Released: June 2014
Range: The Main Range
Range Number: 187
Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Rebecca Night, Victoria Hamilton, David Chittenden, Andrew Dickens, Sean Brosnan & Francesca Hunt
Written by Stephen Cole
Directed by Ken Bentley
France, the year 1770: by special invitation, the famous 'Doctor', friend of Voltaire, arrives at the lonely of the lovely Marquise de Rimdelle - once a hostess to the highest of high society, now isolated by the strange, pernicious mist that lingers round the countryside.
But there's more in that fog than mere vapour, confesses the Marquise's strange niece to the Doctor's ward, Nyssa. She senses some uncanny machine circling the fringes of the estate, in the space between the shadows. Watching. Always watching. She's given it a name: 'The Steamroller Man'.
Meanwhile, the man in the cellar talks to the Doctor; a dead man, trapped behind the cellar walls. The Steamroller Man is coming, he says; coming to smash the place down. It seems the Doctor has been drawn into a very dangerous liaison...
Masquerade is a deceptive story, both in the sense that it's got the feel of Inception about it, and that it tricks the audience into thinking one thing about it, and then altering the direction of the story so that the audience can't guess what's coming next. The one problem with this is that, on first listen, a listener can easily become distracted by the seemingly illogical plot twists. However, given a second listen, some of the more illogical moments seem to make sense, meaning that you really get your money's worth. But I suppose that some would argue that that's not the point, and normally I would argue that it's more interesting if you have a story that requires a second listen. However, in the case of Masquerade, I'm not so sure that a first listen is even worth it, because you'll hate it. And even on a second listen, you might not believe that it's worth it.
The plot of Masquerade is complex, and that's prehaps where the problem lies. The story has so much that the audience needs to absorb in such a short space of time that if you zone out of the story, or even try and assimilate the information that you have absorbed, you will find yourself lost. What starts as an unsettling mystery as the Doctor and his companions try to work out who they really are becomes a spurge of technobabble and streams of information about a project to allow humans to travel beyond our galaxy. And while this is the sort of thing that would be seen as traditional Who territory, when it's preventing the story from being interesting it becomes a problem. The drama feels forced, almost as if the threat of the Steamroller Man is something to give the story an added kick up the arse, trying to get the story to move along, despite his well executed menace. Parts two and three virtually grind to a hault, with a lot of shouting between the characters the only way that they communicate moments of the plot. Stephen Cole seems to have gone back to the kind of operatics that made The Land Of The Dead and Kiss Of Death such a difficult listen, and that means that the story certainly isn't as enjoyable as some of the other Stephen Cole stories such as The Apocalypse Element and The Feast Of The Drowned. It does, however, feel like a story that would have been broadcast back in season 20, so, in that respect it feels almost reminiscient of that era. However, it certainly wouldn't have been one of the better stories of that season. The ending is also pretty lousy, feeling rushed and not really a satifying conclusion for the two hours of story that the listener has been through. And, as a conclusion, it feels poor and misjudged: an attempt to mimic the end of Earthshock, but without featuring the build up that that story featured so well. It just ends up looking like a bolted on piece of emotion to a story that really doesn't deserve it. It ends up leaving the listener feeling cold, especially because it happened to a character who didn't deserve it.
The characters in this are, in addition, cold and calculating. Now, while the cure for the virus that the characters have to go through leaves them emotionless, it means that, as characters, they feel unsympathetic and uninteresting. Valdac, Helen and Rimdelle all feel cold and empty characters, with nothing to interest the audience at all. There the typical stock Who characters, both as their 'Dangerous Liasions' and their 'normal' selves. Non of them feature an even remotely interesting idea or hook to get us engaged. There there merely to impart information, and be killed/possessed/whatever-else-the-story requires. That means that the story already has an uphill struggle on characterisation, and sadly it doesn't improve with the other characters. The aliens who wish the humans destroyed are a dull bunch, with obvious motivations rather than complex reasons. It's a sharp contrast to last week's Wirrn Dawn, which featured a similar situation with a much more complex plot and ideas. Masquerade's villains feel like they were given this motivation in order to make them seem deep, but it rather exposes the weaknesses in there motivations. They are purely there to fufill a purpose, rather than actually impacting upon the plot in any way. The Dead/Steamroller Man are two mystical concepts that have no real character, since they are fufilling a plot function. The Doctor and Nyssa are also set in default mode, and Hannah has no real bearing upon the plot at all. If this really is her last story, than I feel that her inclusion into this trilogy was utterly pointless. In the first one, she never marked herself out as companion material, she was only introduced at the end of the third episode of Tomb Ship, and here she is stupidly sidelined until the final scene. It makes no sense as to why she was even put in this trilogy. I don't think that feels fair on Francesca Hunt, who's had to work with some pretty poor material. The rest of the cast in this one have been fairly good, with Peter and Sarah being particularly enjoyable to listen to, despite there average roles. The rest of the cast are pretty decent too, aided no doubt by Ken Bentley's direction which gets some good performances in the non-shouting moments. However, the moment people start shouting, Ken Bentley looses the control of the cast. One element that is consistently poor, however, is Simon Robinson's music and sound design. I have never been impressed with his work, and here he just proves why his Big Finish's weakest sound designer in a good few years. The music's a real ear worm, and the sound design isn't as polished as it should be. I don't feel like Robinson pays as much attention to his work as others like Jamie Robertson, Howard Carter and Steve Foxon do, which is why I feel their work is so much stronger than his. He throws a load of discordant sounds together in the hope something will stick, but it's clear that it doesn't.
Masquerade highlights why this Fifth Doctor/Nyssa trilogy has been a waste of time. Poor plotting, terrible characterisation and an atrocious music score combine to create a poor experience. I quite like dream stories like Brotherhood Of The Daleks or Last Christmas, however I simply couldn't get on with Masquerade. I feel it's a poor end to Hannah's TARDIS travels, and an even poorer end to what must be one of the worst Big Finish Main Range trilogies.
Rating - 4/10
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