| THE LAST by Gary Hopkins |
| Story 62 Synopsis: The Kro'ka sends the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz to Bortresoye, where they find a wasteland in the grip of nuclear winter. Trying to shelter in a collapsed building, it collapses, paralysing Charley and burying the Doctor. C'rizz goes to get help, finding a stranger named Requiem. The Doctor and Charley are found and taken underground to be treated. He recovers, and meets the deranged leader, Excelsior, who doesn't seem to realise the true horrors she has caused. Her two minister bicker. C'rizz and Requiem find their way to the shelter, but when allowed in, C'rizz appears to be alone. Requiem seems to be some kind of vocal spirit. The Doctor learns there is a rocket which could take them away from the planet. Excelsior puts Charley out of her misery. Only C'rizz, the Doctor and Excelsior make it to the rocket and orbit. Excelsior shoots C'rizz when she admits killing Charley and he goes mad. The rocket is caught and returned to the ground. Excelsior dies, and the Doctor learns that the planet has been undergoing a process of change - but it needs the last survivor to die. Having replaced Excelsior in that status, he explodes the bomb to complete the process. He wakes up to find himself joined by Charley and C'rizz, both restored, on Bortresoye, as Excelsior is about to make a speech. Not wishing to get caught up again, he shepherds his friends into the Interzone... |
| Review:- When all hope is gone..? Bortresoye offers a gloomy new locale for the Doctor, and an insight into the terrible cost of nuclear war. To allow the full horror of what has happened to come through, the story works with a small cast so as not to distract too much. And even that is gradually whittled away, until it becomes almost a race to see who is the Last Man (or Woman) Standing... For once, the soundscapes really zing effectively, and the bleak domain in which buildings collapse because there is almost nothing holding them up is one of the harshest places the Doctor has ever found himself. It seems almost inevitable that things should then get worse, and with C'rizz lost, Charley's paralysis hits right at the Doctor's eternal optimism. Beyond this, the story revolves around three disparate strangers. Excelsior is the insane leader who has led her people to the brink of destruction, and is unconcerned with the morality of it. It is hardly rocket science to suppose she is meant to parallel former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a common bogey figure. Certainly, her single-minded madness does make Excelsior a foreboding figure. More curious is her aide, Landscar. With a name like that, it is easy to suppose he might have some elemental connection to the planet, although nobody else realises this until right near the end. Similarly strange is Requiem, the ethereal being who guides C'rizz to safety, but cannot be seen. He eventually acts as akin to Landscar, by which time his narrative function seems over. When the shelter is threatened by floodwater, and the only exit seems to be a rocket, the stakes rise all the time. Amidst the tension and the terror, Excelsior's bloodless murder of Charley is all the more effective for it being so avoidable, but her friends had trusted that she was safe, even with their doubts about Excelsior. Aboard the rocket, C'rizz meets with a less dignified end, and the Doctor stares despair full in the face and finds himself powerless. The resolution, where Excelsior's death means that the Doctor takes her place, is probably less satisfying than if the Doctor had merely awoken from being buried in pt 1. But he does at least learn that the Interzone is connected with Bortresoye, and even though the final scene has him find Charley and C'rizz alive and well, he is keen to move on, perhaps suspecting the TARDIS is getting closer... Whilst I don't really agree with stories with excessively long episodes, the story here does at least make good use of its time limit, and the background works in its favour. The small scale emphasises the grand nature of the disaster. The Doctor is forced to confront perhaps his worst foe, in a land of no hope. Whatever lies ahead, perhaps the only way is up..? |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |