Doctor Who Review: ‘Zagreus’ (Audio)

Paul McGann stars as the Eighth Doctor in ‘Zagreus’. (Credit: Big Finish)

A multi-Doctor classic, or a massive disappointment? The retro reviews of the Eighth Doctor continue with ‘Zagreus’.

Ah, ‘Zagreus’. The fortieth anniversary story. A four-hour epic that features the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors in one story!

Except it doesn’t.

In my experience, this is a story that’s been pretty divisive, to say the least. A big reason for that, I think, is how every fan’s expectations were subverted. In a big way.

A reason for this was that very little was known about ‘Zagreus’ for a long time, except for three key details. First, it was to be released in November 2003, the month of Doctor Who’s fortieth anniversary. Second, it would continue directly from the cliffhanger of ‘Neverland’. Third, and most importantly, as well as the current Doctor Paul McGann, previous Doctors Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy would also star in it.

More casting details were revealed shortly before its release. This included a long list of people who had played companions in both the TV series and the audios. However, another detail soon emerged. Apparently, not everyone would be playing the roles that they were known for. So I expected a few people playing different roles for some reason. But surely the past Doctors at least would be guaranteed.

What I did not expect was, with the exceptions of Paul McGann, India Fisher, Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson, everyone else in the cast would be playing a completely different role. Including the previous Doctors!

I’m including this in my review because I need to stress how strongly I had disliked this story as a result. For a very, very long time, I felt cheated. I had not only wanted a story with four Doctors, I had been led to expect it. The back cover of ‘Zagreus’ even included the following tag line:

"Four Doctors. One destiny."

Everything had been building up to a multi-Doctor story. Perhaps better still, a multi-Doctor epic with the current Doctor as the villain. Instead, we got something very, very different. I absolutely hated this story for years. In fact, I came into this re-listen fully prepared to write a completely scathing review.

But has my opinion of the story changed?

Now that I’ve gone into great detail about what the story is not, it seems only fair that I mention what it actually is and go into its actual plot. As I mentioned before, it continues directly from ‘Neverland’. The Doctor has been infected with anti-time and has become insane, becoming the mythical monster “Zagreus”.

Charley, meanwhile, is stuck on the TARDIS with him. But the TARDIS has a few tricks up her sleeve. Separated from the Doctor, Charley is shown a series of holographic projections. These projections show events that have taken place across the whole of history. All in different eras and locations, but all are concerned with one thing: they all relate to something called the “Divergence”…

Maybe I’ve grown used to the idea of a story that essentially takes place on the TARDIS’s own version of Star Trek’s holodeck. Or maybe it’s because I’ve listened to a lot more Big Finish stories since my first listen. (Not that most of them are bad by comparison, quite the reverse, in fact. But I must admit, there are many more little references to characters and arcs that I didn’t pick up on before.)

Compared to my first listen, however, I’ve really learned to appreciate the stories that the “projections” focus on. I even think that it’s a neat idea for the TARDIS to base the projections on characters we all know. These projections include many companions as well as past incarnations of the Doctor. Should this story have been done for something as big as the fortieth anniversary, though? Definitely not, or at least not without a ton of warning, but it’s a neat idea.

There were two stories told in the projections that I was especially keen on. One was set during an experiment during the Cold War, the other on ancient Gallifrey. The former because I love stories with a historical setting. The latter because it was great to explore the show’s mythology, especially regarding Time Lords. It also sets up the real villain of the story, and quite nicely, too.

The third and final projection I really wasn’t keen on. Featuring a future war between fairy tale characters, it felt incredibly self-indulgent. A little bit of self-indulgence is to be expected for an anniversary story, admittedly. However, you’d also expect it to reference the show’s vast mythology. In this case, it was more of a wink to the audience that some of the actors were in pantomime. There’s an interesting twist towards the end, but it wasn’t worth the story that was told.

Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy are not the Doctors in ‘Zagreus’. (Credit: Big Finish)

The final act takes things up a notch, at least. Taking place in a location from a previous anniversary story, it brings together elements and characters from the rest of ‘Zagreus’ in an interesting way. It also finally reveals what’s going on. More than that, it pushes the Eighth Doctor’s story into a brand new direction. The result of this is the start of a major arc for his next two seasons.

Interestingly, it also sets up events for (what was at the time) a brand new spin-off. Two of the Doctor’s former companions, Romana and Leela, finally meet each other on Gallifrey. As fans of the classic series might expect, the initial meeting of the Time Lady and the “savage” doesn’t go smoothly, at least not for the characters themselves.

For us listeners, it’s an absolute joy to listen to. It’s quite possibly my favourite part of ‘Zagreus’. I love stories of characters that truly clash, especially when handled right. Best of all, neither companion is portrayed in a negative light. Romana uses her intelligence and logic to find out what’s going on. Leela meanwhile uses her instincts to help.

Actresses Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson clearly have great chemistry from the start. The whole relationship acts as a great prologue to the spin-off series Gallifrey. Even Miles Richardson shows up as Irving Braxiatel, another major character in Gallifrey. (He’s also in the Bernice Summerfield spin-off series. To this writer’s shame, however, he still needs to listen to most of those stories.)

However, while these characters worked really well, there was one character who didn’t. Sadly, it was quite a major one, too. It was the title character himself, Zagreus.

After 18 months of build-up, this villain didn’t come across as being nearly as dangerous or threatening as he should have done. This isn’t due to Paul McGann. He consistently gives an excellent performance, and still remains my favourite Doctor. But the writing definitely lets him down.

Whereas Charley’s side of the story helped to flesh out the plot, the Doctor’s/Zagreus’s side held it’s own plot back. Half the time, Zagreus was purely ranting or raving about all the evil things he will do, instead of actually doing anything. The other half of the time, he doesn’t even know who he is. (An amnesiac Eighth Doctor: wow! I’ve never heard that storyline before!)

A force of evil possessing the Doctor as well as his knowledge should have been a memorable one, for the best of reasons. Instead, he just feels like a massive letdown. Along with not getting a story of multiple Doctors, this was another blow for me that made me end up hating the story on first listen.

However, there was one plot point that I also initially hated that I’ve really grown to like. In this case, it’s the portrayal of Rassilon. Initially, it seemed to be a very different portrayal to the wise and ancient man seen in ‘Neverland’.

Looking back on it, however, the portrayal of his character in ‘Zagreus’ did foreshadow many things. Not just future audio stories, but future TV ones, too. Without going into too much detail, it really did set up the ongoing confrontation that we saw in ‘The End of Time’ and ‘Hell Bent’.

Related Story: Review: The Eighth Doctor and Charley – Season 2 (Audio)

‘Zagreus’ was a story that I felt very disappointed by. That disappointment stuck with me for a long time. But while the fortieth anniversary story could’ve been handled much, much better, I also think it had a lot of interesting points to it, as well. It will never be one of my favourites, but, as a story that aimed to push Doctor Who into uncharted territory, I can certainly respect it. And besides: at least we’ve got ‘The Light at the End’ for a proper multi-Doctor story.