1963: THE ASSASSINATION GAMES
Previously … The Assassination Games, episode 3
I listened to the first half of the last episode of 1963: The Assassination Games last night, but was too tired to continue it.
This half of the episode tells us precisely what’s going on, what the whole plot is, what everyone’s doing, and why. It’s an intriguing enough idea – a nefarious group altered the DNA of British citizens some hundred or so years earlier, so successive generations behave a little like “sleeper agents”, manoeuvring themselves into positions of power in the government.
The assassinations are the culmination of this, enabling the group to control the government and take the position of PM. The view being that they’ll then control the world.
Unfortunately, back in 1850, they didn’t anticipate the demise of the British Empire and the rise of America as a superpower. So they resort to the old tactic of planning to destroy America with some modern advanced weaponry, blame Russia for the attack, then Britain will retaliate against Russia and, in the ensuing chaos, re-establish the British Empire as a new super-power and get their plan back on track.
All well and good, but this story would have been better explained at the start of the adventure, or drip-fed throughout the last 90 minutes of the previous three episodes. Having what amounts to an info-dump at the start of the final episode, presumably just in time for the Doctor, Ace, Gilmore, Rachel, and Allison to put the mockers on the scheme, means that we’ve had 90 minutes of confusing narrative that fails to spark much interest.
Such a shame, because a little adjustment of the story could have made this an epic adventure instead of a clock-watcher.
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