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Naples, 1763. The Great Ape of Posto di Forragio is on
show, but three Englishmen recognise that this creature is
no mortal beast. It is a harbinger of ancient evil from before
the time of the Pharaohs, one that may presage the return
of something thought long buried. To prevent this, they turn
to Cousins Justine and Eliza, representatives of the mysterious
Faction Paradox...
With
BBV's audio output having ground to a halt, Magic Bullet has
picked up the baton to continue the audio adventures of Faction
Paradox. As with the BBV CDs, this new series is written by
the Faction's creator, Lawrence Miles, and features Cousins
Justine and Eliza, though the parts have been recast.
Wanda
Opalinska takes over from Suzanne Proctor as Justine, while
Jane Lesley steps into Emma Kilbey's shoes as Eliza. Personally,
I would have cast the two actresses the opposite way around.
To my ears, Opalinska's less accented, harder-edged voice
sounds more like Kilbey's than Proctor's.
However,
the new series has been devised so that you don't need to
be familiar with any previous Faction Paradox stories in order
to understand it - which is good, because I've only heard
a couple of the BBV CDs and haven't read any of the books.
Debate
rages as to how these spin-offs fit in with the Doctor
Who books that spawned them, especially since Stephen
Cole and Peter Anghelides' The Ancestor Cell appeared
to wipe out the Faction, much to the annoyance of Miles. Some
theorise that the Faction depicted in The Ancestor Cell
is from the far future (certainly they seem more powerful
and possess different motives than elsewhere). Others believe
that the timelines diverged when the Who and Faction
Paradox series parted company, or have disregarded one
series in favour of the other. I believe that this story might
take place either before The Ancestor Cell or during
Gallifrey's second existence between The
Gallifrey Chronicles and Rose, but I'm
keeping an open mind until such time as I can catch up with
the other books and CDs.
Considering
that this audio drama comes from the pen of the man who brought
us such challenging (or, to phrase it less charitably, tough
to penetrate) works as the New Adventures novel Dead
Romance and the Who book The
Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Coming
to Dust is surprisingly crowd-pleasing, even mainstream
by Miles' standards. Once again we encounter the creepy ape-like
Mayaki from Adventuress, several subsequent Who
novels and the short-lived Faction Paradox comic. But
of even greater appeal to Who fans is the return of
Gabriel Woolf to his role as Sutekh from Pyramids
of Mars.
There
is a rather confusing implication that Sutekh might still
be active in 1763, as opposed to being imprisoned on Mars,
which would contradict Pyramids. However, it is also
suggested that the Osirians depicted in this story might occupy
a separate timeline. Things may become clearer in the next
episode, since, as with the BBV series, this is a serialised
saga.
Other
guest stars include Julian Glover and Isla Blair, who are
also no strangers to the worlds of Doctor Who. Glover
played leading roles in both The
Crusade and City
of Death, while Blair took a smaller part in
The King's Demons. Now the tables have been turned
in terms of casting, as Blair plays a major villain while
Glover gets a bit part as the Osirian Upuat.
Although
the production team aren't allowed to mention the Time Lords
by name, Justine and Eliza's discussion of race banks suggests
technology that is common to the Gallifreyans, the Minyans
(who were once assisted by the Time Lords - see Underworld)
and the Faction.
Magic
Bullet's production values are an improvement on the less
subtle editing techniques of BBV, though there are some rather
exaggerated Italian accents. However, Coming to Dust
seems less idiosyncratic and offbeat than previous Faction
stories: no breastfeeding villains or examinations of entrails,
etc. Hopefully, once the new series is established, Miles
and Magic Bullet will feel comfortable enough to be less cosy
- or is that too paradoxical?
Richard
McGinlay
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