Doctor Who: The Eye of the Scorpion (2001)
Ian McLaughlin
Starring: Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, Caroline Morris
Big Finish #24
The Doctor and Peri arrive in ancient Egypt where they save the life of a young woman, Erimem, otherwise known as Erimemushinteperem. As they travel with her back into Thebes, the townsfolk all kneel – Erimemushinteperem is to become Pharaoh, she is a living god. Only The Doctor does not remember her name from the list of Pharaohs so she must be to die. Has their appearance in Thebes anything to do with it? And just what is Erimem’s enemy hiding in the desert that gives him power over men and beast?
The Eye of the Scorpion sells itself as a purely historical adventure, and for the majority it is – there is court intrigue, history lessons about the role of women in ancient Egypt, details of diet, of life in general, but very slowly the true story is revealed, of something found in the desert that is infecting every living thing it touches, and when war is declared at the end of the third episode The Eye of the Scorpion becomes a David Lean epic, with a spectacular desert battle that Big Finish create admirably. The Doctor is absent for most of the second episode, unconscious and in a coma, and so the companions Peri (and to become companion Erimem) are given chance to shine. Bryant is the best she has been in these audio adventures and Caroline Morris creates a character of such enthusiasm in the world but whose knowledge is limited by her time and culture that I think her best is still to come. I can’t wait to see how she reacts to some of the Doctor’s more familiar enemies…
Ian McLaughlin has crafted an intelligent romp that falters only a couple of times – the scorpion attack doesn’t have the requisite sting that it needs (I have to stop these puns!) – but overall Big Finish are doing a wonderful job. It’s interesting to note that the best of its range have mostly been historical adventures where the science fiction quotient is minimal… I wonder why that is?
