26. Primeval.

4 episodes. Approx. 108 minutes. Written by: Lance Parkin. Directed by: Gary Russell. Produced by: Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery.


THE PLOT

Nyssa is gravely ill, and the Doctor can find no cause for her sudden sickness. With all of Time and Space at his disposal, he has brought her to the one place where she can find healing: her home planet Traken, roughly 3,000 years before its destruction.

He has brought Nyssa to Shayla (Susan Penhaligon), the foremost healer in all of the planet's history. What he doesn't realize is that these are also Traken's primeval times, a time of superstition when the consuls all but worshipped the artificial sun known as "The Source," whose energy keeps out all evil influences. The ruling Consuls, Janneus (Rita Davies) and Hyrca (Mark Woolgar), see the Doctor as a pernicious influence and insist that he and Nyssa must leave immediately. When Shayla protests that this will mean Nyssa's death, the consuls declare this a small price to pay for the good of their ideal society.

An appalled Shayla gives the Doctor another lead to follow: Kwundaar (Stephen Greif), a malevolent being who leads an army that worships him as a god. Kwundaar's fleet constantly circles Traken, kept at bay by the power of The Source. He is tremendously powerful and tremendously dangerous - but he will be able to save Nyssa. There is a price, however, and if the Doctor pays it then it will mean the total destruction of Traken!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Rejects the Trakenites' black-and-white view of good and evil. "I've traveled quite widely, met the most terrible people with the most appalling beliefs. I consider them evil. But I'm sure if you were to ask them, they'd tell you that I'm the monster, not them. Evil is relative." He sees Kwunddar's followers as more misguided than anything. He respects Kwundaar's captain, Narthes (Billy Miller), for his desire to provide a better life for his children, and he clearly pities the devout young Lt. Anona (Romy Tennant), whose harsh life has made her entirely too receptive to Kwundaar's deadly philosophy. None of this stops him from wanting to defeat Kwundaar, but it makes his interactions with the "dark god's" followers much more interesting than might have been the case.

Nyssa: Even when deathly ill, she remains protective of the Doctor. She stands up for him to the Consuls, denouncing their superstitious fears and scornfully saying that they should be ashamed of themselves. She also shows resourcefulness when confronted by Anona near the end. Very Doctor-like, she manages to defeat Anona despite being unarmed and having no advantage other than her quick wits.

Kwundaar: Primeval has generally strong guest characters and performances, but Stephen Greif's Kwundaar is the clear standout. He's a villain, but he's not just a villain. As his backstory is revealed, we see that his hatred of the Traken people is far from unmotivated, and there's something almost tragic about his sad reflection that "Everyone betrays me." Like a lot of Big Finish alien villains, his voice has been electronically treated. Unlike many cases, the treatment works perfectly. It's light enough that Greif's own silky, seductive delivery comes through the effect. He shifts from soft to harsh and back again, and the effects don't get in the way. And as he speaks, we hear the howls of the Damned echoes within the treatment given his voice - shrieks of torment that, by the story's end, seem to reflect the pain not of Kwundaar's victims, but of Kwundaar himself. An excellent villain, well-performed and well-presented.


THOUGHTS

Primeval returns us to Traken, giving us a look at its distant past while centering the narrative on the Doctor and Nyssa. Lance Parkin's script cleverly links this young Traken to the world seen on television. In this way, it is able to act as both sequel and prequel to The Keeper of Traken, more fully developing the planet's history and society while showing the birth of the "Keeper" system.

That makes it interesting from a continuity perspective, but Primeval is much more than fan service. Parkin has written an intelligent script, one that examines questions of good and evil in a way that's less superficial than the average Doctor Who runaround. And it does so while still managing to a good, fast-paced yarn.

Faith is a major thematic centerpoint. Kwundaar's followers and the Traken consuls are paralleled at many points, both groups blind in their faith. Narthes describes his service to Kwundaar: "I worship him, follow his commandments. He grants me all I ask for, intervenes on my behalf. There's not many that can say that about their god." In return for Kwundaar's intervention, his followers in their blind faith perpetrate destruction on a massive scale.

But the faith of the Traken consuls is equally toxic, as they pronounce the perfection of their own society and elevate their artificial sun into a deity in deed, if not in word: "The Source guides us. The Source is perpetual, infallible. We bathe in its light, while the lesser races must skulk in the shadows... The whole universe envies us!" There are more similarities than differences between the two pronouncements, and we see the consuls willing to execute innocents and ignore the deaths of non-Trakenites as irrelevant all in the name of their self-pronounced "perfection."

Nyssa's faith in the Doctor is the contrast. She continually voices her faith in his goodness and is certain that he will save her, then that he will save Traken. But she is very willing to question him, and is quick to point out the way in which he falls straight into Kwundaar's trap. Her faith is genuine, but it isn't blind, and so comes across as far healthier than the single-minded worship of either Kwundaar's people or the Traken consuls.

Lest this come across as wordy and actionless, it should be said that the story involves a fleet of ships, with Nyssa and the Doctor under constant threat from either the Traken consuls, Kwundaar's followers, or both. By the end of Episode One, we've heard one supporting character's disintegration. By the end of Episode Two, there has been a desperate escape, one that we learn is actually part of a trap the Doctor is falling directly into. The final episode could accurately be described as an action piece. It's just it isn't dumb action, and when the characters talk, their words are well worth hearing as much for the pleasure of the dialogue as for advancement of the plot.

Fast-paced, deceptively thoughtful, and populated by interesting and well-performed guest characters, Primeval is one of the highlights of Big Finish's first three years. It's one that I regard as a personal favorite, and I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Story: The Mutant Phase
Next Story: Spare Parts


Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who



5th Doctor Television Review Index

5th Doctor Audio Review Index