The Monthly Adventures #056 - “The Axis of Insanity" by Simon Furman

Twice in a row now we’ve had widely disliked stories that I’ve failed to see the issues with. The Axis of Insanity is fun, like really, really fun. “Insanity” is totally the right word for this, it is a cacophony of sound and absent visuals that turn into a peerlessly unique and fun story which feels like it should’ve been written for the Divergence arc - which this story is slotted between seasons of. The writer - Simon Furman - seems to be a primarily comic book author and that shows massively in the scope of this story and some of its not-so-subtle influences from a certain caped crusader’s archnemesis. A fun descent into madness with some cracking performances, what is not to love?

There is a place where chaos and instability converge - The Axis. A great equaliser keeping rogue timelines at bay. But when the Doctor and crew find themselves there, they find it tainted by a great madness, with all of time about to fall in its wake.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I groaned when I read the synopsis for this story because instantly I thought it sounded so good. However, seeing as it was paired with an undesirable rating, I was prepared for some untapped nonsense keen to leave its ideas uncapitalised upon. So imagine my shock when I listened to it and it surpassed nearly all my expectations ten-fold. This is a mental story, it is a cacophony of sound and fury and dragons that I just couldn’t get enough of. Episodes that have a litany of great ideas instantly have my respect and The Axis of Insanity has one of those scripts that just won’t stop throwing new stuff at you, instantly putting it in my good books. From the bizarre, labyrinthine halls of the Axis to the dragons to the evil court jester, this is a world of surrealism and boundless creativity. The Axis itself makes for an incredible setting, a sort of Land of Fiction type affair with a bunch of overlapping realities all melded into a funhouse of universes that reminds me of something like Labyrinth, picturing this bizarre junction of possibility with all the upside-down staircases and twisting corridors of Jareth’s castle. And hell, maybe David Bowie was in the Axis too, you never know. And besides the setting, the other big thing we have to play around is our villain - the utterly mad Jarra To, who is totally not the Joker; no seriously, no parallels at all, absolutely no influence. Ok, enough with the bit, our antagonist is a camp wonder obviously inspired by the clown prince of crime, with elements of Hamill and Nicholson poking through in Hagon’s mesmerising performance. And whilst I wouldn’t dare say he matches with the greats, he gets bloody close for a Doctor Who monster of the week; his performance is utterly fantastic and by far my favourite part of this story, Hagon gives his all and it pays off. The Jester is a scary, insane and formidable foe who I can picture gloriously in my head through Hagon’s vocal efforts alone. Our other performances are pretty great too, especially from Davison; Five has always been one of my least favourite Doctors and in fact still is my least favourite Doctor from pre-2018 but in recent months I feel I’ve reappraised him. Davison turns out to be one of the most talented actors to take on the role and as I get more and more in tune with Five’s personality, which I had been foggy on beforehand, I enjoy his portrayal more and more. Especially here, battling with his Time Lord superiority and his wish to be friends with mere humans as he clearly quite painfully has to do his duty and sacrifice his life to stop Jarra To. Davison really puts his heart into this story and comes out the other end with one of his better depictions. Erimem also continues to grow on me, as she naturally becomes closer and closer with the Doctor and Peri. I really enjoy her and Peri’s friendship and stuff like her learning how to read English (though I don’t know how the chameleon circuit doesn’t just get around that) and managing to realise the Doctor isn’t the Doctor when he’s being impersonated by Jarra To, cementing her as part of the TARDIS team for good. As for other characters, we only really have one non-recurring protagonist and that’s the rather ineffectual Tog; he’s not bad and his performance is fine but he’s just not all that interesting.

One character I would like to highlight however is Peri and, whilst Nicola Bryant joins her fellow cast members with another great performance, Furman chooses to write her like an idiot for at least the first half of the story, having Peri constantly walk into the world’s most obvious traps constantly. I understand it was needed to set up stakes inside of the Axis but it feels done in such an uncharacteristic way. However, she soon recovers from this spell once we leave the Axis and get onto the third act. However, this itself becomes a problem as leaving the Axis means we stop exploring it, which I find really unfortunate. This is a very fast story and so we never really spend too long on one place, which really annoys me because it means we can never get a proper look at the Axis, briskly walking through classrooms of empty-eyed children and brightly lit Vegas casinos in the space of one scene, never stopping to explore its surroundings. Take The Mind Robber - a very similar story - for instance; that manages to both move at a highly reasonable pace and give a fantastic overview of its brilliant setting. If The Axis of Insanity simply took a little longer to bask in its worldbuilding, I think it would’ve made for a much more interesting listen. As for the main negatives people tend to bring up when criticising this story, I have to acknowledge that I think I can see why some people might dislike it. Whilst I had no problem with it, this story is a camp marvel and that is simply not to some people’s liking. And although I think it nails the tone for a majority of the story, I can admit there are moments where it goes too far. For instance, Jarra To’s true form, played rather passionately by Liza Ross, leans way to far into the eccentricities of the character and whilst the Jester form of Jarra To feels truly insane and macabre, Ross’ version just comes across as over the top and irritating, and it’s in her performance I glimpse the destructive flaws I failed to properly see. And if I did really have to nitpick, I’d have to say that Jarra To was defeated far too easily. It’s established that they have control over the fabric of reality, and yet is simply pushed off a cliff to their death. With some omnipotent villains, it’s established that they like to refrain from using their powers in battle as it would make the fight boring, however this is never established here so I’m just left wondering why this god of chaos allowed themselves to be even hurt.

However, The Axis of Insanity, I think, is a genuinely great hidden gem. Sure, it has its flaws, but they’re pretty much all minor nitpicks and whilst I can’t for the life of me grasp why this is so widely disliked, I understand why some people might not enjoy its ceaseless barrage of increasingly insane and singular ideas. However, for me, it’s a wildly creative, wonderfully acted and passionately made bit of Who that I can’t help but love.

8/10

Pros:

+ Utterly mad and filled with inspired ideas

+ The Axis is a fantastic setting

+ Davison gets an incredible performance

+ Erimem gets more time to shine

+ Jarra To makes for an all time great antagonist in my opinion

Cons:

- Admittedly could tone down the camp in sections

- Peri is underused

- If anything, doesn’t use its premise enough

- Jarra To, despite being an omnipotent being, is defeated somewhat easily