The Wreck of the World [AUDIO/2017.12.13]

★★☆☆☆

  I am genuinely happy for those of you who find The Wreck of the World the pinnacle of the Second Doctor's adventures in Big Finish. I find it quite boring, even uninspired at points, and I hope to explain myself in this review.

  The premise about a giant space station/ship containing the last of the human race? Fun! It's been done before, and ideas are meant to be used over and over again provided they're always fun and intriguing. Wreck of the World quickly dispenses with its own novelty by throwing away all the potentially interesting ideas (an entire museum section full of humanity's greatest achievements, among other things) by making this primarily about a group of space pirates I couldn't care less about. Timothy X Atack probably thought they were interesting enough to carry an entire story, but I would respectfully disagree. It's nothing in particular to do with the writing, I'd say, but rather a combination of ideas regarding their personalities that failed to catch me mixed with some very bland performances. Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury are dependable as always, and Hines still manages to be the quintessential Second Doctor on audio, but paired with such an underwhelming cast, I wouldn't blame them for sounding a little bit bored. 

  The Wreck of the World feels like it's trying very hard to be faithful to the tropes of Dr. Who in the late 1960s without the inspired, exciting ideas that often made up for some admittedly sluggish pacing (which is a criticism that can be more than adequately levelled at this audio drama... a four-parter), and it's even more disappointing when it's yet another example of how a story with an interesting premise fails to click with me almost entirely. The Ark in Space and almost all subsequent similar adventures have had at least a baseline level of enjoyment. This regresses into a generic zombie tale with a predictable villain twist, and with pretty basic roles for the Doctor and co,; not a speck of something other than your basic base-under-siege Dr. Who story. Normally in an adventure like this, the first episode would be intriguing and attention-grabbing at the very least. I'm sorry, but I can't say I enjoyed this first part when the listeners are stuck with an annoying screeching robot for half of it, with a snail's pace without any of the suspense and mystery realised. I really can't say anything else about such a nothing of an adventure; The Wreck of the World is a genuine disappointment.