Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jameson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Philip Bretherton, Duncan Wisbey, Joanna Munro, Wendy Padbury.
Some crimes, especially the ones involving the laws of time are either caused by a megalomaniac hell bent on destruction of a certain race of people or species or due to greed, the powerful and sickening so called aphrodisiac that prays on the weak and gluttonous. Sometimes these two overlap and then the devastation is even harder to bear. Occasionally though the reason is a lot more pure and it is just the way it was devised and carried out that makes the plan hard to stomach. Such is Elliot Payne’s reason to change time, to end his own misery and loss. It doesn’t make it right but it is a lot more understandable that selling out and destroying an entire species for a pot of gold.
Chronoclasm takes the team to its very edge of reason, the sight of things from the future invading the skies above Victorian London is enough to send Gordon Henry Jago into the realms of thought he never would have believed, it is also enough to have him split in two, and if one Jago being adept at the art of alliteration is maddening for those around him then two is enough to send them to despair.
It is the small touches in this story that lighten the mood in what is quite a dark tale, very well written, the heart of the matter captured with a dash of panache but it certainly leans heavily towards what drives us as creatures of reason or instinct. Whether we give all to get back that one special moment or abandon it to make sure a more devilish thought doesn’t creep in and eat away at the soul.
The end of Chronoclasm only serves to be the beginning of the next series, the stranger whose name had been mentioned in one of the scenes, almost as if just a throwaway line but obviously with superb deliberate intent by both the writer Andy Lane and the powers that be at Big Finish, comes back to haunt, hinder and help the intrepid duo and it isn’t who it sounds as though it is.
Series Three of Jago & Litefoot has carried on the very good work laid down in the previous instalments and whilst the original team of Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Conrad Asquith and Lisa Bowerman were on top form throughout, the series really has benefited from the inclusion of Louise Jameson reprising her role as the savage but noble Leela. It is an inclusion that has paid dividends in having somebody as equally strong in their ways joining Ms. Bowerman’s barmaid Ellie Higson in the Victorian adventures. Louise Jameson certainly in all her years of being part of the Doctor Who history has never given anything but her best in her portrayal. A welcome addition if ever there was any.
Chronoclasm can be purchased as part of Series Three of Jago & Litefoot from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall