Hexagora
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Big Finish Productions Hexagora |
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| Written by | Peter Ling, Hazel Adair and Paul Finch |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2011 |
| Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding |
| Synopsis: When a newspaper reporter goes missing, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa uncover a case of alien abduction. The trail leads them to the planet Luparis, and a city that appears to be a replica of Tudor era London. What are the monsters that lurk in the shadows? And what is the terrible secret at the heart of Luparis? To save a world, the Doctor must try and defeat the evil plans of Queen Zafira. And one of her plans is to marry him... |
The Doctor Gets Married a Second Time by Jacob Licklider 28/9/24
The brilliance of the Big Finish trilogy format is that it allows for mini seasons for the Doctors and have done story arcs over the course of a couple of releases. The flaw in the system is that if a part of the trilogy is below average, one third of that trilogy has its quality diminished exponentially. Hexagora, previously known as Hex, is a story that is definitely the weakest link in the trilogy of Fifth Doctor Lost Stories. It is by no means a bad story in any sense of the phrase, but it's definitely lower in quality than the other stories in the trilogy. It is written by Peter Ling, famous in Doctor Who for writing The Mind Robber. Anyone who is expecting something as surreal as The Mind Robber should get rid of those preconceptions, as the story is closer to a standard Doctor Who adventure. Its plot sees the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan on the trail of Mike Bretherton, a friend of Tegan's who was abducted to the planet Luparis, which is ruled by Queen Zafira and hides a dark secret. It is a standard Doctor Who story for the most part, which really works in the first half. There are whispers of creatures called sleepers stalking the streets, and for some reason the city looks like Tudor London, down to a tee. The plot has a few good twists with the Hexagora of the title not being humanoids but termite aliens who have been driven to the point of extinction. Now here's where the spoilers really kick in, as well as where the confusion happens. Queen Zafira has been abducting humans to put the Hexagora in, but since the bodies are dying, she wants to marry the Doctor and make babies with him to continue her race. The DNA crossing wouldn't work even if Gallifreyeans could reproduce sexually.
Mike is in a Hexagoran body while a Hexagora is in Mike's body, and both are played by Toby Hadoke along with the regular Mike at the end. Hadoke is good in the role, but the character really falls flat, as he is merely a plot device and someone for Tegan to talk to. Dan Starkey plays one of Zafira's husband's, Lord Zellenger, who is at least over the top in his performance. I mean, the man gets totally jealous and tries to kill the Doctor because Zafira has fallen in love with the Doctor. The supporting cast member to really steal the show is Jacqueline Pierce as Queen Zafira, in a completely over-the-top starring role, as her motivation, while noble, leads to hilarity. She sees the Doctor as intelligent and long-lived, so her mind automatically jumps to wanting to marry him. It's a hilarious idea, and Pierce is simply a terrifying actress in the role so you really buy into it.
Peter Davison, however, cannot be said to give as a good performance in this story. He obviously isn't taking this one seriously and has the Doctor almost act like a drunk throughout the story. Davison is actually doing the story as a complete pantomime, and really I don't understand why he would. It is a silly script, sure, but there is some dark imagery there to bring the comedic moments down to Earth. There is some interesting stuff near the end explaining how the hive minded Hexagora have become closer to humans, as they believe in individuality now, but really that's about all there is for this story. Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan both have better outings in this story. Nyssa is immediately praised for being royalty, which gives a nice exploration of how the destruction of Traken has affected her on the inside and how she really doesn't feel like she's royalty. This is a very good angle to approach the character and one that wasn't explored that often on television. Janet Fielding as Tegan also steals the show as well. In this one, she is treated like a complete peasant, which of course royally pisses of the Australian mouth on legs. Fielding is having a blast working off the other characters in this story, as Tegan has to see her friend turned into an insect and demands attention from the royalty, which is hilarious. Tegan is actually the one to wander off and try to figure out the mystery of the planet, which has her front and center, which gives off a really good vibe.
To summarize, Hexagora is a definite step down from The Elite in terms of a plot. The ideas are really bog standard for Doctor Who, and there really isn't a reason for this to have been made for television. The supporting actors do give really good performances, as well as Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding, but it is the oddly flat performance from Peter Davison as the Doctor that really decreases the quality of the story. Ling really should have kept with the surreal stories if he wanted to succeed, and Paul Finch really brought in an above-average adaptation. 60/100