Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Keating, Gareth Armstrong, Nicholas Briggs.
If everything you knew about your life turned out to be a lie, how would you feel? If you had found out that all you held dear about yourself, the untold truths, the minutest detail of your very existence an elaborate lie placed in your mind by a master hypnotist who had somehow conveniently not reversed the flow of information to you and in doing so had turned you into a being so malevolent, would it be better to find out the truth?
The latest fourth Doctor story written for Big Finish by Nicholas Briggs, The Evil One, sees Leela battle an inner turmoil in which images of the death of her father have been manipulated by an unseen hand and in which her trust for The Doctor has been destroyed. It has become the stuff of nightmares for her and coupled with a strange awareness that she is feared throughout the Universe and known by the name The Evil One.
What makes this particular episode so intriguing is the thought that control can be so easily influenced, that what we see and feel, when placed against another Human Being’s perception of the same scene, you can wonder if what you have experienced is actually real, that your thoughts have been distorted. In a world where information comes at you with frightening speed, the full facts seem to become too clear, too quickly and your emotions are pulled all over the place. It’s understandable to believe one thing and then five minutes later to have completely changed your mind, the information age can sometimes be as much as disservice than a boon.
The Evil One highlights Louise Jameson wonderfully as she takes a sort of centre stage that has been so far painfully neglectful. It also re-introduces the great Geoffrey Beevers as The disfigured Master back into the life of The Doctor. It seems a shame that in an age where five incarnations of The Doctor are plying their trade and saving the whole of time and space for Big Finish, audiences and listeners have only the one version of The Master in which to despise. Listening to Mr. Beevers portray one of the classic Masters can only make you relish the time spent with much fondness the dear departed Anthony Ainley and Roger Delgado. It is shame that these two fine actors who bought much to the role and set the groundwork for John Simm, Derek Jacobi and the rumoured Charles Dance will never be able to reprise their most coveted role.
The Evil One is a very good episode in which to reminisce, in which to play with what could have been’s and might of’s. It is also a prominent episode in which to highlight the back story of Leela once more. An episode in which arguably only Nicholas Briggs could have written with such confident flourish!
The Evil One is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall