Maker of Demons

 

Maker of Demons by Matthew J Eliott

For a series that is remarkably inconsistent, I am really tending to enjoy these Seven, Ace and Mel adventures so far. This isn't a great one, to be fair, but it held my attention and has enough good moments to stay just an inch away from a negative review. Whilst I wasn't necessarily enthralled with it, it really has quite a few good moments, and sometimes you just want to put a story like this on. Something non-threatening and entertaining for a few hours - I'll take average over piss poor 100% of the time, simply because Big Finish's average is so high. The hook in this one is the best thing it's got going for it: A flashback to a younger Seven and Mel in the TARDIS when they first travelled together, saving a planet where two factions are warring against each other, blah, blah, blah. It's almost parodic in the way it goes through all of the Doctor Who tropes of a generic planet with generic human colonists fighting generic aliens for generic minerals. As such, you can tell that the story peaks early: the pre-titles sequence is genuinely incredible and made me think I was walking into a deconstructionalist masterpiece. The leader proclaims that there will never be war here again, signs a treaty, smiles with the Doctor for photos and wishes them off. From there, we return to this generic planet a hundred years later to see that the fact that it was going to go to shit was pretty much inevitable. There are some very good individual bits in Maker of Demons, but I think it takes itself a bit too seriously for it's very funny concept. This story would be a lot better as a laugh riot, and the actual result is a bit like one of those skits on Monty Python where the joke is that there's no joke and the uncomfortable silence makes you laugh. Except it doesn't have that necessary juxtaposition to make that work, and comes out looking a bit too serious for that to work as an angle. The worst aspect of the story is no doubt the alien Mogera, who have different effects on their voices - one an awful, awful, grating lisp (never make a character's VOICE annoying on audio, never, never, never do that) and two an Orc from the Lord of the Rings impression. There is no in-between. Luckily the story makes the ultimate villain one of the human colonists in an excellent turn - they were always the problem here, after all! This is a weird one in that it does feel a bit like it's just the Doctor and Mel - that's not to say Ace isn't there, it's just she isn't progressing the plot. She's just trying to survive in the wasteland while the Doctor and Mel are constantly forwarding the mystery, and while Ace's bits are good, it does make her feel a bit auxiliary, as she isn't contributing to things actively, even though it isn't like there's a shortage of content with her, she has taken over quite a bit of the runtime and she gets to really kick ass. McCoy and co also get the stories' few actual dramatic moments down, and most of those work when they aren't saddled with the awful Mogera voices. The repetition of a certain line from Shakespeare really helps this one feel like it has a satisfying ending. It's such an odd one, as there is a lot of running around and super generic Doccy Who stuff - it starts with parodying that, and then ends up just doing it! (Plus, why bother doing that when John Dorney has already written The Fourth Wall?) I can't help but feel this could be a really really fucking good one hour play or novella, and as it is, it's actually not bad, and never did I lose attention to it, as one does with some other plays, but it never truly ascends to what it could be. A lot of it is filler. It's not used it's time correctly. It's not like it's awfully paced, though!  Just- kind of badly? Somewhat boring, but with really good bits? Oh, It's so hard to describe! I'd love for one of the Big Finish god writers to take a crack at this, but as it is? It's just a decent story. And you know what? I'm fine with that. We all need our bread and butter from time to time: 7/10