Singularity

"Show the savage its reflection!"

Writer: James Swallow
Format: Audio
Released: November 2005
Series: Main Range 76

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Turlough

Synopsis

Russia, the near future.

The Somnus Foundation knows the fate of mankind; they promise a tomorrow where humanity will evolve into a godlike form of infinite power. They will lead us there, to a destiny that spans the stars. This is how the future will unfold.

The Doctor knows the fate of mankind; the human race is destined to fight and struggle for their very existence, to survive disaster and war and carve an empire from an unforgiving universe. He has seen it with his own eyes. This is how the future will unfold.

Beneath the towering headquarters of the Somnus, in the streets of Moscow, a dark power is building, and a conspiracy that stretches across eternity is nearing completion.

Time is fracturing and the Doctor and Turlough are at the heart of the chaos. History is about to change and the galaxy will burn in its wake...

Verdict 

Singularity was a very good audio adventure and it continued my sporadic listening of the Main Range of Big Finish audio stories very nicely! After a few days break and acceptance that university work must come before the blog, I was glad to be back doing something Doctor Who following a deadline this week and with a lengthy train journey up to mid-Wales from South-West England, it was the perfect excuse to blog something. Now, I usually do a novel on a train journey but after an early seminar and just so much reading over the past few weeks, an audio was the perfect getaway and a nice way to relax. The story was a pretty good one and I really liked that the setting was in the near future. That's something I am a fan when it comes to Doctor Who stories but I was even more pleased to hear that the story would be set in Russia. It's a country I know a great deal about its history but it was intriguing to see an insight into what its future might be like. There were a lot of mentions about the layout and architecture of the city and I also liked the obvious mention of the Kremlin that would come with a Moscow setting. It's such a fantastic city and it offers up a lot of directions for a Doctor Who story. I thought the pairing of the Fifth Doctor and Turlough was interesting and although it's not the most conventional of TARDIS pairings, it is great to see that these audios from Big Finish offer up the opportunity for stories with a pairing that we didn't get to see on television. There were some good references to stories such as The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Resurrection of the Daleks and there was also a terrific foreshadowing of Planet of Fire. Turlough described those events in an ironic way and it was just perfectly leading into the events where Turlough would depart. I was quite surprised with how open he was about mentioning the truth of his home world. The relationship he shared with the Doctor was interesting as they didn't always see eye to eye and I liked turlough's distaste for yet another outing on Earth. His inability to stop himself from interfering in events was quite humorous though. I thought the idea of humanity invading its own past was superb but it came a little late in the day for it to be as effective as it might have been. I'm not sure what it means for stories like The End of the World and Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords but I did love the mention of the Time Lords escaping into another universe at the demise of this one and did not deem humanity significant enough to accompany them. The idea of singularity was pretty horrifying which made it an excellent basis for the plot. The Somnus Foundation was very good and I thought Alexi and Lena were great characters. Qel served as a fantastic villain and I really did think she played the role well. Her knowledge of the Doctor and Gallifrey was superb and I also liked that the TARDIS was subjugated under immense pressure. The cliffhangers were pretty good and overall, this was a great audio story! 

Rating: 8/10