Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Sarah Sutton, Sarah Douglas, Alistair Mckenzie, Anjella Mackintosh, Jez Fielder.
Never mind a woman scorned, when a Tardis gets rejected, she really does have a long time to brood and plot her revenge on the one person she has bonded with, namely the Doctor.
Jonathan Morris’ Prisoners Of Fate sees the tying up of a major arc story that has been festering and boiling slowly since the classic line-up of Peter Davison’s incarnation as the Doctor and his companions, Nyssa, Vislor Turlough and Tegan were all re-united. Prisoners Of Fate sees the fickle finger of time turn her lofty eye towards Nyssa, portrayed once more with absolute dedication to the cause by the ever gracious Sarah Sutton and focus on her relationship with her past but also the way that the Doctor has kept certain things from her as she has done to him.
It is not the only trouble that the Doctor has in the female department as a Type 50 Tardis, the one he should have taken/stolen when leaving Gallifrey, turns up and like the best spurned wife or lover has had a long time to fester her resentment on the man who left her for an older model. This dichotomy of the forgiving nature of Nyssa and the time she has missed out on with her family since finding the cure for Richter’s Syndrome and the comparison of the forsaken Tardis whose bitterness, especially after being held captive by the ambitious Sibor is tangible, it is a meeting of ex’s that should be avoided at all cost, not just because of the emotional fall out but also due to the exact nature of revenge a Tardis can foresee.
It is a story in which Sarah Sutton relishes in. Nyssa’s sometime lofty but ultimately kind hearted manner occasionally gets in the way of making the most of the soul survivor of Traken, however this is Nyssa being shown what happens when you travel with the Doctor, when each journey and small diversion takes you that little further from home. The trouble is with that eventually you reach a point where you have gone so far that you can never go back, life just becomes too difficult to suddenly turn up back at the door you left behind. Nyssa’s anger when shown this makes the listener hold her possibly closer than they have since the days when she was in the television episodes. The added bonus of hearing her interact with her son Adric, played with great sympathy by Alistair Mackenzie, is a moment that touches the heart but also feels the heat of regret in which we all must fall at some point.
A story of jealousy, lament and guilt in which Jonathan Morris has captured the essence of Nyssa’s relationship with the Doctor and also that of a type 50, left alone to think of adventures not taken with her Doctor.
Prisoners Of Fate is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall