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Company Chairholder Uvanov grows increasingly concerned when
his fellow board members are assassinated one by one. Could
a recent arrival into Kaldor City - the enigmatic Kaston Iago
- be connected with the murders? Or could he help Uvanov to
solve them...?
This
is the first in a series of CDs that builds upon the sci-fi
works of Chris Boucher - the writer of numerous episodes of
Doctor Who and Blake's 7, author of three Who
novels, and creator of Star Cops. Particular inspiration
is drawn from his Doctor Who serial The Robots of
Death, which introduced the character of Uvanov as well
as the sinister robots employed in Kaldor City, and Boucher's
Who novel Corpse Marker, which provided the
setting and also the character of ex-Federation psychostrategist,
Carnell (Scott Fredericks).
Big
Finish sound maestro Alistair Lock re-creates the distinctive
soft-spoken voices of the robots, while Russell Hunter reprises
the role of Uvanov. As Uvanov, Hunter is every bit as caustic
and ruthless as he ever was, although the actor's Scottish
accent shows through more than it did back in 1977.
As
Iago, Paul Darrow - best known as Blake's 7's Avon
- finds himself playing a similarly self-centred outlaw with
a similar expertise for programming artificial intelligences.
The scene in which Iago seduces Uvanov's personal assistant,
Justina (Patricia Merrick), is laced with delicious innuendo
and is remarkably reminiscent of scenes that Darrow played
with Jacqueline Pearce's Servalan. In fact, this mysterious
character could actually be Avon, if you wish to believe
that he somehow survived the final episode of Blake's 7.
The
impressive cast list also includes Trevor Cooper (who played
hard man Colin Devis in Star Cops) and Brian Croucher
(Blake's 7's second Travis) as a couple of rough-and-ready
security agents. These two make an amusing, though violent,
double act. Peter Miles and Peter (Zen, Orac, Slave) Tuddenham
are also heard, in more minor roles.
There's
quite a lot of bad language in this production - rather more
that I felt was strictly necessary - but this remains a cleverly
constructed political murder mystery. Writers Alan Stevens
and Jim Smith have succeeded in capturing the spirit and style
of Boucher's best works.
Richard
McGinlay
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