The Monthly Adventures #041 - “Nekromanteia" by Austen Atkinson

Ok, so, I doubt this’ll go down well, but I think Nekromanteia is fine. Not good mind you, it’s just fine. It’s an average-as-vanilla script with a very regrettable scene in it. I can see why some people may consider this the worst audio story, but I frankly don’t get it. Remove five minutes from this audio and it becomes just another story. In fact, there is quite a bit of this script I can genuinely say I liked, I don’t think Nekromanteia is as bad as everybody makes it out to be. Does it deserve less hate though? That remains to be seen.

Called to a forgotten sector of space - dubbed Nekromanteia - the Doctor, Peri and Erimem come face to face with a corporation hellbent on discovering the secret to an age old magic and a coven of witches ready to feast on the flesh of heretics.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

This story is flawed. Very, very flawed in fact, but I can’t help but say there are parts I thought were genuinely worth admiring. The first part to Nekromanteia feels like an entirely different story, it’s not as grim or bloody as the rest of the audio, mostly takes place in a different setting and acts as its own little bit of lore. We’re in the Garazone system, with Pakhars returning from Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, which one, is a weird story to link with this godforsaken thing and, two, I’m only now realising were a species from the VNAs. It’s dripping in atmosphere, which the whole story is but it’s strongest here, and does a fantastic job at worldbuilding. I actually think Atkinson’s greatest strength is his world; even when we get to the witchy planet Talderun, the descriptions are so stark and the sound design so great that the imagery we’re delivered is stunningly macabre and beautiful. As for the story, whilst I think it’s the primary reason Nekromanteia is so hated, there were some moments that I actually love. The Part 2 cliffhanger is the Doctor literally getting decapitated by witches, which people seem to hate for some reason but I love. And then following this, he winds up in a cricket themed afterlife where he makes polite conversation with god. See, this is fun! Nekromanteia can be fun, guys! It’s not all bleak and a lot of it is just darker than average Doctor Who, the whole story isn’t heinous. That or I’m wildly desensitised, I don’t know.

However, what I do know is heinous is that scene. That’s right, it’s finally time to talk about that scene. I’m not going to skirt around the issue so I’ll just say it, there’s a scene where a character tries to rape Erimem. It is implied she fights him off (which I think people tend to forget) but still, what? And then it’s just not brought up again and the would-be-rapist survives the story; in fact, he goes out in better shape than when he came in. Again, what? It’s a bizarre little mistake that is actually sickening and very much the primary thing people think of when they think of Nekromanteia. But here’s the thing, it’s incidental. It’s one scene with absolutely no bearing on the plot, and looking at it, it looks like it was added at a later point; it comes out of nowhere and goes back to nowhere without a second thought, there is no reason for it happening. When you could remove a page of a script and it loses its primary reason for being so hated, I don’t think that constitutes the worst story ever. And really, that’s the only particularly bad scene. The other moment people are quick to point out is when Peri wakes up naked on an altar but it sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I don’t think this was written with any direct sexual connotations in mind, it’s brief and she only encounters a witch trying to kill her and a respectful man who gives her her clothes whilst in this state. It’s barely commented on and easily glossed over, so I don’t think it’s worthy of any real criticism. Now, I’m not trying to excuse that scene, but I’m pointing out that it’s only one scene and isn’t something that affects the rest of the story, so whilst it’s indeed horrible and unnecessary, it shouldn’t be the only reason people rate Nekromanteia a 1/10.

As for more usual negatives, our cast this time round is terrible. Not a single character here has any real depth and most of them are just outright unlikeable. Even our regulars, they are all oddly apathetic and out of character, they don’t even react to each their friends’ deaths or even rapes. And I think the second half of Nekromanteia massively drops the ball. With all the mini subplots, the underbaked corporation villain, the twist that the witch coven aren’t actually the bad guys, an alien intelligence in Erimem’s cat sacrificing itself and more, it becomes over bloated and very quickly confusing. So much is so quickly explained to the listener that they just lose interest and, at least for me, I lost track of what was happening by the end of Part 3.

And that was Nekromanteia! Was it the worst Doctor Who story ever? No! Cut out five minutes and you have another run of the mill boring audio, maybe a bit darker, but nothing special. Take a really awful story, like Winter for the Adept, and try editing that into something better. You can’t, not unless you remake it entirely. And there were actually some good things in Nekromanteia. Part One especially I never hear talked about despite being neither that grim and also pretty damn good. There is something to admire here, shame it got overshadowed by that scene.

5/10

Pros:

+ Genuinely great world building and imagery

+ Dripping in atmosphere from start to finish

+ Has a few utterly brilliant moments

+ Fantastic first part that expertly sets the tone

Cons:

- That scene is as bad as people say

- Has a sidecast of one-dimensional, nasty characters

- Story gets over bloated and overly confusing by the end