The Monthly Adventures #062 - “The Last" by Gary Hopkins

The word “boring” gets thrown around a lot with the audios. With only one sense carrying them, it is incredibly easy to leave little for the audience and end up with something dull and repetitive, especially if the listener is the one having to introduce visuals to keep a story interesting. It is also a word I have used often and have seen given to The Last. However, I find myself disagreeing heavily with the last point despite this audio’s 150 minute runtime. So what is it about The Last that keeps me so thoroughly engaged?

The world of Bortresoye is a barren ruin, wasted by war with its leader ignorant and slowly going insane a mile underground. When our travellers arrive, tragedy soon befalls them and they find themselves faced by survivors, ghosts and the planet itself.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I find that even in a very long story, there is something that can carry me through: atmosphere. A good atmosphere can elevate a story from a bog-standard sci-fi caper to an enrapturing epic and The Last especially relies heavily on its tone. This story is capital-B Bleak, it is a never ending torrent of lonely misery in one of the best executed end-of-days stories I’ve seen out of Doctor Who. From the sound design recreating a nuclear winter to the believable whittling down of our main cast, this story by the end makes you feel like the last person left alive in the world. And speaking of the world, the ruined, empty planet of Bortresoye is fantastically realised and contributes greatly to the aforementioned atmosphere. Everything from the remnants of society, to the buildings turned to glass by nuclear warfare to the mile deep bunker full of disturbed and nasty politicians is wonderful worldbuilding and by far my favourite part of this audio as just existing in it and basking in the melancholia of it all.

As for the story, I find it can be a little too long in places - especially in the first part - but it doesn’t drag too much. Still, thirty minutes could have easily been cut out. And despite this, it still manages to be incredibly tense at points. Whilst it may only be temporary, Charley’s paralysis lends a lot to this tension and the focus on C’rizz makes for some nice character work, as he’s paired with ghost of former Bortresoye citizen Requiem and is forced to confront the horrors that have befallen the planet. Westmaas also has some of his best moments here, including a standout one when he discovers Charley’s been murdered by the insane Excelsior and cries out in painfully believable anguish; the bond between our two companions is really cemented here in a brilliantly intimate way. And as we’ve spoken of our main antagonist, played delightfully by Carolyn Jones, let me just say she is easily the best character here. A genuinely chilling performance that effectively sells the cold cruelty of a thoroughly deranged person, she is one of the scariest villains I’ve seen in a Doctor Who story in a while and Jones chews the scenery of every moment she’s in, from her opening speech to her harrowing death scene.

As for the rest of our cast - it wavers. The couple politicians we get lumped with are pretty bare in character and mostly just serve as plot devices to bounce off the other characters before getting killed off and, whilst ghostly soul of the planet Landscar is more interesting of a character, he unfortunately gets little screen time. And as for our main character, boy oh boy is it obvious McGann did not like this script. This is the most bored I have seen a man whose friends have all just died. McGann is, unfortunately, not giving it 100% here and sleepwalking through a lot of his lines, especially at the climax, which is a shame but not unforgivable.

And speaking of the climax, this is where things get complicated. I’m in two minds about the final reveal: one, I love the concept of an intelligent planet looping its history until its population finally decide not to cause Armageddon out of stupidity but on the other hand it is a big friendly button resetting the whole adventure and downplaying pretty much all the emotional beats of the past two and a half hours. Plus, it’s all conveyed pretty poorly and ends up convoluted. However, that final “oh, what the hell” as the Doctor sets off a nuclear warhead was a fun final moment to leave the story on (if you ignore that kind of hokey “it was all okay in the end” bit afterwards).

Seeped in a bleak and desperate atmosphere, The Last is a suitably lonely story that really sits with you after having finished it and leaves you thinking. It could be cut down a little here and there and I think it was probably a couple drafts off perfection but as it stands, this is an underrated little gem with a couple amazing performances, a fantastic villain and a palpable atmosphere.

8/10

Pros:

+ Incredibly bleak and effective tone

+ Carolyn Jones dominates every scene she’s in

+ The ruined world of Bortresoye was a stunningly evocative setting

+ The concept of a planet looping its destruction until its saved is great

+ Gives C’rizz some excellent character work

Cons:

- Most of sidecast is filler

- McGann is so clearly bored by the story

- The story’s a little bloated in places

- The ending was mostly a copout

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

“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.

It is not often that I get genuinely angry at an audio adventure, since I am usually taking a lovely walk 'round my city or out in nature when listening to them.
However, this is some of the most boring, drawn-out, nothing-of-a-story, thinks-it-has-something-to-say-but-everything-it-says-is-a-tired-cliché Doctor Who story I have ever come across. The biggest compliment I can give this waste of 2-and-a-half hours is that the 'nothing' which makes up this entire story is somewhat competently written.

Now I don't necessarily have a problem with a story that has nothing new to say, I have enjoyed quite a few of them, but I have a problem with a story which has nothing new to say, yet is delivered with the gravitas of a story which is new and bold and untrodden territory, really saying some deep, dark truths about society, and that is exactly what this is.
It's like Jubilee without the wit or quality, it's like The Daleks without the fun or worldbuilding, it's like The Haunting of Villa Diodati without the characterisation or ability to juggle oodles of plot points and characters, it's like Creatures of Beauty without the weight or conceptuality, it's like Jim Mortimore and Rob Shearman were the only ones who had any ideas about what the hell to do with the Divergent Universe Arc.

Now, Paul McGann is Paul McGann and Paul McGann is amazing, but even he cannot give weight to a scene where The Doctor yells to the sky asking why he is being tormented, because, no matter how well that is delivered, outside of deliberately pulpy horror, it is patently ridiculous.
These Monthly Range releases vary in length, but given how slowly every line is delivered, and how lackadaisically every plot point is trodden through, you'd have thought that this was a story artificially lengthened for the sake of format. At the half-hour mark I genuinely yelled out "30 minutes!? But nothing has happened yet!"

I did not care for this all that much.

3.5/10