The Unwilling Assassin

"How about I pretend to kill you?"

Writer: Sarah Ward

Format: Audio

Released: April 2021

Series: The Lone Centurion 1.02

Featuring: Rory

Synopsis

Legend tells of the Lone Centurion – a mysterious figure dressed as a Roman soldier who stood guard over the Pandora, warning off those who would attempt to open it: a constant warrior whose story appeared in the folk history of a dozen civilisations. 

Only... he seems to have misplaced it.

Travelling to Rome in search of the Pandorica, Rory finds himself forced to perform as a gladiator in the Colosseum... where he attracts the attention of the Imperial household.

The Roman Empire has a new official assassin. Lethal, cunning, and utterly unsuited to the job. Can Rory Williams succeed at assassination without actually killing anyone?

Verdict

The Unwilling Assassin was such a fun adventure to continue the first volume of The Lone Centurion! This really was a right little romp that was full of humour, intrigue and a really solid plot at its centre. I think this was perfect for Rory and the Romana era and whilst my only qualm might have been including a mention of the Pandorica as that is why Rory continues to be in this time period, I thought everything else was brilliant. The atmosphere of the episode was excellent and following on from Gladiator was really good as we got to hear Rory in his new role as the Empress Augusta's new assassin. This wasn't a role that he embraced and the very idea of Rory being a hired mercenary for the kill is amusing in of itself, but placing him in the bloody and brutal days of the Roman age made that even better. Of course he wouldn't be getting his hands dirty and doing the Empress's bidding! The play on the mispronunciation of empress's assassin was quite fun and I was glad that there wasn't a huge amount of attention paid to the fact that a female now ruled. Given the time period that could have become a big talking point so it was good to hear Augusta revealing her new position and not being shy of giving out a command to kill. No sympathy for the wicked. The inclusion of Tacitus in the story was an unexpected delight from a personal perspective as it took me back to my university days as I actually did a joint presentation on him back in my second year! It was a rare chance for me to delve back into Ancient History as part of a module on the history of history (yes, really) so hearing him in a Doctor Who adventure was a huge amount of fun. His poems predicting the looming demise of Augusta were great and I liked how that meant that Rory had one of his victims. Decima was a wonderful character and I loved her position as Chief Spy of Augusta. That would make Rory's job, or rather his lack of carrying out, rather difficult now that his every move was being watched. That was a really fun dynamic and the relationship between the pair was brilliant. I thought it was great stuff. Augusta pitting them off against each other was very good and Rory being able to use the method of poison figs to convince the spy that he was actually carrying out the orders of the Empress was excellent. I loved his story about playing with the head of another of his supposed victims and managing to get that verified. It was a great deal of fun. I thought this was a superb use of the setting and time period and felt authentic with Rory thrust into a position he did not enjoy. Augusta taking matters into her own hands when it became clear that she was being played and couldn't even trust her Chief Spy, which she denounced in brutal fashion, was fantastic and her fate coming true as told by Tacitus was quite the ending. Rory, given his Auton tendencies, wouldn't exactly be prone to a poison fig so his testing of one followed by Augusta suffering the fate it was intended for was a fitting ending! The dying line about her assassin finally managing to kill someone was magnificent and it was impressive to put some comedy into a moment like that. The ending having Tacitus realise a new prophecy and Decima join in pronouncing Rory the new Caesar and Emperor of Rome was just terrific. This has set us up for what is set to be a great and incredibly fun finale! 

Rating: 9/10