Doctor Who Review: ‘The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Max Warp’ Audio
By James Aggas
The Eighth Doctor and Lucie have to resolve a murder, prevent a war, and check out a ton of cool spaceships in ‘Max Warp’!
Doctor Who does Top Gear. That’s essentially what Max Warp is. A premise like that sounds risky. Done badly, and it could come across as too on-the-nose or one-note. Thankfully, there a few things that help Max Warp to stand out more than its initial premise suggests.
First of all, writer Jonathan Morris adds two key things that make the story more interesting. First, a murder mystery, with plenty of nods to Agatha Christie. (Somewhat fitting, considering this was released the same year as The Unicorn and the Wasp.)
The episode still includes many, many nods to Top Gear, right down to a very similar theme tune, of course. But it’s not simply everyone talking about spaceships that we can’t even see, thankfully.
Something else that added a lot to the episode was the amount of important detail that Morris included. The story focuses on the ongoing tensions between two civilizations, the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy. They had been at war with each other for a long time, but now, they’ve finally reached an uneasy peace. However, the peace is in great danger of being shattered, especially if the Doctor and Lucie can’t solve the mystery in time.
This kind of detail was something that I really appreciated about the episode. Introducing these two different races allowed for a lot more depth to the episode, even while it remained very tongue-in-cheek. It was the kind of detail you’d have expected from a Robert Holmes story. Even better is that it’s not simply told through a ton of exposition, and works very naturally as part of the story.
Banter and comedy
This episode is perfectly placed, too. After spending most of Dead London separated from each other, the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller spend a lot more time together in Max Warp. Which helps the comedy even more, as the two have a nice, steady stream of banter between them.
At this point, it’s possibly even more enjoyable than it was in series one. Especially after they had finally admitted that they liked each other. They really are coming across as very close friends now.
I should also point out how brilliant Graeme Garden is as Geoffrey Vantage, the lead host of Max Warp. A man who not only loves himself but absolutely refuses to be politically correct, Vantage is a character that adds a lot of comedy to the story.
So it’s unsurprising that a comedy veteran like Garden plays him so brilliantly. It’s a great role, but it’s not the best one that Garden will play in The Eighth Doctor Adventures. However, we’ll get to that later.
Very light-hearted and not to be taken too seriously, Max Warp is a very entertaining comedic episode for The Eighth Doctor Adventures.
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