(DISCLAIMER: TREVOR BAXENDALE IS YET ANOTHER WRITER WHO HAS MADE REPEATED, ABHORRENT AND TRANSPHOBIC REMARKS ONLINE. ONCE AGAIN I REMIND READERS THAT THIS REVIEW IS A REVIEW OF HIS WORK, NOT AN APPRAISAL OF HIM. DO NOT TAKE ANY POSITIVITY IN THIS REVIEW AS A COMPLIMENT TO THE MAN HIMSELF OR HIS BACKWARDS VIEWS. WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY, PLEASE ENJOY)

The Monthly Adventures #042 - “The Dark Flame" by Trevor Baxendale

The third and final side step, oddly enough released 38 audios after the last one, once again brings the novel-borne TARDIS team of Seven, Ace and Benny to the medium of sound and with it comes a story very reminiscent of whence they came. I’m honestly a little sad at the absence of later side steps as it was fun seeing new companions crop up, like Benny or Frobisher, and we even got The Holy Terror out of it. The Dark Flame, however, is not The Holy Terror, and it’s also not its predecessor, The Shadow of the Scourge. No, The Dark Flame is what I’d call a confusing listen. Whilst enjoyable, it leaves me feeling somewhat hollow.

Picking up Benny from a trip away from the TARDIS, the Doctor and Ace are bombarded by the telepathic force of a murder flung through time. Chasing the source of the vision, the trio find themselves face to face with an ancient cult thought lost to time.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Ask any Doctor Who fan if they’ve heard of The Dark Flame and you have about a 50/50 chance of them going “what?” or “who are you, why are you talking to me?’. Overshadowed by its two big sibling side steps, The Dark Flame is a quaint little story about cults and reality ending catastrophes that, on the whole, fails to impress. Probably the biggest shining light here is our cast, specifically our regulars. They were great in The Shadow of the Scourge but they all play off each other so well here and so effortlessly slip into their more hardened VNA personas, especially Sophie Aldred, who gives a great performance of still being Ace, but with some subtle PTSD. However, I think the main star here is Lisa Bowerman, who is just stunning as Benny. I’ve never heard anybody so effortlessly slip into a role, you could not tell me she was just recording this in a booth without proof. As for the rest of our cast, they’re pretty good. Not the best, but pretty good. They’re distinguishable, well-characterised, sinister when they want to be, I like them (especially sweetheart robot Joseph, he was great). The story itself, separate from its performers, is nothing to write home about, and we will talk about why that damages The Dark Flame later but for now let's just see what it does right. For the most part, this emulates the VNAs pretty well. Set in the murkier side of space, on a dusty old satellite circling a planet of molten sludge, it surrounds age-old cults and tough, no-humour space scientists, all things you’d find in the average Virgin New Adventure. But it also can be pretty fun, Baxendale writes his characters as witty but not snarky, especially Benny who gets all the good lines. And we also have the Doctor seeing through time using a dark star, and armies of skeletons rising from the dead á la Army of Darkness. It’s campy and fun when it wants to be and for the most part alleviates a lot of the boredom.

But it doesn’t eradicate it fully. The Dark Flame is one of those review killer stories that just refuses to be good or bad. The plot is barebones as all hell and fails to keep interest most of the time. It’s lacking in flair, intention and apart from the dialogue, outright humour. It definitely needed more camp, or a good atmosphere, or a more particular genre rather than just “vague science-fantasy”, because it just feels half-baked as it is, a story without any tone or style. Not to mention its attempt at writing a cult; I love cults in fiction (not in real life mind you), I pretty much find them all an interesting subject matter and make for incredible horror antagonists if done well but here, it’s just one possessed shouty guy and a group of cliché followers. It’s tropey as anything and when it's revealed that all of its followers are brainwashed, it loses all threat because it's such a crap religion that it has to mind control people into following it. And then there’s something I just can’t put my finger on. This story concerns the end of the universe and yet feels so very insignificant. It has a tiny cast, running between a tiny space station and a small cave system, never showing a single thing beyond that and due to this, it just feels like a trivial little moment in time, not tense at all. If Baxendale took advantage of the small scale to write something more personal or themed it to be more lonely or scary, it could’ve worked but here, it just ends up being small in scope.

The Dark Flame is nobody’s favourite story. Hell, I doubt many consider it ok, it’s just one of those scripts that fall between the cracks. There was an attempt at some hammer horror/sci-fi shenanigans but it all just falls flat and the only way to describe this audio is bland. The best parts can be found in other stories and the rest ranges from fine to bad. Not terrible, but you won’t see me talking about it after today.

6/10

Pros:

+ Stellar acting from our TARDIS team, especially Lisa Bowerman

+ Fun side cast of memorable characters

+ Can be a campy joy when it wants to be, walking skeletons and all

+ Feels authentically VNA

Cons:

- A completely forgettable and unimpactful story

- Small in scale and scope to the point where all tension is lost

- Poor villain that fails to be a threat