Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickland, Annette Badland, Nickolas Grace, Joanna Kirkland, John Albasiny, Ella Kenion.

E-Space has ensnared The Doctor. Thanks to the mechanical, mathematic genius mind of the now dead Adric, the Doctor in his fifth incarnation and his three young companions are cut adrift from the Universe and with little hope of finding their way back, it seems as though their stay in E-Space will become a lengthy and unbalanced one.

Balance, it is what the Universe works upon, it cannot be allowed to tip the scales in one way or become one-sided in the other; the yin and yang must be kept in some sort of alignment.  Even the Doctor, a man who works so hard to change things for the better, might struggle to keep the balance maintained in Matt Fitton’s latest contribution to the Big Finish canon, Equilibrium.

All is not what it seems in the land of Isenfel, balance has been maintained but at considerable cost to the people of ice, snow and monsters. Balance is a lie on which the foundations of the Kingdom are founded and it is a lie that needs exposing for all that it is worth; however for the Doctor it is a prospect that could cause more harm than good.

It is always refreshing when a writer on Big Finish’s Doctor Who series stops to reflect, to pause for thought on what makes the Doctor doubt himself. The biggest of all these moments was arguably in Genesis of the Daleks and it has never been bettered, yet. For the youngest of The Doctors, until Matt Smith took the helm on television, doubt and courage have always gone hand in hand. In one breath he can calm and reassure one of the most loyal of all his companions with the words, “Brave Heart Tegan” but in the next he can be racked with inconsolable guilt and lament that there should have been another way. It is this guilt that weaves its way through the premise of Equilibrium.

This is arguably Peter Davison’s great strength in the role, the most compassionate of all the Doctor’s incarnations and perhaps the best story for exactly that reason for the actor in what seems to be a long time.

Playing against the wonderful Nickolas Grace and the equally impressive Annette Badland, Peter Davison is on top form and the tension in his deliberation is captured fully by Matt Fitton’s claustrophobic, almost despairing script which has its allusions to the idea of population control taken to its chilling maxim and the way that nothing is taken for granted with the safety of the Doctor’s companions.

By taking the Doctor into a territory that he hasn’t been to for quite some time, Matt Fitton has bought out the best in the character and his personality traits, it is not just the land of Isenfel that is suffering under the symptom of being out of balance; the Doctor has lost his reason to be. Equilibrium is a cracking episode and one that Matt Fitton easily brings to the forefront.

Doctor Who: Equilibrium is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall