The latest Destiny release sees Nicola Bryant play Peri and it’s the introduction of another historical character. This story was written by Nev Fountain who is Mr Nicola Bryant and also the author ‘Peri and the Piscon Paradox’ which won the Toms Tardis Award for Best Companion Chronicle and was the best story from the series that year. So I was quite looking forward to this story knowing that there would be a nice balance between humour and drama.
The inclusion of the 11th Doctor usually comes quite late into the story but here its done quite early. It surprised me but actually when you listen to the story you understand why because it was the only place that it could have been placed. I thought it was a funny moment when the 11th Doctor loves the 6th Doctor’s coat. The 11th Doctor wants the 6th Doctor to get a Omni-Paradox. The Doctor has a Sat-Nav which is voiced by Davros. The idea is a wacky one but seems to work because it came from the mind of Nev Fountain.
It seems like their mission is going to be completed by as with these things they never go quite as smoothly as they could and they are soon captured. Admiral Christopher Columbus is the historical figure that features in this story and for one thing I didn’t know he was an Admiral. Never in the history lessons I had at school did I hear what rank he had. If I did then I must have forgotten it but it was something that intrigued me straight away. Cameron Stewart is the person responsible for bringing the discoverer alive and despite the quite horrible way that he treats the people under him the way that Stewart performs in this story I cant quite find the ability to dislike him. We get a bit of moral history from Peri as she isn’t bowled over by encountering Columbus which annoyed the Doctor. Nicola Bryant gets the chance to give the sort of performance that you wish she would have been allowed to give on TV. Peri gives us an alternative history of Columbus which was quite unexpected. Even after learning all of this I could find myself disliking him because Stewart was so good.
There is a moment when the Doctor doesn’t treat someone with TB is one that on the face of it is perfectly reasonable but there is an argument as to whether one person treated would make that much of a difference but that’s never talked about a Peri is angry with the Doctor and comes up with the idea that if it were Columbus with TB then he would do what he could. It leads to Peri fleeing the Doctor in tears and then it appears that Peri has gone overboard. Now, I always have an issue when the Doctor or a companion is ‘dead’ because I would say a good 90% of the people listening would know that this isn’t the case and something else has happened.
As it was Peri washed up on land and she quickly encounters some locals and what makes them different is some technologies on their spears. Her experiences from this point on are the most entertaining out of the two and I thought that Nicola Bryant did a wonderful job in this story though I thought that only Nev Fountain would be allowed to get away with heifer jokes. Peri encounters a Space Buffalo which at first was thought of as the Devil which isn’t something that I was expecting when I started to listen to this story. We learn that he is the leader of a herd and wants Columbus to discover
Columbus goes from being a nice chap with a posh voice to being someone who turns on the Doctor wanting the Doctor to take him and his men off the ship. The Omni-Paradox is quite integral to the story and its disappearance is causing the Doctor some concern and out of nowhere there is a time that the Doctor tells us he has to find it. This along with Columbus’ demand helps to create a fun second half to the story.
I liked this story as it felt different from any of the stories that we have had in this series which is quite an achievement. I thought that the narration of Columbus was a nice thing to include as it broke up the story a little bit and it was very much like in ‘Marco Polo’ when said character narrates and it helps sees things from his perspective.
If I had an issue with this story then I feel that its slightly too long. It could have lost about 10-15 minutes and would have been even better. That said I thought that it was an enjoyable story with a good setting and some quite funny lines. Especially with the idea that the Doctor got a goat to replace Peri as he thought she had died. It’s a good story and also another solid offering from Nev Fountain.
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