Doctor Who review: The Age of Sutekh (Fourth Doctor audio)
By James Aggas
The Age of Sutekh has begun, and Sutekh is almost ready to destroy the universe. But the Doctor is ready to stop him in the season finale of Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures!
Continuing directly from Doctor Who: Kill the Doctor!, the planet Drummond has completely changed. Almost the entire city has become enslaved to Sutekh’s will. It’s up to the Fourth Doctor, Leela and a handful of friends to stop him.
The Age of Sutekh is a really high-stakes epic of a finale. Guy Adams really has done a magnificent job writing this one. And that’s pretty impressive, for several reasons.
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One thing I learned when reviewing Return to Telos back in 2015 is that it can be very difficult to write anything with the Fourth Doctor that has a sense of lasting impact. As one of the more popular Doctors, a lot of the major points of his era have been completely mapped out. Especially with previously established companions, such as Leela.
So by the time the finale arrives, we know that everyone’s going to survive. It’s not like the Eighth Doctor, where we saw so little of his era on television that his audio stories get to have a lot more scope. You couldn’t have anything quite as grim as To the Death with the Fourth Doctor.
And while I wouldn’t want anything quite as grim with stories involving Four, at the same time, Return to Telos had the kind of ending that highlighted just how little impact his audio stories can have on his character.
Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.
An epic finale
Yet somehow, Guy Adams is able to tell a thrilling Fourth Doctor story with believably high stakes. Perhaps one reason for this is how he focuses on the guest characters as much as the regulars.
Particularly Kendra, a homeless person that Leela befriended in the last episode, and Charlton Joyce, a police constable of Drummond. It’s their city that’s changed, after all, and we get to see through their eyes what that means to them.
It also helps that The Age of Sutekh doesn’t try to be something it’s not. It’s not a grim tale like The Pyramid of Sutekh, which Guy Adams wrote for The Triumph of Sutekh. Instead, he just goes for a thrilling and epic adventure.
The Age of Sutekh does admittedly move away a little from the some of the deeper themes of Kill the Doctor! But it more than makes up for it with great character focus and strong emotional moments.
A great cliffhanger
It also has quite an amazing cliffhanger in the middle of the story. It’s not one you’d expect for a story like this, but it totally works. So it’s definitely a real highlight.
The Age of Sutekh is a very satisfying finale to a strong season. Along with Kill the Doctor!, it’s also an excellent sequel to Pyramids of Mars.
At the same time, it compliments The Triumph of Sutekh really well. (For the record, what’s really fantastic is that you can listen to these two sequels either way round, and they both work equally well.) Fans of both the Fourth Doctor and Sutekh are sure to love this one.
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Have you listened to The Age of Sutekh? Did it live up to your expectations? What other major villains do you want the Fourth Doctor to face? Let us know in the comments below.