To quote a previous Doctor, it’s the end but the moment has
been prepared for. Just moments before I pressed play on my generic MP3 player,
there was a fear that this story would disappoint me and not live up to what I
would expected but I can end all the tension by saying that this story doesn’t disappoint.
This might be a weird sentence but it’s difficult to know what to make of
Michael Grade now. On the one hand, he is an arsehole of biblical proportions
who has about as much of idea about running TV as I do about how to perform
brain surgery. On the other hand had he not taken the decision he did about
Doctor Who then Colin Baker wouldn’t have refused to do the regeneration scene
and 28 years later wouldn’t be getting the story that he deserves.
It is also the shortest of the four stories. I have since
discovered since listening to the last story that Big Finish actually uploaded
a proper version of the audiobook where there are five separated tracks
(including the Behind the Scenes).
The Brink of Death is chronologically speaking the final
Sixth Doctor story. Thankfully not literally the final story. The pre-title
scene is a good one because the story picks up at the end of an adventure but
ends with Mel being made to think that the Valeyard is the Doctor. The Doctor
is effectively dead before his time thanks to the Valeyard. I quite like how
this story does manages to be an suitable sequel for the character because it
was very much left in the end after the Trial season had ended.
I think that there is a possibility that Liz White could
make a return as Genesta. She is quite a likeable character and seems to bond
well with Colin Baker. In the absence of Mel, the Doctor manages to get through
the story well enough. I cant see how it would work but there are enough clever
bods at Big Finish to work this out. I would imagine that it could come out in
2016 or 2017. Keep your eyes out for it.
The final ten minutes are the most interesting of the entire
story. It’s like the story has been keeping things going until it gets to the
stage where they can do the regeneration. If I had one critiscm of this story
is that the final meeting between the Doctor and the Valeyard is perhaps a bit
of a disappointment but that is because it has to do what it does in the face
of the expectations that have been created by fans like myself. To be honest, I
don’t mind that this encounter doesn’t quite hit the mark because this story
and the whole boxset has been a delight that the occasional miss isn’t that
bad.
The final three minutes are basically set right before the
events of Time and the Rani. The explanation behind what causes the Doctor to
collapse is given in this story and it’s the focus beams of radiation from
Lakertya. It’s a shame that Mel misses the nice little speech that the Doctor
gives before Sylvester McCoy makes his cameo. It’s a rather downbeat way to end
but I cant imagine that it was going to be a barrel of laughs. I think that
most people would be buying this boxset because of the final few minutes
because they want to see how the handover would be done. It was similar to how
I felt about the third episode of Star Wars and seeing how Anakin Skywalker
becomes Darth Vader but this story was far more rewarding.
There is one gaping hole in this entire release and that
hole is Maggie Stables shaped. It’s a given that if she were still here she
would have featured in it. Evelyn was the first companion newly created
companion by Big Finish and the character of Evelyn is partly behind the renovation
of the Sixth Doctor. It’s nice that she gets a mention in one scene towards the
end. Bonnie Langford is ok in this story but I don’t think that she is as
involved in the story as perhaps she could have been. Out of all the companions
that the Doctor has had in this boxset, I think that Constance comes out of it
better, followed by Flip, followed by Jago and Litefoot and then Mel is in last
place. All of them have been a good part of the boxset and despite not being
the best, its not hard to argue that the Mel in this story is much much less
annoying that the Mel on TV during this period of the show.
The Brink of Death has one job to do and it does it rather
well. I think that despite it being the shortest, it does manage to make it
seem more epic than the other stories. Colin Baker might have been reluctant to
do this series at first but he grabs the bull by the horns and has a wonderful
time and gives a great performance in the four very different stories and with
very different companions. The Last Adventure is vital listening to anyone who
is a fan of the Sixth Doctor and one of the strongest boxsets that Big Finish
have produced in recent years.
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