Project: Nirvana (2012)

Project Nirvana is a stand-alone adventure that shows an adventure that occurred in the Black TARDIS with Lysandra and Sally. It’s not the first time that this has happened as we had a Jamie Companion Chronicle in 2010. It is a story that doesn’t have any direct links to the main range so if you don’t subscribe to the companion chronicle series then you wouldn’t be losing out. It’s a return of the Forge but not to the extent that we have been use to. The story takes place on a train which is operated by The Forge. It starts with Sally and Lysandra jumping from the TARDIS towards the train, this would have been a cool thing to see on TV. It’s not long before there was another Lysandra that gets thrown in, it’s an earlier version of her who as we learn from Morgan has a bit more emotion to her than what we have encountered before. When she is about to shoot Morgan she seems like she is sorry about having to do it. It shows that the relationship between Lysandra and Morgan in the future isn’t the most fun.

I liked the Nimrod mention from the other Lysandra. To me it helped make it more believeable that this was a C4/Forge train. We also find out that the Forge’s view of UNIT isn’t the best. The first part of this story moves along at a fairly fast pace which isn’t like most companion chronicle adventures which likes to take its time in telling the story. The train derailing is when it seemed to get going. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t boring before it happened but it’s where the main action of the play comes from.

The cliffhanger was very strange indeed as Morgan started to laugh as she was staring at the dead body. She knew it was wrong to do so but couldn’t help herself. Not quite sure the purpose of choosing this as the cliffhanger but it’s a minor quibble. It does however lead to something that happens to Morgan who seems to have something wrong with her. The point where its all revealed is done well. The Forge are planning on using Durluth to be cloned and dropped off into war zone so that people would fall under Durluth’s influence. As plans by the forge go, this was pretty tame and there wasn’t the sense of darkness or the grimness that we would normally get in a Project story but it was still a good part of the plot.

Both Maggie O’Neill and Amy Pemberton are very good in this escpecially Pemberton who I think stepped up a gear in this story. O’Neill tends to take the lead because her character is designed that way but it was nice that Amy got to do what she did. It was also nice to have Sylvester McCoy in this story even though it was for the same amount of time that he has been in most stories recently. Performances are what can make this type of story work or not and O’Neill and Pemberton carry this story and do well with what they are given.

It’s difficult to properly assess this story because it doesn’t seem fair to compare it to previous Project stories because it is structured differently. It also doesn’t seem fair to compare it to companion chronicles because it’s heart is really in the main range adventures. That said I do think it’s the best Companion Chronicle adventure of the seventh season so far as the story was more action packed that the previous stories.

Rating – 7/10