Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: India Fisher, Michael Maloney, James Joyce, Nicholas Briggs, Louise Bradley, Nadia Kamil.
The solution is always part of the problem it seems. No matter how grand the answer, another dilemma will pop up in its place. Just as The Doctor faced being able to eradicate the Daleks from all time and space by placing two wires together, the quandary appeared that he would be as evil as them for not letting nature take its course. The solution is never the utter final truth. For the Viyrans and Charley Pollard, the solution is even more complex and for Charlotte Pollard the stakes have never been higher.
Having evaded the control of the Viyrans long enough to be able to get back to Earth and see her parents, a special moment in the life of the Edwardian adventurer, the Viyrans have finally managed to bring her back under their control but it is a meeting that will have ramifications throughout time if the virus hunters have their way.
Life is precious, but like all precious things, what happens if the origins of that valued existence are called into question? What if life only exists because of a freak accident caused long in the future? Would anyone have the right to snuff out the emerging being that crawl out of the cosmic soup? Very much like The Doctor’s plight in Genesis of The Daleks, the detail of the argument is compelling and thought through, but on a grander scale. Could the Universe actually do without having started at all?
Writer Matt Fitton carefully takes the question and moulds into the most wonderful of moral predicament and carefully crafts a way for Charley Pollard to finally leave the Viyrans behind and get on with seeing the Universe.
It’s highly unlikely, although one can speculate and dare dream as fan, that the intrepid traveller will ever come into contact with The Doctor again but for now, this marvellous spin-off series fully deserves to have a sequel, there is after all, so much more to know about one of the greatest of companions.
The Viyran Solution is available as part of the Big Finish box set, Charlotte Pollard.
Ian D. Hall