The Next Life is the fitting end to the Divergent Universe story arc. Its interesting to see that this storyline is being wrapped up so soon to the return of the TV series. This is a six-part story which is the first time I think that this has been done by Big Finish. Alan Barnes & Gary Russell did an ok job with Zagreus which was the last big story for the Eighth Doctor and I was hoping that they would do better with this offering. The story does boast some familiar names. The first being Daphne Ashbrook who played Grace Holloway from the 1996 TV Movie. It was good that they got her back and also it was nice to have Anneke Wills returning as Lady Louisa Pollard. Also Don Warrington returns as Rassilon and Paul Darrow makes his first journey into Doctor Who. If this doesn’t raise people’s hopes then I don’t know what will.
The story sees the travellers finally get the TARDIS back. Their still in the divergent universe but at least the Doctor has his comfort blanket back. However things aren’t going well. Charley meets her mother again and also the boy that was pretending to be in her debut story (Storm Warning in 2001). C’Rizz meets someone from his past, he meets L’da. Daphne Ashbrook’s character is called Perfection (how appropriate). She effectively becomes the Doctor’s companion. I did think that the role of Perfection was more of a comedy role. The moment when Charley and Perfection meet in episode five was quite entertaining and her moments when she teams up with the Doctor were also enjoyable. It was a well written character and superbly acted by Daphne Ashbrook.
Paul McGann, India Fisher & Conrad Westmaas all give superb performances. They all have different journeys in this story and are all given a fair crack of the whip. Unlike Zagreus (which Conrad Westmaas wasn’t in) the main characters are given some good dialogue and are given intelligent stuff to say. But another big improvement on Zagreus is that the story isn’t overloaded with a load of actors and characters. This meant that all the characters were allowed time to develop.
The thing that I liked about this story is how it’s a slow steady build up for the first five episodes and then the last episode goes at 100mph. I also liked the revelation about what Perfection’s identity is. It was a nice plot twist and that is what sums up this story for me. When the TV series did six episodes or longer then the writers would very often struggle to fill them up but Alan Barnes & Gary Russell have done well to develop the storyline and make characters that are interesting and well acted. It’s the big epic story that I was hoping Zagreus would be.
The story sees the travellers finally get the TARDIS back. Their still in the divergent universe but at least the Doctor has his comfort blanket back. However things aren’t going well. Charley meets her mother again and also the boy that was pretending to be in her debut story (Storm Warning in 2001). C’Rizz meets someone from his past, he meets L’da. Daphne Ashbrook’s character is called Perfection (how appropriate). She effectively becomes the Doctor’s companion. I did think that the role of Perfection was more of a comedy role. The moment when Charley and Perfection meet in episode five was quite entertaining and her moments when she teams up with the Doctor were also enjoyable. It was a well written character and superbly acted by Daphne Ashbrook.
Paul McGann, India Fisher & Conrad Westmaas all give superb performances. They all have different journeys in this story and are all given a fair crack of the whip. Unlike Zagreus (which Conrad Westmaas wasn’t in) the main characters are given some good dialogue and are given intelligent stuff to say. But another big improvement on Zagreus is that the story isn’t overloaded with a load of actors and characters. This meant that all the characters were allowed time to develop.
The thing that I liked about this story is how it’s a slow steady build up for the first five episodes and then the last episode goes at 100mph. I also liked the revelation about what Perfection’s identity is. It was a nice plot twist and that is what sums up this story for me. When the TV series did six episodes or longer then the writers would very often struggle to fill them up but Alan Barnes & Gary Russell have done well to develop the storyline and make characters that are interesting and well acted. It’s the big epic story that I was hoping Zagreus would be.
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