Davros (Doctor Who) [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Part of the villain specials leading up to the 50th story this story is an absolute gem. Featuring Davros it removes him from a Dalek story instead concentrating on his motivations and background. This is a very wordy story with not much action as its a battle of words and philosphy between Davros and the 6th Doctor. Also oddly structured in terms of cliffhangers. Colin gets some good moments but best be warned Davros gets the most time spent on him. On the guest cast Bernard Horsfall and Wendy Padbury return from the tv series and are both wonderfull - Wendy's performance in particular should be sounded out for praise.

Having dominated the Daleks in every TV story since he was introduced Big Finish had ignored the character of Davros to concentrate on the Daleks themselves for several audio releases. For this play Davros finally returns - without the Daleks for the first time - as he is revived from suspended animation to work for a the unscrupulous TAI corporation, where he is partnered by the extremely reluctant 6th Doctor, who is entirely unconvinced by Davros' claim to have reformed his character.

The basic plot of this story is fairly basic and predictable - like the Doctor we know full well that Davros will hatch some plan to kill everyone and take over - but what makes it is the execution and the concentration on Davros' character. Terry Molloy returns to give his best ever performance as Davros, utterly dominating the story and upstaging even the magnificent Colin Baker. Thanks to numerous flashback we also learn masses of backstory on Davros, including before he was crippled and the true story behind the creation of the Daleks. At first these background details, complete with an almost romance with another Kaled scientist seem to be humanising Davros, but the final twist as to the nature of his past actions only serve to end up making the character seeming even more evil than before.

The supporting cast are excellent, particularly Bernard Horsfall as the morally ambiguous corporate executive trying to gain from Davros' knowledge, and ex-companion Wendy Padbury, here playing a historian apologist for Davros past actions, who is ultimately confronted with the true horror of his evil.

One could be picky about a few less than convincing moments, such as the odd overly melodramatic line ("He'll take out you eyeballs and then come back for the sockets!"), the unconvincing all-encompassing genius everyone expects of Davros, the fact that despite sharing only a few minutes screentime in their previous TV stories Davros seems to think he has a massive backstory with the Doctor, and a production gaff that means the Doctor surviving a nuclear bomb that goes off about 2 seconds after he drops it into a mine shaft, but against the sheer force of Davros' personality these are minor quibbles, and despite the odd flaw this is still one of the best plays Big Finish have produced. Essential.

This is the forty eighth release from Big Finish in their range of full cast audio adventures starring classic Doctor Whos. It stars Colin Baker as Six and Terry Molloy as Davros. It also guests Bernard Horsefall and Wendy Padbury, who both appeared onscreen next to the Second Doctor (though they do not reprise their characters from that period). There are two episodes, roughly 60 minutes each, complete with original theme music between each, and cliff hanger endings. One episode per disc on 2 discs, and a short booklet with some pictures of the cast and production notes.

This is the second in a run of three stories based around infamous Who villains released by Big Finish to celebrate the fortieth year of the series. The celebration cumulated with the sprawling multi-Doctor epic Zagreus. This adventure revolves around the resurrection of Davros, his first appearance in the Big Finish range. For the first time we encounter him without any Daleks present, and free of their shadow this fascinating character really shines brightly and impresses in a way that he hasn't managed to since his very first appearance in Genesis of the Daleks.

The plot revolves around a huge multiplanetary corporation; when the Doctor is asked to investigate it for morally dubious business practices he is at first a little reluctant, until he finds out that the company has resurrected one of the most evil characters in the history of the galaxy, Davros, and plan to use his genius to further their own profits. Davros claims to be a reformed character, but the Doctor cannot believe this and tries to convince the company that a Dalek cannot change its bumps.

It's a pretty good story, but mostly it is a great character study. Just as Genesis gave us the origin of the Daleks, so Davros provides hints at the origins of their creator. These would later be expanded in the excellent Big Finish series I, Davros. Here some flesh is put on the skeleton as he remembers the disaster that put him in his wheelchair, and as he discusses the possibility of change and the nature of evil with the Doctor. It's a great performance from Molloy, and dominates the story. Even up against the bombast of Baker's sixth Doctor Molloy still manages to dominate with his depiction of dark malevaolance towards the universe.

It's a well written and well executed piece that entertains and give one pause for thought. Colin Baker once again shows what a great Doctor he could have been if given the right material, full of arrogance but tempered with an infinite compassion. But even he is overshadowed by the intriguing back story of one of Who's more enigmatic villains.

An excellent production, 5 stars all round.