Eis aqui mais um excelente trabalho de expansão de lore por parte da BIG FINISH - Eu devo dizer que adoro “The Keeper Of Traken” a ponto de Traken e Peladon serem os únicos planetas do mundo fictício de Doctor Who pelo qual realmente me interesso seja pela lore, política, história, civilização e etc. O enredo começa em um tom de desespero, em seus braços o 5° Doutor carrega Nyssa terrivelmente adoecida prestes a morrer, sua melhor estratégia é leva-la ao seu planeta natal “Traken” a procura de uma cura precisa. O interessante é que Primeval traz uma continuação do ocorrido com a companion nas cenas finais de Four To Doomsday que resulta na sua ausência em Kinda, os sintomas apresentados no segundo arco da temporada de estreia de Peter Davison retornam em níveis mais altos. Por mais cadenciado que seja o roteiro de Lance Parkin, o escritor não poupa os extremos detalhes, estruturando bem seus blocos e desenvolvendo muito bem seus personagens progredindo de forma instigante sempre com consistência – O áudio conta com um conflito bem interessante entre uma visão mais “primitiva” (descrito dessa forma pelo próprio áudio) e outra mais baseada na ciência e na logica em relação aos acontecimentos do planeta, Lance faz uma clara alusão as visões religiosas quando retrata o povo mais antigo de Traken, acreditando que um fator externo do além influencia os acontecimentos do mundo, aquela coisa do “Bem” e do “Mal”. Isso porque a “União Traken” acredita que a sociedade e decisões do Planetas são guiadas pela chamada “Fonte”. No outro canto do Planeta existe uma criatura poderosa e temida que se esconde na escuridão, o chamado Senhor Kwundaa – Um vilão extremamente assustador que exala maldade apenas pela sua presença e por uma simples troca de olhares. Interessado em dominar Traken, Kwundaa traça o objetivo ter acesso a “Fonte” para dominação total do planeta, para isso ele tenta usar e manipular o Doutor e Nyssa para que conspirem a favor. Infelizmente Primeval acabou não alcançando a nota máxima em minha avaliação, isso devido ao seu desfecho final – [⚠ SPOILERS] é uma pena ver uma história acompanhada de detalhes, tramas e situações muito bem elaboradas se inclinar para desfechos prevísseis e finalizar do jeito mais over the top (exagerado) possível. [⚠ FIM DE SPOILERS] Em resumo, mesmo com esse deslize no final Primeval ainda é um dos grandes destaques das primeiras 50 Main Ranges, recomendo muito!

19.06.2022

I don't know. It's nice. It's soothing. It's Doctor Who. It isn't challenging by any means, but it's got a cool setting, a very nice villain, some character for Nyssa finally. It's entertaining to listen to. The parallel between the cultists and the Council was appreciated. 3/5

The Monthly Adventures #026 - "Primeval” by Lance Parkin

Nyssa’s not a favourite companion of mine. Yielding from the most infamous TARDIS team of the Classic Era, she was a companion with a lot going for her that was primarily let down by a lack of interest on the part of the writers and a somewhat bored performance. Nyssa never really had any good moments, anything particularly unique to her, unlike her fellow companions of the era, despite her possibly being the most interesting. A genius scientist from a utopian society that, like the Doctor, is the last of her kind following a great catastrophe, who’s father’s murderer walks around committing atrocities whilst wearing his face. That is a ridiculously good setup that is just never explored for whatever reason but it seems that once again Big Finish have come to our rescue, or at least Lance Parkin has. A prequel to her debut episode, is it finally time for Nyssa to shine? No, not really.

Afflicted with a mysterious illness, Nyssa is returned to Traken by the Doctor, who finds himself at odds with the local government. But in space, circling the planet, is a far greater evil, with some plans for Nyssa.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Primeval, also known as Doctor Who: The Doctor gets into Politics and Battles the Healthcare System, acts as a prequel to The Keeper of Traken, showing the “Primeval Times”, when the keeper was absent and the world was at the whim of giant supercomputer The Source, with a cowardly government that relied entirely on the machine. Whilst this story fails at expanding on Nyssa, which I’ll get to, it very much works as a story about Traken and its society. The worldbuilding here is immaculate and all the bits and pieces of this utopia we get to see are fascinating and easily my favourite part of this audio. I also love the political side of the script, the absolute backwards morals of an uber-religious governing church are incredibly funny when they immediately swap sides once their lives are threatened. The looks into how Traken is run are not only the most interesting parts of Primeval, they are the funniest, which is very much needed in an otherwise supremely dry script. Other than the worldbuilding, my highlight here was probably the Fifth Doctor himself as I consistently find this incarnation’s characterization to be very lacking, but here he genuinely surprised me. His desperation to save Nyssa and the inherent softness to his persona were deeply fascinating to me and I’d really like to see more looks into his character like this.

I’d also like to see more insights into Nyssa’s character, something this audio doesn’t do. Yeah, for something that leans so heavily on her introductory episode, we actually have very little Nyssa, instead focusing on the Doctor’s attempts to cure her. For half the episode she’s bedridden in the background and for the other half, she’s doing meaningless busywork so the script can remind you she’s there. In fact, this whole second half is honestly meaningless. The story ends pretty much halfway through; Nyssa and the Doctor could leave but the Doctor instead decides to very stupidly walk directly into the trap the big bad villain man obviously set for him. The antagonist, who I think was called Kwundaar, literally tells him “go here, it’ll help me” and then the Doctor just does out of curiosity I guess, which, surprise surprise, causes the planet to get invaded. On another note, I found Kwundaar to be incredibly dull as a villain - the voice acting was good but he felt like a very generic big bad. Also, for this second half, Nyssa’s stuck in a swimsuit, which… was an interesting decision.

Primeval’s one of the stories that just fail to impress. It isn’t bad per say, but it offers you next to nothing and it won’t stay with you after you finish listening to it. It’s one of those in-betweeny stories where you don’t dislike listening to it, but it’s simply average, and sometimes that’s worse than an outright bad story. Just a missed opportunity, through and through.

5/10

Pros:

+ Traken is gloriously realised

+ Love the political undertones of the episode

+ One of Five’s best outings thus far

Cons:

- Didn’t have enough of a focus on Nyssa

- Kwundaar was a somewhat underwhelming villain

- Story ends halfway through and is only continued due to the Doctor’s ineptitude

- Nyssa spends half the story in a swimsuit for seemingly no reason

MR 026: Primeval

All hail Kwundaar, our living god, I guess. Something something Traken will rise again? Return to Traken? Traken 2: Source Harder?

The Doctor takes Nyssa to Traken in the ancient past because she's sick and only her people can cure her. Not sure why he took her to the ancient past, but sure. Seems like taking someone to a leach specialist to cure your humors.

The ancient past Trakenites are extremely superstitious and have a vague spirituality. The Source, which is this big energy source from the original Keeper of Traken story, is the source of all good in the world and it banishes evil. It's part of their mythology and history. Therefore Nyssa is sick because she's come into contact with evil and being near the source will wipe out that evil. Again, Doctor, what the hell. You took Nyssa to a leach doctor.

There is another power hanging around. A group of pirate ships commanded by Kwundaar, a living god. He's made himself a little cult on these ships. The pirates worship him and follow his law.

Speaking of which, a little interesting bit I remembered: the Doctor says the conservative thing: the best way to help someone is to help themselves and not foster dependancy. Give a man to fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, teach him for a lifetime. And then a little later in the story, the pirates have a commandment from Kwundaar that is similar: Kwundaar helps those who help themselves. I.e., no dependancy.

Anyway, the Doctor and a Traken Doctor tries to go to Kwundaar to see if he can heal Nyssa, which turns out disasterous. Kwundaar wants the Doctor's help in exchange for curing her and then he falls right into Kwundaar's trap. He goes into the room with the Source and increases the shield around it for... reasons. That allows Kwundaar to approach the planet and invade, normally he would be burned out by it.
As it turns out, Kwundaar used to be the original Traken god, but when the Trakenites invented the source, they abandoned their religion for science and used the Source to kick Kwundaar out. Reminiscent of what the Doctor said about every paradise having its snake. They exiled the snake from paradise instead of getting exiled from it themselves. Kwundaar means to unite with the Source, safe from its power against him now and use it to call in his old god buddies from before time. He reads a code from Nyssa's mind that gives the Source's power to the Doctor. The Doctor then destroys Kwundaar and gives the power over to one of the council, creating the first Keeper of Traken, in control of the source.

It's... ok. Nothing special I don't think. A lot of it is just strange and hard to follow. I don't think I have too much to say on it. It's pretty instantly forgettable and expendable. It's just an interesting idea for a prequel to Keeper, but I don't know if anyone was clambering for that. The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are still pretty boring, unfortunately. That's to be expected, though. 🤷‍♂️

😵(2.50) = NEAR DISASTER!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

The only thing I remember from my first time listening to Primeval is that I found it slow and boring. Let’s see if relistening alters my perception.

Primeval kicks off right away, with Five taking Nyssa to Traken some three hundred years before her time to hopefully treat a medical condition she is suffering from. This introduction is very jarring, as it doesn’t ease you into the characters of the conflict.

Lance Parkin’s story adds to the lore of Nyssa’s home planet and its people, and this is its primary purpose. The problem is that the presentation is so confusing and the narrative so muddled that it’s difficult to remain engaged.

I don't find the Trakenite characters particularly interesting, not to mention the fairly one-dimensional Doctor or Nyssa, who's just hanging around and panicking while we wait for her to either die or get cured.

The music and sound design are pretty good, at least if they’re going for a slightly mystical feel.

The majority of this involves the characters engaging in discussions about cures, politics, and other related topics. While this creates an unusual character drama, it lacks a compelling element.

I guess the performances are mostly solid. There is nothing outstanding here, but they work.

The second half brings some light tension to the story, particularly due to the Doctor’s mistakes risking the future of Traken, but it’s still not very interesting.

This is also such a forgettable story that I cannot remember what I’ve been listening to immediately after finishing it.