Big Finish Productions The Maker of Demons

Written by	John Dorney
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2016

Starring Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred

Synopsis: Decades ago, the mysterious time-travelling Doctor and his cheerful companion Mel became the toast of the planet Prosper, when they brokered a peace between the native Mogera and humans from the colony ship The Duke of Milan. But when the TARDIS at last returns to Prosper, the Doctor, Mel and their associate Ace find only a warzone. The burrowing Mogera have become brutal monsters, dominated by their terrifying leader Caliban --- and it's all the Doctor's fault!

• The Tempest in Space by Thomas Tiley

The Tempest in Space by Thomas Tiley 30/3/25

Crossing off his bucket list, the Doctor, Mel and Ace return to the planet Prosper, the site of an earlier adventure involving a colony fleet, aliens and a new high-energy source Doctorium, which he named after himself. Only to find that things have gone badly wrong: the locals have mutated due to the Doctorium, which turns out to not have been the cure-all the Doctor had hoped, and have practically wiped out the colonists in a bloodthirsty war for the planet led by General Caliban. To make matters worse, Ace gets separated from the group and captured by the natives, while the Doctor and Mel liaise with the local descendants of the colony ship The Duke of Milan.

The story has an interesting setting: the spaceship interiors being wood-panel lined and the crew dressed in Tudor-style ruffs. It's really imaginative; you can just picture how it would have looked with the BBC design and costume team, so it's a shame that it wasn't on the cover instead of a generic monster scene with pointless background details sticking out. The style ties into the various Shakespeare/Tempest allusions throughout the story. Why the author included them I don't know. Other than a vague thematic connection with the main plot and The Tempest, not much is done with them. It's an interesting aesthetic, but the audio format doesn't do it justice.

It's a good story, somewhat cliched (the Doctor didn't make a mistake about the Doctorium and the results were all doctored to blame him; the aliens medicine turns out to be what is making them mutate; the war being engineered by the local baddy who is stage-managing both sides; the villain being recorded explaining his plot and it being broadcast to the planet; etc), and the various twists are easily guessed at (the plot paints the local scientist as the baddy because she is hostile to the Doctor, but anyone who has read a murder mystery knows that the most obvious suspect is never the correct one; it's unlikely to pull out a new character at the last minute; it's often the one you least suspect; and the local leader is the nicest and most supportive of the Doctor; this isn't helped by the cast not being large enough to give many suspects), but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if the story is told well and it is all put together very well.

Sophie Aldred and Ewan Goddard as Talpa (the alien who captures Ace) make a good double team, Ace accidently shooting him with his medicine instead of a gun, getting captured, trying to escape, distrustful at first but bonding over time. His performance sort of channels the elephant man in his delivery; it's a shame he gets dispatched so perfunctorily near the end, but at least Ace gets to some scenes showing she cared.

McCoy as the Doctor is rather good, save one or two moments when it is difficult to understand him (I rewound a couple of times at the beginning and am still unsure of what he said). The hostility he gets from the local scientist Juno makes for a interesting dynamic, and the scene where he and Mel discuss going back and changing history is rather intriguing even if it doesn't go anywhere, as was him angsting over the way he might have sent the planet on the course it has took. I liked when he mentioned he was due an unattractive incantation soon.

Langford as Mel is great, getting a lot to do onboard the ship/colony, and she gives a good performance all round. There is a funny scene where she mistakes a portrait of Beyonce the Second for Queen Elizabeth.

All in all I would say that this is a solid story, cliched (it would have been braver for the Doctor to discover it was all his fault all along rather than some local power-mad family), that doesn't use its setting to its full potential, just above average. Seven out of ten with another point for the setting which I like.