Review: Orbis

The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller are back. Damn, it feels good to write those eight words. We last saw this incarnation of the famous Time Lord (as played by Paul McGann) and his spunky chum (Sheridan Smith) in last year's The Vengeance of Morbius, which was a bit pants, but ended on a stunning post-titles cliffhanger. Her travels through time and space with the Doctor over, after he apparently fell to his death, Lucie Miller found herself shot and abducted by recurring villain the Headhunter.

Now, it's time to rejoin all three characters, as the Doctor and Lucie's third season of audio adventures begins. This year, things are a little different, with each story divided into two half-hour episodes, instead of one longer adventure. There are also changes to the way that the stories are released: starting in March, one of these episodes will be available for download on the Big Finish website each week, continuing for four months, with CD releases following monthly.

The first story of the season is Orbis, by Alan Barnes and Nicholas Briggs. Having miraculously survived his plunge with Morbius, the Doctor is suffering from amnesia (unusual, that) and has made a life for himself on the planet of Orbis, where he's befriended the jellyfish-like native Selta. Meanwhile, Lucie Miller is in the custody of the Headhunter, whose evil plans will put the entire planet at risk.

Orbis is a strong story. Barnes and Briggs treat their audience to some decent world-building, and create some wonderful alien races that are ambitiously unusual, taking full advantage of the audio medium. There are some inventive ideas (time bullets have to be the best creation since everlasting matches), and the dialogue is packed with clever one-liners. The main plot - a fun sci-fi tale involving some sex-changing molluscs - is superb, and has a surprisingly bleak conclusion, which is effective and brave. But although Orbis' plot is brilliant, it's relatively insignificant; what most listeners will be interested in is the return of the Doctor and Lucie, and they might not get the type of reunion they expected.

There's always been a lot to enjoy about Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith's individual characters in this series, but they're definitely at their best when they're interacting, because the pair have such excellent chemistry. With that in mind, it's disappointing that they spend the vast majority of the first episode apart. This is nothing new, of course - it's a favourite conceit within Doctor Who, and the Eighth Doctor and Lucie have been separated many times before, including last year's season premiere, Dead London. However, there was still a decent amount of Lucie/Doctor interaction in that story; there's barely any in the first part of Orbis, and that's disappointing.

That's not to say that their two parallel storylines aren't intriguing enough to hold one's attention for half an hour, because they are, and Episode One is generally quite good. There's just something dramatically unsatisfying about their being kept apart. Imagine, for example, a Partners in Crime where Donna doesn't actually find the Tenth Doctor until the final thirty seconds, or a Storm Warning in which Charley and the Doctor don't meet until the end. Not the same, is it? Listening to both episodes of Orbis consecutively, it's less of a problem, but a week-long wait in between would leave the first episode feeling a bit hollow.

When they do get to share some scenes, Lucie and the Doctor are great together. Even though the Doctor has no memory of who she is, the dialogue between the two characters is brilliantly written, and perfectly performed. They really are one of the best Doctor/companion teams in any medium, and it's great to have them back.

Returning as the Headhunter, Katarina Olsson is superb, with the same biting wit and delicious evil streak listeners have come to know and love in her previous stories. Her early scenes with Lucie are brilliant, with some fantastically funny moments. My only niggle would be that, after the success of Grand Theft Cosmos, it's a bit of a shame that Louise Fullerton isn't back alongside her as Karen.

As Selta (or "Jelly Furtado", as Lucie quips), Laura Solon is charming. Selta's innocent, a bit dim, and utterly devoted to the Doctor, and Solon deftly manages to make her a funny character without letting her become a caricature. Andrew Sachs - star of the Manuelgate scandal, who apparently does the odd bit of acting on the side - also guest stars as the rather nasty hermaphrodite Crassostrea.

Cleverly, as well as writing a bloody good romp to start the third season, Briggs and Barnes have made Orbis a good jumping-on point for newcomers. It's nicely nailed the balance between fan-pleasing (one throwaway line solves the entire dilemma of the Doctor's fluctuating age) and accessibility. The Doctor's amnesia works as a not-too-subtle device to recap his recent history, and everything you need to know about the regular characters is woven in neatly. If you're looking for a way to fill the "gap year" of 2009, these stories might just be perfect.

It's also worth mentioning that the theme music (oi, no condescension at the back - I'm a Doctor Who fan, this sort of thing matters!) is still the controversial remix from 2008. Unexpectedly, part of me really admires Big Finish for standing their ground in the face of such widespread fan criticism with regards to this. However, a much bigger part of me wishes that the various sounds were all in the right places, and would prefer that my eardrums didn't bleed in despair as each episode opens.

The CD release of both episodes, which comes out in March after the weekly downloads, is accompanied by the usual extra features. In comparison to the previous series of Eighth Doctor stories, the bonus material here is terrific: nice traditional question-and-answer interviews with the cast, conducted by producer and podcast stalwart David Richardson, free from artificial distortion, and without a single mention of how the guest stars got the gig.

All in all, there's a lot to enjoy in Orbis. It's a good, solid start to the season, setting the standard for the subsequent stories at a high level. However, I suspect it might work a little better in one sitting, rather than in episodic form. It'll be interesting to see how the other writers have tackled the new structure as the season progresses. I, for one, am very excited to see what comes next . . .