The Axis of Insanity

"By coming to my aid, you have surely doomed yourselves."

Writer: Simon Furman

Format: Audio

Released: April 2004

Series: Main Range 56

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri, Erimem

Synopsis 

What is... the Axis?

For the Doctor and his travelling companions, Peri and Erimem, it's a twisted playground, where reality, morality and sanity no longer apply. Stranded within a dimensional nexus, beset by the molten fury of the Firebreed, they must unwrap a terrifying mystery of damages timelines and dark science... before the corruption of the Axis spreads and reality itself crumbles. 

Pitted against a warped and deadly mind, the Doctor faces his own past transgressions, and the very nature of what it is to be a Time Lord.

Verdict 

The Axis of Insanity was a superb audio adventure and actually a welcomed break from the ongoing Eighth Doctor story arc in the Divergent Universe which has recently occupied the Main Range series. Of course, I am twelve years behind but slowly but surely I am catching up and I am convinced that I will be up to date at some point. It won't be for a while yet due to other Doctor Who formats and money but I will bloody get there! The trio of the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem is a great one and I was glad to hear them back together again as it has seemed a while since I listened to their last outing of Nekromanteia. Even though we didn't get a lot of the Fifth Doctor and Peri together on television with just Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani, in which Nicola Bryant debuted and Peter Davison exited respectively, adding Erimem to the mix adds a brilliant dynamic and I think it definitely favours Peri at this early stage in her life to have someone primitive around so she can teach and mentor them about advanced life. There's no doubting that Erimem is intelligent but when it comes to modern times she isn't quite up to scratch. Her frustration with the English language was rather humorous and I loved how she comically argued about the events and concept of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Now, I've never seen it (yes, seriously) but I know the grasp and for her to argue it certainly put a smile on my face. I have liked her ever since she arrived in The Eye of the Scorpion, a story that was nearly referenced, but my thoughts on her are certainly improving with every story that she appears in. Big Finish introducing us to brilliant companions like Erimem is a real joy to behold and I can't wait to get out there and experience the many more surely on offer in the following 150+ stories I have solely on this range. But as I said earlier, I am determined to catch up. I've been quite critical of Peter Davison in some of his audios that I have previously blogged on here but in the last few that I have done he is proving me wrong and getting close to the brilliance he portrayed on television. The Fifth Doctor was always one of my very favourite incarnations in the televised format and I do hope to soon say that for the audios. I would love for him to prove me wrong and make me write praise about him rather than be critical. For this story though, all I have is praise as in small parts he even had to play a dual role as the disguised Doctor which he did very eloquently. It was obvious to the listener that the imposter was a lot darker and sinister than our usual Time Lord hero and he was actually disturbingly quiet as compared to usual. The setting of the Axis was brilliant and it was almost like a funhouse version of the Land of Fiction which we saw in The Mind Robber. It was just barmy and on times absolutely ludicrous! Insanity is the perfect word to be in the title of this story as that was exactly what Jarra To, or the Jester depending on his guise, was. He was a lunatic and as the part one cliffhanger told us, he'd taken over the asylum. His murder of the Overseer was heartless and brutal and undoubtedly put him on the wrong side of the Doctor. He wouldn't let that slide that was for sure. The Jester was a brilliant character and served as a sublime enemy. I can't tell you how close I was to giving this story full marks but he was certainly one reason why it was so very close. I thought he was brilliant. His demise was justified and I liked how Tog wasn't going to let him survive to commit more crimes and atrocities like he had done on his planet. The TARDIS graveyard was quite a harrowing picture and it's intriguing to know that Time Lords have such a connection with their TARDIS. This isn't the first story to mention that but I like how it's cropping up more and more. Overall, a fantastic audio adventure but I think the cliffhangers needed to be a bit better to get that perfect rating. But it was still magnificent.

Rating: 9/10