This release marks the first of the Baddies Trilogy to lead us into Zagreus the 50th Big Finish release and the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who in November. Omega has appeared twice in Doctor Who before. First was back in 1973 for the 10th Anniversary story The Three Doctors and the next time was 10 years later in Arc of Infinity. I have a slight problem with the character of Omega and that is I don’t really think he is as important as other people make out.
Bearing my opinions of Omega in mind I ploughed on with this story which is more of a character piece than about any invasion plot or something. This story is set almost immediately after the events of Arc of Infinity and ‘Omega’ explores what happened after Omega had left Earth in a copy of the Doctor’s body. What we get is an insight into the life of Omega. We get to learn about the young Omega and his experiments of time travel. There was a genuine shock at the end of Part three when we learn that the character that we thought of as the Doctor was infact Omega. Genuinely had to pick my jaw up off the floor.
Its refreshing to have a Fifth Doctor adventure without a companion, in fact I think you have to go back to The Sirens of Time to have a companionless Fifth Doctor story. I think that Davison benefits from such a change of circumstances. In effect though Ian Collier is Davison’s companion. Collier played Omega in 1983 and his voice is absolutely perfect for radio. The scenes that the two have together are brilliant to listen to and its hard not to compare them to Arc of Infinity. Caroline Munro was another good piece of casting as Senita and helps add something to the story.
Nev Fountain has done a great job with this story. I came out of listening to Omega having a different opinion than when I started to it. As Fountain has written for the BBC Comedy show Dead Ringers there are moments of comedy in it but they are few and far between. Despite my enjoyment of this story it is followed by Davros and Master and fear that this one will fall third in terms of enjoyment. That said this story still has a lot going for it.
Bearing my opinions of Omega in mind I ploughed on with this story which is more of a character piece than about any invasion plot or something. This story is set almost immediately after the events of Arc of Infinity and ‘Omega’ explores what happened after Omega had left Earth in a copy of the Doctor’s body. What we get is an insight into the life of Omega. We get to learn about the young Omega and his experiments of time travel. There was a genuine shock at the end of Part three when we learn that the character that we thought of as the Doctor was infact Omega. Genuinely had to pick my jaw up off the floor.
Its refreshing to have a Fifth Doctor adventure without a companion, in fact I think you have to go back to The Sirens of Time to have a companionless Fifth Doctor story. I think that Davison benefits from such a change of circumstances. In effect though Ian Collier is Davison’s companion. Collier played Omega in 1983 and his voice is absolutely perfect for radio. The scenes that the two have together are brilliant to listen to and its hard not to compare them to Arc of Infinity. Caroline Munro was another good piece of casting as Senita and helps add something to the story.
Nev Fountain has done a great job with this story. I came out of listening to Omega having a different opinion than when I started to it. As Fountain has written for the BBC Comedy show Dead Ringers there are moments of comedy in it but they are few and far between. Despite my enjoyment of this story it is followed by Davros and Master and fear that this one will fall third in terms of enjoyment. That said this story still has a lot going for it.
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