Review: Sisters of the Flame

The end is in sight for the second season of Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller plays, with the penultimate episode of the run, Sisters of the Flame. Nicholas Briggs is on scriptwriting duty for this one, and whilst he claims in the CD's sleeve notes that there are no two-parters in this season, Sisters is unquestionably the first half of an epic double-length adventure.

Strange things have been happening in the vortex, and when the Doctor and Lucie exit the TARDIS, they walk right into a group of insectoid aliens. Only Lucie manages to escape, though, and we join her imprisoned and undergoing interrogation. Having just started to get into the swing of time travel, she's heartbroken over the possibility that she might never see the Doctor again, but it soon emerges that she's got bigger problems to deal with. Visited by a troubled Time Lord, and unable to trust those around her, Lucie Miller is truly alone . . .

Perhaps taking their cue from the post-2005 television series, Big Finish have overcome potential problems with Paul McGann's availability by making this story "Doctor-lite". After consistently superb performances over fourteen episodes, Sheridan Smith is rewarded with the chance to carry the majority of this episode herself. As you might imagine, she confidently rises to the challenge, treating listeners to some of her best work yet. She starts off as the familiar confident and sassy Lucie, before wrong-footing the audience with a touching and sensitive performance after the Doctor and TARDIS have vanished, letting us see Lucie at her most vulnerable, with occasional moments of credible hostility and aggression. If there was any ever doubt over Smith's brilliance, or her importance in the success of this range, this story is one to silence the naysayers.

With one of the lead actors missing for most of the episode, though, someone else has to step in to accompany Lucie. Enter Alexander Siddig - best known to genre fans as Deep Space Nine's fantastic Julian Bashir - who plays the Trell policeman Rosto. For a character who plays such a large role in the story, we don't have much time to get to know him, but Siddig still manages to make the character layered and interesting. At first, we perceive Rosto through Lucie's eyes, as a hostile and suspicious interrogator; later, as the plot develops, he becomes much more sympathetic and likeable. The episode is only fifty minutes long, but the character is very well-rounded and compelling, and his relationship with Lucie develops beautifully.

The success of the play isn't just down to the actors, though - Nicholas Briggs has turned in an extraordinarily strong script. There was a lot to live up to after the success of Human Resources in the previous season, but Sisters of the Flame is every bit as exciting and unpredictable. It's a dark and engrossing mystery, it's a moving emotional journey for the companion, and, above all else, it's bloody good fun.

The main villain of the piece is the alien planet-dealer Zarodnix. He has a relatively small number of scenes, and comes across as a typically-fruity sci-fi cliche that we've seen many times before, but with the majority of the running time given over to such brilliant Lucie scenes, and Kenneth Colley's performance hitting exactly the right mark, the lack of dimension to his character is soon forgotten. The eponymous Sisters of the Flame are similarly slight - although that may be because the author is assuming that the listener is already familiar with them from their television appearance in The Brain of Morbius, which I've never seen - but this never becomes too much of a problem.

The music on this story also deserves a mention - it's absolutely superb, lending a huge sense of scale to the play, without dominating some of the smaller and more delicate scenes.

Siddig and Smith are amongst the stars who contribute to the CD's bonus material, alongside Briggs and producer Barnaby Edwards, in some more inconsequential interviews. Other than Siddig, who is always engaging, and Edwards, who offers a few moments of insight into the characters and casting, the last few tracks of this disc feel like a wee bit of a waste.

The story itself, though, is rather wonderful. Very, very impressive stuff. My hopes for the concluding chapter - The Vengeance of Morbius - are high.