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The TARDIS breaks down in a forbidden sector of space.
Ghostly voices cry out for salvation and only C’rizz,
the Doctor’s Eutermesan companion, can answer their call
- for only he knows the secret of the Absolver. But will he
use his knowledge to rescue his friends or to save the universe?
The Doctor’s sins are catching up with him and the infernal
beast Borarus is hungry. Time is running out and Judgement
Day is at hand. Welcome to Hell...
This
is the first Charley/C’rizz audio adventure in almost
a year. That’s because more recent Eighth Doctor stories
have been BBC7-commissioned adventures involving his new companion,
Lucie Miller, played by Sheridan Smith. However, Charley (India
Fisher) and C’rizz (Conrad Westmaas) won’t be sticking
around for long, because this four-episode drama sees the
exit of the Eutermesan, with the Edwardian adventuress to
follow shortly. Though I will miss them (Charley more than
C’rizz), it’s commendable that Big Finish has decided
to draw a line under its own characters’ tenures and
is striving to give them decent send-offs (something they
cannot do with companions created in other media, primarily
television, whose departure stories have already been told).
This
tale, penned by Scott Alan Woodard, has an appropriately religious
theme for the departing C’rizz, though I did find it
somewhat confusing, both to get into at the beginning and
at the end. I remain unclear as to the precise fate of the
unfortunate inhabitants of Utebbadon-Tarria.
However,
the drama’s effectiveness is bolstered by strong performances
from Hustle’s Robert Glenister and Emmerdale’s
Christopher Villiers as the opposing figures of Aboresh and
Cacothis. Their comparable ages (both of them guest-starred
during the Peter Davison era of the television series, in
The
Caves of Androzani and The King’s Demons
respectively) mean that they counterbalance each other well.
The
story includes a rather surprising tiff between the Doctor
and Charley, who accuses the Time Lord of coldness regarding
C’rizz’s fate and of preferring things the way they
were before they met the Eutermesan in the divergent universe.
I have to admit, I miss those simpler days too, though the
disagreement does help to justify Charley’s imminent
farewell in the forthcoming The Girl Who Never Was.
During
the interviews that comprise the CD extras, director Barnaby
Edwards ponders the fact that he has never before worked on
a Big Finish production with Conrad Westmaas, despite having
known the actor well for years. I think I may see a reason
why: the two sound almost identical, and I often had trouble
telling them apart!
Absolution
isn’t a perfect story, but it’s a good solution
to a problem like C’rizz.
Richard
McGinlay
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