I did it.
Took me a while because I started like 10 different audio’s too between two weeks ago and today. Just act like I was here day one.
Zagreus was actually almost the first audio I’d ever listened to. Pretty much exactly a year ago, when I went onto the Big Finish site for one of the first times, I stumbled across this story. Mostly I thought it looked interesting because of the description (zagreus sits inside your head etc) and then the appeal of multiple Doctors, plus, more importantly, it was the cheapest thing I could find for the longest run time. But of course, if I was going to make an important purchase like that, I would like to know what the danged story was about first. That description, intriguing as it might be, wasn’t particularly informative. So I got to tardis wiki, and read the plot. Not that I understood everything, but it sounded cool. Later though, I found it on Spotify, for free, but oh, it seems to be some sort of finale… Better listen to those others first! But by that time I had already joined TARDIS Guide, and this very audio club would soon follow.
Well anyways regardless of how fun melodramatic retellings of scrolling the Big Finish site are, I’ll give some opinions now, about this story that I’ve waited for oh so long, before you’ve fallen asleep.
The plot! I read it before. Sounded great back then, but was worried that that meant there would be spoilers for me now. Shouldn’t have worried, because I’m pretty sure anyone’s feeble attempt to summarize Zagreus would just end up with a completely different story. It’s kind of dreamy, I like that about it. Charley steps into dreams basically too, and you could say the Doctor walks around half dreaming. Like any dream, it’s very open to interpretation, very diverse in the way people look at it. Like I actually see a perfectly clear story with small absurdist tendencies. I could tell you what happens easily, but I would get it wrong. How wonderful! You know some people say that a piece of art doesn’t take value in if what its creator intended comes across to its public. It can be meaningless and meaningful at the same time to different people, or to the same person at different times. This applies to everything, but of course, most to dreams, with which I mean Zagreus. They can take so long, but go by so quickly. I basically listened to a full part each sitting and it goes by really fast. Each ‘dream’ in which Charley steps supported by lore drops or pure insanity with that mysterious otherworldly thing that’s like a cosmic night terror looming over the universe, waiting until it ends, it’s neat. It makes you want to continue, on with more adventures, travel with them, keep dreaming this lovely dream, but don’t sleep for too long, or Zagreus might eat you.
Enough with that idiotic dream analogy, let’s interpret it as a story about believing. Believing that there is hope as long as the Doctor lives, believing that you are who you are not, believing in science but also in God, Matthew Townsend believes in God, Matthew Townsend is the Doctor, the Doctor believes he is Zagreus, Zagreus believes he is God, Matthew Townsend really only believes in himself?
Nah, rubbish. Let’s just interpret it as a story about space fascism. I think that’s easier. Exterminate the vampires for being different from us. I mean the Doctor literally calls Rassilon a bigot. All life in the universe should be modeled after what we are. Very on the nose but always good.
Hm. Maybe it’s just a story about how Alice’s adventures in wonderland are a whole lot of nonsense that people read too deeply into.
But nonsense is fun sometimes. And sometimes fun is sense enough. So maybe that’s just it. What the story is really about. Romana writing fanfiction.
9/10
