Charlotte Pollard’s adventures are over. She escaped death aboard the R101 and travelled in time and space - but now in the service of the monolithic, unknowable Viyrans, their unending mission is stifling her. An encounter with would-be adventurer Robert Buchan, near the mysterious Ever-and-Ever-Prolixity, provides the opportunity Charley needs for escape… So, the adventuress is abroad once more: meeting a lost expedition in uncharted forests, solving enigmas, and hoping beyond hope to see the people she misses most: her family. But Charley cannot run forever. The Viyrans know the power of the ‘Lamentation Cipher’ and they have a solution… for everything.
I recently listed to this and found it to be quite a mixed bag. I think the best way I can give an honest critique of this is by doing it on an individual story basis.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!
Part One: The Lamentation Cypher
The first part of the story has probably the toughest job, it has to reintroduce the audience to Charlotte Pollard, the Viyrans and remind us why they are working together whilst also moving the story forward.
This episode of the story succeeds in most of its aims, the basic plot of the over arc of the story is laid out, Charlie has been with the Viyrans a hell of a long time and wants more than anything to get home to her parents and the life she left behind.
As the story starts Charlie is working for the Viyrans finding plague victims and delivering them for treatment, this is where she meets Robert Buchan, a character who will reappear later, a young man who she gets along with very well but does have to deliver up for treatment which will involve him forgetting they ever met. Charlie then travels back to the hidden Viyran base, whilst there she encounters a strangely charismatic Viryan who tells her she carries the Lamentation Cypher and helps her escape where she meets up with Robin again gets caught and then escapes into a wormhole.
Thats a really cut down version of the story and if it sounds a little formulaic thats because it plays that way; however there are some twists and turns within the plot that raise it above the pedestrian fare it initially seems on paper. There are lots of unanswered questions what is the Lamentation Cypher? why does it scare the Viyrans? where did the wormhole come from? and more
What I like most is that the episode doesn’t tell us everything, obviously the writers know they have time to spread the answers across the four episodes and are going to make the most of that to tease us along the path they have laid out before us.
Its been a while since India Fisher played Charlie Pollard but she slips into character as easily as you’d slip into a favourite pair of shoes, it really is as if she had never been away and I for one was very pleased to see her back! Micheal Maloney is superb as the Viyrans especially the strangely lively one - who we shall be hearing more about later, the only real down point of this episode for me were the father and son Robert and Bert Buchan who seemed just a little too hackneyed and clichéd for my tastes.
Part Two: The Shadow at the Edge of the World
In which Charlotte meets up with a group of women trapped in a jungle under attack from the strange “slaverings” before finding the way out and escaping from a group of Viyrans.
This was the episode I was most disappointed by, the story really is pretty much as I have described it with what twists there are in it telegraphed from a long way in advance.
The acting from all involved is top drawer and the sound effects and direction really immerse you into the jungle environment but the story itself is sadly under par and ends up feeling a little as padding with little information of any real merit actually coming across but it does lead nicely into
Part Three: The Fall of the House of Pollard
This episode is bloody brilliant, it starts with Charlie trapped in a kind of limbo but able to contact a psychic back in her own time who she convinces to go see her parents. We now find out what has happened to the Pollard family in the years since Charlies disappearance and in all honesty it is nothing good, the family fortune has slowly dripped away as her father has slipped into a deep depression.
At first Charlies mother wont believe the psychic but eventually he wins her over and helps Charlie to escape from limbo to return to her, at first, disbelieving family but little does she know the Viyrans are not far behind.
As I said at the beginning of this section this episode is absolutely brilliant and whilst the story is good its the performances from the cast that really lift this episode right up. Particular kudos must go to Anneke Wills and Terrence Hardiman whose performances are nothing short of sublime.They have taken a script which in lesser hands could have been hammy and melodramatic but here they sound real and full of genuine emotion, I found this a truly moving episode.
Part Four: The Viyran Solution
Having surrendered to protect her parents from the Viyrans Charlotte finds herself returned to the Mothership located near the wormhole, she is surprised to find that her friend Robert Buchan has replaced her and is now working for the Viyrans who now appear to have gone totally mad and plan to wipe all disease out by stopping evolution by wiping out all life in the universe.
Answers come thick and fast in this action packed episode and Im not going to spoil it by explaining them all suffice to say I found most satisfactory and one or two particularly pleasing.
Once again the performances were very good with even the father and son arrangement of Robert and Bert Buchan much more palatable this time round and lead to an extremely satisfying conclusion.
I have to say that I’ve found the sound effects on the recent BF releases extremely good and go a long way to create believable environments for the actors to work in.
In summary Nick Briggs has assembled an excellent cast who I think have succeeded in raising a story that might otherwise have been a little disappointing and making it into one that on the whole is both thrilling and exciting in equal measure but also possessing enough twists and turns in it to keep the listener guessing.
It’s a good reintroduction to Charlotte Pollard and I cant wait for her to cross paths with the Doctor again.
Written By: Jonathan Barnes and Matt Fitton
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs
Cast: India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Anneke Wills (Lady Louisa Pollard), Terrence Hardiman (Lord Richard Pollard), Michael Maloney (Viyrans), James Joyce (Robert Buchan), Nicholas Briggs (Bert Buchan/The Slaverings), Jacqueline King (Mrs Turnerman), Abigail McKern (Susan Broadstairs), Nicola Weeks (Charity Savage), Lucy May Barker (Emmeline Leigh), Charlie Norfolk (Violet Warren), David Dobson (Michael Dee), Louise Brealey (Millicent Belanger III), Nadia Kamil (Miss Griffin)
Charlotte Pollard - Series One is available now from BigFinish.com or via the Amazon link below.
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