There are four audio short trips featuring the first Doctor; this is the one that is set latest in his timeline, although there's another I haven't reviewed yet both because it takes place before An Unearthly Child and because it is a multi-Doctor story. However, although this is the latest, I am at a loss to explain why I placed it here! It features the current TARDIS team, but there's nothing that says it has to happen at any specific time during their tenure. I checked my usual sources: the Reference Guide doesn't mention it, the Complete Adventures lists it just before The Rocket Men, and for some bizarre reason the Episode Guide erroneously puts it in the gap between seasons 1 and 2!
Andrew Kearley's is thus the only one that makes sense. As time goes on I am finding more and more that his positioning is the one I choose by default; but I must have made a slip of the mouse this time. And right now - having listened to all the stories from The Rescue to just before The Chase - I can make my own mind up.
The key here is the complaint I made recently about the renewed obsession with getting Iananbarbara home. Here there is an enormously near miss, and no indication that they had been thinking about it particularly before their arrival. The way it turns out is a huge disappointment for the teachers, and the Doctor is genuinely sorry; so it seems natural that he would renew his efforts to restore them to their rightful time and place. Which means that this should come before The Plotters; and while it doesn't need to come immediately before I don't think there should be too large a gap. There aren't many clues in other stories. The Rocket Men does raise the issue, and I can see why Kearley makes the choice he does; but for me, the way they are thinking about it is different there. Every Day is a better candidate to come between, with their mix of cautious optimism and worry about 2004. So I am simply going to reverse my last three reviewed stories, so that they run 1963 - Every Day - The Plotters.
And that's the way my mind works. Simple, eh?
* * *
On to the story, then, and let's get the not-too-surprising out of the way first: the story is beautifully read by William Russell, in his resonant, rich voice. This is enhanced by excellent sound and music, mostly piano or violin, making it a pleasure to listen to - regardless of content. Having said that, the writing supports this style of reading: it's not quite as lyrical as Rise and Fall but it's working in a similar area, and that's what Russell seems to relish.
There's a contrast to be observed here: the story doesn't take a form that we might have seen in the early years of the show, because it starts in the middle and then repeatedly flashes back, so we have two interleaved timelines - rather like The Rocket Men, but less extreme. On the other hand, the experimental nature of the setting - the way the TARDIS functions and the problem caused by it not working quite right - is so much like the wild, imaginative thinking of the Verity Lambert era.
(Now it's time for the oft-repeated cry: 'Ware spoilers!)
Speaking of wild imagination, this is a story that takes a single idea and pushes it to the limit. The passages of Barbara testing the half-opened switchblade and the unmovable hairs, of Ian walking on the Thames, offer up the sort of image that should have occurred to me when thinking about frozen time, but never did. Hearing them, though, put my brain into gear and I started wondering about air molecules - do they just pass through the time travellers? Or what?
The fact that the story is so focused on the effects of the situation is both a weakness and its strength. There's nowhere for it to go, really: nothing to fight against, no peril of any sort, because nothing can affect our heroes - at least, not physically. But within its scope the images are so strong that they carry the listener along, allowing us to engage with Iananbarbara's emotions even when they are only lightly touched on. It's a vignette, and could never be anything more - but it's a darned good one.
Recommended.
Published:
Date: 28th February 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84435-548-8
Rating:
7.5/10.
Next Time:
Before we finally get back to the Daleks, there's time for A Religious Experience...
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