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.

In yet another 5th Doctor audio from Big Finish, the Doctor brings an ailing Nyssa to Traken, uncovers the truth behind the planet’s history and becomes the first Keeper.

This one sentence sums up pretty much the whole story. Primeval is quite a languid story which meanders from episode to episode, never really convincing that the threats presented are in anyway dangerous.

The main evil is Kwundaar, played by Stephen Grief, an omniscient alien with the power to control Nyssa from across the universe. He sits in his spaceship until episode four and then gets defeated. The effect put on Grief’s voice makes it difficult to understand his dialogue and as an enemy I never really felt threatened by him.

The Consuls are clearly from the same stock as those originally seen in The Keeper of Traken and are singularly uninspiring.

It is nice to hear about the history of Traken but really that is what we get – hearsay. The Traken we are presented with, for all it’s ‘primeval’ status, is very similar to the Traken we see 3000 years later. Even the same locations are used – the Consul chamber, the Grove and the vault containing the Source. A brief visit to a spaceport does nothing to expand Traken.

When discovering the origins of Kwundaar and the Source, the even older Traken we are told about with Priest Consuls plotting against the living God, Kwundaar, sounds a much more interesting place to visit. Surely if a prequel was the idea, one where we find out how the Source was created would have been more interesting than this retread of the original story.

Were it not for the fact that Traken is destroyed in Logopolis, this story could just have easily been a direct sequel rather than a semi-prequel and that is its main problem. It simply feels like more of the same. Traken is nice. An evil is trying to corrupt it. The Doctor and Nyssa defeat that evil.

Primeval is a pleasant enough meander through Traken but there is a lot of talk and very little action.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Mutant Phase

There's a lot to unpack here. I will say, this is the first story with 5 and Nyssa that I think has utilised them well. This story is both a sequel and a prequel to The Keeper of Traken (something only Doctor Who can do) and it is the explanation of Nyssa's sudden unconsciousness in Kinda that led to her psychic abillities.

Ancient Traken is an interesting setting, this story expands on the best parts of the previous Traken story is much more interesting. The idea that the Trakenites used to worship a God, but then kicked him out in favour of the source, turning him into a vengeful God is a great premise for a villain. It's also used as set-up at the end for other potential God-like beings, something that feels akin to the overarching series arcs of the revival.

Kwundaar is an excellently voiced villain, alongside a very great cast. Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are both clearly comfortable with their roles again and the supporting cast serve their role in the story quite well. The soundscape and soundtrack are both really good, especially the latter.

This is a great story, though if you were bored by Trakenite politics in the original story I might recommend skipping this one as there's a lot of that.

Next Story: Spare Parts

I wish I could say I enjoyed this one more. I deliberately sought it out to learn a bit more about Nyssa and while technically it did help with that, I feel we get bogged down too much in Trakan politics. I think that's a shame because on paper there's a lot to like about this outing - the basic premise of Nyssa being sick and this being the culmination of her psychic stuff could have been compelling on its own, just like the idea of visiting an ancient Trakan. Seeing an alien world and its culture and how that might change over many, many years is a cool idea.

Unfortunately, things kind of fall on their face pretty quickly as it devolves into a real villain-of-the-month kind of story and only ever barely recover. Kwundaar's actor and Davison aren't bad, but they and others get a little hammy in a way I don't feel adds to the story. Still, it has its moments. For whatever reason I found part three pretty compelling and I did enjoy some dialogue with the Doctor throughout. I wish Nyssa's perspective on things was explored a little more as it sort of feels downplayed near the end. Still, I did enjoy the idea of gods and other powerful entities being unleashed following this confrontation with Kwundaar. That's good and clean bait for future stories I can appreciate.