Antidote to Oblivion

"You really believe this vaccine will prevent the new Black Death?"

Writer: Philip Martin

Format: Audio

Released: January 2014

Series: Monthly Adventures 182

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Flip

Synopsis

Future Britain is bankrupt, its corporate owners facing financial ruin. Fortunately, the Universal Monetary Fund, and its slimy representative Sil, are willing to give its President a multi-billion credit bail-out... but terms and conditions apply, and Sil's proposed austerity measures go far beyond mere benefit cuts. 

Responding to a distress call, the Doctor and his companion Flip land in a London whose pacified population has been driven largely underground. But the horrors down there in the dark are as nothing to the horrors that await them at ConCorp HQ, where a young biochemist in Sil's employ is working on a permanent solution to the nation's terminal unprofitability. 

Because in the final accounts, Sil plans to make a killing...

Verdict

Antidote to Oblivion was an excellent story to continue my way through the Monthly Adventures from Big Finish! This was one to get excited by given that it features the return of Sil who is a maniacal villain and now somebody quite synonymous with the Sixth Doctor in terms of familiar foes! It was also great to see that Philip Martin wrote the script after his success in the Classic era. I think combining all of this with Flip as the companion is good because she is much more of a modern woman after debuting in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster and is very much a twenty-first century girl. She's a little proper and a bit of a contrast to this incarnation of the Doctor but that's where things work for me. It's still early days for me experiencing her as a companion, but I'm a fan of what I've heard thus far and how it continued here. It was fun for her to get to go to the twenty-fourth century and see how her own nation of the United Kingdom had been bought out by ConCorp! That was an incredible concept and one I really enjoyed. The prospect of Sil moving his way up the corporate ladder to essentially run what was Great Britain is marvellous. Especially when he was planning on austerity measures because the current system of benefits and aiding the unproductive was not sustainable. He was aghast at the idea of anyone not being productive and his shock at the suggestion of a raise was glorious. Nabil Shaban effortlessly reprised the role and the way he pushed himself onto the board of ConCorp was excellent. President Boscoe quickly moved from having the upper hand in suggesting he'd look elsewhere for a loan to Sil being in full control. His plans to remove 55% of the population, and then another 55% of those remaining after that with a new black plague was quite incredible. The way he saw literally everything as business was superb if not chilling. I was stunned that the board members were even considering it! And yet they were all business and covering their tracks. Plans were in place for incineration chambers and burial pits which was very dark! I loved the atmosphere within the boardroom as they felt they were on the brink of a success but knew full well that the means were atrocious. There was a sense of nervous anticipation which was terrific. I thought the Doctor being in contact with the Velandari as a microbe species wanting to be in the realm of normal size was intriguing and their whole species was great! I liked how Flip was infected early on from the water and the humorous way the Doctor forced her to drink pure water to flush out the change was very fun. I thought Sil almost mocking the Doctor about Peri after her fate in The Trial of a Time Lord was fantastic and I like how events for the Doctor regarding that story are hazy given the involvement of the Time Lords. The continuity from the Mindwarp instalment with Cordelia as the daughter of Crozier was terrific and the distain she had for the Doctor in blaming him for her father's death was tremendous. I was a big fan of that. The escape of Sil at the end once the antidote wouldn't be released to the population was good and the explosion and sacrifice of Pan was an admirable and neat way to bring things to a close. The suggestion of the Doctor potentially going after Peri now was intriguing and I would love for him to be reunited with her so she could get a better send-off! Overall though, a wonderful story. 

Rating: 9/10