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“THE LAST: A BLEAK AND CIRCULAR NIGHTMARE”

The Last drops the Doctor, Charley, and C’rizz into a desolate war zone, where the remnants of a once-powerful government continue their propaganda efforts from an underground bunker. The world above is a ruin, but Excelsior, the self-absorbed and increasingly unhinged leader, remains blissfully unaware. Played with unsettling intensity by Carolyn Jones, Excelsior dominates the story, transitioning from vain and superficial to a chillingly ruthless tyrant.

The atmosphere in the opening episode is strong, evoking the political chaos of The War Games mixed with the grim inevitability of Genesis of the Daleks. Yet, despite the bleakness, the first half is quite minimalist, focusing on political bickering and slow-build tension rather than immediate action.

CHARLEY SIDELINED, C’RIZZ TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT

The TARDIS team is quickly split up—C’rizz bonds with a supposed survivor, Charley gets trapped under rubble, and the Doctor engages with the ministers of War and Peace. Charley’s paralysis, revealed as the Part 1 cliffhanger, might have been shocking at the time, but knowing it won’t last removes much of the impact. More significantly, it sidelines her for much of the story, confining her to a passive role while C’rizz steps up. This allows for more development between him and Charley, as well as a growing tension as the Doctor and C’rizz question the reality of the world around them.

Despite this, Charley’s fate provides some of the most harrowing moments in the story. The Part 3 cliffhanger, where C’rizz discovers her lifeless body, is particularly chilling. This leads into the emotionally charged climax, where the Doctor and C’rizz confront Excelsior, only for her to coldly dismiss Charley’s death—before killing C’rizz as well. McGann’s performance here is excellent, simmering with disgust and fury.

A RESET BUTTON ENDING, BUT STRONG THEMES

While the first two episodes build a slow, creeping unease, the second half ratchets up the tension. Excelsior’s realisation that she has been misled—that her world is already dead—pushes her further into madness. The moment she strangles Charley, claiming it as an act of mercy, is one of the story’s most chilling sequences. The setting, with its nuclear winter, ruined buildings, and claustrophobic bunkers, adds to the oppressive sense of despair.

However, the story ultimately falls into a predictable reset-button ending. The revelation that the war-torn world exists in a loop, with one survivor always left standing, is a compelling concept, but it also makes the companion deaths feel like a temporary inconvenience rather than a true dramatic climax. While it provides an interesting moral dilemma for the Doctor, it also undercuts the weight of the preceding events.

📝VERDICT: 7/10

The Last succeeds in creating an immersive, apocalyptic atmosphere, with strong performances and moments of genuine horror. Excelsior is a fantastic villain, and the interplay between the TARDIS team allows for some solid character moments—particularly for C’rizz. However, the slow start, Charley’s sidelining, and the predictable reset ending prevent it from reaching its full potential. It’s a haunting and ambitious story, but one that never quite lands with the impact it seems to be aiming for.

I really enjoyed this. Not top tier Doctor Who, but it was very affecting. Once again the divergent universe is proving to be very experimental. It is not just the storytelling that is different but the production which has a spooky and detached quality throughout. Looking forward to the next stop in the inter-zone.

The star of the show here is Carolyn Jones as Excelsior, a crazy monarch-like figure who for the vast majority of the play seems to not realise the entirety of her civilisation has been destroyed and is now a post-apocalyptic hellscape. We are led to believe she has been tricked by the politicians immediately below her. You get a probing analysis of this character who kills anyone who tries to inform her better (she's not as mad as she'd have everyone think). She blooms into one of the most unpleasant characters we've ever met in the show. An exceptionally chilling performance.

MR 062: The Last

For the most part this is rather mediocre, but it does have some good ideas in it. It's an exploration of a society that has destroyed itself. How did this happen and why did this happen?

The problem is the explanations are rather mediocre. The leader is mad, power hungry, controlling. She's the very essence of a fascist. Power for its own sake and anyone who questions that power gets executed. She'll even kill people herself if it comes down to it. This character, Excelsior, will just do things and then act as if they were no big deal. She'll come up with excuses and pretend to ignore what's happened and pretend to be mad. The one thing she will never do is attempt to justify her actions because she doesn't feel like she needs to do so. She's the one in power and so everyone does what she commands, no justification necessary.

Her ministers are self-interested and intent on keeping themselves alive, navigating through Excelsior's mad mood swings. They're trying to escape this impossible situation after the people on the planet have all been killed. There's only a hundred or so people left alive on the planet in this underground bunker and somehow they're mostly all still loyal to Excelsior, who probably knows about everyone being dead, but pretends not to know and practices her victory speeches.

This is the situation as the Doctor, Charley, and C'rizz arrive in this nuclear irradiated hellhole. Everyone is destroyed. Charley is stunned at the idea that ONE SINGLE BOMB could do this much damage, kill millions of people. Of course, she doesn't know about the nukes in WW2. They take shelter in a house that collapses. The Doctor gets buried, Charley gets entirely paralyzed by a beam hitting her extremely hard and C'rizz goes for help. What help he thinks he's going to find, who knows. Charley and the Doctor get pulled into the bunker by Landscar, a mysterious figure in the government who claims to represent the planet, or some such. C'rizz finds a bunch of ghosts, though he thinks they're survivors.

Things in the bunker go immediately downhill as everyone has to tiptoe around Excelsior. Charley impresses her with fashion after she executed her make up artist and they all just mostly putter around for a bit, filling up the run time until there's a flood. An underground river bursts and they have to evacuate, but most everyone dies, leaving a few left. And Excelsior still talks about executing people for disagreeing with her when there are literally five or six people left. Indeed, she threatens the Doctor and Charley with execution just for them saying that everyone is dead on the surface.

Charley figures out that Excelsior is not quite so mad. She just pretends to be to hold on to power and so Excelsior kills her. She's entirely paralyzed and can't resist. There's what you'd expect here, with Charley, about leaving her behind because she can't walk but the Doctor and C'rizz wouldn't ever leave her behind of course. Excelsior also kills one of her ministers for attempting to tell her about everyone being dead.

The Doctor helps repair a rocket to get people off planet. It was originally built for space travel, but was repurposed for war. Now it's being repurposed againt for space travel, but Landscar scares the last minister to his death and/or kills him, doesn't matter. Landscar is going to stay behind. So the Doctor, C'rizz and Excelsior go up in the rocket. Excelsior kills C'rizz and the Doctor absolutely refuses to help her escape. He calls her the most amoral person he's ever known and that's pretty accurate. She just does whatever she wants, plays with the lives of her people, because they are her pawns to do with as she wishes. She doesn't need to justify herself to anyone.

The planet pulls the rocket back down and when Excelsior goes out of the ship, she gets eaten up in a forming volcano. Which just leaves the Doctor. The Last. Landscar says that when everyone dies, the cycle will begin again. Earlier in the episode, Excelsior didn't understand the concept of children. When people die, they just don't replenish their numbers. Because once everyone's dead, they all come back and begin this whole thing again. So Landscar tells the Doctor to kill himself. He says he never considered himself suicidal and does it anyway.

Which brings everyone back. Charley and C'rizz are watching a parade and Excelsior gives her victory speech as the war has finally ended. Charley calls her an inspiration, which is all ironic to us. I'm not sure if the Doctor is meant to remember everything that happened, but it certainly feels like he does.

And that's that. I suppose it is accurate that one power mad, insane despot can absolutely cause the destruction of the planet. Along with self serving ministers who will say anything she wishes to hear to keep themselves alive. It's wild, to me, that we're all still alive after the Cold War. At least for now. We shall see. The story itself, though, was pretty mediocre. I wasn't exactly thrilled by it, but it wasn't the worst story either. Mostly just inoffensive.

A decent story in the Divergent Universe arc. Not particularly interesting, but some good acting from Paul McGann and India Fisher.  Not sure if this one is crucial to the plot or not? Haven't listened to The Creed of the Kormon yet, so not sure.

23.09.2024

This play was so boring it put me off from Big Finish for like 9 months. I tried to start over at least 4 times.
Anyway, Chibnall-level of message depth. Non-sensical conclusion, feeling out of nowhere despite being setup from the beginning. Chekhov's guns of "beware the lone cybermen" caliber that make you literally groan out loud when they're resolved.
1/5 if I've ever seen one.