‘MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION’ (TLV)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Escaping the Dark Times and the Daleks with the Eighth Doctor

Is Lizzie Hopley considered to be a decent ‘Doctor Who’ writer?

‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ is the third audio adventure featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor in a trilogy of stories as part of the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series. I have enjoyed checking out each of the ‘TLV’ stories so far. They’ve been interesting in terms of how they connect to each other.

Mind you, it would be fair to say the stories have been jarring in terms of whatever order you view, read and hear them. I’ve done my best to check out the ‘TLV’ stories in release order, but there have been occasions where I have diverted in following a certain Doctor’s journey e.g. the Tenth Doctor. 🙂

Like I said, this audio adventure is the third part of a trilogy by Big Finish for Paul McGann’s Doctor in ‘TLV’. Mind you, the Eighth Doctor has been in the book adventure ‘All Flesh is Grass’, which takes place between ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ and ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’. This can be confusing.

To be fair, most of these ‘TLV’ stories are meant to be standalone such as ‘The Minds of Magnox’ trying to be standalone. But when you’re trying to connect the dots and how all these adventures tie into each other to form one big event, it can be quite a challenge as you’d need to be on the alert. 😐

The writer of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ is Lizzie Hopley. I’ve come across Lizzie Hopley before since she played Gemma Griffin in the Eighth Doctor audio ‘Terror Firma’. She’s also been in a ‘Call the Midwife’ Christmas Special. Lately, she’s turned her acting to writing a number of Big Finishes. 🙂

So far, I’ve heard her pen the audio episode ‘Precious Annihilation’ with the Tenth Doctor and River Song and I’ve heard her pen this audio adventure ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ with the Eighth Doctor. I’m currently looking forwarding to ‘The Stuntman’ episode with the Tenth Doctor, Nyssa and K-9. 🙂

It’d be fair to say that it’s early days for me to appreciate Lizzie Hopley as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer. I did enjoy ‘Precious Annihilation’, but it wasn’t exactly matching to my standards. ‘Ghosts’ from ‘The Tenth Doctor and River Song’ box set won me over. I hope Lizzie Hopley as a writer will grow on me.

The reason why I raise these points is that I didn’t find ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ to be as exciting as ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’ and ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent enough audio drama. It’s just there were times where I felt the episode tended to drag a bit.

The episode follows on from the aftermath of the great battle that took place in ‘All Flesh is Grass’, I believe. The Eighth Doctor finds himself on his own and outnumbered when on board a Dalek time-ship careering through the time vortex. The Dalek time-ship appears to going out of control in this. 😐

The Doctor tries to use all his cunning to survive. The Dalek saucer disintegrates around him as well as his metal foes. The Daleks are becoming increasingly desperate as they and the Doctor are trapped with each other. Can the Doctor survive this with help from two released Dalek guinea pigs?

I appreciate the levels this audio went to in exploring the Eighth Doctor in a ‘Die Hard’ situation where he was escaping dangerous threats like the Daleks in order to return to his TARDIS. But the balance of Doctor and Dalek scenes needed to be evened out and there should have been more action.

In some respects, I wish this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure took advantage of making more references to the previous story ‘All Flesh is Grass’. I know this is meant to be a standalone adventure, but at least let us have references to the Ninth and Tenth Doctor to establish all this occurs after that adventure.

There are references made to previous ‘TLV’ stories such as ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ when the Doctor learns that the Daleks had devolved the Wraxians in their Wraxian library. The Doctor also utilises a personal heat shield from Atharna which had been used in ‘He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not’. 🙂

As ever, Paul McGann is excellent as the Eighth Doctor in this adventure. Early on in the story, I was disappointed that there were too many Daleks talking and not enough Doctor scenes. Thankfully, the tale got better with the Doctor being more involved with the action and interacting with characters.

It’s fascinating how the Eighth Doctor copes with being aboard a Dalek ship that’s on its way to destruction within the time vortex. He has a challenge trying to get back to his TARDIS which the Daleks hold in their custody. Thankfully, he’s able to outwit the Daleks before recovering his TARDIS.

Nicholas Briggs returns to voice the Daleks in this audio adventure. It’s fascinating to hear the Daleks in ‘TLV’ so far, as their stories shift from being in a comic, to a book, to audios, to a YouTube animation series, to a book and back to audio again. Somehow, Nick Briggs is able to maintain the Daleks’ consistency. 😀

We have our pantheon of Dalek characters in this adventure, including the Dalek Prime Strategist, the Scientist Dalek, the Dalek Executioner and Dalek drones. Some of the Dalek characters get killed in this adventure, either through backstabbing each other or through destruction aboard the saucer.

The Doctor acquires two companions in this adventure – Samantha Béart as Tiska and Wilf Scolding as Groth. These two have been imprisoned aboard the Dalek saucer to be utilised as experiments in the Daleks’ plans. When they come out of their cryogenic chambers, both of them make to escape. 🙂

I’ve heard Samantha Béart before, since she was in ‘The War Master’ story ‘The Master of Callous’ with Sir Derek Jacobi and she was previously in ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’, playing a different character. It’s intriguing Tiska happens to be the level-headed of the two Dalek prisoners escaping in this.

Wilf Scolding has been in a ‘Doctor Who’ audio story by Big Finish before called ‘Thin Time’ with Peter Davison and he was in the fourth episode of ‘The Master of Callous’ with Derek Jacobi’s Master. Groth is quite a contrast to Tiska, since he’s more agitated and wants to have a go against the Daleks.

As indicated before, there are a lot of Dalek talky scenes featured early on in the episode, which was a challenge to keep track of. Also, there’s not enough action in the episode. I’m fine for Dalek characters being developed, but some of those scenes tended to drag whilst listening to the story. 😦

I enjoyed it when the Doctor was floating in zero gravity and he taunted the Scientist Dalek in the lab aboard the saucer. You could visualise Paul’s Doctor enjoying himself when floating in zero gravity, avoiding the Scientist Dalek firing on him and getting right behind his casing in order to outwit him. 🙂

There is a moment when I thought Groth might be an agent working for the Daleks. Like he would have a Dalek eyestalk popping out of his head like from ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’. That didn’t happen whilst I listened to the episode, since Groth gets exterminated by Daleks.

The Dalek Executioner does become hyper-aggressive in this episode; especially when it’s either searching for the Doctor, Tiska and Groth or disobeying the Dalek Time Commander’s orders. The Dalek Time Commander does have ideas above his station, since it likes to think itself as the Dalek Emperor.

The Dalek Prime Strategist tries to be cunning and find a way to get off the Dalek saucer by hitching a ride with the Doctor in his TARDIS. But the Doctor’s able to outwit the Dalek Prime Strategist by making a recording of his conversation with it so as to expose it before the Dalek Time Commander.

When chaos ensues with the Daleks shooting each other, the Doctor and Tiska manage to escape in the TARDIS. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS out of the time vortex and hopefully out of the Dark Times. Hopefully this is where the Eighth Doctor’s involvement with ‘TLV’ concludes as opposed to where it begins. 🙂

‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ is a decent third adventure in the Eighth Doctor trilogy of audios by Big Finish for ‘Time Lord Victorious’. I can’t say I’m excited by it, but it did have a decent end to how the Eighth Doctor got out of his alliance with the evil Dalek Time Squad and escape the Dark Times. 🙂

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew including Paul McGann, Nicholas Briggs, Samantha Béart, Wilf Scolding, writer Lizzie Hopley, director Scott Handcock, producer Alfie Shaw, etc.

If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ via the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ bundle, you’ll get bonus content which is a suite of incidental music to enjoy.

‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (TLV) rating – 7/10

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The previous story For the Eighth Doctor was ‘All Flesh is Grass’ (TLV) (Book) For the Daleks was ‘All Flesh is Grass’ (TLV) (Book)	The next story For the Eighth Doctor is ‘The Time War 1’ (Audio) For the Daleks is ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ (TLV) (Audio)
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