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The Doctor returns to the planet Artaris, a thousand years
after his last visit. The city of Excelis has grown into a
global empire, with a level of technology roughly equivalent
to that of 19th-century Europe. The Doctor is surprised to
see a familiar face - surely the Warlord Grayvorn cannot still
be alive...?
Sadly,
Anthony Stewart Head does not open this single-CD release
by saying, "previously on the Excelis trilogy", as
I had hoped he would in my review of the previous instalment,
Excelis Dawns! However, he does turn in a creditably
different performance from last time, being a more genteel
and civilised character in his role as a respected member
of an industrialised society.
Unfortunately,
the long-lived nature of his character - who is now known
as Reeve Maupassant - is noticeably similar to the immortal
Grayle, the villain who faced the Eighth Doctor in several
different eras of Earth's history in last month's Seasons
of Fear. Perhaps Big Finish should have rescheduled their
releases to avoid this clash of subject matter.
Even
taking into account the shorter than usual running time of
this adventure (70 minutes), writer David A. McIntee's story
is extremely slight. There's a nice in-joke about a museum's
restoration team (a reference to those sterling chaps who
clean up the BBC's video and DVD releases of Doctor Who),
but apart from that, there is little to distinguish this sort-of
ghost story.
And
whose idea was it not to include cliffhanger episode endings
in this trilogy? They are an intrinsic part of the fun of
Doctor Who.
A
rather uneventful affair, Excelis Rising fails to rise
to the occasion.
Richard
McGinlay
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