The Ultimate Evil

"This is all so frightening."

Writer: Wally K Daly

Format: Audio

Released: November 2019

Series: Lost Stories 6.02

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

With the TARDIS working perfectly, the Doctor and Peri decide to take a holiday. But where? A long-forgotten piece of equipment in the TARDIS storage locker sends them to the peaceful and idyllic continent of Tranquela – home of the Doctor's old friend Ravlos.

But the land where they emerge is far from peaceful. A hate ray is regularly sweeping Tranquela, turning its inhabitants into savage beasts, and there is only one place it can originate – the planet's other continent, home of Tranquela's old enemies, the Amelierans.

Or is that the only place? Because somewhere far above the planet events are watched by the slimy super-salesman, Mordant, who has his own unscrupulous plans.

Verdict

The Ultimate Evil was an average Lost Story adventure in my opinion! I must say, I don't think we were missing too much though with this story not being made which is a shame to say. I'm very glad to have covered it and it was a worthy listen, and I'm sure one day that I will also read the novelisation which I was surprised to find existed as part of the Missing Episodes mini range, I do think I would be likely to enjoy the novelisation more because I imagine it would be truer to the television story went unproduced as it would be based more off the script rather than shifting things for the audio format. I thought the directing and sound design for this story was a little weak and as much as I hate to say it I couldn't help but feel that Colin Baker wasn't wholly invested in his Sixth Doctor performance. I'm usually such a fan of his audio work but it just felt lacking here and I think that was partly the fault of the script. The premise at its heart is actually really good and I love the idea of waves of hatred and peace being possible. There's a lot of potential there and the groundwork in which peace had been achieved between the Tranquelans and Amelierans was excellent. The punishments that came from one party of the species spying on the other and stepping foot in other territory was crucial to maintaining a peaceful relationship. Except that was on the brink of a disaster now. The whole familial makeup of the rule was interesting stuff and I enjoyed how the Second Family were out for a war to take over. Peri's relationship with Locas was built pretty well and I liked how she was able to trust him despite his admission at killing his loved one. It was something that he was distraught about and why wouldn't he be? Imagine pushing the person you loved off a cliff and knowing about it, having that memory, but not being able to control yourself from doing it. I certainly sympathised with him as the wave of hate ran over him. I thought the holiday ball that the Doctor used was a bit of a useless gadget and the continuity with The Nightmare Fair was good stuff in positioning the story in the lost run that would have been the original Season 23. Some holiday that was! But this was hardly any better. I thought Mordant was a decent enough villain and I liked that he was scheming from the shadows for much of the story, but that actually hurt things by the end in my opinion as I didn't feel like he really had his comeuppance. He was just forced into sending a peace wave across the planet to quell the tensions of both races. That was somewhat disappointing because at numerous times the Doctor was helpless which is not something we are used to hearing. He was completely ravaged by the wave of hatred and couldn't remember being so. That's very unlike him! The significant of Escoval and Abatan was presented fine in the dialogue and explanation of the story, but less so in practice. I thought the Doctor's history with Ravlos again absolutely fine but not exactly something to get excited about or all that interested in because he wasn't a familiar character. I thought it was really good to have the story splint into two parts like Season 22 was with the Sixth Doctor as that's something I prefer for sure, although it did at times feel like there were cliffhangers within each part as written. Overall, a decent world and political setup to explore but there was just something missing in the way the story was presented. 

Rating: 6/10