[I'm cheating a little with the title here, which should match the story
as a whole; but since I had to resort to threads on Gallifrey Base just
to find out the intended episode names, I doubt anyone will object. And
I do so like distinct titles!]
I wasn't going to cover this yet. I'd decided (having reviewed rather
too many audios in a row) that it was time to draw a line under
Iananbarbara's era and get on with the next phase; but I was in the mood
for listening to something new, and it caught my fancy.
I'm very glad it did. This is excellent.
First off, William Russell is on particularly fine form here. He's
always good value, but there have been a couple of audios lately - The Masters of Luxor and The Wanderer - where he wasn't quite up to his normal standard. This, on the other hand, is right back to the heights of Rise and Fall or Transit of Venus: there's more power in his voice, which supports the rhythm of his reading. Lovely.
The second voice artist, Susan Franklyn, is no letdown either, giving a
strong performance as Hypatia. Because I came to this after watching
(and enjoying) the film Agora, with Rachel Weisz in the role, I
picture Hypatia as Weisz. Franklyn's voice and interpretations are
similar enough that this didn't clash, which meant I had a clearer
picture than I often do.
Staying with the sound for a minute, the use of Spanish guitar surprised
me, but is effective in creating the right atmosphere (and felt like
the sort of music they might have had on TV, being used in a fairly
restrained manner). In fact, overall, Toby Hrycek-Robinson's soundscape
is great - pleasant to listen to, and I always had a clear image of what
was going on. Presumably this is also down to Lisa Bowerman's
directorial choices, and it is certainly helped by Simon Guerrier's
script, which the rest of this review will focus on.
[There will be minor spoilers in the next few paragraphs, and major ones at the end - I'll warn you when those are coming up.]
There are a few things which mark this out as being the product of an
era later than the one in which it is set. First is a repeat of the
trick they pulled in The Romans, opening the story after the
travellers have been relaxing in the location for a significant period
of time. (Well, Ian's been working, fulfilling the traditional postwar
male role of sole provider; but he seems to be quite happy in his job.)
That's not too far out, though, since it happens on TV three episodes
into the second production block. Second is Susan's use of the phrase
"meme farms", followed by an immediate comment that she shouldn't have
mentioned it, since it was an idea from after Iananbarbara's time.
Indeed, the concept was only formulated in the 1970s (by Richard
Dawkins).
There's an interesting contrast between these two features. The first is
something that could easily have been shown on TV at the time. That it
wasn't done more often is mainly due to the way the program worked as a
single ongoing narrative, with one serial linking straight into the next
- indeed, they had to have a cliffhanger leading into The Slave Traders,
which they then cheekily ignored - but it's something that the
Companion Chronicles don't have to worry about. The second feature maps
nicely onto moments like Susan's comments about decimalisation, and so
is an example of a technique the show had already tried; but the
specifics weren't possible, given that predicting the idea of memes in
1964 would have been pretty darned unlikely, let alone the name!
The third out-of-era feature is different again, a matter of intent. In
this episode it becomes quite clear that almost everyone except Ian -
including Barbara - thinks of Iananbarbara as "an item". This issue is a
bit tricksy, and because this review is already a monster I'll save it
for next time - I'm quite sure that the subject will come up again in
episode 2! For now, I want to say that the different reactions when the
other travellers believe that Ian has been on a date with Hypatia are
varied and perfectly judged. Hypatia's own comments - the way she gently
wards Ian off when she mistakenly thinks he is coming on to her, and
her amused deductions about Barbara after the fact - are a joy.
There are also some other very nice touches in this episode. Ian's wry
comment that the travellers don't have Sophocles' comedies where they
come from (and Hypatia's disdain for the quality of the writing) made me
smile, as well as wonder how many of the lost works mentioned in
Aristotle's Poetics they got to see. I'm odd like that. I also enjoyed
the disagreement between Iananbarbara over whether they were dealing
with science or history, which pokes gentle fun at the early division of
focus among both serials and cast. That this division becomes part of
what drives the plot is just icing.
[Major spoilers coming up now - I strongly recommend listening to the episode before reading on. You have been warned!]
Time to talk about the ending. The use of the mysterious book to set up
the plot for the second episode was a classic Chekhov's Gun moment,
developing naturally from the events of the first scene. It came as a
total surprise to me that this wasn't a pure historical - which is the
fourth way it deviates from the era. Like the (lack of) cliffhanger
resolution which opens The Romans, it's the pure brass cheek of
this that saves it. The identity of the threat - a recurring foe, though
not one from the early 1960s - was also a surprise. I have only
previously encountered it once, in my second(?) Companion Chronicle,
where it proved an intriguing variation on an old theme.
Then we have the cliffhanger itself, which was delightful for two
reasons. One was the fakeout, with a potential mundane problem being
interrupted by the arrival of the main threat; the other was the way
this last echoed the closing moments of opening episodes from 1960s
serials, particularly World's End (the first episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth). Spot on.
Rating:
9.5/10, only dropping half a mark for Ian being just a little too dense
and for a fairly standard use of the "can't change history" meme. I
guess I just expect more from the author of The Time Travellers!
Next Time:
The Pathway to the Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment