The Game

"It takes both sides to end an war."

Writer: Darin Henry

Format: Audio

Released: February 2005

Series: Main Range 66

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa

Synopsis 

On the planet Cray, it's game time...

The Gora and the Lineen are set to face off in the grudge match to end all grudge matches. The players are limbering up, the commentators are preparing, the fans are daubing themselves in their team's colours.

The arena is set, and the kick-off is approaching...

When the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa arrive, however, they find that Naxy is a sport that anyone can play... whether they want to or not. Cray's entite future depends on the match's outcome, but the time travellers soon realise that it is anything but just a game...

Verdict 

The Game was a fantastic audio adventure! I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish and continued my listening of the Main Range of Big Finish audios in excellent style. It really was terrific and I was delighted with what I listened to. This is my shortest gap between stories from this audio range in quite some time and I'm keen to try and catch up with the current releases but being 150 or so behind along with university commitments and the expenditure, it's going to be difficult to get on track with present releases. However, my supply of stories won't be running out anytime soon which I guess is a good thing. I really liked that this story was split into six parts as although it was no longer than you're average audio release in this range, the pace was superb with the two extra parts and two hours would be presented in six parts if it was a televised story so I think the audios going that way could be a good thing. In saying that, I doubt it has happened too often since but I'd definitely be in favour of it occurring. It was brilliant to hear William Russell in a feature length story as a character other than Ian and he played Darzil Carlisle wonderfully. His history with the Doctor was very similar to how his tenth self met River Song for the first time as she died. That was the case here. Carlisle was known throughout the cosmos as a galactic peacemaker but he soon revealed that the Doctor was behind all those wars being stopped. The Doctor didn't have a clue and Carlisle was actually one of his heroes but little did he know that he was responsible for bringing about all that peace. I was quite surprised that Nyssa's place in the TARDIS was questioned on more than one occasion and I really was shocked that she was willing to leave the Doctor to stay and aid Carlisle in his future influences on peace in the cosmos. I'm a very big football fan so to hear Jonathan Pearce commentating in a Doctor Who story really was something rather special I must say. His Garny character was excellent and the way he brought the Naxy game to life was brilliant. That was a stroke of genius by the casting team to include an actual sports commentator in the cast. I thought Peter Davison gave w confident performance as the Fifth Doctor and I like how wide the gap between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity is getting with Nyssa remaining as the sole companion. It just goes to show that what we see on television is far from the full picture. Faye was a good character and I liked how she was infatuated by Morian and his love-like potion that his body naturally gave off. She failed to see the truth in him and ran off with him at the end but the way Nyssa worked out her involvement was very good. The Naxy game itself was quite a horrible concept and the idea of having fans, commentary and even analysis on a game to the death was quire disturbing. That's what made it work though. The game was the civil war on Cray. The Gora and the Lineen were both good sides of the war and I liked how the Doctor got dragged into the game without knowing what it entailed. In trying to stage a retreat, he inadvertently oversaw a tactical masterstroke and became a hero. That was something that horrified him. The ending was good, although I was surprised by the fact that Morian got away. He'll surely be turning up in a future audio so I look forward to that inevitable meeting. Overall, an excellent audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10