Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Phil Mulryne, Karl Theobald, Alix Wilton Regan.
The insurrection of music in the 1960s, of having the bravery to go against Government control and play songs that not only inspire the young but in which the world now turns, was a battle that was worthy of any high sea drama and one that was important to win; one side in the war to play music that people actually wanted to hear against a near tyranny who wanted impose their own set of rules and standards…a war that that the unfortunate side effect of allowing advertising to creep ever further into the world and something far more disturbing.
The fifth series of Tom Baker’s homecoming to the role of The Doctor sees the re-emergence of Lalla Ward as the Doctor’s equal Romana in the main series of Big Finish audio series and it is a combination that works well but the listener is left to feel the sound of what ifs ringing in their ears as the Wave of Destruction captures the imagination of the Big Finish fan.
The echo of spoken word and music has long since found its way into the realms of darkness that surround the Earth, we have been noisy without care and attention to what and who is hearing us, whether that beyond our reason of understanding, spite, jealousy and seething is making use of our own sounding importance. The echo of the transmission not only alerts a country’s enemies, it tests the resilience of those who want the message to be heard.
It is not the first time that the makers of Doctor Who have made use of the idea of alien life being able to infiltrate the world for their own nefarious means and whilst it is a point that such means are viable, it means that the listener’s memory will naturally be drawn to the David Tennant era and the episode The Wire, it is a recollection that might be seen as verging on the unfair as most comparisons are apt to be.
Wave of Destruction allows the listener to revel in many eras, the period in which Lalla Ward and Tom Baker sparked together on screen, the fascination that encompassed the resolve of those who want to free music from state authority and the realisation that in the end we are the harbingers of our own destiny; it just depends if we are remembered in the echoing void for all the right reasons or if the snap of advertising chatter will be our flawed epitaph.
Doctor Who: Wave Of Destruction is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall