4 episodes: The Floating City, Return to Terror, Behind the Mask, Fightback. Approx. 131 minutes. Written by: Andrew Smith. Directed by: Ken Bentley. Produced by: David Richardson.
THE PLOT
The TARDIS materializes on the planet Hydra, in the hold of the Hopeful, a cargo ship in the middle of a vast flotilla. The flotilla's leader, Admiral Jonas Kaan (Andrew Dickens), reveals that they are on the run from aggressive alien invaders: The Voord, whom the time travelers previously encountered on Marinus.
They have barely started to win Kaan's trust when the Voord attack. Ian and the Doctor are able to use their expertise to make a fight of it, with Ian even taking prisoner a Voord named Nebrin (Andrew Bone) - but their ship finally falls to the attack, and the Doctor and Barbara are among those who don't make it off before it sinks.
There is little time to grieve. Ian urges Admiral Kaan to go on the offensive, to return to Predora City, Hydra's capital, and link up with resistance groups. Meanwhile, Susan visits the Voord prisoner, attracting his interest by being curious about him rather than fearful or angry. Ian forbids further contact, but Nebrin tells him that Susan will be "harvested," and that there is nothing the Hydrans or Ian can do to stop it...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: We get another glimpse of the selfishness of which the First Doctor was so capable. After the Hopeful is sunk, the Doctor insists that his TARDIS must be recovered, not even sparing a moment for Kaan to mourn for the Hydrans who were just killed. It doesn't take long for him to redeem himself, however. With Ian in the water, acting as a "spotter" during the Voord attack, the Doctor insists on staying at the sonar long after it has become prudent for him to abandon ship. Just as was done in The Keys of Marinus, the Doctor is removed from the middle episodes of the story, only to return in the final episode as a dominant, authoritative figure.
Susan: This is yet another story in which Susan is used to trap the more active regulars. However, writer Andrew Smith does this without weakening her the way that so often happened on television. She mourns the apparent deaths of her grandfather and Barbara, yet she can't help being curious about Nebrin and even forms a bizarre bond with him during her visits to his cell. She is horrified by the Voord "harvesting ceremony" and appalled that Nebrin and his overlord, Tarlak, intend for her to undergo the same process. She also shows a defiant side in a particularly good scene in Episode Two; she refuses to defer to Ian as an authority figure, flatly telling him that he is not her grandfather and has no standing to give her orders.
Ian: Volunteers to be one of the divers spotting the Voord positions during the attack in Episode One, which earns him the respect of Admiral Kaan and the admiration of his daughter, Amyra (Daisy Ashford). The non-relationship with Amyra is somewhat awkward, and the story doesn't do enough with it to make it anything interesting. Something similar was done to much stronger effect in the Companion Chronicle, The Libary of Alexandria, in which the flirtation between Ian and the scholar Hypatia was used to drive the story's character arc. Here, the flirtation just sort of sits around the periphery, doing nothing, and would have been better excised.
Barbara: Her courage is in evidence in the first episode, when she tries to rescue the Doctor from the bridge of the sinking ship instead of saving herself. She returns to the story late in Episode Three and acts as a protector for Susan, trying to comfort her when the Voord announce she is to undergo their "harvesting ceremony." And... That's honestly about it for Barbara moments, with the story written around her to a degree that makes her irrelevant. Given that Big Finish have successfully given her good roles in past stories (Farewell, Great Macedon and The Library of Alexandria spring instantly to mind), I find it odd that it was decided to avoid using the character here.
THOUGHTS
Domain of the Voord launched Big Finish's Early Adventures range, the range that effectively replaced The Companion Chronicles. The format itself is basically that of the First and Second Doctor Lost Stories from that range's original run, using narration to describe visuals while letting most scenes play out fully dramatized. It's a good format that should allow for the best of both worlds: since it's mostly a full cast story, it has the immediacy of the main range, with narration allowing description of visuals and actions scenes without resorting to labored, descriptive dialogue.
...Except that Domain of the Voord has a distressing amount of labored, descriptive dialogue. The worst offender comes in the first episode, as Ian is submerged in a diving suit during a Voord attack. The sensible thing to have done would have been to have Ian call out information about locations and clusters of Voord, while narration filled in the details of the attack. Instead, the narration is all but absent as Ian painstakingly details that missiles are being fired even as he dodges them. It's not quite as bad as the Fifth Doctor describing the monster in The Land of the Dead even as it attacks him, but it still reminded me of that scene, which is not a good thing.
For the most part, this is enjoyable enough fare. I doubt many were crying out for a return by the Voord, but writer Andrew Smith takes the meager characterization they received in The Keys of Marinus and builds on it. We learn that the Voord consider themselves justified in their actions, and we're even allowed to see the cold logic in their justifications. Nebrin is a well-written character. His fondness for Susan is genuine, but that makes him even more determined to "harvest" her, as he genuinely sees this as a favor to be granted. Too bad that he's demoted in the second half.
The introduction of Tarlak sees the story become instantly less interesting, with the overlord being a pure villain prone to outbursts and monologues. There's something interesting in Nebrin's increasing agitation at Tarlak's tarnishing of Voord traditions, but the overlord is simply too one-dimensional for this to go very far. Narratively, it wouldn't be hard to rewrite this so that the multilayered Nebrin was the primary villain, and I think that would have made for a stronger overall piece.
The best scene comes in Episode Three: the Voord "harvesting ceremony." Everything about this scene is well done. Carole Ann Ford's descriptions mix with the dialogue and sound effects to bring a surprisingly gruesome moment to life. The script paces it perfectly, providing enough build-up to demonstrate the significance of this and lingering over the critical moments. It's an indelible moment in an otherwise very average story.
Domain of the Voord is narratively unambitious, but as I've said elsewhere, "unambitious" is not the same thing as "bad." The story is consistently entertaining and extremely well-produced. It's also generally well-paced, though I think 10 - 15 minutes of tightening would have helped the middle episodes.
Though I enjoyed it both times I listened to it, I'm not sure it was the best choice to start a new range. When premiering a new product, you are setting forth a mission statement. Domain of the Voord is solid "bread-and-butter Who," but it's pure formula. It also writes the Doctor and Barbara out of a large chunk of its story, even though Big Finish's writers have already shown themselves capable of penning excellent stories for the early Doctors. I wouldn't be so bothered with eitehr issue had this been the second or third release, but I would have liked the initial release to have felt less ordinary and to have made use of all four regulars.
Still, if it's not an ideal range-starter, it remains a reasonably engaging story in itself. I far prefer the next story in the range, The Doctor's Tale, but this is a decent and engaging entertainment.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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