The Council of Nicaea

"What is a riot today may become an uprising tomorrow."

Writer: Caroline Symcox

Format: Audio

Released: July 2005

Series: Main Range 71

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri, Erimem 

Synopsis 

The year is 325AD. In the city of Nicaea, the first great Church council, called by the Roman Emperor Constantine, is due to begin. Here theology, philosophy and politics will be brought together for millennia to come.

The Doctor, Peri and Erimem are there simply to watch events unfold. Gaps remain in the history books, and the Doctor has come to satisfy his curiosity. But none of them are ready for what greets them in Nicaea. Intrigue within the Imperial Palace has become violence on the streets. Mobs roam the alleyways and blood is spilt in the name of faith. Even in the face of murder and injustice though, the time travellers must force themselves to stay aloof. This is history, after all.

Yet what is history to one person is the future to another. Is it possible for history to be rewritten? And if it can, can the Doctor afford to let it?

Verdict

The Council of Nicaea was an excellent audio adventure which continued my listening of Big Finish's Main Range in brilliant style. It really was terrific from start to finish and it was absolutely my cup of tea. I think it's a shame that we never really get a pure historical anymore as I think they can work just as well as a story that includes an extraterrestrial presence. There was no enemy persay in this story and you don't always need one and that is usually the case in a historical. Stories like The Reign of Terror and The Romans work so well in my opinion because we get to see the Doctor and his companions engaging with history. I mean, it's not like we didn't get stories set in the past but when exploring certain elements of history in stories like The King's Demons and The Mark of the Rani, we always had an alien enemy/villain which has led to the term of pseudo-historical. That's fine by me but as I'm studying for a degree in History I'm not sure why some of our planet's past isn't enough in its own right for a Doctor Who story. Anyway, enough about my mini rant and let's get back to what was an excellent audio story. I loved that we went back to the fourth century as the time periods that far back rarely get explored and although I admittedly didn't know a great deal about the Council of Nicaea, I thought it was a fantastic historical event to focus the story on. The age old question that the Doctor has had to deal with since The Aztecs was more than raised here and that's the idea of changing history. The Doctor's rightful stubbornness over the fact that it can't be changed caused some pretty powerful moment between him and Erimem which made for some superb dialogue. Erimem has really come into her own in the last few stories and I loved how she wasn't afraid to challenge the Doctor and was even prepared to leave him and stay in the fourth century to keep a promise she made and stand for what she believed was the right thing to do. She really was brilliant. Peri was kind of caught in the middle during this story as she didn't really disagree with either of the Doctor nor Erimem's stance on history and thought it would just be best to leave and have things play out their natural cause. But Erimem wasn't even prepared to do that, she wanted to actively change things and I loved the irony of this actually being her personal future which put the Doctor in a bit of a tricky situation. She was determined to see that Arius got a fair trial but Erimem went too far by standing up during the council and giving him a voice. The Doctor was pretty angered by that even though he knew she was just doing what she thought was morally right. But she couldn't change history. I loved how Peri mocked the religion of the time and was just baffled by the reason over the ongoing riots. I don't think my stance on religion has been kept a secret on this blog but I think this story highlighted just how ridiculous it is. Emperor Constantine was very good and I liked how he was given no other choice than to trust the Doctor. That did backfire but his logic of the Doctor just being one man was brilliant. We knew what he was capable of by himself. The ending wasn't really climatic but it didn't need to be and I liked how Erimem had a moment of realisation. The cliffhangers were good but the highlight of this audio was Erimem standing up for herself and what she believed was right. Overall, an excellent adventure!

Rating: 9/10