Surprisingly, this is going to be a three-part Companion Chronicle review, and again I've made up my own episode titles. Do let me know what you think, and feel free to offer your own alternatives!
The framing story here is painted in broad brushstrokes. It's set earlier in the post-Dalek Invasion world than Quinnis - Susan is hiding her lack of ageing from husband David and they are still childless. It does the job, and offers one mystery: who is she talking to?
The early part of the story suffers from one major problem for me: the author, Andy Lane, feels the urge to fill in lots of details about the Doctor and Susan's past. Sometimes this works, but even when it does it feels like it's closing off possibilities for the sake of throwaway lines. For instance, explaining that the Doctor left their homeworld to experience wonders and that Susan was an accidental passenger is fine, but it's not a fact that's central enough to the plot to eliminate the idea of Susan's presence being planned. Similarly, the explanation that the TARDIS is not faulty and their problems are caused because the Doctor doesn't know how to control the craft makes sense - but works better through implication than exposition. And as for Susan having a perfect memory - well I'm sorry, but although it's very good she is exaggerating somewhat. We also learn that she is older than Iananbarbara put together, which may be true chronologically but only goes to show that humans gather life experience quicker; and that the Doctor is no more than an adolescent, which is just plain ridiculous unless he's been artificially aged in an unseen (and unsuspected) pre-series-1 adventure.
Moving swiftly on, the opening of the main story is very 1964. Something mysterious is happening to the TARDIS (which would have worked as a cliffhanger to end the previous episode), and then there is discussion of where they have landed. There are some nice touches here, particularly the Doctor hesitating as part of him wants to leave the teachers behind and continue the journey with just Susan, and his sparring with Ian. The latter, of course, opens up the question of when this story takes place. Unless this is a throwback (like the lead-in to The Reign of Terror), of course; and to be honest there's no better place to put it than here.
At this point I must break off to mention the soundscape. The jungle sounds and background music are very good - not exactly of the time, but certainly appropriate to the story. It really helps with the atmosphere.
And so, as the crew move away from the TARDIS, we enter the alien world of Earth Benchmarking Vessel Nevermore. I imagine it in black and white, a kind of mix between The Sensorites and The Screaming Jungle, particularly when the plants go for the control panel. This impression lasts until we meet Captain Rostrum, who isn't really the sort of character who could be realised on TV at the time. This is not a criticism of Lane, as he's not writing for television; indeed, Rostrum is what really makes this episode fun for me. He represents a truly bonkers idea, and it's a tribute to writer, cast (well, Carole Ann Ford) and crew that he works anyway. Some of the discussion felt slightly odd - for instance, are they really punching holes every tenth of a light year? That would mean they could place over 600,000 markers in a cube centred on Earth without reaching another star! Still, given the historic confusion between stellar systems, galaxies and the universe in Who, that's a fairly minor quibble. And I enjoyed the debate anyway.
Some might say there was too much talking, but I don't mind at all - and it did give a reason for Susan to wander off. Although this was overdone in later years, it hadn't yet become a habit; and Lane manages to tie it into her development.
The peril level goes up a notch as Susan encounters the mysterious crewman who advises her to make her own decisions, to stretch her wings - and then she starts to feel weak and dizzy as we approach the cliffhanger. But I'll postpone a discussion of that until episode 2's review.
The pacing is particularly good in this episode, building nicely to a climax that left me wanting more.
Rating:
7/10.
Next Time:
Stick around for episode 2.
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Monday 27 February 2012
Short Trips, A Universe of Terrors 6.02: Mire and Clay, by Gareth Wigmore
| You know, I've got a strange feeling I've had déjà vu before. This time, it's because there are a number of similarities with the recent (chronologically - they're actually published five years apart) short trip The Last Days. Again, we join the story partway through; again the focus is on Ian, though this time that focus is even tighter; again we have the pretence that Barbara is Ian's wife; and again I found what the author did to Ian to be very cruel. What is it about Ian that invites this sort of treatment? He's such a nice young man it feels a bit like kicking a puppy. But then, maybe that's got something to do with it: writing nice people as Action Heroes is a bit of a strange thing to do anyway, and perhaps authors are drawn to pushing at the boundaries of two incompatible archetypes. And, to be fair, he's certainly not the worst-treated Hartnell companion. Still, Ian's handling here - in particular the way he is made to behave during his rescue - does feel... unnecessary. He says he'd never hurt anyone before entering the TARDIS, which makes me wonder what his role during his National Service was, especially since he spent an unhappy time in Korea according to one story. (For those who don't know, after the Second World War the draft was halted; but two years later it was reinstated for men, and in 1950 Britain got involved in the war in Korea - a disastrous move for the economy - prompting an increase in the duration of service from 18 months to two years. The last men entered National Service in 1960, and left in 1963.) OK, I've limited the spoilers to this paragraph, so skip to the next if you don't want to find out a key detail. Still here? OK. The action I mentioned above - where Ian gives in to his desire for revenge - reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Chain of Command, part II, and in particular the final scene with Picard talking to Troi. In each case it's a more realistic take on what happens when people are pushed to the limit than we often get, contradicting the untouchable hero image. That's good, and - having taken Ian to that point - I applaud where Wigmore went with it. What I don't like is that he took our hero there in the first place. That's enough about Ian: let's talk about the setting. Good grief, we Brits just can't leave Afghanistan alone, can we? When I first read where it was set, I thought "aha! This is the conflict which Doctor Watson returned from shortly before meeting Sherlock Holmes!" Not so. When I thought about the date I realised it was too early. This war, in 1842, is due to be followed by another less than 38 years later (the one involving the original John Watson). Then another, 39 years after that one. You could almost set your watch. The next one should have happened just before the end of National Service but was delayed, probably because Britain was no longer in a position to engage in quite so much Imperialism; so it wasn't until well into the current thirtysomething-year conflict that we got significantly involved. Just as well we did, though, otherwise Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss couldn't have had their modern Watson coming back from Afghanistan to meet Benedict Cumberpatch! </irony> Getting back to 1842, I have to say that vile villain Gul Zaheer has a bad case of the stereotypes. Stereotyping is a useful enough tool, but I think it behooves writers to be careful of such things - particularly when we have an ongoing conflict. Still, I've learned a new word - feringhee - which apparently is an insulting term for "European"; and that's another link back to Star Trek. I'll never look at Quark in quite the same way again. This is getting long and time is getting short, so I'll quickly run through a few final points. The other members of the TARDIS crew are only there to react to Ian. Susan is almost invisible, but the others have at least a little to do. The Doctor apologises for putting Ian into these situations, which is a remarkable statement: not so long ago it would have felt wrong, but here - given everything that's happened - it is surprising but right. Barbara's open displays of affection, however, still feel a bit too much; as does mention of the TARDIS translation circuits. These are both intrusions from a future perspective, which is sometimes fine but grates here. It's hard to say why; perhaps I was just in the wrong mood. In contrast, the way the crew are separated from the TARDIS is classic, and completely of the time. I think it's fair to say that this story wasn't written for me. There's nothing wrong with it in any objective sense, but I just didn't enjoy it for most of the time. Published: Date: June 2003 ISBN: 1-84435-008-8 Rating: 3.5/10. Next Time: Forward, and into audio for Here There Be Monsters. |
Friday 24 February 2012
Short Trips and Side Steps 3.04: Nothing at the End of the Lane, by Daniel O'Mahony
Spoilers ahoy! Here's a three-part short story, and I almost split up my review accordingly; but I didn't have quite enough to say...
Part One: The Valiant Woman
"These are the last days." So thinks Barbara Wright, on a bus to her job at Coal Hill School in 1963, travelling across the ruins of a dying London in the future, unconsciously echoing the thoughts of Jewish rebels trapped in Masada in 72AD. She has these episodes, you see, where she can't tell what is real and what is... something else.
Still, she manages to get to school, and with enough time to tidy herself up. She briefly encounters Ian Chesterton, a man she has pigeonholed as liberal - "wrong but romantic", quoting the immortal words of Messrs. Sellar and Yeatman, historians extraordinaire. Though they applied the phrase to the Cavaliers; and it makes one wonder how she sees herself: a conservative Roundhead, "Wright but repulsive", perhaps?
She makes it through the school day, just, but not without cost. A contretemps with class weirdo Susan Foreman involving decimalisation, dollars and cents (and why did the author have to bring US currency into it?) leads to her investigating her pupil's home. A policeman directs her to Totter's Lane, she finds and enters the junkyard, approaches a Police Telephone Box which is humming - and it becomes clear that her viewpoint is that of the camera in the opening scene of An Unearthly Child, and of the show as a whole.
So far, so good. If it weren't for the "episodes", this could be a fleshing out of Barbara's life in the time leading up to her conversation with Ian in the scenes following that fog-filled beginning.
Part Two: The Watchers on the Walls
But she is having episodes - appropriately named, too, since they are effectively adventures (though of a more horrific sort than we got to see on TV) - and she has one right at the beginning of the second part. It's disorientating, which is good, and then she has dinner with Ian. More background-filling. And after he's gone, a nightmare. Back to school for a book being requested by the class weirdo, and we have caught up with the next scene.
The back-and-forth between the utter mundanity of Iananbarbara's everyday lives and the horror of her visions has drawn me in by this time. There's a sense that reality is indeterminate, that we're not meant to choose between the horrific and the mundane. It's a bit like the unreality of Campaign, though on a smaller scale. If things continue in the same vein, Part Three will skip past the scene with Susan in the classroom and fill in the gap from there to the moment when Iananbarbara are waiting in the car.
Part Three: The Only Living Thing
But that's not what happens. Instead, we get a more detailed (but slightly warped) view of that scene in the classroom, with Barbara mishearing the name of the group as John Smith and his Companions, an event which points out that even in these sections we are in a postmodern story. Then we skip to the two teachers in the car, and realise that everything has shifted so that we are now in phase with the An Unearthly Child. The sign on the gate, apparently reading IamFORman, keeps us on our toes, but things remain resolutely normal.
Until they search the junkyard and find, not a Police Box, but a strong box. Right back in my first review I said of the Doctor, "It sort of looks as if he is keeping Susan locked up in the police box, and although it doesn't feel as if the program is that grim we have been kept off-balance enough to pause. If not, why is he so desperate to keep the teachers out?"
Here the story really does feel that grim, and when Grandfather attacks we know things are very wrong...
And then they aren't. The mind-manipulating menace is defeated, everyone's back in the TARDIS, recovering, and all is right with the world. Except it's still a postmodern world, and we are gifted with the wonderful, contradictory (though not self-contradictory) statement "You can't change history. Not one word." Barbara wanders through the normal (for Who) world of the TARDIS, off-balance.
Then this, too, is shown to be a lie, and (like a certain point in the film Labyrinth) she is back fighting Grandfather. Two teachers stumble away from the conflict, while echoes of another reality filter through Barbara's consciousness, and an alternate beginning is offered.
So, where and when is this story? Is it all a dream induced by some psychic alien, as implied earlier, in which case the menace still needs defeating; or is it an alternate reality? Or perhaps it's just make-believe, outside the chronology, beyond the Whoniverse? I have a strong pull to make everything fit together, but there are some stories - like The Longest Story in the World, elsewhere in this collection - that cannot fit. Nothing at the End of the Lane is a borderline case, deliberately so.
I don't like this story, it's nasty and incomplete. I really like it, it's finely crafted and chilling. Both these statements are true, at the same time. People's minds are not one-tracked - we can hold contradictions in our heads with ease, and O'Mahony makes use of that quite brilliantly here. It's not a story I want to come back to often, but I've happily read it three or four times; and each time I get a little more out of it. Which is all I can ask for, really.
Published:
Date: March 2000
ISBN: 0-563-55599-8
Rating:
6.5/10.
Next Time:
Back into the past again for another short trip: Mire and Clay.
Part One: The Valiant Woman
"These are the last days." So thinks Barbara Wright, on a bus to her job at Coal Hill School in 1963, travelling across the ruins of a dying London in the future, unconsciously echoing the thoughts of Jewish rebels trapped in Masada in 72AD. She has these episodes, you see, where she can't tell what is real and what is... something else.
Still, she manages to get to school, and with enough time to tidy herself up. She briefly encounters Ian Chesterton, a man she has pigeonholed as liberal - "wrong but romantic", quoting the immortal words of Messrs. Sellar and Yeatman, historians extraordinaire. Though they applied the phrase to the Cavaliers; and it makes one wonder how she sees herself: a conservative Roundhead, "Wright but repulsive", perhaps?
She makes it through the school day, just, but not without cost. A contretemps with class weirdo Susan Foreman involving decimalisation, dollars and cents (and why did the author have to bring US currency into it?) leads to her investigating her pupil's home. A policeman directs her to Totter's Lane, she finds and enters the junkyard, approaches a Police Telephone Box which is humming - and it becomes clear that her viewpoint is that of the camera in the opening scene of An Unearthly Child, and of the show as a whole.
So far, so good. If it weren't for the "episodes", this could be a fleshing out of Barbara's life in the time leading up to her conversation with Ian in the scenes following that fog-filled beginning.
Part Two: The Watchers on the Walls
But she is having episodes - appropriately named, too, since they are effectively adventures (though of a more horrific sort than we got to see on TV) - and she has one right at the beginning of the second part. It's disorientating, which is good, and then she has dinner with Ian. More background-filling. And after he's gone, a nightmare. Back to school for a book being requested by the class weirdo, and we have caught up with the next scene.
The back-and-forth between the utter mundanity of Iananbarbara's everyday lives and the horror of her visions has drawn me in by this time. There's a sense that reality is indeterminate, that we're not meant to choose between the horrific and the mundane. It's a bit like the unreality of Campaign, though on a smaller scale. If things continue in the same vein, Part Three will skip past the scene with Susan in the classroom and fill in the gap from there to the moment when Iananbarbara are waiting in the car.
Part Three: The Only Living Thing
But that's not what happens. Instead, we get a more detailed (but slightly warped) view of that scene in the classroom, with Barbara mishearing the name of the group as John Smith and his Companions, an event which points out that even in these sections we are in a postmodern story. Then we skip to the two teachers in the car, and realise that everything has shifted so that we are now in phase with the An Unearthly Child. The sign on the gate, apparently reading IamFORman, keeps us on our toes, but things remain resolutely normal.
Until they search the junkyard and find, not a Police Box, but a strong box. Right back in my first review I said of the Doctor, "It sort of looks as if he is keeping Susan locked up in the police box, and although it doesn't feel as if the program is that grim we have been kept off-balance enough to pause. If not, why is he so desperate to keep the teachers out?"
Here the story really does feel that grim, and when Grandfather attacks we know things are very wrong...
And then they aren't. The mind-manipulating menace is defeated, everyone's back in the TARDIS, recovering, and all is right with the world. Except it's still a postmodern world, and we are gifted with the wonderful, contradictory (though not self-contradictory) statement "You can't change history. Not one word." Barbara wanders through the normal (for Who) world of the TARDIS, off-balance.
Then this, too, is shown to be a lie, and (like a certain point in the film Labyrinth) she is back fighting Grandfather. Two teachers stumble away from the conflict, while echoes of another reality filter through Barbara's consciousness, and an alternate beginning is offered.
So, where and when is this story? Is it all a dream induced by some psychic alien, as implied earlier, in which case the menace still needs defeating; or is it an alternate reality? Or perhaps it's just make-believe, outside the chronology, beyond the Whoniverse? I have a strong pull to make everything fit together, but there are some stories - like The Longest Story in the World, elsewhere in this collection - that cannot fit. Nothing at the End of the Lane is a borderline case, deliberately so.
I don't like this story, it's nasty and incomplete. I really like it, it's finely crafted and chilling. Both these statements are true, at the same time. People's minds are not one-tracked - we can hold contradictions in our heads with ease, and O'Mahony makes use of that quite brilliantly here. It's not a story I want to come back to often, but I've happily read it three or four times; and each time I get a little more out of it. Which is all I can ask for, really.
Published:
Date: March 2000
ISBN: 0-563-55599-8
Rating:
6.5/10.
Next Time:
Back into the past again for another short trip: Mire and Clay.
Monday 20 February 2012
Short Trips 1.04: The Last Days, by Evan Pritchard
This story is set in one of the more interesting decades of Imperial Roman times - the 70s - which saw the Siege of Jerusalem, the eruption of Vesuvius and a particularly unstable period for the throne. (Though it must be said, the 60s were pretty eventful too!) I've read books and seen documentaries on various events from the time, but what connected it all together for me was a children's historical mystery series - Roman Mysteries, by Caroline Lawrence - which is a good read but has also been well adapted for CBBC. Obviously the books have more detail, but both forms are fun and informative.
The Siege of Masada, however, is one of the events not covered (at least, in the ones I've read). As with The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, we join our heroes partway through: interestingly, about the time Barbara returns to consciousness after an extended period.
We don't start with Barbara, though. Instead, the opening paragraph has the Doctor exhorting the Romans on to greater efforts against the Jewish rebels. This struck a slightly painful chord, as William Hartnell has sometimes been accused of anti-Semitism. It seems unlikely to me that his was a severe case, given how well he got on with Carole Ann Ford and Verity Lambert (both Jewish); but I suspect he would not have hesitated to use "Jew" as an insult for someone who had annoyed him. I'm sure he was not above using other slurs, too, but then I don't believe in sharp dividing lines between anti-Semitism, racism, sexism or homophobia and their absence. Such distinctions don't help; you should be able to criticise someone's behaviour without lumping them in with Heinrich Himmler and threatening to "ship 'em back where they came from, along with the rest of the bigots."
Anyway, rant aside, this story completes the trilogy of historical intervention begun in The Aztecs and continued in Farewell, Great Macedon. Although they find themselves on opposite sides of the siege, the Doctor and Barbara are now on the same side in the matter of historical inevitability. Both are working to make history come out as it should. It's Ian who rails against it this time, and he has one very good line, even if it's only in his head: "Barbara might have read the history books, but he knew these people's names." Lovely.
It's an ugly chapter in history, and in some ways it's portrayed sensitively, with combatants on both sides shown to be human; but the involvement of the travellers can't help but trivialise the subject to an extent. And the way Ian is made to suffer is almost sadism on the part of the author, with the reader as voyeur. I don't like it. Not that it's necessarily a bad place to go with a story - Lois McMaster Bujold once said that her plotting often relied on thinking "what's the worst thing I can do to this character now?" - but the way it's done, and how it's linked to the real, historical suffering of people in ancient Judaea, mean that it's really not for me.
Published:
Date: March 1998
ISBN: 0-563-40560-0
Rating:
4.5/10.
Next Time:
There may be a slight delay, either before the next review or before the one after that. As usual in school holidays, I've done hardly any writing; and since I kept on posting last week I've used up my buffer. Still, on the plus side, I did get to go down to London and see friends - and while I was there I caught the Doctor Who Experience before its closure next Wednesday. Expect a review here in about another quarter-century.
Anyway, whenever it arrives, the next entry will be sticking with short trips but stepping sideways for Nothing at the End of the Lane...
The Siege of Masada, however, is one of the events not covered (at least, in the ones I've read). As with The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, we join our heroes partway through: interestingly, about the time Barbara returns to consciousness after an extended period.
We don't start with Barbara, though. Instead, the opening paragraph has the Doctor exhorting the Romans on to greater efforts against the Jewish rebels. This struck a slightly painful chord, as William Hartnell has sometimes been accused of anti-Semitism. It seems unlikely to me that his was a severe case, given how well he got on with Carole Ann Ford and Verity Lambert (both Jewish); but I suspect he would not have hesitated to use "Jew" as an insult for someone who had annoyed him. I'm sure he was not above using other slurs, too, but then I don't believe in sharp dividing lines between anti-Semitism, racism, sexism or homophobia and their absence. Such distinctions don't help; you should be able to criticise someone's behaviour without lumping them in with Heinrich Himmler and threatening to "ship 'em back where they came from, along with the rest of the bigots."
Anyway, rant aside, this story completes the trilogy of historical intervention begun in The Aztecs and continued in Farewell, Great Macedon. Although they find themselves on opposite sides of the siege, the Doctor and Barbara are now on the same side in the matter of historical inevitability. Both are working to make history come out as it should. It's Ian who rails against it this time, and he has one very good line, even if it's only in his head: "Barbara might have read the history books, but he knew these people's names." Lovely.
It's an ugly chapter in history, and in some ways it's portrayed sensitively, with combatants on both sides shown to be human; but the involvement of the travellers can't help but trivialise the subject to an extent. And the way Ian is made to suffer is almost sadism on the part of the author, with the reader as voyeur. I don't like it. Not that it's necessarily a bad place to go with a story - Lois McMaster Bujold once said that her plotting often relied on thinking "what's the worst thing I can do to this character now?" - but the way it's done, and how it's linked to the real, historical suffering of people in ancient Judaea, mean that it's really not for me.
Published:
Date: March 1998
ISBN: 0-563-40560-0
Rating:
4.5/10.
Next Time:
There may be a slight delay, either before the next review or before the one after that. As usual in school holidays, I've done hardly any writing; and since I kept on posting last week I've used up my buffer. Still, on the plus side, I did get to go down to London and see friends - and while I was there I caught the Doctor Who Experience before its closure next Wednesday. Expect a review here in about another quarter-century.
Anyway, whenever it arrives, the next entry will be sticking with short trips but stepping sideways for Nothing at the End of the Lane...
Friday 17 February 2012
Unpublished PDA: Campaign, by Jim Mortimore
Come in, Mister Mortimore, I've been expecting you.
[Reviewer strokes imaginary fluffy white cat.]
What's that? Ah yes, my apologies for the stereotypical specimen of felis silvestris catus. It would have been a corn snake, but ours has just died. And I'm currently laid up with a fever. So I am not in the best of moods.
[Mortimore tries to speak, only to realise he has no face.]
Again, my apologies. I have no idea what you look or sound like, so I haven't bothered to imagine you properly. Minion! Fetch the prisoner a face mask.
[A brief delay, then the shadowy minion places a cardboard cutout of Patrick McGoohan's face over the author's lack-of-features.]
I didn't ask for a The Prisoner face mask, you imbecile! Still, it does seem... appropriate. For an author who transgresses as often as you do.
Oh yes, I know who you are. You are the one who cannot resist pushing at boundaries. Usually by seeing how much death, destruction and pain you can inflict on your characters, but also in other ways. You wrote the truly wonderful A Natural History of Fear, one of the strangest Big Finish audios ever and certainly the jewel in the crown of the Divergent Universe arc, and that alone would earn you a place in my personal hall of fame. I've not read all your other Who novels and short stories, but those I haven't I know by reputation; and you also wrote this.
Readers who hate spoilers should look away now. Isn't that right, Mr. Flopsy?
[The large white rabbit jumps down off the reviewer's lap and starts nibbling at Mortimore's toes. Assuming he has toes.]
My favourite episode of Red Dwarf is Back to Reality, which reveals early on that the characters' adventures are all part of a virtual reality game. This is what happens at the end of Campaign, where the Game of Me (which has been mentioned throughout) turns out to be the V.R. game they are playing. (While we're spoiling, I'll tell you that Ian wins. Nyer.) And although 'reset switches' are lame devices, what else can you do when you've destroyed the universe outside the Tardis and killed everyone inside? Many times?
The point is that it doesn't matter, because the novel isn't really about that; it's exploring paths not taken in Who, in the author's inimitable, unrestrained style.
ISN'T IT, MISTER MORTIMORE?!
[The white hamster scurries away at the sudden sound.]
You went so far this time that you scared off the BBC. Oh, maybe it was the shouting matches rather than the content, although it sounds as if there was a lot they wanted changed. But there were some things you wouldn't budge on. As a result you published it for charity instead, and then made it available online. Which is nice.
Within the Whoniverse, large parts of this form the earliest sequel to The Edge of Destruction, set entirely within T.A.R.D.I.S.; but this is married to events outside happening around the time of Farewell, Great Macedon - or at least an alternate version of same. Cliffanlola get the bulk of the focus, though it opens with Alexander himself. And, actually, closes with our heroes about to go off and meet the king for the first time. Which means that I've reviewed this in the wrong place. And that the Doctor can control the TARDIS. So within the novel even reality isn't, if you get my drift. It's like eXistenZ - how many layers down can you go until you drop out of the Whoniverse completely and into the mundane world of discarded character outlines and rejected BBC scripts - The Masters of Luxor; Farewell, Great Macedon; and, of course, Campaign itself? The snake bites its own tail.
Speaking of discarded characters, it's hard to comment on things like characterisation when they are changing every other page. Sometimes even the format changes, giving us John and Gillian in comic strip form, or words arranged like Carroll's The Mouse's Tale, or optical illusions turning the simplest of games, through repetition, into DNA (double helix, not Douglas Adams!) and then Breughel's tower of Babel. It's all part of the madness. But glorious madness.
Very well, I suppose you can go. Just pass that poodle back to me, will you? Ta.
Oh, and it's true about the fever, so if this review (if that is what it is) lacks coherence I do have an excuse; at the moment it seems like a good idea, given the nature of the book I'm reviewing. And I did cut out the bit about the gorilla. Except... well, I only wrote part of it while feverish, though I tried to stick to the plan I made while I was. Robert Heinlein had a stroke while writing The Number of the Beast, and people have claimed that they can pinpoint the place in the writing where it happened. Perhaps the same will be true here?
Unfortunately, it's also true what I said about the snake dying.
RIP Sunlight. You are already sorely missed.
Published:
Date: May 2000
ISBN:
Rating:
How can you rate something like this? I enjoyed bits of it, and admired other bits. It's pretty violent in places (though not gratuitously so), which is a bit of a turn-off for me; but on the other hand it's all about perceptions of reality, which is very much my thing. 10/10 for chutzpah, 0/10 for sanity? Whatever, it's well worth experiencing. Go get it and decide for yourself. And if you do love it, contribute to the Bristol Area Downs Syndrome Association. Details in the book.
Next Time:
It sounds like it should be set at the end of time, but it's not. The Doctor's going Roman for The Last Days.
[Reviewer strokes imaginary fluffy white cat.]
What's that? Ah yes, my apologies for the stereotypical specimen of felis silvestris catus. It would have been a corn snake, but ours has just died. And I'm currently laid up with a fever. So I am not in the best of moods.
[Mortimore tries to speak, only to realise he has no face.]
Again, my apologies. I have no idea what you look or sound like, so I haven't bothered to imagine you properly. Minion! Fetch the prisoner a face mask.
[A brief delay, then the shadowy minion places a cardboard cutout of Patrick McGoohan's face over the author's lack-of-features.]
I didn't ask for a The Prisoner face mask, you imbecile! Still, it does seem... appropriate. For an author who transgresses as often as you do.
Oh yes, I know who you are. You are the one who cannot resist pushing at boundaries. Usually by seeing how much death, destruction and pain you can inflict on your characters, but also in other ways. You wrote the truly wonderful A Natural History of Fear, one of the strangest Big Finish audios ever and certainly the jewel in the crown of the Divergent Universe arc, and that alone would earn you a place in my personal hall of fame. I've not read all your other Who novels and short stories, but those I haven't I know by reputation; and you also wrote this.
Readers who hate spoilers should look away now. Isn't that right, Mr. Flopsy?
[The large white rabbit jumps down off the reviewer's lap and starts nibbling at Mortimore's toes. Assuming he has toes.]
My favourite episode of Red Dwarf is Back to Reality, which reveals early on that the characters' adventures are all part of a virtual reality game. This is what happens at the end of Campaign, where the Game of Me (which has been mentioned throughout) turns out to be the V.R. game they are playing. (While we're spoiling, I'll tell you that Ian wins. Nyer.) And although 'reset switches' are lame devices, what else can you do when you've destroyed the universe outside the Tardis and killed everyone inside? Many times?
The point is that it doesn't matter, because the novel isn't really about that; it's exploring paths not taken in Who, in the author's inimitable, unrestrained style.
ISN'T IT, MISTER MORTIMORE?!
[The white hamster scurries away at the sudden sound.]
You went so far this time that you scared off the BBC. Oh, maybe it was the shouting matches rather than the content, although it sounds as if there was a lot they wanted changed. But there were some things you wouldn't budge on. As a result you published it for charity instead, and then made it available online. Which is nice.
Within the Whoniverse, large parts of this form the earliest sequel to The Edge of Destruction, set entirely within T.A.R.D.I.S.; but this is married to events outside happening around the time of Farewell, Great Macedon - or at least an alternate version of same. Cliffanlola get the bulk of the focus, though it opens with Alexander himself. And, actually, closes with our heroes about to go off and meet the king for the first time. Which means that I've reviewed this in the wrong place. And that the Doctor can control the TARDIS. So within the novel even reality isn't, if you get my drift. It's like eXistenZ - how many layers down can you go until you drop out of the Whoniverse completely and into the mundane world of discarded character outlines and rejected BBC scripts - The Masters of Luxor; Farewell, Great Macedon; and, of course, Campaign itself? The snake bites its own tail.
Speaking of discarded characters, it's hard to comment on things like characterisation when they are changing every other page. Sometimes even the format changes, giving us John and Gillian in comic strip form, or words arranged like Carroll's The Mouse's Tale, or optical illusions turning the simplest of games, through repetition, into DNA (double helix, not Douglas Adams!) and then Breughel's tower of Babel. It's all part of the madness. But glorious madness.
Very well, I suppose you can go. Just pass that poodle back to me, will you? Ta.
Oh, and it's true about the fever, so if this review (if that is what it is) lacks coherence I do have an excuse; at the moment it seems like a good idea, given the nature of the book I'm reviewing. And I did cut out the bit about the gorilla. Except... well, I only wrote part of it while feverish, though I tried to stick to the plan I made while I was. Robert Heinlein had a stroke while writing The Number of the Beast, and people have claimed that they can pinpoint the place in the writing where it happened. Perhaps the same will be true here?
Unfortunately, it's also true what I said about the snake dying.
RIP Sunlight. You are already sorely missed.
Published:
Date: May 2000
ISBN:
Rating:
How can you rate something like this? I enjoyed bits of it, and admired other bits. It's pretty violent in places (though not gratuitously so), which is a bit of a turn-off for me; but on the other hand it's all about perceptions of reality, which is very much my thing. 10/10 for chutzpah, 0/10 for sanity? Whatever, it's well worth experiencing. Go get it and decide for yourself. And if you do love it, contribute to the Bristol Area Downs Syndrome Association. Details in the book.
Next Time:
It sounds like it should be set at the end of time, but it's not. The Doctor's going Roman for The Last Days.
Wednesday 15 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1b: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, continued
Right. I can't go any further into the review without talking about Barbara. If the story of Who to this point can be said to be about anybody, it has been about her. She has changed and grown far more than the others - the opposite pole to the Doctor's own development over the first three serials; driving the plot in The Aztecs; her growing emotional involvement in her travels in The Reign of Terror, Farewell, Great Macedon and here. Had these last two stories been shown on the telly at the time I would have said that she had more emotional development in one year than any other classic TV companion, with the possible exceptions of Ace in her last five stories (which, as I've argued before, mirror season 1 in more than one respect) or - stretching a point - Mike Yates in the run from The Green Death to Planet of the Spiders. This may be a function of the marathon, and I may see it in others as I progress; but even if I do the development of Barbara can still be held up as a fine example.
And yet, in the midst of all this change, she is the rock-solid emotional anchor of the team. There was talk at one point of getting rid of Barbara in the final story of the first production run - the upcoming Return of the Daleks - and presumably this was because Hill wasn't sure if she wanted to commit to more; but I am very glad she did. The show isn't ready to be without her, not yet.
So, imagine listening to this story without future knowledge. There is that doubt, kept bubbling for most of the story, over whether Barbara will stay on Fragrance. To begin with there's the "does she, doesn't she?" question: whether she loves Rhythm as a friend, or as something more. Ian's relief on learning the answer is palpable, and it occurs to me that their chaste love for each other - sometimes held up as a fan theory imposed on the era from the viewpoint of later years - is here acknowledged by a writer in 1964. One can only imagine what Ian would be like if, say, she had died of radiation poisoning as a result of their exposure on Skaro!
The tension (for both Ian and listener) continues as Barbara learns of the consequences for Rhythm should she leave, and everyone awaits her decision. Then - just as in Farewell, Great Macedon - the Doctor overrules her. This time it is more than just the arrogance of patriarchy, because it was held out that she actually had a choice. We are left in the uncomfortable position of feeling relief at a betrayal of trust, of being glad that Barbara had her freedom of choice taken away. It's not very flattering: we want her to stay, and are willing to sanction almost anything to keep her with us despite her own nobility. How selfish is that, compared to what she was prepared to sacrifice?
And then, kidnapped by the Doctor for the second time, she gets to watch the man who declared his love for her burn. A man she was prepared to give up everything for, not because she was in love with him but because it was the right thing to do. Now, that's hard.
A Confused Chronology, part 3: When Did They Visit Fragrance?
As a pair these audios do fit nicely into the inter-season gap, but which comes first? I can see why this is the second story in the boxset. It's very much the lesser attraction - single-episode, not one of the (now) highly-regarded historicals, never intended for broadcast. Its length also means that there's plenty of space on the disk for the extras, which should be heard after the stories. Unfortunately, this placement on the final disk means that most timelines, by default, set it chronologically after Farewell, Great Macedon. Having heard it I would say that it works better before: that way, the events here can inform Barbara's desperate need to leave before Alexander dies.
Rating:
5.5/10.
Next Time:
Very much sideways for Jim Mortimore's self-published PDA, Campaign.
And yet, in the midst of all this change, she is the rock-solid emotional anchor of the team. There was talk at one point of getting rid of Barbara in the final story of the first production run - the upcoming Return of the Daleks - and presumably this was because Hill wasn't sure if she wanted to commit to more; but I am very glad she did. The show isn't ready to be without her, not yet.
So, imagine listening to this story without future knowledge. There is that doubt, kept bubbling for most of the story, over whether Barbara will stay on Fragrance. To begin with there's the "does she, doesn't she?" question: whether she loves Rhythm as a friend, or as something more. Ian's relief on learning the answer is palpable, and it occurs to me that their chaste love for each other - sometimes held up as a fan theory imposed on the era from the viewpoint of later years - is here acknowledged by a writer in 1964. One can only imagine what Ian would be like if, say, she had died of radiation poisoning as a result of their exposure on Skaro!
The tension (for both Ian and listener) continues as Barbara learns of the consequences for Rhythm should she leave, and everyone awaits her decision. Then - just as in Farewell, Great Macedon - the Doctor overrules her. This time it is more than just the arrogance of patriarchy, because it was held out that she actually had a choice. We are left in the uncomfortable position of feeling relief at a betrayal of trust, of being glad that Barbara had her freedom of choice taken away. It's not very flattering: we want her to stay, and are willing to sanction almost anything to keep her with us despite her own nobility. How selfish is that, compared to what she was prepared to sacrifice?
And then, kidnapped by the Doctor for the second time, she gets to watch the man who declared his love for her burn. A man she was prepared to give up everything for, not because she was in love with him but because it was the right thing to do. Now, that's hard.
A Confused Chronology, part 3: When Did They Visit Fragrance?
As a pair these audios do fit nicely into the inter-season gap, but which comes first? I can see why this is the second story in the boxset. It's very much the lesser attraction - single-episode, not one of the (now) highly-regarded historicals, never intended for broadcast. Its length also means that there's plenty of space on the disk for the extras, which should be heard after the stories. Unfortunately, this placement on the final disk means that most timelines, by default, set it chronologically after Farewell, Great Macedon. Having heard it I would say that it works better before: that way, the events here can inform Barbara's desperate need to leave before Alexander dies.
Rating:
5.5/10.
Next Time:
Very much sideways for Jim Mortimore's self-published PDA, Campaign.
Monday 13 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1b: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance
Like Rise and Fall, this is a lyrical story that would never have worked on TV. It has the pacing and experimental nature of Who in 1964, while requiring colour and 21st century CGI to realise effectively. But then, it was never written to be made...
So far as I can tell, this is a tale like no other in Who. For one thing, love stories are few and far between - the closest in tone that I can think of being Autumn from the Circular Time audio - and surreally symbolic stories are just about equally rare. I've never come across the combination before.
Still, before I dive too much into the writing (which will be the focus for most of this review) I want to take a look at the audio production.
First, let me say how pleased I am that Carole Ann Ford is given more of a chance to use her particular talents than was the case during the previous story. It balances things up a little, and while the ideal reader here would, of course, be the much-missed Jacqueline Hill, Ford makes the most of the opportunity and impresses. William Russell holds his own as always, but for once he has the less interesting material to work with. John Dorney's Rhythm is quite different from Alexander, much younger in terms of experience; and he's joined here by Helen Goldwyn as Melody and Harmony. The extra performer, combined with a smaller cast to begin with, means that this feels closer to a full-cast production.
The music is very good - better here than in the historical, in my opinion - and although there are a couple of occasions where it's somewhat over-egged (such as when Iamb asks to look closer at the console) it does a fine job of setting the atmosphere.
On to the story, then, and I'd like to get the bad stuff out of the way. I mentioned that Russell drew the short straw for interesting material, and that's because he's narrating the parts where the Doctor is showing off his ship, and describing the workings in excruciating detail, much to Ian's concern. It's this aspect of the story that is by far the weakest: true, it sets up a pleasing contrast between the sciencey TARDIS scenes and the lyrical external ones; but unfortunately the clunky nature of the explanations just drags things down.
Explanations are going on outside, too, but in a much more artful manner. Susan echoes the audience's confusion as Melody and Harmony explain about the Fragile Yellow Arc, but - unusually - she is shown to be smart about it, grasping the concepts, turning them over in her mind and arguing with them intelligently. It's one of the better stories for the Doctor's granddaughter.
I'll also praise the characterisation of the inhabitants of Fragrance. They are alien, yet with recognisable motives. When Rhythm's mother Rhyme declares her intent to stop the travellers leaving you can feel her desperation. There's no evil behind it, just maternal love; and Rhythm's nobility in response is heart-rending. People sometimes complain about the degree to which Russell T. Davies knowingly pulls on his audience's emotional strings, but by golly he wasn't the first! This is potent stuff.
Let's see, I've mentioned Ian, Susan, the Doctor, the TARDIS and the locals. I've got a feeling that I'm missing someone, but I can't put my finger on who. Ah well, they probably weren't important to the story.
Development of a Script, Part 7: On Spec
When Moris Farhi was trying to get work at the BBC through David Whitaker, the script editor was already impressed with Farhi's writing and didn't want him to spend his time producing a sample script for nothing. Instead, Whitaker arranged a meeting with the writer and then agreed with Head of Drama Donald Wilson that they would offer to pay Farhi £50 for a single trial script. Not being privy to this discussion, Farhi decided that he would write a sample episode anyway, and did so over the four days prior to the meeting. That script was The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance.
Whitaker's eye for talent combined with Farhi's over-enthusiasm has made this is one of the best fifty quid the BBC spent. The corporation got a good writer on board (Farhi later wrote for Paul Temple, The Onedin Line and other BBC productions), and we got seven episodes of classic Hartnell-era Who.
Next Time:
More of the same, but this time focusing on a missing piece at the heart of the puzzle...
So far as I can tell, this is a tale like no other in Who. For one thing, love stories are few and far between - the closest in tone that I can think of being Autumn from the Circular Time audio - and surreally symbolic stories are just about equally rare. I've never come across the combination before.
Still, before I dive too much into the writing (which will be the focus for most of this review) I want to take a look at the audio production.
First, let me say how pleased I am that Carole Ann Ford is given more of a chance to use her particular talents than was the case during the previous story. It balances things up a little, and while the ideal reader here would, of course, be the much-missed Jacqueline Hill, Ford makes the most of the opportunity and impresses. William Russell holds his own as always, but for once he has the less interesting material to work with. John Dorney's Rhythm is quite different from Alexander, much younger in terms of experience; and he's joined here by Helen Goldwyn as Melody and Harmony. The extra performer, combined with a smaller cast to begin with, means that this feels closer to a full-cast production.
The music is very good - better here than in the historical, in my opinion - and although there are a couple of occasions where it's somewhat over-egged (such as when Iamb asks to look closer at the console) it does a fine job of setting the atmosphere.
On to the story, then, and I'd like to get the bad stuff out of the way. I mentioned that Russell drew the short straw for interesting material, and that's because he's narrating the parts where the Doctor is showing off his ship, and describing the workings in excruciating detail, much to Ian's concern. It's this aspect of the story that is by far the weakest: true, it sets up a pleasing contrast between the sciencey TARDIS scenes and the lyrical external ones; but unfortunately the clunky nature of the explanations just drags things down.
Explanations are going on outside, too, but in a much more artful manner. Susan echoes the audience's confusion as Melody and Harmony explain about the Fragile Yellow Arc, but - unusually - she is shown to be smart about it, grasping the concepts, turning them over in her mind and arguing with them intelligently. It's one of the better stories for the Doctor's granddaughter.
I'll also praise the characterisation of the inhabitants of Fragrance. They are alien, yet with recognisable motives. When Rhythm's mother Rhyme declares her intent to stop the travellers leaving you can feel her desperation. There's no evil behind it, just maternal love; and Rhythm's nobility in response is heart-rending. People sometimes complain about the degree to which Russell T. Davies knowingly pulls on his audience's emotional strings, but by golly he wasn't the first! This is potent stuff.
Let's see, I've mentioned Ian, Susan, the Doctor, the TARDIS and the locals. I've got a feeling that I'm missing someone, but I can't put my finger on who. Ah well, they probably weren't important to the story.
Development of a Script, Part 7: On Spec
When Moris Farhi was trying to get work at the BBC through David Whitaker, the script editor was already impressed with Farhi's writing and didn't want him to spend his time producing a sample script for nothing. Instead, Whitaker arranged a meeting with the writer and then agreed with Head of Drama Donald Wilson that they would offer to pay Farhi £50 for a single trial script. Not being privy to this discussion, Farhi decided that he would write a sample episode anyway, and did so over the four days prior to the meeting. That script was The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance.
Whitaker's eye for talent combined with Farhi's over-enthusiasm has made this is one of the best fifty quid the BBC spent. The corporation got a good writer on board (Farhi later wrote for Paul Temple, The Onedin Line and other BBC productions), and we got seven episodes of classic Hartnell-era Who.
Next Time:
More of the same, but this time focusing on a missing piece at the heart of the puzzle...
Friday 10 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1a: Farewell, Great Macedon
An Expanding Universe, Part 7: The Lost Stories
As mentioned before, we fans have an insatiable appetite for Who. There are many scripts that were not made for one reason or another, and in a couple of cases there are whole missing seasons, with scripts in various states of completion from "just an idea" to "ready for submission". It seemed a natural idea to recreate the stories originally intended for Colin Baker's season 23, which had got quite far before the BBC decided to "rest" the show. For various reasons not all the stories could be made, and Big Finish decided to widen the net to include scripts submitted for season 22 - and after that, once it looked like the idea was workable, to follow on with missing stories for other Doctors. This is the first such story, in a boxset containing two.
After finishing up my episode reviews for this serial but before writing up this overview, I listened to the fourth disk of the boxset. As well as the story I will be reviewing next it had some interviews with the cast and crew, like many of the Companion Chronicles. I've already made use of the sleeve notes; I'll address some of the issues raised in the discussions here.
I found it interesting that Moris Farhi was writing during the broadcast of Marco Polo, and that he watched it to get the 'feel' right. In retrospect I can see some similarities of style - particularly with the way the educational elements are included, and the emphasis on interaction over action - but the structure of the two stories are very different, so Farhi was obviously not just cribbing!
As with John Lucarotti's first missing story, I experienced each episode twice before moving on to the next; though in the absence of a recon it was audio both times for this one. On first listen I just enjoyed the experience, leaving the note-taking to the second run-through. This was just the way it turned out for The Hanging Gardens of Babylon but since it worked well I decided to carry on. I'll be doing my note-taking run for the next story when I've finished this entry.
Something I notice in retrospect is that there are not many women in the story. Unless I'm mistaken only Roxane has a speaking role (other than Susan, Barbara and the 'Greek Chorus' at the start). I can't say that it bothered me, but it does give Carole Ann Ford a harder time in the narration.
I was not happy about the view of history expounded here, particularly in light of later developments (and specifically a novel I will be tackling about 14 instalments from now). But then I thought about unreliable narrators. What if this is what Susan has been taught? The Doctor's concerned attitude upon hearing about Alexander's death date works just as well if he is worried about being caught out in a lie.
The details of the Doctor's past don't have any such get-out clause (or at least, none I've spotted). This is probably the weakest aspect of the story for me, and I suspect David Whitaker would have excised much of it.
Apparently, the intent was for the music to match the period. It does in places, but this was, I feel, not an unqualified success.
I don't really have anything else to add. It's a great story, and congratulations to all involved with finally bringing it back to life; you have my thanks. Farewell, Farewell Great Macedon!
Published:
Date: November 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84435-452-8
Rating:
As an average 8/10, but I might be inclined to boost that by half a mark since the first episode suffered unfairly from me getting used to the style of presentation. Oh heck, why not?
8.5/10.
Next Time:
As mentioned, the second story in the set: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance.
As mentioned before, we fans have an insatiable appetite for Who. There are many scripts that were not made for one reason or another, and in a couple of cases there are whole missing seasons, with scripts in various states of completion from "just an idea" to "ready for submission". It seemed a natural idea to recreate the stories originally intended for Colin Baker's season 23, which had got quite far before the BBC decided to "rest" the show. For various reasons not all the stories could be made, and Big Finish decided to widen the net to include scripts submitted for season 22 - and after that, once it looked like the idea was workable, to follow on with missing stories for other Doctors. This is the first such story, in a boxset containing two.
After finishing up my episode reviews for this serial but before writing up this overview, I listened to the fourth disk of the boxset. As well as the story I will be reviewing next it had some interviews with the cast and crew, like many of the Companion Chronicles. I've already made use of the sleeve notes; I'll address some of the issues raised in the discussions here.
I found it interesting that Moris Farhi was writing during the broadcast of Marco Polo, and that he watched it to get the 'feel' right. In retrospect I can see some similarities of style - particularly with the way the educational elements are included, and the emphasis on interaction over action - but the structure of the two stories are very different, so Farhi was obviously not just cribbing!
As with John Lucarotti's first missing story, I experienced each episode twice before moving on to the next; though in the absence of a recon it was audio both times for this one. On first listen I just enjoyed the experience, leaving the note-taking to the second run-through. This was just the way it turned out for The Hanging Gardens of Babylon but since it worked well I decided to carry on. I'll be doing my note-taking run for the next story when I've finished this entry.
Something I notice in retrospect is that there are not many women in the story. Unless I'm mistaken only Roxane has a speaking role (other than Susan, Barbara and the 'Greek Chorus' at the start). I can't say that it bothered me, but it does give Carole Ann Ford a harder time in the narration.
I was not happy about the view of history expounded here, particularly in light of later developments (and specifically a novel I will be tackling about 14 instalments from now). But then I thought about unreliable narrators. What if this is what Susan has been taught? The Doctor's concerned attitude upon hearing about Alexander's death date works just as well if he is worried about being caught out in a lie.
The details of the Doctor's past don't have any such get-out clause (or at least, none I've spotted). This is probably the weakest aspect of the story for me, and I suspect David Whitaker would have excised much of it.
Apparently, the intent was for the music to match the period. It does in places, but this was, I feel, not an unqualified success.
I don't really have anything else to add. It's a great story, and congratulations to all involved with finally bringing it back to life; you have my thanks. Farewell, Farewell Great Macedon!
Published:
Date: November 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84435-452-8
Rating:
As an average 8/10, but I might be inclined to boost that by half a mark since the first episode suffered unfairly from me getting used to the style of presentation. Oh heck, why not?
8.5/10.
Next Time:
As mentioned, the second story in the set: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance.
Wednesday 8 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1a, episode 6: Farewell, Great Macedon!
And so we reach the finale, which - as I'd hoped - is a sweeping tragedy: there is little action, but it's nothing less than brilliant. Not everything is perfect, of course; the music in this episode stood out as being not of the time, and there are some other details I'll come to in what is perhaps the most linear of my reviews for this story, and certainly the longest; but overall a worthy conclusion.
To begin, the fight between Ian and Seleucus is good, well-choreographed - and no doubt filmed at Ealing. Seleucus is pretty stupid to show such bad grace in defeat, and Antipater is sensible to worry about what else the big man might have revealed.
And then Alexander asks the travellers to stay a little longer - and Barbara doesn't want to. This is a tiny scene, but full of significance. It's typical that Barbara's desire to leave is overridden without discussion - some things never change - but her desperation marks the culmination of a gradual alteration in her perception of her travels. In The Aztecs she found out the hard way that history cannot be changed; and during The Reign of Terror she learned to see the ordinary people of the past as real, while still engaging in a little historical tourism with Napoleon. Now she can finally feel in her heart that famous figures are human, too. She is completely involved, with no trace of her original detachment - and she doesn't like it. She wants to run away from the death of someone she has grown to think of as a friend (a feeling that I can relate to, for reasons that you will hear a lot about if I keep going into the Fourth Doctor's time). Some might call it moral cowardice, but to me it's just human.
Pulling back the focus, we move on to Antipater's show trial. John Dorney's performance here is notable because of the way he allows Alexander to weaken gradually, and not evenly - the great man rallies when he is fired up, and slumps in the more extended, intellectual monologues. Still, the king manages to put forward quite a case against his prime suspect, and I was looking forward to Antipater's riposte. Seleucus's move to cut short the proceedings surprised me, but this is one time the reluctant conspirator made a sensible decision. With his options running out it was pretty much the only hope he had.
And that's really the end of the conspiracy. Oh, Seleucus will be one of the generals squabbling over the empire by the end of the episode, but from now on it's down to history and the travellers' part in it.
In the time since Barbara's plea to leave was ignored she has expended some effort in explaining why she wanted to go, and the differing reactions of her companions are telling. Susan argues that "history protects itself, we can no more change the past than we can the future" - which not only smacks of predestination, but also provides precious little comfort! Ian, on the other hand, doubts both the women, and dreams of a better future (or should I say a better past?) - like Barbara, because he's become involved. The Doctor's reaction is the most telling of all: we learn that he actually took the Hippocratic Oath when he was a medical student, before he became more interested in science, and that overrules his prohibition on trying to change history. In fact, Barbara and the Doctor have reversed their roles since the time of Yetaxa.
As usual, the Doctor is the one who gets to do what he wants, and as a result I found out how an iron lung works; but it is on the conversations with the dying Alexander that the focus now lies. His description of his dream of the marriage of East and West made me think of Martin Luther King - and in particular the Strawbs' song, Martin Luther King's Dream. The Doctor declares that mankind will not achieve unity for 3000 years, which is around 2,700AD - when on the verge of exterminating each other. Checking out Ahistory I think he's a couple of centuries late there, but who's gonna quibble? The point is that the king's new friends bring him down at the end; dramatically appropriate, but horrendously thoughtless. I'm not surprised that Alexander takes a leaf from Calanus's book and decides to die.
Everything from this point on is, effectively, tying things up. We get to meet Roxane at last, and in doing so I can finally banish the echo of Police front man Sting from my mind, though as a final insult to my ears Big Finish turn the volume right up on the line "You have left the world TO THE VULTURES!"; too loud, man.
Then there's a nice little scene with Alexander's faithful guard which made me say, "oh, that Ptolemy!"; a smart man, who I imagine (semi-appropriately) portrayed by Roy Stewart in a speaking role at last. And then there's the reference to the Library of Alexandria while standing in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which is another neat touch.
But it's getting very close to the end of the story so we're off again, and our heroes decide to examine the scanner. In transit. How weird is that, and how can it possibly work? Even ignoring the technical details, I can't help but think that the well-described view of Alexander's funeral would have been a disappointment on screen. Still, 48 years on, that's an irrelevant detail; and on audio, it's a great way to go out.
Development of a Script, Part 6: Publishing the Unproduced
I love Doctor Who fans, don't you? Always keen to extract the maximum they can from the show that obsesses them. Well, that describes me, anyway, and it explains why there is a market for the script to an unmade fortysomething-year-old TV drama. The publishers of the Nothing at the End of the Lane magazine made the script available in print, along with a number of accompanying articles, here - I haven't bought it, but I have read the sample PDF and it seems very well put together. If I didn't have so much other Who stuff to buy I'd be tempted.
Rating:
9/10.
Next Time:
The serial as a whole.
To begin, the fight between Ian and Seleucus is good, well-choreographed - and no doubt filmed at Ealing. Seleucus is pretty stupid to show such bad grace in defeat, and Antipater is sensible to worry about what else the big man might have revealed.
And then Alexander asks the travellers to stay a little longer - and Barbara doesn't want to. This is a tiny scene, but full of significance. It's typical that Barbara's desire to leave is overridden without discussion - some things never change - but her desperation marks the culmination of a gradual alteration in her perception of her travels. In The Aztecs she found out the hard way that history cannot be changed; and during The Reign of Terror she learned to see the ordinary people of the past as real, while still engaging in a little historical tourism with Napoleon. Now she can finally feel in her heart that famous figures are human, too. She is completely involved, with no trace of her original detachment - and she doesn't like it. She wants to run away from the death of someone she has grown to think of as a friend (a feeling that I can relate to, for reasons that you will hear a lot about if I keep going into the Fourth Doctor's time). Some might call it moral cowardice, but to me it's just human.
Pulling back the focus, we move on to Antipater's show trial. John Dorney's performance here is notable because of the way he allows Alexander to weaken gradually, and not evenly - the great man rallies when he is fired up, and slumps in the more extended, intellectual monologues. Still, the king manages to put forward quite a case against his prime suspect, and I was looking forward to Antipater's riposte. Seleucus's move to cut short the proceedings surprised me, but this is one time the reluctant conspirator made a sensible decision. With his options running out it was pretty much the only hope he had.
And that's really the end of the conspiracy. Oh, Seleucus will be one of the generals squabbling over the empire by the end of the episode, but from now on it's down to history and the travellers' part in it.
In the time since Barbara's plea to leave was ignored she has expended some effort in explaining why she wanted to go, and the differing reactions of her companions are telling. Susan argues that "history protects itself, we can no more change the past than we can the future" - which not only smacks of predestination, but also provides precious little comfort! Ian, on the other hand, doubts both the women, and dreams of a better future (or should I say a better past?) - like Barbara, because he's become involved. The Doctor's reaction is the most telling of all: we learn that he actually took the Hippocratic Oath when he was a medical student, before he became more interested in science, and that overrules his prohibition on trying to change history. In fact, Barbara and the Doctor have reversed their roles since the time of Yetaxa.
As usual, the Doctor is the one who gets to do what he wants, and as a result I found out how an iron lung works; but it is on the conversations with the dying Alexander that the focus now lies. His description of his dream of the marriage of East and West made me think of Martin Luther King - and in particular the Strawbs' song, Martin Luther King's Dream. The Doctor declares that mankind will not achieve unity for 3000 years, which is around 2,700AD - when on the verge of exterminating each other. Checking out Ahistory I think he's a couple of centuries late there, but who's gonna quibble? The point is that the king's new friends bring him down at the end; dramatically appropriate, but horrendously thoughtless. I'm not surprised that Alexander takes a leaf from Calanus's book and decides to die.
Everything from this point on is, effectively, tying things up. We get to meet Roxane at last, and in doing so I can finally banish the echo of Police front man Sting from my mind, though as a final insult to my ears Big Finish turn the volume right up on the line "You have left the world TO THE VULTURES!"; too loud, man.
Then there's a nice little scene with Alexander's faithful guard which made me say, "oh, that Ptolemy!"; a smart man, who I imagine (semi-appropriately) portrayed by Roy Stewart in a speaking role at last. And then there's the reference to the Library of Alexandria while standing in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which is another neat touch.
But it's getting very close to the end of the story so we're off again, and our heroes decide to examine the scanner. In transit. How weird is that, and how can it possibly work? Even ignoring the technical details, I can't help but think that the well-described view of Alexander's funeral would have been a disappointment on screen. Still, 48 years on, that's an irrelevant detail; and on audio, it's a great way to go out.
Development of a Script, Part 6: Publishing the Unproduced
I love Doctor Who fans, don't you? Always keen to extract the maximum they can from the show that obsesses them. Well, that describes me, anyway, and it explains why there is a market for the script to an unmade fortysomething-year-old TV drama. The publishers of the Nothing at the End of the Lane magazine made the script available in print, along with a number of accompanying articles, here - I haven't bought it, but I have read the sample PDF and it seems very well put together. If I didn't have so much other Who stuff to buy I'd be tempted.
Rating:
9/10.
Next Time:
The serial as a whole.
Monday 6 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1a, episode 5: In the Arena
Well, I really thought Ptolemy was going to die this time, even though he wasn't one of the conspirators' targets. As it is there's no deaths in the entire episode. Of course, we can see Alexander's death coming up (a quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that Antipater was really suspected of complicity in murdering the king, though Iollas was actually the wine-pourer). So that's alright then.
The cliffhanger resolution is really just a segue into a classic dungeon scene, which is in turn followed by a classic trial scene. The dialogue continues to be excellent, with not just sound logical and emotional arguments but original ones at that. I particularly liked the bit where they refused to defend themselves against a charge of being the gods' tools, on the grounds that there was no defense against such an accusation! Alexander's solution - to punish just Ian - got me at first, but I worked out that he was recreating the "Judgement of Solomon" before the TARDIS crew, so I got to feel good about my thinking.
The actual test seems in keeping with the times, and not unfair if you believe in the favour of the gods. Susan's overreaction on hearing about the Doctor's test irritated me, though it was in keeping with the TV show at the time; but my irritation at this paled when compared to my reaction when she was so slow to understand about how the firewalking was done. Genius, my foot!
My mood improved with the Doctor's ridiculous claim that he's "never one to bear a grudge" - and the scenes where Alexander is working things out with Ptolemy while the Doctor and his companions do the same really buoyed me up.
Meanwhile the repeated fanfare, sounding like it's intended for the common man (2,265 years early, but appropriate to the idea of Alexander presented here), tells us of the forthcoming games. Incidentally, Glaucias was Hephaestion's historical doctor, and the extravagant games really did take place at Babylon - but eight months earlier than Alexander's own death.
Ah yes, the games. As I feared, this features the return of Action Hero Ian; but in fact he's less annoying than he was in The Aztecs, so I won't knock off too many marks for that. The Doctor did pretty much what I expected, though I didn't know about the technique used, so there's some educational content right there. And actually I've been encouraged to find out a lot more about Alexander, so this is one of the most educational stories so far!
And so, as Ian triumphs over the adversaries in his group, we reach the end of this penultimate episode - and a different cliffhanger, at last! It's more of a teaser, really, since there is no immediate threat - I doubt even Seleucus is stupid enough to try and kill Ian in plain view of the others, and our awesome science teacher has already shown that he's more than a match for the heroes of the Greek army physically - but the story has built up so much momentum that I suspect anyone who hasn't lost interest already will be eager for next week's instalment.
Development of a Script, Part 5: Redrafting
An important aspect of script development is redrafting. It never had a chance to happen properly in this case, and I only really mention it for completeness. It is extremely unlikely that a first submitted draft will perfectly match the slot in the program for which it was written and be perfect in pace, dialogue and all other details. There is usually a back-and-forth between the writer and the editor, although sometimes the latter just takes on the job of redrafting. I may come back to this topic in a more appropriate story...
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
Episode 6, Farewell, Great Macedon!
The cliffhanger resolution is really just a segue into a classic dungeon scene, which is in turn followed by a classic trial scene. The dialogue continues to be excellent, with not just sound logical and emotional arguments but original ones at that. I particularly liked the bit where they refused to defend themselves against a charge of being the gods' tools, on the grounds that there was no defense against such an accusation! Alexander's solution - to punish just Ian - got me at first, but I worked out that he was recreating the "Judgement of Solomon" before the TARDIS crew, so I got to feel good about my thinking.
The actual test seems in keeping with the times, and not unfair if you believe in the favour of the gods. Susan's overreaction on hearing about the Doctor's test irritated me, though it was in keeping with the TV show at the time; but my irritation at this paled when compared to my reaction when she was so slow to understand about how the firewalking was done. Genius, my foot!
My mood improved with the Doctor's ridiculous claim that he's "never one to bear a grudge" - and the scenes where Alexander is working things out with Ptolemy while the Doctor and his companions do the same really buoyed me up.
Meanwhile the repeated fanfare, sounding like it's intended for the common man (2,265 years early, but appropriate to the idea of Alexander presented here), tells us of the forthcoming games. Incidentally, Glaucias was Hephaestion's historical doctor, and the extravagant games really did take place at Babylon - but eight months earlier than Alexander's own death.
Ah yes, the games. As I feared, this features the return of Action Hero Ian; but in fact he's less annoying than he was in The Aztecs, so I won't knock off too many marks for that. The Doctor did pretty much what I expected, though I didn't know about the technique used, so there's some educational content right there. And actually I've been encouraged to find out a lot more about Alexander, so this is one of the most educational stories so far!
And so, as Ian triumphs over the adversaries in his group, we reach the end of this penultimate episode - and a different cliffhanger, at last! It's more of a teaser, really, since there is no immediate threat - I doubt even Seleucus is stupid enough to try and kill Ian in plain view of the others, and our awesome science teacher has already shown that he's more than a match for the heroes of the Greek army physically - but the story has built up so much momentum that I suspect anyone who hasn't lost interest already will be eager for next week's instalment.
Development of a Script, Part 5: Redrafting
An important aspect of script development is redrafting. It never had a chance to happen properly in this case, and I only really mention it for completeness. It is extremely unlikely that a first submitted draft will perfectly match the slot in the program for which it was written and be perfect in pace, dialogue and all other details. There is usually a back-and-forth between the writer and the editor, although sometimes the latter just takes on the job of redrafting. I may come back to this topic in a more appropriate story...
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
Episode 6, Farewell, Great Macedon!
Friday 3 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1a, episode 4: The World Lies Dead At Your Feet
Hm, it seems that Alexander and those around him are quite commonly saved from the consequences of the king's temper thanks to timely intervention by his friends. We had basically the same cliffhanger resolution last time, which is a shame; but then it's straight on with the story, which continues to impress.
It amuses me how faithful to the TV of the time my imagined visuals are. As Alexander sets a torch to the funeral pyre, I picture a flare caused by the light levels. Cameras at that time could only cope with a fairly narrow range of grey; if you wanted to represent lighting you only had to paint something white and it would appear to be glowing. You can see it sometimes in the episodes that were made, when someone waves a torch and the camera is overwhelmed: it looks a little as if the film is burning.
It does seem as if the older performers are struggling a little as well. Carole Ann Ford sounds a bit tired and breathless at times, and right at the end William Russell does too. It doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the story, but I did wonder whether they were, perhaps, recording slightly too much in a day. I'll keep an eye on how they progress.
Back in the story, Seleucus finally joins the conspiracy properly, the Doctor congratulates himself on how well he's done extracting heavy hydrogen from oil (which again is more than I needed to know), and we discover that Barbara really wants to leave before the king's death. This last surprised me, as I expected the history teacher to want to see as much as possible; but it was a good surprise which made a great deal of sense on reflection, showing an understanding of human nature and modern sensibilities.
Speaking of modern sensibilities, I finally twigged what Moris Farhi is doing with Alexander, which is to credit him with large parts of the up-to-date morality of the 1960s. The bad guys are left to voice all the archaic opinions - "die a woman's death", indeed! - while the conquering hero gets to lecture about his dreams of equality, of the marriage of East and West. I suspect this overstates the case rather, but fair enough - to complain about this in a story which makes a much better than average attempt to use actual history (even if is myth-history) would be churlish, to say the least.
Hephaestion is given a heroic death. We never really got to know him as well as the other victims, so I mourned him less; and equally, Glaucias was the most faceless of the conspirators, so his death was only an opportunity to show off the bravery of Alexander's best friend. However, I gave an internal cheer when Alexander cut down Iollas, nasty murdering swine that he was. Again this is an example of me getting swept up in the portrayal of Alexander, who had almost certainly killed far more men with no greater justification (and I'm not a supporter of capital punishment in real life anyway); but this is entertainment, which I hold to different standards.
And then we get to the cliffhanger; and I do mean the cliffhanger, because it's basically the same one again. This is a weakness in the writing, and while it's not fatal to the mood it is beginning to take just a little of the shine off.
It's notable how often the number four crops up in this story. There are four travellers, four conspirators, four friends of Alexander - and this episode has (IIRC) four deaths. Perhaps next episode will be the fourth and final time this cliffhanger is used...
Development of a Script, Part 4: Adaptation Again
Another change Nigel Robinson made to the script was Ian's gift to Alexander. Originally it was to be a wristwatch, but Robinson felt that this was too reminiscent of a later Hartnell story as well as potentially having too great an impact on history. Essentially he was working as script editor as well as adapter (is that a word?), since that sort of tidying up of details is definitely editorial.
And speaking of gifts, this boxset was another of my Christmas presents. I hadn't got around to mentioning it because there has always been plenty to fill up the reviews, but I had to bring it up now because the concept of gift-giving is at the heart of this episode. And did you know that "gift" is a German word for poison? Highly appropriate!
Rating:
7.5/10.
Next Time:
Episode 5, In the Arena.
It amuses me how faithful to the TV of the time my imagined visuals are. As Alexander sets a torch to the funeral pyre, I picture a flare caused by the light levels. Cameras at that time could only cope with a fairly narrow range of grey; if you wanted to represent lighting you only had to paint something white and it would appear to be glowing. You can see it sometimes in the episodes that were made, when someone waves a torch and the camera is overwhelmed: it looks a little as if the film is burning.
It does seem as if the older performers are struggling a little as well. Carole Ann Ford sounds a bit tired and breathless at times, and right at the end William Russell does too. It doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the story, but I did wonder whether they were, perhaps, recording slightly too much in a day. I'll keep an eye on how they progress.
Back in the story, Seleucus finally joins the conspiracy properly, the Doctor congratulates himself on how well he's done extracting heavy hydrogen from oil (which again is more than I needed to know), and we discover that Barbara really wants to leave before the king's death. This last surprised me, as I expected the history teacher to want to see as much as possible; but it was a good surprise which made a great deal of sense on reflection, showing an understanding of human nature and modern sensibilities.
Speaking of modern sensibilities, I finally twigged what Moris Farhi is doing with Alexander, which is to credit him with large parts of the up-to-date morality of the 1960s. The bad guys are left to voice all the archaic opinions - "die a woman's death", indeed! - while the conquering hero gets to lecture about his dreams of equality, of the marriage of East and West. I suspect this overstates the case rather, but fair enough - to complain about this in a story which makes a much better than average attempt to use actual history (even if is myth-history) would be churlish, to say the least.
Hephaestion is given a heroic death. We never really got to know him as well as the other victims, so I mourned him less; and equally, Glaucias was the most faceless of the conspirators, so his death was only an opportunity to show off the bravery of Alexander's best friend. However, I gave an internal cheer when Alexander cut down Iollas, nasty murdering swine that he was. Again this is an example of me getting swept up in the portrayal of Alexander, who had almost certainly killed far more men with no greater justification (and I'm not a supporter of capital punishment in real life anyway); but this is entertainment, which I hold to different standards.
And then we get to the cliffhanger; and I do mean the cliffhanger, because it's basically the same one again. This is a weakness in the writing, and while it's not fatal to the mood it is beginning to take just a little of the shine off.
It's notable how often the number four crops up in this story. There are four travellers, four conspirators, four friends of Alexander - and this episode has (IIRC) four deaths. Perhaps next episode will be the fourth and final time this cliffhanger is used...
Development of a Script, Part 4: Adaptation Again
Another change Nigel Robinson made to the script was Ian's gift to Alexander. Originally it was to be a wristwatch, but Robinson felt that this was too reminiscent of a later Hartnell story as well as potentially having too great an impact on history. Essentially he was working as script editor as well as adapter (is that a word?), since that sort of tidying up of details is definitely editorial.
And speaking of gifts, this boxset was another of my Christmas presents. I hadn't got around to mentioning it because there has always been plenty to fill up the reviews, but I had to bring it up now because the concept of gift-giving is at the heart of this episode. And did you know that "gift" is a German word for poison? Highly appropriate!
Rating:
7.5/10.
Next Time:
Episode 5, In the Arena.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
The Lost Stories 2.1a, episode 3: A Man Must Die
By Timothy, Moris Farhi writes good dialogue! This is another episode which gripped me throughout. Alexander's reaction to Cleitus's death fits the reported facts, too; there is uncertainty over his sincerity in history, but not in this story.
It seems as if Alexander really was a man of great passion, and it makes sense that his grief is writ as large as his anger. In fact, this episode is principally about emotions and personality, and how they interact. It makes for very engaging drama. We have Ian sunk in guilt for the part he played in Cleitus's death, while Barbara has taken on board the lessons of The Aztecs and attempts to comfort him with the historical inevitability of what happened. By the end, though, she has played her part in another death, and I wonder if that argument will help her to come to terms with that. In both cases our heroes did what did because of what would normally be considered virtues: Ian's fierce sense of morality, Barbara's honesty.
In between, stuff happens. We find out how persuasive Barbara can be - as does Alexander - and how different Antipater is from his fellow conspirators. Calanus gets to show off his wisdom concerning people, though not in the case of Antipater. And we learn that the Doctor is really a medical doctor.
Wait - what? I suspect that line would have been cut by David Whitaker if this had been made for TV. Sure, it makes sense that the Doctor can use his broad range of future knowledge to diagnose Calanus's sickness, and I can even cope with the ancient blood transfusion service (which provides another opportunity for some excellent debates); but that doesn't make him an M.D. Hmph, as he himself might say.
Incidentally, the historical Calanus was dying of pneumonia rather than from poisoning when he made his final request, but the rest of the details seem accurate.
There's a series of children's books that my son is really into at the moment called 'The Danger Zone', about perilous situations in history. The titles all follow the same pattern, and with this story I'm starting to feel as if we're in one called 'Avoid Being One of Alexander the Great's Friends'. I reckon Hephaestion's number will be up next episode.
Finally we come to the cliffhanger, and it's a clever one. In most cases we wouldn't worry about Ian being threatened like that, but over the last two episodes we've come to see quite how violent Alexander's rages can be. As a result, there's more of a sense of genuine peril than there would have been, say, two episodes ago. Of course we know Ian will survive; but that isn't the purpose of a cliffhanger, really. It's more of a "how will he get out of that?", a way of keeping us thinking about the show during the week and making sure we tune in next time to find out. If we thought that it would be resolved with an "oh, never mind, I'll let you off this time" from Alexander it wouldn't work. Of course, that might still happen; but if so it's a problem with the resolution. And that belongs to the next episode.
Development of a Script, Part 3: Choose Your Own Adventure
As script editor, it was part of Whitaker's job to match up writers with story ideas that (a) fitted with a slot in the schedule, and (b) matched the writer's ability and experience. He didn't always get it right - pairing Terry Nation with historical The Red Fort, for example, didn't get anywhere - but it worked more often than not. Whitaker wasn't sure Moris Farhi was right for Who, but recognised someone who could be an asset for the BBC anyway. He encouraged Farhi to think up exotic ideas, and they explored the possibility of doing something on Hayreddin Barbarossa before deciding that it would be too expensive. Once Farhi hit on the idea of exploring the end of Alexander's life, Whitaker asked him for a trial script - and I've already explained what happened next...
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
Episode 4, The World Lies Dead At Your Feet.
It seems as if Alexander really was a man of great passion, and it makes sense that his grief is writ as large as his anger. In fact, this episode is principally about emotions and personality, and how they interact. It makes for very engaging drama. We have Ian sunk in guilt for the part he played in Cleitus's death, while Barbara has taken on board the lessons of The Aztecs and attempts to comfort him with the historical inevitability of what happened. By the end, though, she has played her part in another death, and I wonder if that argument will help her to come to terms with that. In both cases our heroes did what did because of what would normally be considered virtues: Ian's fierce sense of morality, Barbara's honesty.
In between, stuff happens. We find out how persuasive Barbara can be - as does Alexander - and how different Antipater is from his fellow conspirators. Calanus gets to show off his wisdom concerning people, though not in the case of Antipater. And we learn that the Doctor is really a medical doctor.
Wait - what? I suspect that line would have been cut by David Whitaker if this had been made for TV. Sure, it makes sense that the Doctor can use his broad range of future knowledge to diagnose Calanus's sickness, and I can even cope with the ancient blood transfusion service (which provides another opportunity for some excellent debates); but that doesn't make him an M.D. Hmph, as he himself might say.
Incidentally, the historical Calanus was dying of pneumonia rather than from poisoning when he made his final request, but the rest of the details seem accurate.
There's a series of children's books that my son is really into at the moment called 'The Danger Zone', about perilous situations in history. The titles all follow the same pattern, and with this story I'm starting to feel as if we're in one called 'Avoid Being One of Alexander the Great's Friends'. I reckon Hephaestion's number will be up next episode.
Finally we come to the cliffhanger, and it's a clever one. In most cases we wouldn't worry about Ian being threatened like that, but over the last two episodes we've come to see quite how violent Alexander's rages can be. As a result, there's more of a sense of genuine peril than there would have been, say, two episodes ago. Of course we know Ian will survive; but that isn't the purpose of a cliffhanger, really. It's more of a "how will he get out of that?", a way of keeping us thinking about the show during the week and making sure we tune in next time to find out. If we thought that it would be resolved with an "oh, never mind, I'll let you off this time" from Alexander it wouldn't work. Of course, that might still happen; but if so it's a problem with the resolution. And that belongs to the next episode.
Development of a Script, Part 3: Choose Your Own Adventure
As script editor, it was part of Whitaker's job to match up writers with story ideas that (a) fitted with a slot in the schedule, and (b) matched the writer's ability and experience. He didn't always get it right - pairing Terry Nation with historical The Red Fort, for example, didn't get anywhere - but it worked more often than not. Whitaker wasn't sure Moris Farhi was right for Who, but recognised someone who could be an asset for the BBC anyway. He encouraged Farhi to think up exotic ideas, and they explored the possibility of doing something on Hayreddin Barbarossa before deciding that it would be too expensive. Once Farhi hit on the idea of exploring the end of Alexander's life, Whitaker asked him for a trial script - and I've already explained what happened next...
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
Episode 4, The World Lies Dead At Your Feet.
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