Afterlife returns us to the Seventh Doctor moments after 'Gods and Monsters'. It's been 15 months since that story and they have done this before. Back in the June 2009 story 'The Angel of Scutari', Hex's life was in the balance again and it wasn’t until September 2010 (another 15 months) before we got to see what happened to Hex. The dynamic between the Doctor and Ace has changed significantly. It seems odd that the month after they were getting on in The Assassination Games they are now not speaking to each other. At the end of their last story Hex died and this was always going to be an interesting story.
It's similar to how Charley felt after C'Rizz had died at the end of Absolution. Ace blames the Doctor for Hex's death. I don’t know if I like the fact that the Doctor and Ace aren’t getting on but its rather well done as Sophie Aldred goes for it. The first episode sees us go back to some of the adventures that occurred between stories featuring these three. They are designed to show us how much Hex has helped in the adventures that he has been in. The nice thing about this letter that Ace found is that its read by Olivier and there is a rather sad feel to it and its hit me just how much a part of the team that Hex has become since he debuted in 2004. The end of the first episode really sums up the sadness of the story when the Doctor sounds genuinely broken over the death of Hex.
The second episode sees the story change direction when the Doctor visits Hex’s Gran at the request of Ace. This is where the Doctor has to actually face the consequences of the actions that he takes or feels that he has to take. Whilst the Doctor is visiting Hex’s Gran, Ace finds her own adventure to have when she witnesses Lily Finnegan who is in the middle of a turf war in Liverpool. It’s like the PG version of Shameless. At first it seems like it’s a completely random storyline which has not relation to either Hex or the Doctor. As the story progresses it becomes clear that this plot strand has more to do with the main plot that at first glance.
The moment when Lily sets fire to the thugs was a quite surprising moment. But that’s not the only time something surprising happens in this story. Another surprising moment when Mr. Thomas is revealed to be the other person that Lily is having the turf war with. Mr. Thomas is voiced by Philip Olivier and is completely different to Hex. I like how Ace’s grief makes her wish that it was the real Hex and at first it seems that this is a case of someone having a twin but one of the things that I like about this story is how just when you think that you know which direction the story is going in, it changes and I like the idea that Hex has earned the opportunity to spend a year on earth but doesn’t have any of his memories.
The true identity of Lily Finnegan was something that I didn’t see coming and totally transformed my opinion of the character although it does make the whole human combustion thing obvious (after it was pointed out you'll understand). The moment that we learn how and why Hex has come back to earth is the moment where I feel that some new energy was put into the story and it felt like the story had got a new lease of life.
The Doctor is a huge punching bag from the very beginning and its rather off-putting to see the Doctor in this position. He gets to be back to his best at the end when Lily is begging for mercy and he gets to show us a bit of the Doctor that we got in McCoy's final series on TV.
It’s good to have Amy Pemberton back as Sally Morgan. I loved the little jingle that sounded when she first appeared. It’s a this point that things seem to be changing for the Doctor and the kicking has been stopped. Its good how by the time she appears in the story she’s been on Earth for sometime and is working for the police trying to figure out about Mr. Thomas. The fact that she leaves the story to spend more time with Hilda. It might not be the most exciting way for a character to have departed from a show but its nice when someone leaves in a nice lovely way.
I didn’t expect the story to end the way that it did. I expected the story to end with either Hex being killed off for good or back to his old self and the trio going off into the universe. The fact that there seemed to be left in the air is somewhat unnerving but at least we know that we are going to get more stories with Hex and that cant be a bad thing. Afterlife is the perfect way to end what has been a superb year from Big Finish. The story took my expectations and juggled with them and still managed to give me something else and not disappoint me. The performances were all really good and the writing and direction were just as good. Enjoyable.
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