Unfortunately, another thing this story has in common with its TV counterparts is that the ending doesn't quite match up to the beginning. For one thing, all the mysteries are resolved too quickly. The end of the previous episode revealed why the town is built as it is, and we're not far into this one before we learn about Meedla, the bad luck birds, and why the plain is out of bounds. After that it becomes more of a straight action story, which is not my favourite form.
I say straight; but a big plus is that the style of action is - well, I'm not sure of the exact word, but perhaps baroque? Or ornamental? Whatever. It's probably what reminded me of Space: 1889; this is a story more in the tradition of Jack Vance or Michael Moorcock than the forms of science fiction commonly seen in Who. And again, ornithopters are something that would be hard to pull off on TV. So it may be action, but it is at least original action.
The soundscape is even more notable this time, not so much for the ambience as for the arrangement of voices. It really helps with the atmosphere. And speaking of voices, it's about time I said something about the performances.
Carole Ann Ford is the narrator, and she gives a very different performance to William Russell's. I've yet to hear anyone who can make a narration feel as natural as Russell, but Ford does well enough; and there are some aspects of her performance that are even better. One is the recapturing of the main character's voice. Ford manages to recreate the breathless excitement of the young Susan, contrasting it with the more worldly-wise and settled Susan post-serial-K. She is also adept at using different voices for the guest cast, making them distinct enough to be instantly recognisable; quite a feat. On the other hand, her version of Susan's grandfather lacks something. It's passable, but not up to the standard of her other voices - though to be fair it is very hard to do decent cross-gender impressions.
I should probably say a little bit more about Ford's other characters. Marc Platt based a lot of his imagery on a trip to Namibia, and this is reinforced by Ford's choice of an African accent for the Quinnissians. This isn't too much of a problem until the arrival of Parch in episode 2, who sounds non-African, has more sophisticated tools, and comments condescendingly on the locals' superstitions regarding the shrazer. The parallels are obvious. Still, I don't detect any racist intent: it's a lot better than using exclusively BBC English, and in-universe it's the TARDIS having her little joke (like the Eastender market traders of Pompeii in the Tenth Doctor's era).
Meanwhile, Tara-Louise Kaye, Ford's real-life daughter, is the other reader. This is a tricky role for both writer and performer; we have the artifice of older Susan telling a story of her adventures as a teenager, and really there's no room for a different voice within that narrative. Because of this I prefer the second voice to be from the framing story, as in Shadow of the Past or Frostfire (the first two CCs I heard). Still, putting that bias to one side for the moment, Kaye gives a good performance as the impish Meedla, and it does add variety.
Overall, then, this is a highly enjoyable release. The plot plays second fiddle to the setting, and this lowers my rating particularly for episode 2; but it is still strong enough to avoid sabotaging the atmosphere. The tie-in to TV history is also fun, and I smiled that the idea came from Gary Russell, continuity lover extraordinaire. I wouldn't want every Companion Chronicle to be like this, but I would be happy to see more.
Published:
Date: 23rd December 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84435-504-4
Rating:
Episode 2: 5.5/10
Overall: 7/10.
Next Time:
The postscript clearly states that it's next stop: Coal Hill, which I think is a bit of a shame (although it does mean that it is just after An Earthly Child and just before [i]An Unearthly Child,[i] which is kind of neat). Susan's original comment was that Quinnis was "four or five journeys ago", which leaves enough wiggle room to fit in one visit in between, and there's a short story I think would fit the bill very nicely. I'll be reviewing that next time before jumping back to the post-season-1 gap.
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