The Flight of the Sun God

"The influence of Ancient Egypt was everywhere."

Writer: Nev Fountain

Format: Audio

Released: October 2019

Series: BBC Audio 08

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands aboard the Sun God, a vast spaceship carrying executives from a powerful 35th Century energy company. Peri is menaced by deadly cat-like robots, whilst the Doctor discovers that Spalding Revere, the company's founder, has set the ship on course for the heart of a sun. Spalding's last wish is to take his acolytes with him to the afterlife, and unless the Doctor can intervene he and Peri will be going with them. 

Tensions and in-fighting grow among the staff. Peri meets Brian, whose half-man/half-insect body has a terrible significance to Spalding's plan. As the Sun God continues on its final mission, time is running out for them all...

Verdict 

The Flight of the Sun God was a great BBC original audio! I do find that this range of stories cans sometimes be hit or miss but I had a good feeling right from the off with this one! It was a lot of fun and considering the style of storytelling with just one actor playing numerous roles, something that can often become mundane, this really flew by considering it was 76 minutes long! Nicola Bryant did a really good job as the narrator and I liked how much just her general narration sounded differently to the more familiar character of Peri. Her take on the other characters was good, even if her impression of the Sixth Doctor wasn't massively impressive. The writing of this incarnation was pretty decent though so that certainly made up for things there. I loved the pre-titles description of the TARDIS arriving onto the Sun God spaceship and it was just fun to devote a minute or two to something that happens in nearly every single Doctor Who story. The words used to picture it were lovely though and set the tone for the story ahead. The Sun God itself made for a very good setting and I enjoyed the unfamiliarity of the 35th century. The Doctor mentioning Copyright Wars of the 23rd century also intrigued me, and I found the mesh of futuristic and Ancient Egypt quire fascinating. I won't pretend to know a lot about the historical period, but Ancient Egypt is a subject I'm always interested in when visiting museums so this felt like I would enjoy. I do think things perhaps got a little bit silly when we had the whole transformation into non-humans element, but the purpose of that for saving the ship from crashing was actually unexpectedly clever! Spalding made for a good villain and his position as a god was fantastic. I always like when we get a crazed man or woman having acolytes, but their devotion having them end up on track to a sun was quite something! The moment where the Doctor tries to tell the passengers that they're headed for a solar finale was fun because that's exactly what they knew anyway. It didn't seem entirely original, but it was still a humorous moment. The splitting up of the Doctor and Peri was beneficial to introduce and get to know other characters like Brian and Fletnix who I enjoyed, and the moment where they were reunited after the Doctor hoped he might live on in Peri's mind was touching. It was fun for the Doctor to lament not having a sonic screwdriver anymore as well as mentioning his enjoyment of cats and robotic pets. Lovely stuff. The idea of the final mission was good and created great urgency at the conclusion which provided some action and excitement. The Doctor convincing the computer that Spalding's heart was still going and could easily go over three hours without activity because he was a god was brilliantly done. Peri took on that role amongst others which was good and not your usual resolution to a Doctor Who story! It brought to an end an eventful and fast-paced story that admittedly did have some silliness, but as a whole this was a great listen! An impressive audio that shouldn't go unnoticed or forgotten.

Rating: 8/10