Released: January 2015
Range: The Fourth Doctor Adventures
Range Number: 4.01
Starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Daisy Dunlop, Jacqueline King, Hugh Ross & Tim Treloar
Written and Directed by Nicholas Briggs
Planet E9874 supports a developing civilisation known as the Tarl. The peaceful, technologically advanced Locoyuns are helping the Tarl develop rudimentary technology. What could be more innocent than that?
When the Doctor, Leela and K-9 arrive, they find the delicate balance in the relationship between the two cultures reaching an unexpected crisis point. The spears are flying and the threat of all-out war is in the air.
The Doctor must use all his guile to tread a careful path with Tarl leader Ergu, while Leela and K-9 discover an ancient power of unimaginable strength which threatens to tear the minds out it's victims.
Many seem to believe, from what I have read, that The Exxilons is a rather lightweight story. A little bit of nostalgic fluff that merely reinforces the view that Big Finish are pandering a little bit towards the very die-hard fan. However, The Exxilons is a sequel to one of the less well regarded Jon Pertwee stories, Death To The Daleks, and while yes, there are certain tropes that fans of that story will recognise, Exxilons does, to my mind, vear off in different directions. It certainly takes the tone and style of that story, but this takes one of the underdeveloped elements mentioned in Death, and then builds a story from the ground up.
By taking the idea that the Exxilons were once a space-faring race, it opens up limitless storytelling possibilities. Many would set a sequel to Death To The Daleks in the aftermath of the destruction of the city. However, by setting it in the past, we get to see the Exxilon race as technologically advanced and extremely powerful. By placing them on a world with a group of primitives, we see how very quickly this civilisation degenerated into barbarism and savagery. In Doctor Who, primitive civilisations are often portrayed stereotypically and with plenty of unintelligence, however, by potraying the race through there leader Ergu, we get to see how cultured they actually are, and how, by exploting them, the Exxilons are more savage than them, even before the degeneration. In many ways, the message being given here is a more refined version of the message that Destination: Nerva (the very first Fourth Doctor Adventure at Big Finish) was trying to say. By giving it a stronger framework, the message that it's trying to present becomes much clearer, and that does work in this story's favour. It's quite interesting that this story, unlike Destination: Nerva, is much more focused on this messages, rather than action-adventure. However, that doesn't mean that the energy in the action isn't there. In fact, the story opens with a homage to Death To The Daleks, and then the big battle in the final episode keeps the energy going. However, occasionally Briggs slips into descriptive dialogue, despite the fact that he is such a clever audio writer. However, this isn't such a major problem, especially because it doesn't really detract from the main story.
The characters in this aren't really deep or newly created, but they are well written. The Exxilon characters are interesting enough, especially Trexa. Because Briggs turns the tables with regards to who the Exxilons are, we, as the audience, follow half of the story thinking that a certain group of characters are the Exxilons, and then subverts it. What would have been better in my opinion (and prehaps where Big Finish's marketing policy let's the company down) is that they felt the need to promote the fact that the Exxilons did actually appear in the story. If they hadn't promoted the fact, the revelation that the Locoyuns were the Exxilons would have been a surprise. However, by promoting it, The Exxilons now plays with the differing expectations that the audience has. And the characters may be paper thin, but these stock character types are twisted around. Just as Destination: Nerva had a set of stock characters, so does The Exxilons. He seems pretty adept at doing this. And the Exxilon characters are well played by Jacqueline King, Hugh Ross and Daisy Dunlop. All three of whom don't take too many cues from the original Exxilons story, but it's still clear that these are the same creatures who we meet in Death To The Daleks. The Tarl are, as mentioned earlier, portrayed through the character of Ergu, and he is everything you want in a 'primitive' character. He's loyal, but he's still a leader. He's unintelligent with regards to things, but he's not stupid either. And these are qualities that Tim Treloar plays well. He doesn't make the character stereotypically stupid, and actually gives him a kind of nobility that characters of his sort usually lack, at least in a real world sense. All these are ably supported by Tom, Louise and John, who's characters are given plenty to do, and they handle it really well. It's wonderful to hear all three back after so long apart. They've all worked as pairs: Tom and Louise on the first and third seasons of the Fourth Doctor Adventures and several special releases, Louise and John on Gallifrey and The Time Vampire and Tom and John on the second series of FDA's and the Gareth Roberts novel adaptions. By bringing these distinct personalities together, they really create some magic. Nick Briggs directs well, giving the material the right pace it needs. Very rarely does directing problems affect Big Finish, and even less do they affect Briggs. He always makes the best of the material he's been given. Together with Alistair Lock's superlative sound design and memorable music, they create real magic.
While The Exxilons may be wildly under ambitious, but don't knock it. In an month of novel adaptions, bi-weekly murder mysteries and a return to E-Space, many would expect this story to be lost amid a sea of creativity. However, The Exxilons is a deceptive story that won't tax or challange, but will entertain for an hour, with it's strong plot and clever characters. And if it wants me to go back to Death To The Daleks (one of my least favourite classic series story's), then it must have been good indead.
Rating - 7/10
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