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| Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd |
Landing on Sumatra in the not-so-distant future, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are captured by the security detail for a space elevator, a marvel of engineering that the Doctor is keen to see first hand. But something is afoot in the space station at the top of the ascender; something that could endanger all life on Earth.
The Great Space Elevator is one of the first Companion Chronicles to feature no particular framing device, just the older Victoria narrating a story, pretty much to herself. The nearest comparison to date is Old Soldiers. It features Deborah Watling as Victoria, one of the more infamously screaming companions, and works well to give her some depth by interpreting her often passive role as the result more of the unwanted gallantry of her fellow travelers than of her own apathy.
Watling's vocal range is impressive, but her Second Doctor has only a touch of Troughton and her Jamie barely an accent. The minor characters are distinct, however. Helen Goldwyn as security officer Tara Kerley has a fairly minor role.
Sadly (or not, as we're ten titles in, so the average is still good) this is the first of the Chronicles that hasn't really impressed me on this run through. The title and setting promise a story intimately associated with the orbital ascender, but the space elevator proves to be largely window dressing for a fairly stock single point of entry invasion story, and the weather control functions of the sky station are ultimately more relevant than the elevator. It isn't a bad story, but there are, I feel, shades of something that might have been more interesting.
Our next port of call is the Third Doctor, and the Companion Chronicles debut of Katy Manning as Jo Grant in The Doll of Death.
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