Connections: Here Lies Drax

"If there's one person I know who'd attend their own funeral..."

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: December 2022

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures 10.01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen

Synopsis

The Doctor, Liv and Helen are surprised to get a letter delivered to the TARDIS from the Doctor's old school friend, Drax. 

They're even more surprised when it's followed by a parcel also sent by the intergalactic con-man, asking them to keep its contents safe. Contents that seem to be a lot of worthless junk.

And their surprise gets even bigger when this parcel is itself followed by an invitation... to Drax's funeral. 

And that's just where the surprises start.

Verdict

Here Lies Drax was a terrific start to the Connections series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! Anything involving Drax was always going to be good fun and this was as whacky as you would expect. The continuity with The Armageddon Factor and Drax referring to the Doctor as Theet was good fun and despite everything I liked how the Doctor was still willing to help his old school associate. The joke in the letter about both incarnations of Romana that the Fourth Doctor travelled with was tremendous and I found it great comic value that even the Eighth Doctor found it amusing. The Doctor being joyous at getting mail that definitely wasn't junk – it said it on the label! – was a glorious TARDIS interior scene as even Helen knew it was not actually going to put them into a position to gain £1million. The Doctor taking up Drax on his wish of holding onto the items that were apparently just charity shop junk was intriguing, but the revelation later on that they were actually the segments of the Key to Time was quite extraordinary! The likes of a Sherlock Holmes book and a Loch Ness map as allusions to them representing locks was really well done. I really did not suspect them to be such powerful artefacts but it soon became clear that they were very much worth the five billion credits that Drax owed. The concept of Drax being able to freely interact with and actually scheme with his other incarnations has so much potential and I really hope we're far from hearing the last of it. It's a really good step and getting to hear multiple of them on show here was superb. I'm a big fan of the Cockney accent because that just adds a different dimension to the character and makes him almost a bit of a geezer. The relationship he had with Liv was sublime as she really didn't take a liking to him. Not in the slightest. The way she was reading out the Cockney lingo in the letter was uncomfortable and it felt like she was nearly going to spit out the words! The reaction she had when she met him in person was almost as good and she was rightly suspicious of him from the start. The idea of being invited to his funeral was fun and it was clear that where Drax was involved, it was going to be a con. His apparent wife turning up to ensure the job was finished and he was dead was a shock, but the issue of the Doctor having not encountered all of Drax's incarnations was marvellous. It allowed Drax a lot of leeway and there he was actually ushering his own funeral! I can't say that was much of a surprise but it was still a really great moment. I thought the threat and chase of the Valtrassi as they looked to recoup the property from Drax was strong, and the Quantum Assassin had a brilliant ring to it. That was a name that even impressed the Doctor which was pretty fun! The twist at the end regarding the Valtrassi and how they were actually different incarnations of Drax was just bonkers, and this was another typical John Dorney script at its best. It was ludicrous madness, but that was what made it so fun. The character we thought was Drax all along was actually the Quantum Assassin and he'd befriended the Doctor in the hope of getting the whereabouts of his stolen loot. It was all bonkers really, but that's the beauty of Drax. I thought it was good for Liv and Helen to have worked it out and the whole thing playing out to see of the Assassin in the Schrodinger's Cage was good, but it was hardly worth it when they only had a few thousand credits left by the end! The Doctor was hardly impressed by the scheme, but it was on him really for allowing himself to get drawn into the whole situation in the first place. Anything involving Drax was always going to be trouble! Overall, a really entertaining start to the series!

Rating: 9/10