From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   DAVROS (BF Audio)   
      
   2 episodes. Approx. 150 minutes. Written by: Lance Parkin. Directed   
   by: Gary Russell. Produced by: Gary Russell.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   Arnold Baynes (Bernard Horsfall), head of TransAllied, Inc. (TAI), has   
   come into possession of a new asset: Davros (Terry Molloy), the long-   
   reviled scientist responsible for the creation of the Daleks. Baynes   
   believes that Davros' genius will give his company the spark it needs   
   to expand outside our galaxy. His wife, historian and Dalek apologist   
   Lorraine Baynes (Wendy Padbury), thirsts to interview Davros for a   
   "definitive biography." Neither realizes just how dangerous their   
   newest employee truly is.   
      
   The Doctor is at TAI on completely unrelated business. He is   
   determined to look into the corporation in a smart, careful fashion.   
   Then he sees Davros, and all thoughts of caution evaporate. He stalks   
   into the company, demanding to know what Baynes thinks he's doing.   
   Within minutes, he finds himself agreeing to work with Davros on TAI's   
   projects - to keep himself in a position to thwart any plot Davros   
   might hatch.   
      
   But the brilliant Kaled scientist is already several steps ahead of   
   him...   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: You can hear the relish in Colin Baker's voice as he dives   
   into this high-quality script. Writer Lance Parkin makes sure to   
   emphasize the Doctor's compassion, his value for life. He agrees to   
   continue working with Davros to cure the galaxy's famine problem,   
   simply because he cannot turn his back on such a situation. You can   
   hear the sincerity in his voice as he warns Baynes that Davros will   
   destroy him. When Davros is subjecting innocents to high doses of   
   radiation, the Doctor waits to stop him until after he acts to save   
   those lives. And yet this is still the prickly Sixth Doctor, who can't   
   resist baiting Davros with childish behavior or with remarks about the   
   chair-bound scientist being a "stand-up comedian."   
      
   Davros: As good as Colin Baker is, this story truly belongs to Terry   
   Molloy's Davros. Though we're never fooled into thinking that he has   
   changed, the first half of the serial does seduce us into empathizing   
   with him, if only a little. In flashbacks, we hear the "human" Davros,   
   before the explosion that crippled him. He seems to be a very normal   
   man. In another flashback, we hear his horror just after the explosion   
   as he views his savagely burned face. Meanwhile, in the story's   
   present, he is contemplative. He insists to the Doctor that he   
   believes he can change, and he may even be sincere in his desire to   
   change.   
      
   Then the second half reminds us of his evil. The flashbacks become   
   darker, and we see that he was a monster long before his exterior was   
   burned and scarred to make his nature visible. We get as much of a   
   look into his psyche as a Doctor Who adventure story can allow, and   
   what we see is pathetic. Davros is a "spoiled child" who cannot stand   
   the idea of competition, who only feels powerful when he uses his   
   genius to destroy. "There can never be too much destruction!" he   
   declares. As we hear him giggling even while listening to the dying   
   moans of his latest victims, we realize that he means it.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   Davros is a genuinely great audio story, one of the best of Big Finish   
   Production's entire Doctor Who range. It's a long story, taking up the   
   entire length of the two cd's it occupies. A full 150 minutes. But   
   it's compelling. It would be a disservice to say that the story goes   
   by in an eyeblink while listening. Time actually stops while listening   
   to this story, a story which envelopes the listener in its world and   
   its narrative.   
      
   Lance Parkin was one of the best writers of the Doctor Who book range,   
   which makes it surprising that he's only written a couple of stories   
   for Big Finish. He's done superb work here. Given the assignment to   
   write a story for Davros without the Daleks, he draws on the   
   background given the character in his televised stories and fills in   
   the blanks. Flashbacks show us the war-torn Skaro that was the only   
   home Davros ever knew, the harsh conditions of which molded him into   
   the man he became.   
      
   Credit must be given to Jim Mortimore's sound design. A story which   
   mixes past and present must always take particular care to   
   differentiate the two. That's even true of visual works, let alone on   
   audio. The production team use the Dalek "strobe" to identify the   
   flashbacks. Every time Davros recalls his time on Skaro, that sound   
   plays constantly in the background. That and a faint echo lend a   
   feeling of unreality to the scenes in the past, while transitions   
   between the flashbacks and the present are extremely well-judged.   
      
   Though superb, Davros is not flawless. There's a subplot involving   
   Willis (Eddie de Oliveira), an investigative journalist following up   
   on information about TAI. Willis is a weak character, effortlessly   
   outclassed by the heavyweight cast surrounding him. He exists to   
   provide an excuse for the Doctor's presence at TAI when Davros   
   arrives. Better if the Doctor had just been there by chance; I can't   
   really picture him being concerned with the petty day-to-day   
   skullduggery of corporations.   
      
   Despite the misjudged Willis subplot, Davros is one of Big Finish's   
   masterpieces. Wonderfully acted, particularly by Colin Baker and Terry   
   Molloy, and boasting a compelling script, this is one of a handful of   
   audio Who stories I'd comfortably refer to as "a classic."   
      
      
   Rating: 10/10.   
      
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