"The Creed of the Kromon"
by Phillip Martin

After the disappointment that was Zagreus, my hopes for the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard's continuing adventures were boosted a little by the magnificent Scherzo, but with The Creed of the Kromon - which is the second adventure in the characters' third season together - I feel a bit underwhelmed. It's not that the play is particularly bad, and it's certainly not dreadful; it just failed to inspire strong enough opinions for me to lean one way or the other.

Creed is written by Doctor Who TV scriptwriter Phillip Martin, and it sees the Doctor and Charley continuing to explore the Divergent Universe where their long-term story is due to unfold. We catch up with the pair in an extremely awkward opening scene, where lead actors Paul McGann and India Fisher only just manage not to fall flat, as they struggle with some very difficult material. There's only really one way that "Charley is attacked by imaginary insects, until the Doctor gets rid of them by shouting an alien word" can go, and, sure enough, Martin takes us there.

It's not a great start, and the story which then develops isn't much better. A few elements, such as the threat of bodily transformation, are more than a little reminiscent of Martin's television stories, and the eponymous Kromon are quite poorly-realised. We're not told enough about them to form a clear image (visual and otherwise), and the sound design lets them down with a bog standard modulated voice.

Storyline aside, though, this story has the important task of introducing characters and situations that will carry on into future adventures. As such, we're quickly introduced to the character of the Kro'ka, a nice creepy villain played by Stephen Perring, who impresses with an invasion of Charley's mind which works surprisingly well on audio. Additionally, the status quo for the Divergent Universe is established - a series of different zones with limbo-like Interzone between, inhabitants who have no concept of time, and so forth - but it doesn't feel different enough to our own universe to make an impact.

More significantly, this story sees the introduction of C'rizz, a rather well-spoken Eutermesan, destined to be the Doctor's newest companion. Portrayed by a gentle-sounding Conrad Westmaas, the character suffers from underdevelopment in this first story. When Charley was introduced back in Storm Warning, there were enough broad brushstrokes to make her basic character apparent, and enough finer details to make her realistic and likeable, but C'rizz doesn't really have either; perhaps Big Finish were aiming for "mysterious", but what we've been given can only be classed as "insubstantial".

As a whole, the story just feels sparse. The music, for example, is much more minimal than earlier stories were; gone are the epic "film soundtrack" scores which added so much. The feeling of something lacking extends into the story, too, and the ending of the first episode should have set alarm bells ringing: it's perhaps the most unexciting and insignificant cliffhanger I've heard, completely failing in the basic task of making me curious about what happens next. There's not very much action, but that wouldn't be a problem if character work or emotional drama or something else was present to make up for it. As it is, the play is two bleak hours of very little happening; I was left wanting a bit more meat to be added to the metaphorical bones.

Received fan wisdom would have it that Creed of the Kromon is one of Big Finish's worst adventures. I wouldn't necessarily agree; I think there's probably a very good traditional Doctor Who story to be told here, but in its current form it's simply not interesting enough. Whether or not this season actually needs "a very good traditional Doctor Who story" when it should be heading in groundbreaking experimental directions is an interesting point of discussion, but Creed leaves me feeling too indifferent to judge. Disappointingly slight.