pub: Big Finish. 60 minute CD. Price: download: £8.99; CD: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-403-0) cast: Kavan Smith and Nicholas Briggs.

check out web site www.BigFinish.com

Major Evan Lorne is under arrest and Dr Glennie is anxious to interview him. He wants to know Lorne's version of events on Atlantis that have resulted in him being confined. In Lorne's room, there are a series of paintings...

Reliving the incident is not something he wants to do but if he doesn't tell Glennie, Lorne might be in a straight jacket for the rest of his life. The sombre tones of Glennie (voiced by Nicholas Briggs) remind us of the fact he has this power.

Lorne is a painter and tries to capture every aspect of the city of Atlantis which itself has shifted planets. He spends his leisure time trying to record everything on canvas. He knows it so well that when the light changes for a moment, he feels connected to everything just for an instant. After that his life changes, episodes of seeming madness result in bizarre, inexplicable, paintings. He is trying to explain these events to himself and to others but finds he cannot pin-point just what he is experiencing. Gradually he realises he is not going mad but that something is trying to communicate with him. He is faced with a dilemma of whether to believe himself and follow the being's instructions risking being committed as insane or at the worst destroying other lives on Atlantis.



Not a lot is known about Lorne. He seems to be a character that came in and out of the show as the plot demanded. His defining feature is the desire to paint every aspect of the city of Atlantis and this has been picked up as a useful hook for this story. Using this one aspect of his character and the original actor this has been turned into a well-written and presented narrative. It is intense but occasionally lifted by the trademark Stargate humour first used by Jack O'Neill in SG1. Lorne's accent is strikingly like Jack's and the more I listened the more I though he would be a great substitute and presumably in the series occasionally got the comedy lines. The background music and special effects and the addition of an outside character, the psychiatrist, helps this move along into its big finish. Yep, finally got that line in. It's a quality product as usual and fans of Atlantis should be satisfied this tale that captures the spirit of the series. It is also very easy to pick up these without having seen much of the TV series and this might lead you into watching all five seasons. Oh, that would be me, probably.

Sue Davies