Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson, Alastair Mackenzie, Catherine Skinner, Robert Duncan, John Voce, Chris Finney.
Decay is a state of mind for which even The Doctor struggles to hold back at times, the sheer weight of history acting as a melancholic anchor for him to grasp hold of when all is against him. His collection of travellers past and present, those he has lost, those he has loved, all acting as the living embodiments of the Memento Mori he carries around with him in his little blue box; decay is something he runs from, never looking back, never going back for old companions in case he sees the futility of life. Entropy in the end is the toughest enemy The Doctor has and one that he cannot hope to defeat forever.
Jonathan Morris’ latest contribution to the annals of Doctor Who and Big Finish, The Entropy Plague is one that is almost colossal in scale, the type that truly would have deserved to be considered to have been filmed and placed somewhere in Peter Davison’s incarnation as The Doctor and perhaps arguably would have been considered one of the great endings for a companion ever; one who gave her life up, her future up for The Doctor and her friends.
The finale of the new E-Space trilogy sees the fifth Doctor and his companions struggle to come to terms with the enormity of the situation that has opened up before them, the use of willing sacrifices, and not so willing, to be used as human batteries to power a way that the possibility of escaping the rapid state of decay enveloping the Universe.
The Entropy Plague asks many pertinent questions, some uncomfortably so, about just how far we are willing as a species to safeguard the future survival of every race if time and disease were against us. The ever growing news of refugees crossing The Mediterranean, willing to take on the inhospitable nature the sea cruelly offers against the rising spectre of politics, religion and ideology in their own countries. What we do as people, as the same species if they were carrying a plague, treatable but deadly, would we turn our backs on them, hoping that the sea will claim them, or do we offer some sort of salvation and at what cost?
It is not unusual for Science Fiction to ask the questions that many would dismiss, that many would resort to the diabolical nature that resides in the hearts of those with crippling personal agendas in their hearts, but it is perhaps the preserve of the Science Fiction genre to offer hope and anguish in the same unfolding story.
For Jonathan Morris this particular story has to be considered a personal high, a tale of such magnitude that the shock waves reverberate fully around the listener’s head, rebounding time and time again, never fully letting go. It is the question of life over death and one that asks who actually decides whom fate allots.
With superb performances by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, The Entropy Plague is a story of great depth and one that offers damnation where the listener least expects. A great finish to one of Peter Davison’s best trilogy of stories in quite a while.
Doctor Who: The Entropy Plague is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall