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 thought or allowing Kaan a moment 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, as was too often the case on television. She mourns the apparent deaths of her grandfather and Barbara, yet can't help being curious about Nebrin, and even forms a bizarre bond with the captured Voord 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 immediately 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 in this story, which writes around her to a degree that makes her irrelevant. Given that Big Finish have quite 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 just avoid using the character here.
THOUGHTS
Domain of the Voord is the story that launched Big Finish's Early Adventures range, a hybrid of narrated story and audio play that has effectively replaced The Companion Chronicles. The format itself is good, in my opinion. The expanded cast allows it to have an immediacy lacking from many of the Companion Chronicles, while the narration provides an avenue to describe visuals and action without resorting to labored, descriptive dialogue. In theory, this format should allow for the best of both worlds.
...Except that Domain of the Voord has a distressing amount of labored, descriptive dialogue, and for no good reason. Episode One sees Ian 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 to the Hydrans via dialogue, 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... The scene is basically the equivalent of the Fifth Doctor describing the monster attacking him in The Land of the Dead!
That aside, the story is highly enjoyable. I doubt anyone was really 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 in ways that make them into a much more memorable enemy. Even the predictable conflict between Tarlak and Nebrin is mined for drama, with Nebrin's increasing agitation at his leader's tarnishing of Voord traditions and his bond with Susan making him into a surprisingly well-realized character.
The best scene comes in Episode Three, when the Voord "harvesting ceremony" occurs and we learn that the Voord mask is far more than just a style choice. Everything is superbly done here - Carole Ann Ford's descriptions mixing with the dialogue and sound effects to bring a fairly gruesome moment to life. The script paces the moment perfectly, with enough build-up to let us know that this is significant and enough time to linger over the critical moments. It's the one indelible moment in the story.
A story which does work quite well. Domain of the Voord is narratively unambitious, but it's well-paced and well-produced, and is never less than enjoyable.
That said, 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 good "bread-and-butter Who," but it's still pure formula. It also writes the Doctor and Barbara out of a large chunk of its story, when Big Finish's writers have already shown themselves capable of writing excellent stories for the early Doctors without resorting to that. If this had been the second or third release, these issues would have no meaning beyond this particular piece - But with this being the first release, I'm left to hope that this is not the start of a trend.
Still, if it's not an ideal range-starter, it remains a highly engaging four-parter. I may wish this wasn't the first story to carry the Early Adventures brand - But I still have no hesitation labeling this as satisfying entertainment.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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