Caroline Symcox

The Council of Nicæa is a relatively short audio play in the Big Finish range, by Caroline Symcox (who I last saw at MeCon). It brings the Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, his TV companion Peri Brown and new audio companion Erimem to the year 325 and the theological disputes over the nature of God at the eponymous Council. Supporting characters from history are the Emperor Constantine, his wife Fausta, and the competing theologians Athanasius and Arius.

Like Steve Lyons' The Witch Hunters, there is no sfnal element in the historical context apart from the Doctor and his companions, and thus it is very much rooted in the early traditions of the show, in a historical context where, essentially, the bad guys are the mainstream authority Christians and the listener/reader is invited to sympathise with the underdog.

Symcox takes some liberties with the setting (Arius is portrayed as a young man and Athanasius as somewhat older; in fact the reverse was the case), as she is writing a more standard Doctor Who story under time constraints. As often with Who, the Doctor gains the confidence of the authorities rather implausibly rapidly, which then of course accelerates the amount of trouble he and his friends get into. The two key elements of the story are the didactic part, informing the average listener who is (safely) assumed to know very little of the Council of Nicæa, and the character development of Erimem, who sides with Arius partly out of national solidarity (Arius was from Alexandria, Erimem is an ancient Egyptian pricess) but more out of a sense of fair play. She pleads that because 325 is her future, she should not be accused of trying to change the past. It all worked rather well for me, certainly much better than The Church and the Crown, an earlier audio with a similar concept except that the Doctor intervenes to force history into our timeline.… (más)

Develops the damage done to Time by the paradox of Charley's survival, and leaps between 1930s Singapore, Roman Britain, the court of Edward the Confessor (where we find out rather bizarrely that the Eighth Doctor once got engaged to his queen, Edith) and the Hell Fire club of the mid-18th century. I loved the Roman and Saxon bits, though was a little less convinced by the hell-fire club. The priest in the temple of Mithras reading the parish announcements was a beautiful little scene which also tipped me off to the authors being Paul Cornell and his wife Caroline Symcox.… (más)