Doctor Who review: The Kamelion Empire (Fifth Doctor audio)

The Kamelion Empire explores the origins of one of Doctor Who’s most unusual companions. It also answers a crucial question: who is Kamelion?

The Fifth Doctor trilogy this year in Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who audios has featured a companion that’s hardly been explored. Not just in the audios, or even the expanded universe, but on television, too. That companion has been the doomed android Kamelion.

As we’ve covered before, he joined the TARDIS crew at the end of The King’s Demons, but then he’s never seen again. At least, not until his second and final story, Planet of Fire. And in between those stories, he was hardly ever mentioned by the Doctor or his friends.

But why? What happened to him? And where did he come from? All of these questions, particularly the last one, are what The Kamelion Empire looks to answer. But does it provide strong answers?

Four parts, four-hander

The Kamelion Empire stands out as a particularly strong story, for two key reasons. First, with the exception of Christopher Naylor in a couple of small roles, the entire story focuses on just the main cast. They may play different roles at times, (we are exploring a planet of shape-shifting robots, after all,), but it still heavily focuses on their regular characters.

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This is when a four-person TARDIS crew works best – when frankly, there are hardly any other people to focus on at all. This naturally gives The Kamelion Empire an intimate feel, as it explores the TARDIS crew and their relationships with each other. But Jonathan Morris still does an excellent job of also creating an epic story with this release, too.

What really helps is that he uses the four-part structure brilliantly. Some Doctor Who serials can be pretty straightforward two-hour long stories split into four parts. But the best ones usually have something different about them with each episode. Whether big or small, a key difference helps to make each episode stand out and keep the momentum going.

This is exactly what Morris does with The Kamelion Empire. Each episode has a different setting and a different trick to help make it stand out. It’s very nicely done, and helps add a sense of epic scale to the whole serial.

A bittersweet ending

However, what I particularly enjoyed most about The Kamelion Empire is how it handles Kamelion’s story. It doesn’t give him an exit, as such – after all, that’s saved for Planet of Fire. But it does help to add a strong sense of tragedy to the character. The ending is very bittersweet, and if you already know the end of his story, it’s even more heartbreaking.

I’m really glad that Big Finish have taken the companion of Kamelion and been able to flesh out his story in a satisfying way. The character has been written well and performed brilliantly by Jon Culshaw across the last three stories, and The Kamelion Empire very nicely rounds that off. A very satisfying release from Big Finish.

Have you been listening to the Kamelion trilogy? Have you been enjoying it, overall? Which story did you enjoy most? Let us know in the comments below.