The Monthly Adventures #050 - “Zagreus" by Gary Russell and Alan Barnes

I’m not really sure how I got here. Woke up one day, decided to start listening to the whole of The Monthly Adventures, then it was a bit of a blur and well, here we are, the big 5-0. I don’t think there’s another audio that is even slightly similar to this one: a four hour long behemoth that absolutely defies explanation, built up over the course of about 25 stories, the culmination to multiple arcs that includes nearly every major actor featured up to that point. This is THE audio story, the apotheosis of Big Finish experimentation and wondrous delirium, a maddening descent of nursery rhymes and Lewis Caroll that concludes with Charley and the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors (but not really the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors) riding a jabberwocky across the Death Zone. This is the end of Big Finish’s first era, this is Zagreus.

The Doctor is gone, Zagreus is come. Possessed by a nursery rhyme and gifted the capability to destroy the universe, a maddened Doctor wanders the empty halls of his empty ship, hunting his former friend. But as memories become material, a far greater threat is unearthed. And it may just mean the end of everything.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Where does one even begin with Zagreus? Is there a point to begin at? It’s a mad, overambitious, wonderfully rash and utterly bonkers story that is essentially Doctor Who’s version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, jumping head first into the rabbit hole so to speak and ending up in one of the most wildly original stories ever conceived. In simple terms, Zagreus is a glorified anthology work, switching between different stories surrounding Zagreus and soon-to-be-series-arc the Divergence, from experiments in Cold War Britain to a warzone in space Disneyland at the end of the universe. Basically, it’s what if The Sirens of Time wasn’t an unfocused and underwhelming mess, even keeping the gimmick of a different Doctor for each story, though these Doctors are actually the TARDIS using previous incarnations to stand in for other people, like a priest or legally distinct Walt Disney (Zagreus is very confusing, if you couldn’t tell). Far from just reciting plot points, I don’t think I can express enough that Zagreus is full to bursting with fresh ideas, fresh concepts, fresh everything. Put it on and prepare to lose your mind as you’re hit with insane moment after insane moment. And whilst listening, take note of how the story never seems to drag. Lo and behold, against everything I know about script writing, this four hour long audio-only fever dream never once feels slow, never once feels like it’s not using up its time well. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, a lot of the early moments consist of the Doctor wandering around the TARDIS library talking to Jon Pertwee’s archived, robotic voice but it’s still shocking how the unique structure of Zagreus effectively keeps your attention. And if that doesn’t excite you, maybe the fact that Big Finish raised enough of a budget to employ every single talent they had for this audio will. As the TARDIS uses its data banks to fill in the faces of people it shows in flashback, it uses the old Doctors and their companions, meaning nearly every actor that has led a story makes an appearance. So, obviously, you get a ridiculously good soundscape of incredibly talented performers, with everybody from Maggie Stables to Sophie Aldred making an appearance, and even some companions not yet featured in the audios, like Anneke Wills or Elisabeth Sladen. Plus, we have Nicholas Courtney as the TARDIS interface, so basically stellar performances all round. And then there’s just the scope of the  thing: I don’t believe Big Finish have ever done something quite like this since, this is a big, bold and loud finale with all the mannerisms of one. Despite taking place in mostly the TARDIS matrix, you really get a sense of scale, and at how dire this whole situation is. It genuinely feels like the whole universe could just collapse in on itself at any point. Perhaps it's because of how much we get to explore Gallifrey; about half of Zagreus is set on the mythological world and the insights we get into its society and history. Especially how we find out how utterly backwards it all was under Rassilon. A lot of people complain when we see more of Gallifrey, that it’s better as a legend or it’s too bureaucratic but frankly, I love that direction. A corrupt cabal of kingmakers with a monopoly over time, a group that see themselves as gods but in reality are just another political system. I much prefer this because in the end, the Doctor himself isn't some mystical god like being, he’s a runaway from a system that rejected him. And seeing how Rassilon waged war on people out of heedless bigotry is a fascinating insight into the relationship between Gallifrey and the rest of the universe. I personally think it’s brilliant worldbuilding and one of the many reasons Zagreus works so well for me.

But I would be a fool to call this story perfect, because god knows it is messy. As I said before, the first part has a lot of aimless wandering, like a whole section of the Doctor discussing philosophy with a Cheshire cat, which is nearly entirely pointless and clearly just there to give McGann something to do. And especially by the end, it becomes very unfocused, switching between three different sets of characters as it keeps trying to pull off more and more clever and mad ideas that don’t really fit together. In fact, this whole climax is a let down. Four hours just for the Doctor to be quickly talked out of his madness so he can throw Rassilon into another universe, followed by ten minutes of awkward conversation. It’s a surprisingly lowkey ending, allowing for a moment of stillness to wrap up the internal character arcs but it doesn’t reach tonal synergy and is somewhat of an odd amendum. Mostly the saving grace of the final act is the inclusion of Romana and Leela, ready and waiting for Gallifrey to get started. And, as much as I hate to say it, the tone can sometimes be Zagreus’ own downfall. There is a slightly comedic edge to the insanity, and whilst a lot of the time it aids the bonkers aspects, sometimes it makes the script feel like Looney Tunes, or a really weird pantomime. It’s not constant, but there are some moments which could only be described as cringe-worthy.

But that is not enough to dissuade my love for Zagreus. First time I listened to it, I wasn’t all that keen. It was… a lot. It was so full of ideas that I just couldn’t keep up and realised by the end that I was somewhat lost. However, on a second listen, with prior knowledge of what was to come, I simply allowed myself to be taken away into the rabbit hole, descending into what is easily one of the Doctor Who’s most insane episodes, and also one of its best finales to boot. What a way to end the first chunk of The Monthly Adventures: a fine way to conclude one of Doctor Who’s most experimental moments, and a fine story at that. Sure, it may be a bit of a muddle, but I love Zagreus, and I think it’s simply brilliant.

9/10

Pros:

+ Wildly original and endlessly mad series of bizarro ideas

+ Ridiculously fast for a four-hour long audio drama

+ Has a cast boasting every single talent at Big Finish

+ Brilliant addition to Time Lord mythology

+ Has all the cadence and scope of a series finale

Cons:

- Very messy and by the end, quite unfocused

- Has a climax that does not justify the four hours

- The story and dialogue can be utterly asinine at points

MR 050: Zagreus

Wow. I don't even know where to begin. Fifty audio stories. Fifty! One hundred hours of audio content. Was all of that content good? No, of course not, but it sure was content. There definitely were a lot of gems here for sure. Zagreus functions as a celebration of everything we've done so far and also a look to the future. It's very much so a wilderness years story through and through with all the positives and negatives that that entails. I'm not even sure it's good or not, but we'll work that out together shall we?

Part 1: Wonderland

Starting from the beginning. The Doctor has been infected with anti-time at the end of Neverland and yells at Charley and then hits her. To which she disappears naturally. After which she appears as a kid next to her mom who is taking her to Doctor Zagreus because she won't eat her carrots. She is then greated by the Brigadier who tells her the thing we all feel when listening to this story: "Welcome to your insanity."

Every character in this story is played by a companion or Doctor actor, which is certainly fun. It makes it a game of "spot the voice." In this first section we have Anneke Wills playing Charley's mother and Elisabeth Sladen playing Charley's school master. It's kind of wild that she's here at all. As far as I know, this is the only time Elisabeth Sladen was ever in the main range at all before she died. It makes me wonder what we could have had if Tom Baker had joined Big FInish from the beginning.

The Brigadier is not actually the Brigadier, but the hologram avatar of the TARDIS who guides Charley through a series of stories. What's happening with the Doctor during this section isn't important. He's just wandering through a series of Wonderland motifs, arguing with himself and with the ship. And the talking cat from Wonderland. He gets put in a bottle with cyanide and gets to play Schrodinger's cat before he gets to work chopping down trees with his mind, naturally.

Charley sees a series of three scenes. The TARDIS is projecting these holographic scenes like a slide show, similar to the series 12 finale. What sets it apart from that episode, however, is that Charley and the Brigadier get to interact with the scenes, taking the form of characters that the other characters expect to see. The Brigatardis is guiding her through the scenes. Much like the beginning, the TARDIS uses companions and doctors in its projections. So this first scene shows a British military base during the cold war in which the military is working on a possible weapon by ripping a hole in reality. Which is one hell of a weapon. Not sure how well that's going to go.

This military base is filled with the Fifth Doctor's companions. We have the actors for Turlough, Nyssa, Peri, and Erimem here all playing different characters. I particularly liked Nicola Bryant playing a patriotic military minded scientist working on this reality warping weapon. The Fifth Doctor himself is playing a reverand, Mathew Townsend, who is working with the scientist. He wants to rip a hole in reality to find god, or some such. You know, to figure out why some life is similar while other life isn't. I guess without referencing evolution? He does say he's not a creationist, so I'm not sure why he think this will help him solve the mysteries of the universe. Anyway, when they manage to open a hole in reality, they see some sort of mysterious species on the other side that wants to eat them. A Cuban spy (played by Nyssa's actress) kills them all with a bomb and that's the end of that.

Part 2: Heartland

The next scene has the great mother of what will eventually become the Sisterhood of Karn and her assisstant waiting for the surviving vampire council of three. With one of vampires, Tepesh, being the Sixth Doctor, which is a cute choice. You guessed it, this is the Sixth Doctor section with the actresses for Evelyn, Peri, and Mel. Only Mel's character gets eaten by the Doctor's vampire.

They sneak their way into Rassilon's Foundry, which is his giant workshop and they see Charley as Rassilon, which is kind of hilarious. Then we get a giant lore dump. We learn that Rassilon is experimenting with regeneration, limiting it to thirteen regenerations, but not for him. He gets to live forever with no limit, naturally. As if that wasn't enough to tarnish Rassilon's legacy, we then learn that Rassilon is effectively a fascist. He hates everything that doesn't look like Gallifreyans. There's no real reason given for this either, other than that he's afraid of anything else challenging the Time Lords' supremacy over the galaxy. So he genetically modified all life in the universe, using time travel to influence their evolution, so that it would conform to Gallifreyan physiology. So, you know, fascist.

Rassilon also say a species that was supposed to appear at the end of the universe and destroy it, like the Reapers from Mass Effect. They also feel like the Ravenous from the later Eighth Doctor series. I wonder how much the writers there were influenced by Zagreus. So he sealed time into a time loop. Once it ends, it circles back and begins again, so that these Reapers, or Divergence as the story calls them, can never enter the universe to destroy it and thus destroy Time Lord supremacy. He sealed these Divergence in a pocket universe running on his desk, the Divergent Universe. Catchy name. This is probably the one decent thing he's done. For the wrong reasons, sure, but keeping the universe from being destroyed seems like a good thing.

He can't get a single W before going back to being a fascist, however, because as it turns out, the vampires used to only drink the blood of mindless genetically bred animals, but Rassilon looking to genocide them forced the vampires to start going after sentient species. It sounds to me like they had animal farms where they raised livestock to eat, but Raassilon forcing them off planet made them have to seek other means. And thus they became the ancient enemy of the Time Lords.

The Foundry draws power from the divergent universe. So when the brigatardis advises Charley to turn off the power, the divergent creatures can break through. The Foundry automatically destroys itself to keep them from escaping. This scenario is also where the brigatardis starts to act not very nice. Indeed, the Doctor figures out that the anti-time that infected him and turned into Zagreus also infected the TARDIS itself as well. Zagreus is both of them: TARDIS and Doctor.

The final scene has Charley being a mouse in battle armour where she's the leader of an animal army against human animatronics. It's a theme park where the animatronics are fighting over their creator. The Animator, Walton Winkle, or Uncle Winkie. Finally, this is the Seventh Doctor scenario with the actresses for Ace, Mel, and Bernice. They wake up the Animator, played by the Seventh Doctor, who is distraught to learn that it's the end of the universe and all the people are dead. Nobody to enjoy his theme park anymore. It definitely feels like this was supposed to be Walt Disney and this is Disneyland. The nickname is even a reference to the nickname "Uncle Walt." There's lots of references to Disneyland here too like the pirate ride or the fairies or the mountain (Disneyland famously has four mountains: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and the Matterhorn).

The park has been moved around several times and is now on the old ruins of Gallifrey, where the Foundry used to stand. I found it quite amusing how the animatronics were being influence by the Divergence and so woke up Unckle Winkie to operate the controls. Since the animatronics can't reach the controls with their stubby little arms, you see. Unfortunately, Uncle Winkie was put into suspended animation to survive his heart condition (another reference to the famous urband legend of Walt Disney being frozen in suspended animation), and he then dies of it, right before seeing the Divergence try to escape their universe one more time.

Finally, after the slideshow is done, Charley is pulled back into the console room where the Doctor and the TARDIS are having a bit of an argument. The Doctor deletes rooms while the brigadtardis dumps the Doctor's stuff out the TARDIS door, electing to dump Charley out the door as well.

You thought that was the end? No, this thing is FOUR HOURS. No all that was just the prologue. Leela is on Gallifrey because season fifteen had a dumb ending and she meets with President Romana because she has a message from Rassilon. Ok cool? As if there wasn't enough going on. Again, FOUR HOURS. And then Charley and the three Doctor characters from the projections: Matthew Townsend, Tepesh, and Uncle Winkie, are all in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

Part 3: Wasteland

This is the most bizzare of all of the parts. So far it's just been a slideshow projection (albeit one that Charley can interact with), but now... it's still a slideshow projection, albeit one in the Matrix. Everything is in the Matrix from this point on, I think.

Leela leads Romana to the dark tower and Rassilon's tomb (from The Five Doctors) where Rassilon wants Romana to resign and wants her to sign a paper saying she resigns and makes Zagreus the new President. Ok, bizarre. Romana won't, obviously, so he mind controls Leela to attack her. I like how during these scenes Leela gets upset that Romana calls her stupid over and over again. Romana exhibiting the Time Lord arrogance that Rassilon was known for here.

After some banter between the Doctor actors (not the Doctors) and Charley, the Jabberwock from Alice in Wonderland appears. They have to say some nonsense and the Jabberwock allows them to ride it... all the way to the top of the dark tower. They solve the chess board from the Five Doctors to get in and then the brigatardis and Rassilon torture the Doctor.

This part I find very interesting. It's set up for how Doctor Who treats the Doctor's relationship with his ship going forwards, especially in The Doctor's Wife. The TARDIS is a fourth dimensional sentient being. Yes, the Doctor is very into self-sacrifice. That's his go to move. It's all well and good trapping the station inside the TARDIS so that the anti-time bomb explodes on him. But he didn't ask the TARDIS if she was ok with it. She's the Doctor's oldest friend and the Doctor is willing to sacrifice her without a second thought. But he's constantly trying to make sure his companions don't die. The TARDIS is actually jealous of the Doctor's companions. From her perspective, the Doctor and the TARDIS have been together for hundreds of years. How long has he known Charley? A year at most perhaps? The TARDIS even rants about how there's always girls inside of her and how she's always jealous.

As if we weren't done destroying Rassilon's reputation, we also see a frozen super nova that Rassilon has suspended. Simply because it was a solar system that could have rivaled the Time Lords. He's not content to simply compete. He fixes the competition in advance. The Time Lords will not be just another empire that rises and falls. They will last forever because nobody will ever be able to challenge them. That is the timeline that they strive to maintain. Their precious web of time. The one single timeline where they are always in charge of time forever, thanks to Rassilon. It's such a interesting idea. If you have access to time travel, why not go back in time and rig things in your favour? And then we see how that will turn out with the Time War.

The three not Doctors turn out to be sort of the Doctor? Question mark? They've elements of the Doctor's personality in them. They find the Doctor hammering away at a sword on an anvil, creating it. Rassilon is going to use him, as Zagreus to fight the Divergence with his sword. The sword is created from the TARDIS after it was melted down. I feel like the brigatardis would object to that, but he's ok with it somehow. Rassilon kills all the not-Doctors and then the Doctor begs Charley to kill him in a reverse of what happened in Neverland. Rassilon even says "you've played out this farce before." And it is a farce now since we've already seen it happen. It's kind of hilarious that Charley actually does it. She stabs him, but the Doctor doesn't regenerate.

I liked this little scene, mostly because it's the only time the Doctors are actually playing their Doctors, where the previous Doctors are all like "welp, he didn't regenerate oh well" They're all very flippant. Instead the Doctor becomes Zagreus permanently, at least for the next five minutes. Rassilon thinks he's got Zagreus under control, but Zagreus throws him into the Divergent universe instead of following his orders, refusing to be his puppet. Which is cute, Zagreus has a personality of his own. Rassilon thought he could control the anti-time creature, not so Rassilon.

It turns out, being melted down was the best thing for the TARDIS. The brigatardis comes back, cured of the anti-time infection, and gives the Doctor a bit of zero matter. You mean to tell me all of this could have been ended four hours ago if the Doctor had a bit of a lie down in a zero room? Really? The Doctor wants to go into the Divergent universe to quarantine himself because the anti-time is still there, the Zagreus personality just isn't there anymore. He does the whole "go on, get out of here, just go" throwing a rock at a dog trope you do in movies to protect them with Charley. Which is incredibly condescending. Even I felt how condescending it was. It's Charley's choice. She feels like there's nothing for her in this universe. If she wants to go with you, she will. And she does, sneaking in the TARDIS's back door(!!!???!??!?!?!?!?)

And that's that. I can definitely see the influence it's had. It's the first time, as far as I know, where we've really delved into the Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS itself. We see a lot of later companions in Charley as well, willing to defy the Doctor when he's talking nonsense. I like that kind of companion, for sure. She feels very influential on companions like Rose, Donna, Amy, River, Clara, and Liv.

A huge part of its legacy, too, is deconstructing Rassilon's legacy. Omega did a number on it, of course, where Rassilon took the credit for Omega's invention of time travel. This one certainly blows all of that out of the water. Rassilon did everything he could to make sure Gallifrey was the dominant empire in the galaxy, unquestioned, unchallenged. He did whatever he liked with time, up to and including manipulating the evolution of ever other species in the universe.

However, as a piece on its own, I don't know if I can recommend it. It's too long and drawn out. Do you like slide shows? Because you're getting a bunch of them. Personally, I liked the Doctor actors playing different characters because I've just listened to fifty audio dramas with them and I know there's way more, but that's just me. It made for a nice change of pace. But a lot of what was happening here with the Eighth Doctor wandering around the TARDIS in wonderland could absolutely have been cut. It's far too long. Does it really need to be four hours? It makes a lot of classic who serials look positively fast paced and snappy by comparison. It definitely feels like a hot mess, but it was an enjoyable hot mess.

27.09.2022

Zagreus is... a lot. It's messy and brilliant and eventful and confusing and endlessly creative and deeply flawed. Main compliment I can give it is that it feels like an Event. Like a capital-E Event. It's a culmination of several arcs, a lot of familiar faces make an appearance. It feels like a proper season finale. I especially like Once-Upon-Time-style recastings.

The story itself is manageable up to a certain point, but then goes off the rails, introducing new and new story elements, until you can't keep track of it. At one point I stopped following the plot and just enjoyed the characters talking.
A very strong 2.5/5

DNF 50%

After a great season of Eighth doctor audios, I was really looking forward to the "season finale". However, after over 2 hours of listening, (only half way through,) I just can't finish it. After the strong opening, it's just an incoherent mess. So many characters are thrown in, and random settings and stories that have nothing to do with the main plot take precedence. If it had an hour or two shaved off its runtime, I think it would have been a story I'd enjoy.

Unfortunately, it felt like a waste of an afternoon. Hopefully Scherzo will be better, and it's only 2 hours.

I'll never complain about the length of a classic Who serial again, lol.

✅88% = Great! = Essential!

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

This time: a multi-Doctor adventure to celebrate 50 monthly audio drama releases and 40 years of Doctor Who, with Paul McGann playing the bad guy!

Zagreus represents the climax of a narrative arc that revolves around a Gallifreyan nursery rhyme, hints of which have been present in several previous Main Range releases. It has the air of a season finale while also celebrating 40 years of Doctor Who by including past Doctors and companions in the story. It also deepens the lore of the Time Lords and Rassilon, with concepts such as the Divergence.

Told through three separate parts, each clocking in at over 70 minutes, Zagreus is a complex, bizarre storyline, juggling comedic elements, scary aspects, and sci-fi concepts liberally. The Doctor’s parts mess around with familiar children’s stories (such as Alice in Wonderland), while Charley's parts deal with surprising takes on familiar characters.

Part 1 alternates between an amnesiac Doctor/Zagreus trying to figure out who he is and what is going on, and Charley joining a hologram of the Brigadier and attempting to connect the dots on her end. It’s somewhat hard to follow at times, as the listener is effectively as lost as the characters.

Part 2 takes a different turn as we head to Gallifrey and join the Great Mother, the High Priestess Cassandra, and Provost Tepesh (all played by familiar voices…) as well as Charley, in the guise of Rassilon. Simultaneously, the Doctor gradually unravels the mystery at his end, realising that his personality and the TARDIS have undergone a split. I cannot comprehend the exact nature of the situation or its purpose.

The latter half of Part 2 switches locations again, as Charley appears in another strange story, with animatronic animal soldiers in a theme park and the Jabberwock attacking the Doctor in the TARDIS. We still have no idea what’s going on, but the entire thing is bizarre, inventive, and strangely engaging.

Part 3 finally brings the three alternate Doctors and companions together for the finale, which takes place in the Death Zone. This one drops plenty of references to past stories and monsters, and I love how the three Doctors bicker and banter while Charley, Leela, and Romana try to keep everything together.

While it's not easy to always follow along and capture every detail of the narrative, I love the epic scope of the story and its majestic feel, as well as how everything fits together nicely in the last part.

Overflowing with characters, most of them old Doctors and companions in slightly different roles, Zagreus can feel a bit overwhelming at times, and it isn't always easy to follow along with the various voices and characters.

In one of his very best performances for Big Finish, Paul McGann is a creepy presence. He captures his confused, broken, and desperate nature with great accuracy, delivering a sprawling and altogether impressive performance as Zagreus. India Fisher, meanwhile, effortlessly carried the rest of the story in one of her strongest performances as Charley.

Past Doctors and companions appear in new roles, which is equally interesting and confusing. Peter Davison is Reverend Townsend, but he plays him like the Doctor. Colin Baker, in particular, is an absolute delight as Tepesh, and Sylvester McCoy is joyful as the Walt Disney-inspired Walton Winkle.

Nicholas Courtney is fantastic as a hologram popping in and out of the story, and he turns scary as he voices Zagreus and the evil TARDIS, providing one of his finest performances in the franchise.

Pretty much every single character is played by a Doctor or companion actor (including rarely heard voices such as Anneke Wills and Elisabeth Sladen). It’s fun trying to spot them all and listen to how each one of them provides wild and inventive performances.

Most of Zagreus is complex, strange, and confusing, but Part 3 feels the most like a traditional Doctor Who adventure and brings our favourite characters together against Rassilon and a bunch of fun monsters.

Even after the epic adventure in this story, Zagrerus takes a heartbreaking turn as the Doctor throws Charley out, only for her to sneak back onto the TARDIS…

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

This is the longest Main Range release and the second longest Big Finish story, after Dominion, at just shy of four hours.

Sadly, this is also the only Main Range release to feature Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson as K9. It’s also the Big Finish debut for Louise Jameson as Leela.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Zagreus is an epic and complex celebration of 40 years of Doctor Who, and while it's divisive within the fandom, it certainly feels like a celebratory adventure with big stakes and superb performances.