Paper Cuts

Main Range #125

Released: 25 September 2009

Listened: 7/24/20

This is the middle story in Mila’s trilogy, which makes it a bit of an odd one out, because the first and last stories are tightly connected. For the majority of this story, except for the very beginning and the very end, Mila may as well be Charley, given her actions and reactions. However, it features the Draconians, a species with an outsized reputation, given how rarely they appear. They only had one TV appearance, and few audio appearances. (They show up a bit more in novels and comics, but not really very much.) They’ve got a lot of Japanese influence, consumed with nobility, which fits quite nicely with the Third Doctor, where they originated. This is the Sixth Doctor, of course, but he does his best to hold up Draconian ideals. It’s a court intrigue story, which makes sense given the setting, but it sort of falls down from that point. The intrigue isn’t as twisty as it could be; most characters are pretty straightforward. It’s a very visual story, with elaborate temples, and origami chess pieces, but the descriptions aren’t as subtle as they usually are. There’s a fair amount of characters describing what’s happening right in front of them, which Big Finish normally doesn’t fall victim to. There isn’t really a villain, either, just politicians with their own agendas. And the ending doesn’t really resolve. The Doctor just does some stuff, then leaves before it’s really finished, almost as if he’s aware of the time limit on the CDs. It’s very rare for me to say this, but I think this would have worked better on TV (even with a 1986 budget) than it does on audio.