The human race is locked in deadly combat with the ‘Android Hordes’ in the Orion System. Light years from the front line, the Doctor and Charley arrive to sample the dubious delights of a galactic backwater, little suspecting that the consequences of the Orion War might reach them there. But High Command’s lust for victory knows no bounds. Trapped aboard a mysterious derelict star destroyer, the Doctor and Charley find themselves facing summary execution. But this is only the beginning of their troubles. The real danger has yet to awaken. Until, somewhere in the dark recesses of the Garazone System, the Cybermen receive the signal for reactivation..
Following on from the events of Storm Waning, the eighth Doctor and his new companion Charley soon find themselves a few hundred years in the future visiting first a futuristic space port and then facing the silver giants known as the Cybermen. After the triumphant beginning of Storm Warning Big Finish choose to take a still relatively new Doctor up against an old enemy in a story that is steeped well in Doctor Who tradition. While perhaps a bit too traditional, if not predictable, at times, Sword Of Orion is still a good old fashioned Doctor Who adventure.
Both Paul McGann and India Fisher build on their strong performances from the previous story. Given that this is essential a traditional style story it’s interesting to note just how good the performances are out of both McGann and Fisher as both bring their distinctive performances to what are effectively archetype characters of the Doctor and companion. The chemistry between them present in the previous story continues here as well and it is especially apparent during the first episode in particular. McGann is also given a bit more exposition to say in this story as well such as the absolutely haunting reading he gives of the Cybermen’s back-story to Charley. While the writing may be archetypes. The performances sure aren’t and the story is all the better for it.
The supporting cast is good as well. Michelle Livingstone gives a nice performance as scrap ship captain Deeva Jansen who is far more then she first seems to be. Bruce Montangue, who I rather disliked in his role of Chief Librarian Elgin in Big Finish’s The Genocide Machine, gives a much better performance here as the rather tough and even unlikeable Grash. The scrap ship crew consisting of actors Helen Goldwyn, Ian Marr, Hylton Collins and Toby Longworth come across rather well in their respective roles. Not to forget the brief appearances of Mark Gatiss and Barnaby Edwards in the story’s beginning either. All told it’s a good supporting cast all round.
Then, of course, there’s the Cybermen themselves. In there first Big Finish appearance the silver giants are voiced by Nicholas Briggs and Alistair Lock and their work captures the voices of the Cybermen from their 1980’s appearances spot on. The Cybermen come across rather well as both a threat to the characters and has characters facing a threat themselves. That said the Cybermen do take ages to show up and star having any real type of effect on the plot which seems rather odd considering that unlike say Earthshock where their late appearance was meant to be a surprise, this story puts them on the front cover and gets nearly half way through the story before they start making a sizable impact on the story. While it might not be their best appearance the Cybermen do get a nice audio debut here and certainly better the Daleks got.
The post-production of the story was done by Nicholas Briggs, who also wrote and directed it as well. Briggs post-production work is pretty good in establishing the places in which the story takes place such as the electronic yet recognizably Arabic bazaar music in the first episode. Briggs also adds little touches such as the sound of breathing and slightly muffled voices of characters while they are wearing space suits for example. In terms of the quality of its post-production Sword Of Orion is as good as any other Big Finish audio.
The script on the other hand is a different story as it is effectively a “Doctor Who story by numbers.” The script is adapted from a story Briggs wrote back in the 1980’s for the Audio Visuals series of fan audios which was, as Briggs has said, deliberately written that way and became quite popular back in the day. Having listened to that version there’s a lot of that story here especially once the story leaves the space port behind and the scrap ship heads out into space. The problem with the script is the very fact that it’s a “by the numbers” story which contains many of the cliches of the Cybermen’s appearances in the original TV series. These range from their late appearance in the story to them menacing an isolated group of humans right down to the return of the worm like Cybermats. The problem is that the story becomes quite predictable which makes much of Briggs attempt to create atmosphere and suspense downright futile at times. The story does get a boost from the inclusion of a subplot regarding the far off war with Androids in the Orion system and how it all relates to the events of the story which keeps the story from being entirely predictable. While I like traditional style stories this one is just too traditional for its own good.
While suffering from perhaps being far too traditional a story, Sword Of Orion has its pluses. It has fine performances from McGann and Fisher, good performances from its supporting cast and some fine post-production work to boot. While it might not be the best of the eighth Doctor audios if you enjoy the more traditional stories or want to get all of the Doctor’s up against the second longest running villains of the series, you’ll enjoy this. Otherwise this is a good adventure but nothing spectacular.
Released as a part of Big Finish Productions monthly range as the 17th release of the range in February 2001.
The story was recorded on the 16th and 17th of May 2000 in Bristol.
Sword of Orion is available now from BigFinish.com and Amazon
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