in the Ravenous
story arc – in fact, without having listened to one particular interlude in the
arc, you may find yourself spun off the ride at this point because – guess
what? – Things Were Not As They Seemed.
I know –
shocking.
The point of
all of this though is that the reason and the way in which things weren’t as
they seemed ties in with a shedload of previously unexplored Gallifreyan
history, what the Beevers Master was looking for, the origin of the Ravenous,
the Eleven’s ultimate plans, three Masters working together to secure both
their past and their future, and an ending which involves the expansion of a
Time Lord gift to the whole universe, Liv Chenka getting increasingly angry
every time she gets shot (well, you would, wouldn’t you?), Helen Sinclair
flying out of a window and the conversation she has there, and the finding of a
way to undo what was done before the Ravenous turn the universe into a feeding
frenzy.
It’s an epic
battle that creeps up on you – the symphony of Masters working together is
utterly sublime, and a peculiarity about the Roberts incarnation is put to good
use within the story, but it’s the consequences of the McGann-Roberts battle
that chiefly decides the future. It ends with the sewing up of strands from
across the whole story arc, and with a final scene that is glorious in ways it
would be an absolute crime to spoiler for you. In a way, it’s the end, but by
the time we get there, the moment has been well and truly prepared for.
The fourth Ravenous
box set had a lot to do. That it does it in a satisfyingly, air-punching way
that delivers treat after treat along the journey is not really the surprising
thing. The surprise is the way in which the storyline escalates, creeping up on
you from Whisper through Planet Of Dust to the full-on tonto-fest
of wonder that is Day of The Master, delivering character development
all the way and still managing an epic, Time Lord history-shifting
nail-biter, with three freakin’ Masters (at least) in at the death.
If you’ve come
through three Ravenous box sets, you’re going to have to get this one
whatever we say. The fact that it rewards you for your loyalty on such a cosmic
canvas is just a significant perk. More importantly, if you haven’t followed
the Ravenous arc as of yet – you’re gonna need to bite the bullet and do that,
because this is an ending you really, truly, hand on both hearts, won’t want to
miss.
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