MR 101: Absolution (Spoilers)

I'm sure that the six season plan for the Divergent Universe did have a more substantial role for C'rizz, but it was cut down to two seasons of four stories each. The fact that he kept the consciousness of each person he killed in his head could have set him apart, but it only really popped up in Terror Firma and Memory Lane. It felt like the Eighth Doctor audios from that period were coasting, waiting for the next big shake-up so the writers didn't try to do much interesting with C'rizz, the fact he didn't look human or even came from this universe. Other Lives did use C'rizz's appearance well with the Victorian Freakshow, and C'rizz got quite violent in that story (another aspect of his personality totally underused, the fact that his personality changed to become like those he was around at any given time). Otherwise he was generic companion material. It did't help his first story as a proper companion, Natural History of Fear, was an out-of-character story, so we didn't get much of a chance to find out how he worked with the Doctor and Charley.

The stories that best utilised C'rizz for his unique aspects and abilities were Terror Firma, Other Lives and Memory Lane. He's well characterised in Caerdroia, though he's playing the straight man to the Tigger Doctor for much of the story. 

Six seasons?  Hoo boy. Who thought that was a good idea?

C'rizz has that unfortunate knack of fading into the background with many of his stories, the only ones I can think of where he makes any kind of impact is Time Works and Terror Firma. He wasn't a badly constructed companion from the outset per se, but he did suffer quite a bit from being poorly utilised. He was part of that era where the monthly range was still trying to hold onto Eight/Charley despite growing signs that they really did need to move on and do new things and while this did eventually yield us the wonderful Six/Charley run, it might have been better to introduce the Eighth Doctor as a man alone in nowhere. That and maybe getting someone to co-author with Philip Martin for The Creed of the Kromon. He's got terrific ideas, but half of the brilliance of Vengeance on Varos were interventions by Eric Saward and by the actors themselves (Eta and Arak, for the former and the poisonous vines, for the latter). He wasn't a character like Harry who you could have shunted off to the side without issue and needed to be centre focus for this new frightened and powerless Doctor.

I loved Absolution, i think this is a very underrated story & the negative issues i think reflect on the companion of Crizz than the actual storytelling.

Not to be glib but the less I have to think about C'rizz the better. I think he was probably one of those creations that looked good on paper, sounded good in discussion that simply didn't work as everyone planned in execution. Much like the alternate universe he belonged in.

Absolution was the story I'd been hoping for... ever since The Creed of the Kromon. I actively disliked C'rizz and thought he was terribly annoying to listen to. I also think C'rizz spoilt the Doctor - Charley dynamic that had been working so well, and was a highlight of the Eighth Doctor main range stories up to then, so I never really took to him as a companion. Absolution as a story was reasonably good though, with a nice happy ending! So what more could anybody want? 

I thought C'rizz was a good idea on paper but not much of a character when all was said and done. I will agree that Charley and the Doctor lost that special something when he came on board. All in all, he's a meh companion, a group in which he does not stand alone.

I thought he was ill-served by a lot of the stories and much of his supposed uniqueness was too visual. I liked a few of the stories but the whole arc feels to me like a failed but brave experiment

They should do a couple of short trips with C'rizz. I think it would work with his mental state