The Keeper of Traken

Big Finish Productions The Guardians of Prophecy

Written by	Johnny Byrne and Jonathan Morris
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2012

Starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant

Synopsis: The TARDIS materialises on Serenity, the last surviving world of the Traken Union. Peri expects a good place for a holiday, not tomb raiders, a labyrinth filled with terrifying monsters and a trap-laden necropolis. For Serenity's gentle name belies its history as the home planet of the Melkur, soldiers created to serve a long dead dark force, the embodiment of evil itself. Whilst they sleep, vicious thieves are after this force's secrets and will stop at nothing to find them. But will they find more than they bargained for?

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A Fly Trapped in Honey by Jacob Licklider 21/12/24

Doing a second trilogy of Sixth Doctor audios is an interesting idea for the reason that many four-part stories were suggested for Season 23 when it was announced to be the Trial of a Time Lord arc. Doing just a trilogy is also something really good for Big Finish to do, because it's a format that really works for them as a mini season. This trilogy of Sixth Doctor audios starts off very well with The Guardians of Prophecy. The Guardians of Prophecy is a story taken from a seventeen-page story outline by Johnny Byrne for a sequel to The Keeper of Traken set after the fact on the last planet from the Traken Union in the far future. Johnny Byrne wrote an outline with great ideas, as the story sees the Doctor and Peri land on Serenity where a thief and a scholar are resurrecting Malador, the creator of the Melkur and the most evil being in the universe. Byrne has a script with good ideas such as a labyrinth of death, which brings some great imagery, but it is Morris who has to expand most if not all of the original ideas into a full script to be performed. Morris does an excellent job of doing this for the audio adaptation, as it is a story that whizzes by from one set piece to the next with a coherent plot with these great characters and rising tensions for the Doctor and Peri to work off against.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant feel very much like they are coming well off Season 22 and have adjusted to each other perfectly. The Doctor is of course going for a lot of the light humor, as he realizes that he is completely safe on the planet as Serenity cannot hold evil, even though it is still politically corrupt. His interactions with Prophecy, the computer equivalent of the Source, are also great as, like any computer, it can easily be confused and be on the Doctor's side throughout the story. It, however, makes a real tension as the computer is flip-flopping on its positions about the Doctor, which worked. Nicola Bryant as Peri, however, isn't perfect here, as really she is supposed to be the standard companion role. Bryant does not give a bad performance in any sense of the word, but she doesn't have too much to do. Peri is captured and kept off to the side for the first half of the story, which is honestly all right as there isn't a need, but the back half fails at doing anything interesting with the character to justify her inclusion in the story. It's a trap Byrne falls into often, especially in his television stories.

Graham Cole plays the thief Ebbko and voices the Melkur in this story. It's interesting that Cole was brought in as in the classic series of Doctor Who, he played villains who would stand in the background and get a very small credit. He did play the Melkur in The Keeper of Traken, but there was no voice used for that character in the story and why should there be? It was secretly the Master's TARDIS, but this story gives them a very gravelly voice like the stone they are created from. It's a performance that works very well as it emulates their master, Malador. Ebbko is also played by Graham Cole and is a real chance for Cole to stretch his comedy muscles, as he is an honorable thief. Ebbko is basically a companion for the Doctor, who admires his work, which is really quite good for everything in the story. I really do like Cole as an actor, and, looking back on his performances in the actual show, he was heavily underused in the stories he featured in.

Stephen Thorne --- famous for playing Azal, Omega and Eldrad --- plays Malador here as the booming-voiced villain. I think the best justification for my thoughts on his performance is that it is Stephen Thorne, so of course it is a good performance, and depth is actually brought to the character. Finally, Prophecy, played by Victoria Pritchard, which as I said earlier is a computer that is basically the Keeper from The Keeper of Traken mixed with the Source and female. Pritchard gives the computer this airy quality in her voice, which adds to an already-good performance for everything to really work well in the story.

To summarize, The Guardians of Prophecy is much better than The Keeper of Traken, with the biggest flaw in the story actually being the underutilization of Peri as companion and using Ebbko in the same role as companion. Morris is great at creating a good story from Byrne's original outline in just about everything. 93/100