Doctor Who Review - "UNIT: Dominion"
rating: 5
(WARNING: EXTREMELY significant spoilers follow! Please DO NOT read further if you do not want a major plot element spoiled!) Well, hows that for a spoiler warning, eh? Trust me, its necessary, and even with that warning, I still wont get around to discussing the main spoiler until were some distance into this, just to keep people from accidentally learning something important. This boxed set is quite a thing. It features the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Raine Creevey (Beth Chalmers), in her first appearance since the Season 27 Lost Stories arc, a brief cameo by Ace (Sophie Aldred), Elizabeth Klein (Tracey Childs), someone simply known as the Other Doctor (Alexander Macqueen), about whom I shall talk more later, and has all of them working to stop a set of incursions from another dimension, which take the form of things like giant floating baby heads and giant lava-spewing spiders. But lets begin at the beginning. The Doctor and Raine receive what sounds like a very faint distress call from Ace. This leads them to another dimension, where the Doctor quickly realizes things aren't quite right. As hes trying to find out whats going on, the Other Doctor, who says hes a future incarnation so far along he doesn't even remember how many regenerations hes had, pops up to give him Dire Warnings. The Doctor disregards this and things get a bit awkward. Meantime, on Earth, the Other Doctor is helping UNIT and Doctor Elizabeth Klein to deal with these various extra-dimensional incursions. As he does, he displays a certain sense of morality that we aren't quite used to seeing from the Doctor. This was as nearly flawless as anything I've ever heard from Big Finish or, for that matter, from the Doctor Who line as a whole. At no point was I bored, at no point did I lose focus. I genuinely regretted having to stop my late night listening at the end of part three so that I could sleep, and couldn't wait to return to it when I woke up. The writing was as excellent as anything Big Finish has ever done, and the sound effects were really well-done. I was particularly impressed by the creepy sounding voices on the Big Giant Heads. I must also give out special recognition for the acting. Childs does a wonderful job as a version of Klein thats still not the nicest, easiest to get along with person in the universe, but certainly isn't a Nazi anymore (its complicated. Start with Colditz, which also features David Tennant, then listen to A Thousand Tiny Wings, Survival of the Fittest and The Architects of History). Chalmers gets to do something new and different with Raine, and hopefully well see more of her (and Klein), in future stories. McCoy is, of course, his usual amazing self. The various supporting characters and actors are also quite good. But the real gem here is Alexander Macqueen as the Other Doctor or, rather, as the Master. Ill admit, I didn't see that one coming. I figured that he was possibly the Valeyard or maybe the Monk (since we do learn early on that hes a Time Lord), but for some reason the thought that he might have been the Master never once crossed my mind. Macqueen does a truly exceptional job playing not only a version of the Doctor who is just slightly off, but also makes for an excellent, menacing version of the Master. I really, really hope we get more of him fighting the Seventh Doctor and, ideally, the Eighth. The continuity issues there are a bit dicey, but Big Finish could work around them easily, I feel. Really, no exaggeration, this is the best Big Finish audio I've ever heard. From start to finish, a truly stupendous piece of work. If youre any kind of a Doctor Who fan and you havent listened to any of the audios, youre really cheating yourself out of something great, and this story is a perfect example of that.