Starring Deborah Watling & Frazer Hines
Written by Nigel Robinson
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
After colliding with a meteor in space, the TARDIS is forced to make an emergency landing on Earth. The place is China around 200 BC, during the reign of the first emperor, Qin.
When the Doctor is taken away to the imperial city, it's up to Victoria and Jamie to save him. Their friend is now a prisoner of Qin, who intends to extract the secret of eternal life so that he may rule the world forever...
Oh. Well, I wasn't expecting that.
If I thought that The Suffering was poor, this was even worse. The Emperor Of Eternity certainly has it's merit, but sadly the story moves too slowly for my liking. It just ponders about, never really moving and never really achiving anything, the moral implications of this story overtaking the narrative aspects of the story. The danger in this story is treated by the numbers, rather than making it feel like any real danger. And that's a real shame, because the story is rich with flavouring and imagry and it's an interesting TARDIS team to use in a story like this. After all, season 5 is a season that was defined by it's alien monsters, rather than it's human ones.
The plot is basically various attempts from Qin to gain control of eternity through possessing the TARDIS. It's just a little bit obvious and very similar to the events of Marco Polo, however, meaning that most of the tense final confrontation just feels a little hollow. And that's a shame, because, as I said, the imagry of this story is beautiful. Nigel Robinson's description of the valleys and villages and mercury streams gives the setting an almost mystical feel to it. Those vapours, however, are representative of the plot, since it's virtually non existent beyond that one idea. Now, while it's nice to have a coherent story, it's also nice to keep a story interesting. And, aside from a pitiful subplot about assassination (another idea borrowed from Marco Polo), it's just a story that deals with that single idea, which sadly can't stretch across the hour that this CD is on for. And the story doesn't even focus on the cultural differences that arise from meeting such a culture. Instead, they simply focus on pushing The Doctor and his friends through dangerous situations and getting them back to the TARDIS. It's the kind of obvious critique that's levelled at the Hartnell historicals, yet they're more interesting than this.
The characters are distinctly unmemorable, which could be very much down to Deborah Watling's narration. They always merge into one, so it's difficult to remember which character is speaking. Therefore, the only people who are sound distinct are Victoria, Jamie and The Doctor. It's difficult, therefore to work out who can be speaking at any one time. Therefore, there are problems with Deborah Watling's performance, with it's rather more heightened attitude towards the narration. In fact, it's only Frazer Hines who really gives it his all. It's just a shame that Frazer is really kept to the sidelines, because he's one of the best bits of the story. Howard Carter's music and sound design and Lisa Bowerman's direction is average, but not fantastic.
So, The Emperor Of Eternity is a story that just doesn't work. It's a story that doesn't keep the interest of the listener and it just means that one feels very frustrated about what could have been an excellent script.
TARDIS Rating - 4/10
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