SCI-FI ON STAGE DOCTOR WHO: VOX DEI at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth 18-21 April 2001 Written and Directed by Ian Wheeler for The Battered Suitcase Theatre Company. Cast: The Doctor - David Huntington, Karnak - Gavyn Sheffield, Penny11 - Kate Watson, Deathbane - Mike O'Doherty.

Since The BBC senselessly sabotaged DOCTOR WHO in the mid to late 80s, the format has continued through as many back doors as possible. The Reeltime and BBV spin-offs (for more info on this, click here to read Chris's Homemade Sci-fi article), the Big Finish audio plays, the novels, the radio series, the computer games and so on and so on. Actually, considering all these, it is perhaps rather strange that more has not been done in the theatre, which is in many ways a neatly natural refuge from the BBC politics that have kept one of Britain's world-famous revenue generating (i.e. license fee lowering) series off our screens. The Portsmouth-based Battered Suitcase Theatre company have regenerated (literally) The Doctor, and given him a whole new but strangely familiar sequence of adventures. VOX DEI, is the second of these. The Doctor is dispatched by the Time Lords to try and prevent the imminent destruction of the universe by an unwanted Big Bang. Therefore, the TARDIS soon materialises in a chaos-hit space station, orbiting a black hole, with the usual array of baddie aliens, space commandos, mad scientists, endangered companions and -yes! - corridors that all look the same. The story progresses swiftly and pleasingly, capturing the spirit of the TV show remarkably well. There's even a cliff-hanger at the end of the first part that is re-enacted after the interval! Huntington makes a fine Doctor. He gives a Colin Baker-inspired turn of real gusto and quality and honestly would not be out of place battling the Dark forces of the universe on a weekly basis should the BBC ever get some proper management and thus recommission the programme.

His companions are two Brand new creations; one, Karnak, is a highly entertaining and well-played alien Prince. He has a particularly inspired running gag because it turns out all the other characters have heard of him on account of his famously agonising death. The other TARDIS resident, Penny11, is not quite so interesting - a Kryten-a-like android that has broken her programming. The rest of the dramatis personae are generally quite creditable, although the elite space commandos look more like conscripts, I'm afraid, on account of their - how shall I put this? - less than athletic builds. Also, one or two of the performers didn't manage to project their voices in what is an excellent but I suspect acoustically problematic venue. No fault can be attributed to Ben Taylor as Dr. Costigan, though, the real pick of the supporting cast on account of his fine delivery of some well-crafted lines. All in all, then, DOCTOR WHO: VOX DEI is a triumph. It does an excellent concept justice and can be forgiven, I feel, for occasional lapses in performance or presentation that might not have gone down too well in the West End. The Battered Suitcase Company have a very promising schedule of upcoming plays, including an adaptation of Vincent Price's THEATRE OF BLOOD, a new Sherlock Holmes adventure and then another Doctor Who. Considering that full price tickets for VOX DEI cost £5.50, and discounted seats were available for as little as £3, these have got to be worth going to. In fact the only drawback is that they are based in Portsmouth, which is a little off the beaten track, but hey - if you ever wanted to see HMS Victory but felt that wasn't worth effort on its own - this is the answer. Affordable, high-quality genre theatre. Who knows, it might even catch on. Chris Denton Why not find out more at the Battered Suitcase website - http:\\www.batteredsuitcase.mcmail.com

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