The Vanishing Point

I know it’s not your fault, but that doesn’t make the problem any less frustrating, does it?

The Second Doctor

Synopsis

Following the threads of a conspiracy twisting throughout all of time and space, the Doctor and his companions head to the Vanishing Point – a mythical place, said to exist somewhere between science and magic. But it is a journey from which they may never return.

Review

Whilst The Vanishing Point, and the boxset Conspiracy of Raven more generally, do not conclude any of the major plot points in this Season 6B line of audio adventures, it does move things towards that conclusion. We do, at last, get the reveal that Raven’s missions for the Doctor and Jamie were nothing more than a distraction, and whilst she thought that she was working for the Time Lords, she has actually been working for something much more dangerous.

People don’t pervert the course of history just to win a game of draughts, do they? They don’t trick the Time Lords for anything trivial.

The Second Doctor

I think that a lot of Conspiracy of Raven has been treading water up until the end of The Vanishing Point, where the story brings back a vast number of Skaros to the universe, marking the return of the Daleks following their supposed final end in The Evil of the Daleks. We find that the Daleks have been manipulating Raven, believing that she was acting on behalf of the Time Lords, into distracting the Doctor with the Kippers and seemingly random missions to keep him out of the way. This is a decent enough twist, even though it was heavily signposted from the beginning of this series of adventures, starting with The Final Beginning. We learn that Celestin is still alive and being held by the Time Lords, and becoming increasingly deranged. Whilst there are lots of good points in this story, Mark Wright and Nicholas Briggs seem to struggle with writing for both Jamie and Zoe – in this story, Jamie yet again disappears – which begs the question of why the decision was made to bring both back. There are two superb moments in this story where both the older Jamie and Zoe, played by Hines and Padbury, both reflect on the differences with travelling with the Doctor when they were young and now they are older, and how it is much more dangerous than they ever realised. Jamie’s, in particular, comes at a moment of high emotion when both the TARDIS and Zoe are dead and he says that he wishes that he and the Doctor had not been reunited. These moments of reflection are a good justification for bringing these companions back older in universe, rather than simply because the actors are getting older.

The story does have a really creepy and atmospheric opening part, with a sense of mystery as to what is going on and how to get to the supposedly mythical Vanishing Point. This involves a trip into the TARDIS library to find a forbidden tome contained within, with glowing tentacles connecting to Zoe. This leads the TARDIS crew and Raven to the Morai, a race who occupy the Vanishing Point, observing the entirety of time and space. There are some good ideas here, and I particularly enjoyed the idea of them having a massive projection of the cosmos in this seemingly primitive stone building. The two Morai who we spend most of our time with are Ananke and Aither, an experienced and younger member of the race. Ananke is played really well by Jacqueline King, and I did not initially recognise her voice, whilst Callum Pardoe fills the role of the younger Morai, whose card is marked from the moment he and Zoe start talking about him travelling with the Doctor.

When it comes to Jamie and Zoe, both Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury do well, although it is frustrating that as we end this boxset as we started it, with the Doctor and Zoe searching for the missing Jamie. As mentioned above, the standouts for both are their conversations about the difference between travelling with the Doctor in their youth and returning to their travels when they are older. Both of these scenes are different; Jamie’s speech is angry with the Doctor for putting Zoe in danger, whilst Zoe is just generally speaking about him to Aither. We also have Raven as a pseudo-companion, who uses a Time Ring to follow the TARDIS into the vortex, relying on the Doctor’s benevolence to save her from imminent death. Emma Noakes remains delightfully haughty and snipes at the Second Doctor magnificently.

Michael Troughton goes from strength to strength as the Second Doctor, inhabiting the role as well as his father before him. It would be nice to have more stories with him playing the part during the main run, rather than in these Season 6B stories. Whilst I understand why Big Finish would elect to set their stories in this part of this incarnation’s life as it gives them a relatively clean slate without having to worry too much about continuity, there have been some good stories with Michael Troughton’s Doctor set outside of this time period, such as The Krynoid Feint.

Verdict: A passable story with some strong performances, especially from Michael Troughton, Hines and Noakes, make this an intriguing, if not particularly memorable, story. 7/10

Cast: Michael Troughton (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot), Emma Noakes (Raven), Jacqueline King (Ananke), Callum Pardoe (Aither) and Nicholas Briggs (Celestin/Morai Novice).

Writer: Mark Wright and Nicholas Briggs

Director: Nicholas Briggs

Music and Sound: Toby Hyrcek-Robinson

Parts: 2

Release Date: 9 July 2024

Cast Notes

• Jacqueline King is best known for playing Sylvia Noble, mother of the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctor’s companion, Donna Noble. She has played multiple roles for Big Finish, including reprising her role as Sylvia in The Tenth Doctor Adventures.
• Callum Pardoe also appeared in the Third Doctor Big Finish story Doctor Who and the Brain Drain.

Best Quote

Haven’t you worked out that’s what he does, McCrimmon?

Stay out of this, Raven!

He trusts to luck and hopes for the best and everyone thinks he’s a miracle worker until it all goes wrong.

Raven and the Second Doctor

Previous Second Doctor review: Catastrophe Theory

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