One of the most anticipated
releases of 2012 if not for many years. It’s a four hour epic with each episode
is around an hour long. This story was written by Nicholas Briggs & Jason
Arnopp and it’s the latest story in the UNIT series which originally ran for
four stories in 2004 and 2005. Big Finish are doing several ‘special releases’
and this was one of two that I have been looking forward to for months (other
being Dark Eyes). After having a series of somewhat Doctor lite stories
recently it was delightful knowing that we were going to get significantly more
of the Seventh Doctor. The benefit of having each episode an hour long is that
it means that the story can have time to grow and we can really get involved in
the story. That’s on the basis that the story is interesting and worth
listening to and that’s the case with Dominion. This story sees the return of
Klein who became a scientific advisor to UNIT at the end of The Architects of
History back in 2010. In that story Klein has had certain aspects of her memory
wiped. The Doctor is currently travelling with Raine and Ace is on Gallifrey
and so we get about a dozen words out of Sophie Aldred which is probably the
best thing to do.
One thing that UNIT: Dominion
plays on is the authouritive figure that is fame hungry and wanting to take all
the limelight when things are important and Colonel Lafayette (Julian Dutton) is
the one given the task of playing it here. Dutton plays it brilliantly as every
time he speaks you know he doesn’t know what he’s doing as is going to meet a
sticky ending and that is exactly what happens when he addresses the Skyheads.
It’s sort of what happens to the US president in Sound of Drums (2007). There
are several superb creations that in the run up we were given teasers to were absolutely
outstanding on audio. The Mindleeches sounded absolutely creepy and when they first encounter the UNIT
soldiers it’s because of Private Phillips that they come across as a truly
terrifying monster. The Skyheads were visually well realised and also worked
quite well on audio.
Alex McQueen plays ‘The Other
Doctor’. Best known for appearing in shows like The Inbetweeners, The Thick of
It and Holby City (also he appeared in Paradise 5). His very first seen is
something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Little Britain sketch. This style
continues throughout. It’s clear that he is up to something and that is what I
liked about the character early on. As the story progresses I start to like
this other Doctor even though it’s clear he is up to something. As the story
moves along it becomes clear that the Other Doctor is in fact The Master. The
cliffhangers for parts one and two were relatively good but part three was by
far the best because the other Doctor’s true identity was revealed. I don’t know
whether other people saw this coming but I certainly didn’t. I was pleasantly
surprised and didn’t see it coming at all. McQueen was brilliant from start to
finish and whoever it was that decided to ask him to star in this deserves a
pat on the back because it was brilliant casting. McQueen played it with the
right mix of menace and campness that the character should be played with.
Sylvester McCoy is on his usual standard form in this and after missing him so
much during the mini-series earlier this year it was good that he is quite
involved in the story and doesn’t just turn up in the final quarter. It’s also
good to have Beth Chalmers back in the Doctor Who universe as I quite liked the
character during the Seventh Doctor batch of Lost Stories. Here she seems to be
slightly better written for which would make sense as the Lost Stories wouldn’t
have been originally written for Raine. Here Chalmers is given the chance to
play the role of companion and thrives. However the big USP of this was the
return of Elizabeth Klein who appeared in the 2001 story Colditz before return
for a series of stories in 2010. Tracey Childs is a superb actress and one of
the things that I liked about her 2010 run was how she managed to fool people
in thinking that Klein was a good character before remembering she that was a
Nazi. Childs plays the role brilliantly and it’s because of her that the
character has become so popular and will hopefully return in future stories.
This story has superb and strong
central performances but there are also very strong supporting performances. In
no particular order let’s start with Julian Dutton who played Colonel
Lafayette. I really liked the character and thought that he was played well. His
demise was inevitable and it could be argued it could be predictable but I don’t
mind as I thought it was enjoyable. Next is Sam Clemens as Major Wyland Jones.
Wyland-Jones is the Colonel’s replacement and within about 20 seconds we are
meant to realise that the colonel was actually far easier to get on with than
the Major. Bradley Gardner plays
Sergeant Pete Wilson is intended to be the likeable and the character that the
listener is supposed to connect with. When he shoots Klein in part four I
thought that it only worked because he was so well liked and such a nice
person. Had it been someone else then it wouldn’t have worked but Gardner does
a good job with it.
There was a moment when it seemed
that Klein had been killed and I was shocked because I thought that it was a
shame but then it turns out that she is only wounded. I’m glad that they didn’t
kill her because it would have ruined the story for me as I think that there is
potential for future stories for the character and actually at the end the
Doctor gives Klein a space time telegraph which he gave the Brigadier in the 1970’s.
This means that future Klein stories are inevitable rather than possible.
The story is a very good one and
there was a very real possibility that it was going to drag and run out of
steam quite quickly but I honestly can’t say that at any point during the four
hours of drama I never once got bored, never once got confused and never once
stopped caring about the characters. It’s a credit to Jason Arnopp and Nicholas
Briggs to pull this feat off. I had very high expectations of UNIT: Dominion
and thought that they were met very quickly. UNIT: Dominion is a currently
priced at £30 (£25 for download) and its incredible value for money. At around 238
minutes it works out as around 12.5pence per minute. If you want value for money
and want an epic story to go with it then UNIT: Dominion is as good a place to
start. Definelty one of the best releases of 2012.
Rating - 9/10
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