Doctor Who is at its best when it challenges its audience.
The Mutant Phase is as ambitious an adventure as Big Finish have ever produced.
By the end of Part Four, it’s hard to remember where you came in. It is
sprawling, epic and experimental. The plot begins with a simple arrival in
Kansas during the Dalek invasion of Earth in 2158. Then, suddenly, the plot
begins to twist and turn as the Daleks’ existence is threatened by something
called ‘the mutant phase,’ a new stage in Dalek evolution that, as the Doctor
and Nyssa discover, began in 2158. It infects the Dalek and causes them to
mutate into unthinking mutant killing machines. The Doctor is recruited by the
Dalek Emperor to assist two Thal scientists in changing history to avert the
mutant phase and thus save his greatest enemies. But there are a plague of time
paradoxes and time corridors to navigate first before the Doctor can find a
solution to the problem. And not everyone is exactly what they seem.
It’s a huge gamble to attempt a story like this but writer
and director Nicholas Briggs is clearly confident with his ideas and let them
play out in the a brilliantly brazen fashion throughout. Sympathetic characters
such as Dolores are exterminated when they have served their purpose in the
story. It’s a dramatic device to up the ante and paint the Daleks as truly
ruthless.
At the centre of this, Peter Davison is extraordinary. He
must have been baffled by this script’s plot intricacies yet he chooses to hang
his performance on the dramatic possibilities. He is incredibly comfortable
here, The Mutant Phase distils all that is terrific about the Fifth Doctor into
one story. He is ably supported by Sarah Sutton as Nyssa who is given a real
chance to stand out as a strong, thoughtful and independent character. I have
always admired Big Finish’s ability to flesh out characters that had bags of
potential on television but were frequently let-down. Nyssa is one such
example, and she compliments the Doctor beautifully.
The sound design is breathtakingly good, a wonderfully
spooky and doom-laded score coupled with a terrific soundscape lends real
credence to the adventure. The performances, too, are first-rate. The Daleks
have never sounded so frighteningly crisp as they do here.
Hats off to Big Finish for taking a big, bold risk and
succeeding admirably.
Available from Big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-mutant-phase-640
