The Last Act (2013)

The final story of this series has a lot to live up to. After the fine cliffhanger in the previous release we get to see a return of Magnus Greel which is the most direct link to their TV adventure and so makes this the best finale in ever. The story arcs have been slowly simmering throughout the previous three episodes and this is where ‘theoretically’ the strands are suppose to end. Despite this series being set later than the previous four series, ironically it goes back to the very early days of Jago and Litefoot. It’s quite impressive that they have held out till now to bring Greel and Mr Sin back. I was curious how they were going to make Mr Sin work as all he did was snort a bit and that’s not really enough to sustain through the episode however it somehow works. Those grunts and snorts somehow make the character seem like an effective villain and I was surprised at how much I thought that it added to the tension.

The demise of Sacker was well done and I thought it was a shame as I was starting to get to like him. It was done in a way that was unexpected as you wouldn’t have thought that they would kill off such an important character but I suppose no-one (except for Jago, Litefoot and Ellie) are safe. For Greel to use his body was a good moment and it seemed to make the reunion complete. I’ve been trying to find a fault with this story and the only one that I can come up with is the betrayal to Guinevere Godiva. It was a tiny bit obvious and its been done a million times. There that’s it, that’s the only thing I could think of. The Final Act was a story that had top notch performances. Benjamin, Baxter and Bowerman all stepped up their game in this story and were very impressive. For the supporting performances I particularly liked Duncan Wisby as Sacker and also Raquel Cassidy as Guinevere Godiva.

The final scene sees Jago and Litefoot is something that I had heard various people say that it’s a good ending and I agree with them. It’s a curious one that leads nicely into series six. They have left the 1960’s but a very important person wants to have a word. I wonder what it could be. As I said at the beginning of the review, this is the best finale that there has been in this series. The decision to have a brief excursion into the 1960’s is a wise move by Big Finish as otherwise it would get tiresome quickly so its good that they are moving on. Thankfully I won’t have to wait too long for the next story to feature Jago and Litefoot as they are appearing in. As a standalone story its got everything that fans would/should want but as part of the series it compliments it very well and ends it the best way possible.