Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Kingston, Alexander Vlahos, Alexander Siddig, Imogen Stubbs, John Voce, Letty Butler, Samuel West, John Banks, Aaron Neil.

Murder has to be inventive to keep the interest of those who delight in such anarchy, however, the reasons for murder have become entangled in reasons to which have become ever murkier, more salient, less transparent as they have ever been. It is no longer enough to kill a character on the basis of greed, gain or for the love of someone, now there must be complexity, there must be retribution for the act in which the victim surely deserves to die. It is in this realm of vengeance that the merest sleight becomes weaponised, the act of ecocide is met with the fullest support of death to the perpetrator by all concerned. It is no longer enough to see someone brought to justice, tried by a jury, now there must be blood.

There is nothing quite like the elegance of a party in which to play detective, to stretch the muscles of the brain and in which the sympathies of the event are such that you are conflicted over the outcome, and whilst murder is the worst of actions upon which the state or another person can inflict, there are moments in which it becomes understandable, especially when it is the vengeance of a world that has been destroyed by another’s hand that drives the impulse on.

It is perhaps only right that River Song, the Doctor’s wife, adventurer, archaeologist, former psychopath, should be on board the space cruise liner when the mystery bears its teeth, and with the reappearance of Bertie Potts, to whom she thought dead at the hands of the entity in the desert in the previous hour long audio, the unveiling of the rape and systematic destruction of two planets becomes knowledge, and quite rightly, as one who has travelled with the Doctor is apt to do, River investigates and puts her own sense of morality on the line as she becomes further embroiled in the case.

To have the extraordinary talents of both Alexander Siddig and Imogen Stubbs in the audio drama is a thrill, and whilst they are both playing the parts in an understated way, arguably deferring to the two main leads of Alex Kingston and Alexander Vlahos as the producers of I Went To A Marvellous Party ramp up the tension and delight in this Doctor Who spin off, there is, at the very heart and soul of the story, a demanding sophistication and consuming theatrical beauty that deserves to be heard and enjoyed.

It is to the Rulers that find in life, those who believe with unswerving dogma that they can take a life, of a person, of a species, of a planet, without consequence, it is to those who stand in their way who are the ones who can bury them in the dirt and remains of their crimes.

A drama that takes on that understanding of retribution with insightful confidence. I Went To A Marvellous Party, and murder is on the menu. 

Ian D. Hall