The Transcendence of Ephros

The Doctor promises Jo a trip to the planet Ephros - a lush and beautiful jungle world by his accounts. But when the TARDIS arrives the planet is in darkness and dying; the Doctor doesn't understand what has happened here and hopes that a group of religious pilgrims can help him out - especially once the TARDIS falls into a crack in the ground. The religious group are not alone on Ephros; the Galactux Corporation is here as well, having surrounded the planet with a metal shell which is there to gather the energy from the transcendence which is only days away. But the truth is a shocker: for Ephros to transcend means the planet will explode. The religious group are here to die, believing they will ascend to a higher level of being. And Galactux is all too ready to let them.

So Ephros is not quite Waco, TX, and Mother Finsey is not exactly David Koresh but that's the first thing that leaped into my mind as I realized what was going on here. So it's Doctor Who and the Suicide Cult is it? Fascinating. The Pertwee era of the series was never one to shy away from making a political statement about the goings on of the world, touching on colonialism, environmental issues, native rights... by taking on the notion of a suicide cult here Big Finish have grabbed the hot topic of religious belief and expression by the horns. The Doctor remains as neutral about it as he can; having seen the universe and all its many and varied beliefs he's not going to interfere no matter how the thought of all these people dying upsets him. Jo, on the other hand, gets to be the one who is revolted by the whole thing, probably because she has been holding a baby in her arms and the realization that this child is going to die without any choice in the matter. But that's the companion role right there in a nutshell; to see things different from the Doctor and have the "human" reaction to it.

Watching over all of it on behalf of the Earth Empire is Galactux. They aren't going to interfere in what's going on as far as the religious group is concerned: when Ephros goes boom they are going to harvest the energy released and get rich. But it's not like planets just expire and blow up out of nowhere; the Doctor is suspicious about the circumstances and through his investigations underground while looking for the TARDIS he realizes there is more going on here than either group realizes. He's got to fight against the bureaucracy of Galactux right away: the project leader doesn't like delays and shouts at people a lot to get his way. Great motivator, that one.

As far as series continuity goes, I went to Ehpros a little too soon - Big Finish used to say where their stories were intended to fall within the established series but lately they haven't done so as much and the odd time I get a bit of a surprise. My original intent was to listen to it right after the first volume of third Doctor adventures, but to my surprise in episode two, it's revealed that this actually takes place after Frontier in Space with the Doctor calling upon the Earth President to give him some clout with Galactux. And with Conquest of Far being set immediately after Planet of the Daleks I put Ephros even further back, so what you're reading now has been in draft mode waiting to be published for a couple months.

And this one is not without its surprises, no not by a long shot. But I'm not a spoiler. So they remain a surprise.

NEXT EPISODE: THE HIDDEN REALM