Blog on the Lillypad
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
 | Just finished DAVROS (audio CD)
Inspired by the recommendation given by Kevin Parker and impressed by actor Terry Molloy, I bought the DAVROS CD at United Fan Con East. This week, I loaded the CD onto my hard drive and listened to it yesterday and today. I recall Michael Wisher's fanatical, excitable, almost frantically evil version of Davros done in the 70's (alongside the incredible Peter Miles). But Molloy's DAVROS is more resigned to whatever the next step brings and yet much more intense. Molloy's delivery of the penetrating evil that has even begun to eat away at Davros himself is excellent and stays on the safe side of going over the top. No mean feat considering how incredibly evil Davros has been. |
The story overall is one of the best in the audio regeneration of Doctor Who. I have a few quibbles with the plot after its mid-point, but I don't want to spoil it for people who have not yet heard the story. Suffice it to say that one legitimate gripe against modern WHO stories is that at times it appears that the writers think they have to kill every named character apart from the Doctor, and some stories can be reduced to clearly visible plot lines of how to kill this character, then this one, then this one, etc.. While this story does not quite go that far, it does go too far in that direction. But that's not quibble enough to stop this from being a really good story.
Terry Molloy makes a magnificent Davros, and Colin Baker once again delivers a likeable, brilliant Doctor who can use sarcasm well and yet shows a deep respect---even tenderness---for the sanctity of lilfe. Some moments provoke genuine laughter from the listener. It gets more and more clear with the audio adventures that during the era of the television series, the sixth Doctor suffered from bad writers, not bad acting. Baker's Doctor harks back to Pertwee and even to Troughton and Hartnell. As a "conservative" in the politics of WHO, I like a morally upright Doctor.
And speaking of the morality of the story, there is a lot of genuinely thought provoking insight given to the reader regarding Davros. Kudos to the writers who gave us a "cartoon villain" for this story and yet depict to the listener some real truths about the long-term effects of choosing to live for self-aggrandizement and ego gratification.
