Imagine you are Bob Nobody – wannabe writer and Doctor Who fan. You type up a submission to Big Finish productions which contains all the elements that you think would go into making the ultimate Dr Who story. And that is what you are after – something that will stand out from the crowd and get your submission into the studio. You pack it with classic elements, references to TV and books and even previous Big Finish stories. You might get a brief email from Gary Russell thanking you for your time and encouraging you to carry on writing even when you never get anywhere with your ambitions.

Imagine you are Stephen Cole – former BBC Worldwide overseer of Big Finish and author of several Dr Who novels. You put together a fanwanky proposal and Gary loves it. It gets made. It gets released. It gets bought and listened to.

I wonder which Gary Russell saw first – the name of a friend of his or the sentence "The Daleks invade Gallifrey"? A more fannish idea is hard to think of. Who has not dreamed of it in their childhood. Who has not grown out of the idea by the time they start noticing girls and/or boys? Add to that a magical substance which can literally set fire to the entire universe and you have a recipe for a clusterfuck. Oh and throw in Romana and Dalek mutants outside their casings while you are at it. And the Gallifreyan political scene which has now spawned possibly the dullest miniseries ever to escape from BF Towers. All that stuff about Vansell and co was drab and uninteresting back in Sirens of Time and we’re still getting force fed it five years later. I suspect someone in charge of Big Finish Policy is a Babylon 5 fan. A frustrated Babylon 5 fan who knows the franchise is outside their price range so tries to do the next best thing.

But the problem of basing your universe around a handful of "time powers" jealously guarding their secrets is that the series was forever tossing out inconsistencies about who could and couldn’t time travel. For a conceit which is so keen to draw on every last detail of the original series they are equally keen to ignore everything which doesn’t fit into their vision. Attack of the Cybermen quite clearly shows humans with their own time machine. Delta and the Bannermen has time travel being used for theme holidays. Omega describes a situation where people have become so used to time travel that it actually bores them. So even the new and vaguely original idea crammed in amongst the absurd science and fanwank fails to be of any interest.

I freely confess that the Apocalypse Element isn’t a story I have heard too much. Perhaps I’ll hear new depth in it the next time I upload it to my iPod. Or maybe it is Big Finish’s Attack of the Cybermen and there simply isn’t anything beneath the shallow attempts at crowd pleasing which fail to please a crowd which wants today’s originality rather than last week’s originality reheated and served deep fried in batter.

The Apocalypse Element wants to be a Big Season Finale. It succeeds in that respect. But only if the season finale in question is the Invasion of Time.
 

CD Facts

Part 1 - Tracks 1-8

Part 2 - Tracks 9-14

Part 3 - Tracks 1-6

Part 4 - Tracks 7-12