Domain of the Voord

Domain of the Voord is the first of Big Finish’s ‘Early Adventures’ range. When BF announced a (temporary) end to the Companion Chronicles and the end of the Lost Stories range, they soon after revealed plans to start a new range featuring early era actors such as Carole Ann Ford and Frazer Hines. These were to be the Early Adventures which would be ‘full cast’ original stories. Not lost scripts, not one/two voice audiobooks; full cast stories featuring the 1st and 2nd Doctors.

It was an idea that intrigued me but limited funds mean I can’t sample every range Big Finish has to offer (and we all know, those ranges seem to be expanding at an exponential rate). However, courtesy of a friend of mine, I managed to borrow this first entry of the series, neatly adding into the Voordiverse seen inThe Keys of Marinus, The World Shapers and Daleks vs Voord, among other stories.

Domain of the Voord is set 100 years or so after The Keys of Marinus and finds the TARDIS crew pitching up on Waterworld (the very Nationy-named planet, Hydra) to find the Voord have already conquered the planet. The story is simple – the Doctor and friends set about liberating the Hydrans from Voord rule. What author Andrew Smith has done here is use a simple plot – fitting for the era this is supposedly part of – to explore and develop an underwritten alien race.

Many of the alien races introduced after the Daleks entered a world of publicity trying to recreate the popularity of the Skarosian mutants. The Voord, being Nation creations, must have seemed like a prime candidate. Newspapers published pictures of Carole Ann Ford being menaced by a rubber-suited denizen and the Voord appeared in the first Doctor Who annual. However, aside from the Dalek vs Voord cigarette cards, they failed to return to the world of Doctor Who until the aforementioned World Shapers (where they were linked with a far more successful Doctor Who monster). The Voord didn’t set the world on fire.

From their TV appearance it isn’t hard to see why. They hardly appear in The Keys of Marinus; only in the opening and closing episodes. They are more or less presented simply as men in rubber suits, the implication being that they are protection against the acid seas surrounding the island. The strange antennae on their masks seem mere decoration and they are terribly ungainly flopping around in their flippered feet. They are defeated rather easily.

Smith takes a badly-realised alien and makes them threatening, sinister, horrific and credible. He even manages to suggest that The World Shapers continuity-shattering evolution revelation may well be true. The Voord have already won when the story begins. Survivors sail the watery planet in a flotilla of ships providing some vivid, and relatively unusual, opening images – the crew aboard a boat doesn’t happen often (Enlightenment, Carnival of Monsters is all I can think of – even including Big Finish I can only add Transit of Venus). The Voord are now a credible threat. When Smith goes on to add details about the mask we enter the world of horror. The Voord ‘convert’ people to their race but only if they are willing. They are given a choice of becoming a Voord or slavery. Anyone taking the mask out of a desire to avoid slavery is killed by the mask. They must truly want to wear it! There are ‘pure’ Voord (of the ‘blood tree’) but they seem few and far between. This element of conversion ties them in with the Cybermen providing a neat link to The World Shapers – I cannot believe this is coincidental ; Smith is a fan and is probably aware of the comic strip. Having people willingly join the Voord adds some moral drama to proceedings and Smith also gives the Voord the power of telepathy.

At four episodes, Domain of the Voord is exactly the right length. In trying to emulate this era of Doctor Who, six episode stories seem more common (The Masters of Luxor, Farewell, Great Macedon, The Dark Planet). I know these are ‘lost’ stories based on original scripts and submissions but six episodes can often seem too much and didn’t always produce the most thrilling of stories on TV either. Had Domain of the Voord be stretched over six episodes it would have been a bit dull. For starters the plot is, as I’ve said, fairly simple, but with the added fact that the Doctor and Barbara are removed from the story for most of the episodes 2 and 3, it would have seemed silly if they’d been gone for even longer.

Historically it is stated this is 100 years after The Keys of Marinus and explicit reference is made to Yartek’s group and their mission. As I’ve said, the extrapolation of the Voord race fits neatly in between Keys and The World Shapers. The Early Adventures are a combination of full cast and narration. The absence of Hartnell and Hill makes full cast impossible and I’m not sure this format works completely in covering those key roles. The Companion Chronicles work because they are single voice (more or less). Lost Stories work because we invest in the half and half approach because we know there is no other way of bringing us these stories. I’m not 100% convinced that writing brand new adventures for actors who are no longer with us and requiring those who are to ‘impersonate’ them really works as well.

However, it was an enjoyable story and I really liked the way the Voord were developed as a race.

Just before listening to this story, I was listening to a review of the latest TV episode of the program (which is, at the time of writing this, “Legend of the Sea Devils”). The reviewer mentioned how Doctor Who should look towards its past failed ideas and try those again, instead of trying to recapture existing magic.

 

Color me surprised when the next audio I listen to does exactly that. And succeeds.

 

Domain of the Voord has a lot going on in it’s 2 hour length. It starts with a battle on the open seas that feels like a grand space opera. It feels as massive as it presents itself. It takes the only thing we really know about the Voord, namely that they have submarines, and blows up the scale to a massive battle. They make it threatening too, although Ian manages to barely capture 1 Voord, they kill an entire ship. Including both the Doctor and Barbara.

 

This sets a precedent. Although they were a villain in a 6-part story, the Voord have been poorly established up till now. Yet, with the only trait we know about them, they’ve already become a threat.

 

After this the story scales down and only lets us see 1 Voord. His dialogue is intriguing. The Voord see themselves as a blessing, and they make it clear that many of the human shall soon “see the light”. Honestly, at this point the story is brilliant. We have seen nothing of the true Voord power, like their skills, their relationships and way of life,

but we know their motivations and their military strength. It’s a fantastic balance between what’s known and what’s unknown. We know the way Voord are, but we do not understand why.

 

Afterwards the story does, sadly, get a little weaker. It still has a lot of good parts, but it scales down quite a bit and loses a bit of individuality in the process. We have already seen how threatening Voord are in massive groups, but the story doubles down on that idea and decides to show that again, which doesn’t really serve a purpose.

 

Still, it keeps going with adding interesting traits to the species. Namely, they aren’t a species. Voord are basically psychic totalitarians. They see their rule as perfect and indoctrinate those around them. If they get true loyalty, the new recruit gets to wear the mask and becomes a true member, who is connected to the hivemind. It’s a combination of a dictatorship and a cult.

 

The execution has its ups and down. I’m totally down for psychic dictatorships. The stories in the ‘alternative season’ have a huge focus on those 2 aspects in particular. So blending them makes the story feel like a season finale. It’s a unique take I haven’t seen from the modern series.

 

Problem is that, if the members get connected to the hivemind, they lose their individuality and personality. I’m not a fan of that, since if feels like it closes doors on both the species and the message. Isn’t the point of totalitarian rule that anyone can be affected? That anyone can be a victim to propaganda and brainwashing? It feels like a step back to remove individuality after the victim has expressly rejected a life without Voord. They have chosen dictatorial rule as preferable to the alternative. Why just wipe them afterward, after they’ve reached that conclusion?

 

The other part I don’t care for is the ‘Voord Bloodline’. There are a few ‘True Voord’ who are basically royalty and have Voord DNA. Just like the loss of individuality, this is a part I could do without. It takes away the idea that Voord can be anyone, since there’s always the same guy/species at the top.

 

What I do like is the infighting between the Voord leaders, who have personalities. One wants to rule, the other hold to traditions. Like the mask being a tool of choice rather than weaponry. That’s worth exploring.

 

So that’s the Voord re-established as an actual threat with a unique take. Question is, what does the story do with it?

 

Sadly, at this point it’s a lot of dawdling. Will they convert Susan? Or won’t they? That’s the focus of the last half hour at least, and it gets tiring. It also wraps up astoundlingly quickly. Suddenly you’re back in the Tardis with the party, and the story is done. It felt like I missed 5 minutes and that was distracting.

 

‘Domain of the Voord’ is an epic. It feels like a finale. A culmination of elements from previous stories, that come together in a new, unexpected way. Its scale starts grand, it reinvents the species and adds layers that could be explored for years (But sadly, from the looks of it, they won’t be). Not everything works, and the pacing is a bit off in the second half, but I’m just too impressed by the ambition on display to actually care.