The Fifth Doctor’s sometimes-companion, Kamelion is finally coming to Big Finish this month, kicking off a trilogy of tales for the robot.
Introduced in 1983’s The King’s Demons, the shape-shifter was never properly utilised on screen, partly due to the untimely death of its operator, Mike Power. But now, Big Finish has brought Kamelion back, voiced by impressionist, Jon Culshaw.
It would be glib of us to insinuate that Big Finish was convinced by the DWC’s argument for bringing Kamelion to audio. Then again, there are worse things in the universe than glibness…
The trilogy kicks off with Cavan Scott’s Devil in the Mist:
The TARDIS deposits the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and their android ally Kamelion aboard a prison ship. A ship with just one prisoner: Nustanu, last warlord of the Zamglitti – monstrous, mind-bending mimics able to turn themselves into mist.
A ship that’s in trouble, and about to make a crash-landing… On a planet of mists.
It continues with February’s Black Thursday / Power Game:
Black Thursday by Jamie Anderson
1902. Deep beneath the Welsh village of Abertysswg, men have worked the black seam for generations. Until the day of the disaster. The day that a blue box from the future materialisedinside the mine… and things would never be the same again.
Power Game by Eddie Robson
Welcome to the Incredible Power Game, in which three brave Earthlings enter the Void Pit in search of strange gems to help return the alien Hostess to her home dimension. Today’s contestants include Graham, Sadia… and Tegan, an air stewardess from Brisbane!
Then, in March, Kamelion embraces the spotlight for Jonathan Morris’ The Kamelion Empire:
Once upon a time, a people of great artistry and great knowledge ruled the planet Mekalion: the Kamille. For a thousand years, they prospered peacefully.
Then came disaster, when their sun set forever. Facing extinction, the Kamille made the Locus, a device to sustain their minds; and fashioned shape-changing machines, to act out their wishes on the physical plane…
Servants they called the Kamelion.
For the latter, Culshaw is joined by Christopher Naylor as an Alternative Kamelion.
Jon Culshaw says:
“He’s a very elegant soul, Kamelion. A cross between C-3PO and a suit of armour. He is sinister, and has a graceful presence about him, it was beautifully unnerving. A fascinating character.”
Main Range releases are available each month from at £14.99 on CD or £12.99 on download.
