The Taste of Rising Bile

The magic of Photoshop and archive photos.

It’s taken me a while to really get into Big Finish’s audio dramas. I’m still not entirely won over by the series of full cast dramas (although they are doing one with Fitz in later this month, so I’ll be buying that, regardless of my misgivings). Their Companion Chronicles series though, which are essentially first person narratives read out by a former companion on the television series, along with one other actor to do the bulk of other voices, are growing on me at a rate that would put an overactive fungus to shame.

My favourite so far is this release, The Prisoner’s Dilemma (named after a logic problem regarding two people accused of the same crime selling each other out or not), which ties into the main series’ Key 2 Time series (a sequel to the so-called Key to Time series of the TV show in which the Doctor spent the entire series locating six pieces of the key to time). Anyway, that makes it all sound massively inaccessible, but it’s not. This stands alone with aplomb.

It’s helped by the fact that whereas most Companion Chronicles have the second voice taking a significantly smaller role and just doing dialogue, this splits the story in twain for the two actors. Sophie Aldred gets top billing as Ace, but the first of the two episodes is narrated by Zara (played by Laura Doddington). Zara is an artificial being created by an extra-dimensional species called The Grace. She’s been created and sent into the universe to collect three of the six pieces of the Key to Time. But as soon as she enters the world, she’s mistakenly kidnapped by a time-travelling ne’er-do-well called Harmonious 14 Zinc. Being newly born and all, Zara is somewhat impressionable, so Zinc’s lesser traits quickly begin to influence her. Her quest for the Key to Time becomes much less altruistic, which is how she ends up in prison with Ace.

Both the actresses give fine performances, though I have to say that Aldred is outshone by Doddington, who has an icy callousness to her voice that perfectly sells Zara.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma does well at setting up a complicated premise in a way that isn’t overwhelmed and still manages to tell a story that’s only tangentially connected to the wider concerns. At around an hour, it doesn’t outstay its welcome either.

Plus there’s special features. Not just for DVDs, you know. At the end of the disc there’s a quick interview with the actresses and the director, although this does fall into a typical trap of Big Finish luvvyness. It’s not as bad as on other releases though, which destroy the illusion of the story by revealing that most of the actors haven’t understood half of what they’ve been doing beforehand.

You can pick this up for just under £7, which is a fine price for an hour’s audio entertainment. Highly Recommended.