Released: March 2003
Range: The Main Range
Range Number: 42
Starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Lisa Bowerman, Michael Praed, Andrew Westfield, Hannah Smith, Steven Wickham & Toby Longworth
Written by Trevor Baxendale
Directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery
A thousand years ago, the evil Cult of the Dark Flame infiltrated every star system in the galaxy. In the history books the Cult is legendary, it's despotic leader a terrible memory.
But for some the Dark Flame still burns. For some, it's horrifying power is the ultimate goal. All that is required is for the right people to be in the wrong place and time...
An archaeologist and his robot are on the poisonous world of Marran Alpha, where they will uncover a hideous relic. The Doctor and Ace are on their way to the deep space research centre Orbos, where Professor Bernice Summerfield is soon to start the countdown to universal Armageddon.
Four acolytes of Evil.
Three mad scientists.
Two companions.
One Doctor.
After the success of Shadow Of The Scourge, it was inevitable that Big Finish would come back the New Adventures timeline for more stories with the seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny. However, while The Shadow Of The Scourge was very atypical of the New Adventures, The Dark Flame tries to tell the sort of story that Virgin never got the chance to. However, Dark Flame does have it's problems, and it prehaps doesn't come off as strongly as it could do, especially because there are some really good ideas that are powering it.
The story itself revolves around the attempted resurrection of death cult the Dark Flame. Now, Doctor Who stories have dealt with fanatics and death-cults before, but, while The Dark Flame attempts to be original, it ends up feeling like a pastiche of the stories that have dealt with these ideas before. Certainly, the actual cult itself is atypical of cults of this type: despotically mad, but not painted in deep colours, with little actual motivation. They worship an energy being from another dimension, but they never really tell us why. There's no motivation behind their madness, just a lot of 'we serve you' trite, and 'we will bring about the end of the universe' rubbish that is typical of the death-cults of this type. The plan of the cult is also obvious - bring back the cult's leader, and then spread out across the universe. Yer, yer, seen it all before. Boring. Nothing very interesting, nothing really new. As for the eponymous 'dark flame', it's another mystical energy source from the end of time. Baxendale really doesn't give anything much depth in the story, instead preferring to poke around on the surface, and even nicks his vital energy source from the first four episodes of Trial Of A Time Lord. And unlike that story, the black light is just a field of mystical energy. There's reference to it being unstable, but unlike Trial, it just feels like a plot convenience, and an unnecessary reference to a generally forgotten story (the events of The Mysterious Planet, not the Trial story itself). Everything is all a little dull and uninteresting, and rehashed. And the ending was rushed beyond belief, with a silly reset button that was completely unnecessary. While people say that the main range nowadays lacks originality, they should try listening to this. It's really poor stuff.
The characters in this are pretty poor too, unfortunately. There all a little thinly drawn, and Baxendale even messes up the regulars. Only Benny and Joseph are actually interesting, the rest being rather dull. The Emmisary, Slyde, Lomas and Broke are simply ciphers; mad, bad and dangerous. They really don't get any development at all beyond a predictable path that pre-planned out for them. Most of them don't even get a decent ending. For example, Slyde started off as a thoroughly nasty piece of work, but by the second disc has simply faded into the background. And it's a shame, because Michael Praed's performance is actually quite good. It's understated, which really works, especially when contrasted with Hannah Smith and Andrew Westfield. While Lomas had the potential to be rather interesting, that potential is wasted by Smith's performance, which, from the very beginning, screams baddy. As for Remnex, Victor and Broke, they are all given so little to do it's untrue. All the actors are good in their roles, but their hindered by a script that doesn't give them an awful lot to do. And as for the Emmisary, he's a classic, shouty villain. No motivations, no background, just a classic example of mad villain that has been flogged to death. Added to that, Andrew Westfield's performance here is a little off with the material. However, it's certainly not to the extent of Sylvester McCoy's performance, which is, to be frank, all over the place. It's obvious that there's little connection with the lines on the page, something which proberbly isn't helped by the poor direction and the 'generic' nature of the Doctor character in the script. Sophie Aldred is much stronger than her co-star, however Baxendale has no obvious grasp on Ace's New Adventures character. To me, she feels more like the version of the character that Big Finish have honed in the fifteen years they have been doing audios with the character, rather than the battle hardened warrior of the New Adventures. This leaves us with Benny and Joseph, who are the only two to come out of this story with any dignity intact. Joseph is a fascinating creation (who I believe originally appeared in a Bernice Summerfield story), and is, to all intents and purposes, a robot with a human soul. He actually has some of the funniest moments in the play, as well as Benny, who gets off quite well. She doesn't get to do anything of note, but Baxendale nails her characterisation, which Lisa Bowerman runs with. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was Benny's possession. It just felt so unneeded, and didn't any anything to the drama. As for the direction, I felt that Jason Haigh-Ellery was all over the place, adding to the mess of a confused and dull story. Andy Hardwick and Gareth Jenkins' music and soundscapes were alright, but that can't save a terrible story.
To be honest, I've felt like I was sucking blood from a stone listening and reviewing this story. It's a confused mess, with unoriginal and unneeded plot lines, wafer thin characters, some terrible direction and some really quite poor performances. If The Shadow Of The Scourge was 'The New Adventures - Greatest Hits', then The Dark Flame is 'The New Adventures - Everything Else'. One of the worst McCoy audios.
Rating - 3/10
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