Episode CC9.03b: Founding Father

This episode is actually called The Founding Fathers, of course (see my previous review). There is more than one founding father figure in the story, once the frame is taken into account; but I think the singular form still works, just utilising ambiguity rather than inclusivity. Hence I am adopting it as a minimal change.

Big Finish have this to say about CC9.03, The Founding Fathers:

The TARDIS lands in Leicester Square in the summer of 1762. When the Doctor, Steven and Vicki find themselves locked out of the TARDIS, only one man can possibly help them. But the American, Benjamin Franklin, has problems of his own...

Well, the framed story in this episode is, if anything, even sparser than last time, with most of the drama residing in the frame. That doesn't leave me much to talk about, and rather than pad it out I'll leave this as a short review.

Let's talk about characterisation. Most writers seem to "get" Vicki, and Simon Guerrier is, of course, no exception: he has her mannerisms down pat. Cleverer is where he shows us Vicki as seen through Steven's eyes, when he describes her as seeing the world in black and white (another nod to the TV show?) - which is almost true, but with a world-weary twist that is slightly dismissive of youthful idealism.

Steven is a harder character to get a handle on, partly because of the circumstances of Peter Purves' time on the show (which forced him to take on whatever role the plot required, to a greater extent even than William Russell). Here, his finding work as a boatman reminded me very much of Ian in The Library of Alexandria. His anger and sense of justice do come through strongly, but moreso in the frame.

Right, on to the plot. Minor spoilers coming up!

If last time was mainly about the Doctor and Benjamin Franklin, then this one is more about Steven, Vicki, and Abigail (with the Franklin/TARDIS thread dealt with briskly, and mostly offstage). Abigail's story holds echoes of Clara's in The Snowmen (it's obvious when you hear it, so I won't go into detail), but holds up well on its own merits. My favourite moment this time around is a scene where she is picked up by a cab, which is seen from Steven's viewpoint - he is already there. It provides an elegant twist on the classic "heroes get into a vehicle to find their enemy waiting " trope.

(Incidentally, I found listening to this episode to be a particularly visual experience. I pictured a lot of the action in my head in low-definition black and white, and with a definite difference between the outside location shoots and the inside sets.)

Of course, Abigail was never in the history books, and her story is left frustratingly incomplete. That's something which doesn't happen often, because we're dealing with fiction here. Usually, by the time the TARDIS leaves, the main guest cast are either dead or at the end of one chapter of their lives (perhaps journey completed, danger averted, about to start work on rebuilding their world; or thwarted and imprisoned or on the run). Indeed, there's often a "who was that masked man?" moment to underline the end of the story so that we aren't left hanging. There's nothing like that here.

But then, that's kind of the point - in two ways. For one thing, the Doctor and his companions are intruders into other people's lives, and their stories generally begin before the TARDIS arrives and continue after its departure. The Doctor is a transformative force, certainly, but there's no reason that the chapter breaks in the various tales should always match up neatly.

Plus, of course, this isn't the end of the story anyway. The adventure in the past is over, but - moreso than almost any Companion Chronicle not written by Guerrier - that is just one part of a larger tale.

Normally, I'd add a post on the story as a whole next. Instead I'm going to leave that until the framing sequence fits, after Steven's parting from the Doctor, and link back to these.

Huh. Guess I had more to talk about than I thought.

Rating:
3.5/10.

Next Time:
Plague of Death.

Episode CC9.03a: The Fire in the Sky

I hate Simon Guerrier.* He is in my opinion the best writer of the Hartnell era, post-1966: other writers may have some stories of similar quality, but they don't keep churning them out like Guerrier. Even Marc Platt only has about half as many stories to his name, and their average quality isn't quite so good (sorry Marc).

So why am I grumbling about him? Two reasons. The first (and most minor) is that he regularly uses the story title as an episode title, which is particularly galling in season 3 when the TV series had already stopped doing that.** I'm mostly going to be bloody-minded about this and change them, though I'll make the odd exception (I'll keep The First Wave, for instance, where changing the episode title would ruin a pattern).

The second, bigger reason is that he very often ties the frame very tightly to the inner story - which makes it hard for me to review without either jumping ahead of myself or waiting until the right position for the framing sequence. As a result, after listening to just this one episode I'm beginning to think my plan for the Sara Kingdom trilogy just isn't going to work.

Still, I'm going to give it a go, and The Founding Fathers - which suffers from both problems - provides a good trial run.

OK, let's get the boring stuff out of the way. As usual, Peter Purves gives a great performance (and I think his version of the Doctor just keeps getting better and better). The sound design is spot on - I was out walking when I heard this, and took my headphones off to see if the birds were in the woods or in my ears. Later, the thunderstorm made me want to hurry home. Oh, and whatever Lisa Bowerman does as director works.

I'm not going to talk about Alice Haig here since her part is restricted to the framing sequence, except to say that it is also a solid performance. However, there is a third actor present, since Bowerman steps in to provide the voice of Abigail Holt, the figure at the centre of the mystery which is set up to keep the travellers on their toes. She did the same when directing The Mahogany Murderers, playing a barmaid called Ellie; and Abigail has a similar accent. Or rather, she has a fake accent that sounds like Ellie's, so I was impressed to note that this did sound less realistic, somehow, without my being able to put my finger on why. A fine line to walk.

Speaking of accents, there's a moment in the framing story where Steven's listeners tease him about his American accent. I don't know if that was a reference to Morton Dill - the part Purves originally played in The Chase - but it amused me anyway.

There isn't an awful lot to the story, but it has a cliffhanger that you might think had been used before, but actually I think it's unique: someone's first introduction to the TARDIS.

* This is manifestly untrue.

** Yes, yes, the story titles aren't actually a TV thing in this period. You know what I mean: we don't have titles taken from the episodes after The Space Museum.

My Soapbox, part 1: A Few Thoughts on Class
There's a coffee shop in this story where people of all classes sit cheek-by-jowl and discuss matters such as politics. I admire the principle, but wonder how well it works in practise. You see, I am solidly Middle Class, and one of the delightful results of this is that I am utterly useless at talking to people of other classes. Unless I try really hard - which probably looks just as odd as it sounds - I end up subconsciously trying to modify my accent when with Working Class people so that I can fit in. Like that's going to work - I remember once being (gently) mocked for using the word 'datum' in a casual discussion about films we'd seen recently. No amount of accent-manipulation is going to obscure the fact that I naturally use words like 'modify' and 'obscure' where 'change' and 'hide' would do (note: not an artificial example, I simply glanced at what I'd just written). Similarly, with Upper Class people I tend to feel small and go very quiet.

One thing I find sad is that ever since I went to university I have lost my original accent. When reading out loud I can do a passable Mockney, Mummerset, et al, but I cannot even remember the voices I grew up with in Hampshire, let alone mimic them. And my current voice sounds stupidly posh to me.

As an aside, I realised during the election in May that it has become very obvious that the interests of the Middle Class - or at least the lower Middle Class, which is where I sit - now align with those of the Working Class. While there are still many differences - for instance, I have savings I can dip into in times of trouble, whereas my Working Class friends don't - the policies that support them are also the ones that support me. I would try to stand by them on principle anyway, but actually enlightened self-interest tells me to do so as well.

But that's quite enough of that.

Rating:
5/10.

Next Time:
Founding Father

Companion Chronicle 8.03: Upstairs

The interview on this disk was more interesting than some I've heard recently. Once again we get the interviewee asking if they can mention spoilers, and I do wonder why this continues to happen - surely they know by now that everyone (except, perhaps, the strangest of fans) watch or listen to extras after the actual story? It's lampshaded beautifully in Special Features (featuring the fifth Doctor), though I probably won't be getting to that one for decades yet! We also get comments about the pleasurable experience of recording at Big Finish - common enough that I think it must be true for most people - and, of course, the lunches. So far so normal.

However, most of the discussion had nothing to do with any of that. I didn't know that Maureen O'Brien is an author, and the story of her relationship with Mat Coward and criticism was told in a very human way.

Like O'Brien, I'm not a great critic. This blog was always an experiment; the experience of writing it has honed my critical faculties to an extent, but my inclination when watching, reading, or listening is always to sit back and go on gut feeling. That makes writing reviews that are interesting for others a bit of a challenge. I'm a good enough writer that people can probably get some entertainment out of reading the odd review I write, but I think it would take a very particular mindset to keep on reading over the years. Therefore this continues more for my fun than anything, though hopefully there are people out there who still get something out of it.

As with many of the actors, O'Brien is not a fan of Science Fiction. Perhaps that explains why all the Vicki and Steven Companion Chronicles are historicals - the setting keeping them happy and carrying them past the SF elements. This does mean that we only have short stories to space them out and provide some variety. The main story of Upstairs could fit anywhere before the framing sequence of The Suffering (which leads into Galaxy 4); I'm inclined to put it earlier than where I've heard it, but I'll wait until I've experienced the last story of this season gap to complete the ordering.

The Great Man Theory of History
There are a number of 'pop' science theories of history, but one that has particular resonance for Doctor Who is the Great Man theory, which is actually key for this story.

The idea is that history is driven by the actions of great people (usually men), without whom events would have taken a very different course. The Alexanders, Napoleons, and Hitlers of this world shape the political stage, while in other fields we have the Einsteins, the Aristotles, and so forth. In reality it probably bears as close a relationship to actual history as statements like "the First World War was caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo"; but it's a very convenient theory for storytelling, focusing as it does on the actions and motivations of people.

Such as, of course, the Doctor. He is the archetypal Great Man, fomenting revolution, committing genocide, healing divisions, saving lives; damming time tracks over here, digging new ones over there. It fits very well with the colonial, Imperialist nature of his genesis: he has taken up the White Man's Burden, and gone out there to sort out the poor benighted natives. Those of us who love the show have to accept that this aspect is buried deep in the show's genes and cannot be expunged. This doesn't mean that it can't be inspiring and a force for good - I believe it can - but in the real world 'pop' theories are not good enough. We have to be aware both of the nature of stories and the actual history that has led us to this point. People like Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, David Whitaker, and William Hartnell may have manufactured their Great Man, but the rest of us have to learn to work together and listen to each other if we are going to improve this world.

I hope we achieve that.

Published:
Date: September 2013
ISBN: 1-78178-085-5

Rating:
7.5/10.

Next Time:
The Power Supply.

Episode CC8.03b: Upstairs, Episode 2: Dust and Empire

Warning: this review spoilers the menace as well as the location and some lesser plot details, but not the overall plot.

As usual, most of the review is going to be taken up talking about the writing; but first let's start where I left off last time, with a quick addition to what I've already said about the production. I found that the throbbing fungus noise got quite irritating after a while; enough so that it distracted me from the story a couple of times.

On to the performances, and Peter Purves seems to have warmed up now, though of course it's mostly up to Maureen O'Brien, who has a larger cast to portray this time. I found her maid's voice to be much better than her Doctor's, and Bartholomew showed that she can be convincing as a man as well. I did note that she uses regional accent for differentiation, something I do myself when reading; and part of me thinks this is kind of a cheat. But then again, it's certainly effective, and I generally don't notice it except in extreme cases; so why worry?

The rest, then, concerns Mat Coward's script. Once again the main cast are nicely characterised - the observation that the Doctor can always seem to make people tell him things, even if they do lock him up afterwards, is spot on. Steven spends quite some time in the comedy sidekick role he often takes in his travels with Vicki - something Purves does very well, on TV as well as audio - and his "member of the EMC" comment made me laugh. Once again Vicki is shown to be smart, although I did wonder when she learned about the proper rules of address for English "persons of quality"?

Speaking of which, the handling of class is done in a satisfying (if not exactly subtle) way. The classic servant habits of deference - which are not just an ahistorical media creation, although they had been vastly overgeneralised by the 1960s - are put to good use. (As is the automatic sexism, too.) I love one observation from the Doctor, which I'll quote in full:

"There exists a desire to be ruled, to be led; and at the same time, in the same psyche, there lives a realisation that the rulers are not up to the job. It's why mobs cut idiot kings' heads off, you know, only to plant another idiot king on the same throne."

Lovely. It's the servants, actually, who make this episode - their plans, along with their frankly bonkers loyalty to their Prime Minister, seem very "Whoish". Coward puts some other nice touches in too, though - the idea of Number 10 being bigger on the inside, for instance, or the TARDIS having a Smaller Scent Library, in which smaller scents are kept. We also get a bit more nicely integrated background information, particularly concerning the history of Downing Street. One odd oversight comes up when they are talking about Earth fungi not feeding on people - none of the characters have heard of fungal infections, apparently!

The story is wrapped up well with a nice, tidy ending, but I felt this episode lacked a little of the atmosphere we saw in Dust and Death. I can't quite put my finger on anything specific - the pacing seemed OK - so perhaps it was just the sound effects, taking me out of the moment. It was still very enjoyable, but because of this a bit closer to average overall.

Rating:
6/10.

Next Time:
Companion Chronicle 8.03 as a whole.

Episode CC8.03a: Upstairs, Episode 1: Dust and Death

Well, since my previous post I've had massive problems with internet access and my computer died. I've got a new one (another £250 we've got to take from something else), and the internet issue seems to have mostly been resolved; but I've been busy getting everything set up again. To cap it all, my PVR has just lost the ability to remember channel settings, so the only way to record anything is to turn it on, go through the initial setup, and then record the program before turning it off again. I think I may end up relying on iPlayer for some of the next series...

[Warning: this review contains spoilers for where the TARDIS has landed, and for what kind of story we are in.]

The narration opens with Steven, which made me think this was going to be like The Suffering - but it's mostly Maureen O'Brien, with Peter Purves simply providing Steven's voice. Purves actually seems less engaged than usual (his line "Doctor, we're lost in time" sounds particularly like someone reading a script), and I wonder if this is because he was recording separately and less involved in the process. Meanwhile, O'Brien's Doctor is not great here - she gets the intonation right, but (as is often the case with cross-gender impersonations) the voice sounds wrong. There's a jowly "old man" quality to it, but it's not really Hartnell's old man. This is mitigated somewhat by having the Doctor's longer speeches reported rather than quoted; but Purves can do an excellent Doctor, and yet because he's only the supporting actor he's not used to the full. It's frustrating, and I feel the same when Frazer Hines is put in this position. In some ways this is the best argument for The Early Adventures you can have!

Having said that, I love the Companion Chronicles, where you can get the same sense of interiority that you get from books while still having a strong element of performance. The lack of a proper frame weakens that a little, here - it's obvious from comments about her hazy memory of how they exited the TARDIS that Vicki is narrating this quite some time after her travels, but that's all we are given directly. Still, you can also extract something from the way it is narrated. I get the impression that this is an even older Vicki than the one we saw in Frostfire - though it might still be Frosty she's talking to!

One bit of characterisation that made me think was the comment about her fear of being a burden. This is a point that fits for me, with The Space Museum being the turning point where that ceases to be something that holds her back and becomes a driving force.

Mat Coward's writing is engaging, with some particularly nice descriptions, such as "the Doctor seemed to age before our eyes as worry stretched the skin thinly across his face". It's not an image I would have considered, but I know exactly what he means! The regulars' dialogue fits, with some lovely banter, and their characterisation is fine. There are some classic humourous bits - I smiled at the reactions when they first encountered the maid (there's certainly no salaciousness implied) and when Vicki described the Doctor's penetrating whispered asides - and there are more serious moments, such as when Vicki spots a subterfuge that the others walk straight into. Coward's plot structure is also very good, with a fine balance of humour and horror leading up to a delightfully wacky cliffhanger.

Which - so far as writing goes - leaves the content of the plot. This aspect I loved. From the beginning it looks as if we are in a haunted house story, and the three characters fall into classic tropes (the sceptic, the obstinate one who refuses to leave, and the sensible one who doesn't insist on finding a rational explanation before accepting what's happening), but this is skewed into something slightly different. I do think O'Brien's better on the more upbeat or exciting moments than the downright sinister, but fortunately there are few of the latter.

This is a story in which atmosphere is key. It manages to offer a sense of both space (with the seemingly endless parade of rooms) and claustrophobia (with the simple fact that it's set entirely in an attic, and the realisation that there is no way out) - I can see it being produced on TV as a budget-saving serial, much like The Edge of Destruction.

It's also a story about admiring the setting - in a way it's like a celebrity historical, but with the celebrity being the location! Because of where it's set I was first reminded of Aliens of London/World War Three, but another revived series story came to mind later: Gridlock. Like that episode, the location here is more the driving force for the plot rather than just a pretty backdrop, and that's clever.

In keeping with its era, this provided a fair helping of education, covering both history (Downing Street) and science (fungi, with the Food Machine explanation also bringing up a feeling of "forward nostalgia" for a story featuring a certain Professor Jones). It's all served up in a way that enhances the plot rather than causing it to stutter. It's particularly well woven into the travellers' attempts to find out where and when they are - utilising a window, receipt books, newspaper, a history book (I wonder if "A Short History of the Inhabitants of Downing Street" is real?), and the Doctor's encyclopaedic knowledge. Impressive!

On the production side, this is one of the rare releases where I don't think Big Finish got it quite right. The music feels a bit "off" for both the story and the era, somehow, and I found it almost impossible to hear the woman next door (even with headphones) over the fungus sound effect. It's not bad; but I've got used to this aspect being spot on.

And I'd better stop there, in order to save something to say about the next episode. I think I'll just listen to that cliffhanger again...

Rating:
8/10.

Next Time:
Dust and Empire.

Companion Chronicle 1.01: Frostfire

"It begins here." There are many stories for which such a claim can be made, but thinking about the first Doctor, this is the only real choice in audio. It was not the first Companion Chronicle I heard - that was Solitaire, although in my mind it hardly counts since at the time it was the only full-cast release in the range - but it might have been my second. (I bought Shadow of the Past at the same time, and can no longer remember which I listened to next. The pair of them sold me on the concept, and it then became a mainstay of my Big Finish purchasing, more so even than the Main Range.). Regardless, Frostfire was both my introduction to the first Doctor on audio and the first Companion Chronicle released.

What astonishes me coming back to this is the way that almost all the staples of the range are assembled right from the start. There's the two-voice structure; a more significant framing device than we've seen in the CCs I've reviewed so far; Vicki being separated from her companions in a way that feels natural but eases the burden on Maureen O'Brien; and the sound work making it feels less like an audiobook than I had expected (it was only the strong reviews that eventually persuaded me to give the CCs a go at all). Indeed, the music here consists of short and slightly weird snatches, capturing the feel of the 60s even better than a number of the later stories.

One aspect which is different is that this release, like the others in the first series, is only available on CD rather than download - allegedly since one of the participants (most people presume director Mark J. Thompson, who has not returned since) wouldn't give permission, though I have no authoritative source for the supposition. Another oddity is that there are no interviews or other extras, which surprised and mildly disappointed me even on this listening; perhaps I thought it would be different this time? The CCs started just after Nick Briggs took over as head honcho of Big Finish from Gary Russell and introduced the idea to their Main Range, so I probably just assumed the feature was universal. I'm glad they were introduced here, too, in the second series.

When Should You Listen?
Unlike The Suffering, this story is told from Vicki's perspective after she has parted company with the Doctor; and because the frame is fairly substantial - embedded in her future history as well as interrupting the narrative at various points, rather than simply sitting at the beginning of each episode - it tells us rather a lot about events we haven't yet reached in this marathon.

That makes this the perfect time to talk about a tension in the Companion Chronicles for marathon runners. There are a number of threads on Gallifrey Base discussing cross-media story continuity, and with the Doctors for whom the CCs provide the bulk of the audio material there are two schools of thought. One is the straightforward idea of listing them by the main plot (just like, say, a sixth Doctor story that has a cameo from the seventh at the end would work best in the former's timeline). The other is to go for a spoiler-free approach, which generally means placing it by framing sequence. In this scheme I would have delayed reviewing Quinnis, for example, until after The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Both ideas have merit. I've gone for the straightforward approach so far, although that will be adjusted slightly for an upcoming trilogy. If I ever do such a marathon again - just for fun, and not with reviews! - I may try the alternative. Who knows? I may like it better!

Published:
Date: 5th February 2007
ISBN: 1-84435-263-0

Rating:
8/10.

Next Time:
Mars.

Episode CC1.01b: Frostfire, Scroll II: Miss Austen Regrets

"What happens next in the story?"

Keith Drinkel has a bigger part to play in this episode, and although his character's speech is clipped and to the point - contrasting with Vicki's more florid, literary style - his role rather neatly brings the framing and framed stories into closer contact as time goes on.

Unlike The Suffering, we've known almost from the start that this is not a pure historical. Rather, it's a celebrity historical somewhat in the modern style, although Jane Austen is less at the heart of the action than fellow authors Charles Dickens or Agatha Christie. Indeed, while she has a larger part than Steven, Miss Austen seems more on a par with Jem, the boy from the chimney introduced at the end of the last episode.

This really is the perfect period to feature a chimney sweep's apprentice as a character. It sits in the uncomfortable gap between the invention of mechanical brushes in 1803 (the results of a prize competition, no less - shades of Longitude!), which took away the last excuse, and the new legislation introduced in 1834 to replace the (completely unenforced) act of 1788. We may be a long way from the end of this particular chapter of human misery (The Water Babies still has relevance nearly half a century in the future), but the practice is at least at the beginning of its long decline.

So it's a bit of a shame that Jem is a completely programmatic, stereotypical urchin. Like Valzaki, he's exactly the sort of figure we might expect from the 60s TV show; but the rest of the production has moved along, so we can't use "faithfulness to the period" as an excuse (even if we wanted to, which in cases such as this I don't). And sadly, this observation also points up the shallow characterisation of the rest of the guest cast. It's not a deal killer for the entire story - which has plenty of other charms - but it does damage it.

[Mild spoilers from here on.]

"I live it again with each telling."

I mentioned that the framed and framing stories grow closer here, and we do actually learn quite a bit about Vicki's life after leaving the Doctor. The struggles she's had living in history make me a little sad - part of me just naturally wants a fairytale ending for one of the brightest shining companions, and there is also my general impatience with the pessimistic outlook for the Doctor's friends expressed in my review of The Schoolboy's Story. However, she is not crushed or made totally miserable: she simply has to deal with a less-than-perfect world. And she has obviously continued to grow as a person, which is great - her travels with the Doctor have merely been part of a full and rich life. So, overall, it's not really a bad thing. And the fact that we learn so much about her is vital to helping us invest in the framing story as much as the 1814 section.

(Incidentally, it was also this which prompted me to refer to the episodes as "scrolls", since Vicki mentions when beginning the narrative that she is starting to read the first scroll. My alternative idea was to break it into four scrolls corresponding to the four tracks on the CD - the joint-lowest track count, I believe - but that was too restrictive.)

[And major spoilers for the rest of this review - skip down to the rating if you want to avoid details about the ending.]

"Perhaps next time it'll change."

The series of quotes I've taken here from Frosty - and what a perfectly Vickiesque name that is! - really set the tone for the structural twist which is revealed at the end to form the retroactive driving force of the story. (And incidentally, it was given just enough emphasis that I spotted it before the reveal, but not too long before.) I've recently been relistening to the anthology release Circular Time, which looks at the difference between cyclical time (for example, the seasons) and linear time (e.g., mortal lives); and this is at the heart of Frostfire, too. The story goes round and round in a timey-wimey fashion, and who knows? Perhaps the story can change on each iteration - certainly my second time hearing it (as with other twist-ending stories ) was not the same experience as my first.

But for Vicki and Frosty? I suspect not.

Rating:
Good, but not quite so good as the opening episode, despite a superb build-up to a perfectly judged ending.

7/10.

Next Time:
Companion Chronicle 1.01 as a whole.

Episode CC1.01a: Frostfire, Scroll I: The Eye in the Egg

And back to audio, with Maureen O'Brien's previous (and, inevitably, first) Companion Chronicle. Here she is not so strong on voices as the other performers we've encountered in this marathon so far - an aspect she improved on by the time of The Suffering - but she reads it beautifully. In terms of simply being a listening pleasure, I'd rank her performance in this episode right up there with many of William Russell's, which long-term readers will know is high praise indeed.

It helps, of course, that the words are well written. Marc Platt, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is strong on worldbuilding and not normally particularly interested in plot, with characterisation sitting somewhere in the middle (which is a different mix to Jacqueline Rayner's, but - in the right circumstances - one that can be equally effective). Here the 'alien world' conjured up is early 19th Century London, and his carefully chosen prose gives a strong feel for the setting, the Frost Fair in particular. Supported by some well-placed snippets of music and sound I had no trouble picturing what was going on, visualising it in black and white, although on a cinematic budget that the TV show could never have matched.

Well, I say I had no trouble imagining it, but there is one instance where that is not quite true. During the scene with Vicki first meeting the egg I completely lost concentration, and came back to myself after she had been revived. I rewound, and the same thing happened.

It took me four times before I could force my mind to focus on what I was hearing, and I did so through sheer willpower. Afterwards I was surprised to find that I'd only tuned out for about half a minute; it had felt longer. I also remembered that the same thing had happened the previous time I listened to Frostfire, although in that instance I gave up after two attempts because I remembered the gist and couldn't be bothered to rewind again.

This I found to be a bit creepy, in all honesty. Still, I suppose the odd shiver is appropriate for this story! Though, actually, what is it about expanded-universe Hartnell-era stories and extreme winters featuring cold-related creatures? Kim Newman tackled one in Time and Relative, now we have this.

Anyway, the Frost Fair (a title I considered for this episode, before hearing Platt's preference) is only one of two major locations, the other being Sir Joseph's soirée. The latter is the more humorous, featuring a very different array of supporting characters and Steven being admired and ridiculed in equal measure. It's not so colourful, in a way; but provides a nice contrast. Valzaki - a character we first met at the fair - returns; and this is slightly unfortunate, since he's a stereotype of the sort that we might very well have seen in the 1960s. Having said that, he is woven more firmly into the story now, which helps. More unambiguously positive is the introduction (just before the cliffhanger) of the chimney sweep's boy Jem, about whom more next time.

Getting back to O'Brien, she elegantly (I was going to say effortlessly, but I'm sure it wasn't) distinguishes between the adult Vicki of the framing sequence and the teenager of the main story, while still showing her to be the same person. The warmth and irreverent cheekiness is in both, but she's slowed down and grown more worldly-wise - even a touch world-weary - since leaving the Doctor.

Which does bring up the issue of the framing sequence, but for reasons of balance I'm going to leave that until next time...

Rating:
It's gripping, atmospheric, performed and directed well, with a nicely judged soundscape. Other than preferring full-cast dramas on the whole, what more could I ask for?

9.5/10.

Next Time:
Miss Austen Regrets.

Companion Chronicle 4.07: The Suffering

[Well, my apologies for not posting this earlier. This has nothing to do with getting behind on writing entries - I currently have four in hand - and everything to do with getting distracted. I simply forgot to post anything this week!]

This was the fifth outing for Steven in the Companion Chronicles, but only one of those (Mother Russia) had been performed by Peter Purves. The very first Companion Chronicle of all - Frostfire, performed by Maureen O'Brien with Keith Drinkel - will be coming up in this marathon after a book and a couple of short stories.

Which brings up the issue of placement. The reference to Steven's hair apparently seems to put it just before Galaxy Four, while his comment in the first episode that he hasn't eaten since 1066 seems to put it straight after The Time Meddler; and because of other stories in spin-off media these can't both be true. Fortunately, in this case there's a straightforward solution, and for once the framing sequence makes it easier rather than harder. Simply put, the main adventure takes place where the 1066 comment would imply, but Steven and Vicki don't get to make their recording until some time later, either because other adventures get in the way or just because they don't find the necessary equipment for a while. I may change this later - Steven could have been being deliberately less than accurate in his comment, quoting that date for effect - but I'm hoping it won't be necessary.

I am always happy to see Jacqueline Rayner's name on the credits; I still have to get the final seven Companion Chronicles, and I note that she has written Vicki's entry, which is exciting. (There are a number of my other favourite writers in that run, too - I do hope I can get more money from somewhere soon!) Rayner is an author for whom character comes first, but plot and setting are not far behind; basically a balanced approach but with my top priority in pole position. The Suffering is a good example.

What is particularly interesting is that she winkles out some extra personality traits for Steven from the slim pickings we are given in the TV scripts. (Purves' performance does imbue him with a fair bit of character but it rarely comes out of the writing, which for the most part treats him as a stock action hero.) I had been going to say that Rayner created new traits, but then I remembered something which I will talk about a little later in the marathon. Of course, Rayner also does something similar for Vicki, particularly in the final episode but it's not quite so impressive simply because Vicki was better served by script writers on more occasions.

In principle the cover is a fairly standard collage affair, but I like the use of the charge sheet for the arrested Suffragettes and the blending of historical London above and alien world below. The colour scheme is also unusual and effective.

Published:
Date: February 2010
ISBN: 1-84435-463-4

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
A short peek forward at The Three Doctors.

Episode CC4.07d: The Suffering, Episode 4: The Sharing

The finale to this story is very carefully crafted. It is even-handed, with all the travellers making a significant contribution to the solution, which is quite unusual and satisfying, so bonus marks for that.

Unfortunately there is a form of even-handedness that goes a bit too far as well. The section showing the appalling treatment of women - and, in particular, how bad it is for them in prison - places too much emphasis on women's involvement in the oppression. This feels like a kind of internalised sexism; while such collusion certainly shouldn't be tolerated or ignored, the way it is presented lets the men too far off the hook. It's not a fatal flaw, but it is annoying.

Other aspects of this section gave me mixed feelings, too. The sound work indicating the memory transfer was spot on, but the violins were too much. We didn't need them to emphasise the pathos!

I have no complaints about the rest of the episode, though, politically or artistically. I was pleased that the story rejects the rule of the vanguard, recognising that we need different skills and mindsets after the revolution than we do during it - something that the Doctor comes to know all too well, being himself more of a tearer-down than a builder-up. The anti-revenge message from last time is also not forgotten, and the revelation of what had actually happened in the fourth galaxy makes perfect sense. Even the reason for the recording is appropriate!

Jacqueline Rayner takes the opportunity to illuminate Vicki's psychology here, including giving her a two-minute speech packed full of thoughtful commentary on her motivations. It could have come across as heavy-handed, but Maureen O'Brien delivers it with an appropriately light touch. The words are carefully chosen too: "I've lost everything once, so there are no horrors left. Of course I don't want to die; I'm having too much fun. And that's the point." Or "I have been afraid, but it's a fear born of adrenaline; there was no pain. Pain doesn't fit in with jolly adventures." Great stuff, and bringing back memories of her standing in the space museum and declaring revolution with a joyous smile on her face.

Finally we have the second interview, and the revelation that O'Brien is enjoying playing Vicki again now. I was aware she wasn't an enthusiastic alumnus of the show, and the fact that the folks at Big Finish can do so much to make it a happy experience is heartening. I know there are a few for whom this is not the case - John Levene for one - but they have a high hit rate, and it makes them a company I am very happy to support.

O'Brien seems a little more thrown by the question of what would make a good setting for an adventure. Her suggestion of the English Civil War doesn't seem to have been taken up, so far, and neither does Lisa Bowerman's of the Restoration; although I admit I'm not entirely up to date!

Rating:
7.5/10.

Next Time:
Companion Chronicle 4.07 as a whole.

Episode CC4.07c: The Suffering, Episode 3: The Female of the Species

I have to comment on the cliffhangers in this story, because they are all very similar - too similar, in fact, for it be anything other than a deliberate choice. And I just don't get it - the second and third come across as boring to me. Still, that's a minor complaint.

This episode is very much a game of two parts, and just to be perverse I'll tackle the second half first. This is where the science fiction element of the story comes into its own, and where the main threat is explained.

And it's kind of familiar. This seems to be a "genesis" story for a race the Doctor and his companions have yet to meet, but will very soon. Which is kind of a strange idea, but in the process the themes of the alien's story are shown to be tied very closely to the historical side of things.

What we hear is nicely layered. There's the appalling treatment of the alien women, of course, and their desire for freedom is completely understandable; but it's also shown that the (equally natural) desire for revenge which came with it is not good, and has undesirable consequences.

It's impossible for me, from my position of privilege and safety, to know what it is like for people at the sharp end of such oppression. I hate violence, and disapprove of it on principle; and yet, in a situation like that, I cannot condemn the ones who use it to fight for their freedom. The only reason we ever got a National Health Service and Welfare State after the Second World War - two things I consider unequivocally good about British history - is because there were a lot of Working Class men with guns returning home who had been trained as soldiers and wanted some payback on their sacrifice.

Which leaves the revenge angle, and South Africa is my model here. There could have been a bloodbath after the revolution - many people assumed there would be - but the ideals of truth and reconciliation won out. Not entirely, of course, and the country has been left with massive problems anyway; but the sincere effort to avoid a revenge cycle has certainly been positive.

The first part of the episode - which I prefer, despite my relief that we have finally reached the point of significantly interacting with the alien aspects of the story - is almost entirely historical. (The only exceptions are the 'punishing' of the local doctor and then of the police officer, the latter leading into the second part.) The educational remit appears here with Constance's lecture to Vicki about the Suffragette cause and the reasons for it, followed by the scenes with the protesters and their treatment by the police. The combination is an effective way of showing both the rhetoric of protest and the reality, the latter being far more messy and ugly.

As well as this, we finally get to know Constance a little better. No longer is she a poster girl for those who oppose women's suffrage: now she comes across as a passionately committed supporter of the cause, naïve and unaware of her own privilege but definitely thoughtful and well-meaning. Of course, this is now Vicki telling the tale; and I wonder how much of the change is deliberate? My previous impression came from Steven's description, and I've already commented that he is presented as somewhat sexist. Given Jacqueline Rayner's history of good characterisation and of playing with the form (I recently relistened to the wonderful Doctor Who and the Pirates, an extreme example), I am inclined to think that it is.

And this adds another layer to my appreciation of the story. There is much less humour in Vicki's account so far, and she is the one who wanted to record the adventure. Despite Steven usually coming across as the more serious of the two, is it possible that he embellished a little to keep himself entertained while recounting his part of the tale, while Vicki was determined to keep everything accurate and factual? I believe so. And the realisation that I am not necessarily listening to an objective account gives this episode another half mark.

Rating:
6/10.

Next Time:
The Sharing.

Episode CC4.07b: The Suffering, Episode 2: The Piltdown Woman

The second episode maintains the standard of the first, with, if anything, even more humour. The sound effects and music are quiet and selective, which captures the feel of an era far removed from the constant soundtrack of the modern series. There's a reminder that this is Steven and Vicki recording an adventure at the start, but it's very short; now that Steven has got into the flow, Peter Purves can dive almost straight back into telling the story using his full abilities.

Mostly it's good plain fun, with the Doctor namedropping a fictional character (Raffles) and the farce with the Gladstone bag, the skeleton, and the omnibus. The drama on the clifftop never feels too dangerous, being more of a "how will he get out of that?" puzzle; and the horror is restricted mainly to the opening and the close.

Speaking of which, the cliffhanger is surprisingly similar to the previous one, and I hope that's not a sign the alien threat is going to be kept in the background much longer. I am more interested in the historical setting, but if you're going to have a pseudohistorical the menace needs to be a proper part of it.

So far, this is a proving to be a good story for continuing to develop Steven's characterisation. His worrying about madness continues, and he is characterised as sexist but gallant (which seems to fit), whereas the Doctor is both more egalitarian and more callous.

Normally, of course, this would have been the final episode of a Companion Chronicle, but here Big Finish experimented for the first time with a four-episode release (alongside having two voice actors from the TV series). It must have been a success because the two-disk story became an annual feature up until the end of the monthly run, and the use of multiple leads became even more common - The Flames of Cadiz being an example I've reviewed earlier.

Of course, being in the middle of the story means it's a bit odd to suddenly be presented with an interview! It's not completely unprecedented - it happened in the main range when they experimented with a serialised extra story, The Three Companions - but there's still something jarring.

Fortunately they studiously avoid spoilers, and I did learn some things. Unsurprisingly, like most of the cast, Purves prefers historicals. (When I met him last year, he said the story he'd most like to see recovered is The Massacre, with The Myth Makers a close second. His favourite SF story is The Savages, which he considers underrated. It'll be a while before I get there in this marathon, though!)

Something I'd never considered before was the matter of colour. Purves pictures his audio adventures in full colour, whereas I generally imagine them in monochrome. I hypothesise that this is to do with him being there when the TV serials were made: in effect, he saw them in colour then, whereas I have only ever seen them in black and white.

It also sounds as if some of the ideas he gives here for future stories of Steven were taken into account - and when I get The War to End All Wars I'll find out just how far they've gone...

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
The Female of the Species.

Episode CC4.07a: The Suffering, Episode 1: An Unearthing

Right, let's tackle the framing sequence first - because it's lovely! Having the two companions recounting and recording one of their adventures is such an obvious idea, I'm surprised it hadn't been overused by the fourth Companion Chronicles season. This one is so full of meta and cheeky comments, like "whoever's going to want to listen to it?"; and it immediately shows off the narrators' differing character traits. Vicki is fanciful, imaginative, teasing; while Steven is straightforward, a less confident teller of tales until he gets into his stride.

The fan-pleasing in-jokes continue within the main story, too, in particular the one about the 'alien landscape' that looks like (and turns out to actually be) a gravel pit. This opening scene sets the tone of the piece, lighthearted but with a vein of horror. Steven's frustration that the Doctor will never admit he's wrong comes through strongly - and I must say that Peter Purves' Doctor is excellent, really echoing the spirit of William Hartnell's performance.

Later on, Steven admits to being close to madness on Mechanus, but I don't think he realises quite how close. This certainly informs Purves' intense performance in his first few stories, and he recaptures that here. Steven hearing voices later on also ties into the theme rather scarily, as does his role in the (period-appropriate) cliffhanger. We don't hear so much of Maureen O'Brien in this episode, but Vicki's impish warmth comes through when we do.

Jacqueline Rayner makes very good use of the medium. For instance, one advantage of narration is that you can skip boring bits for one character while other stuff that we do want to hear about is going on in the same room, without it seeming artificial - and I didn't even notice it on first listen when this happens by Vicki's bedside! Another example is the comedy car journey, which is very much recreating early Hollywood. I love the idea that the Doctor drives the car as well as he pilots the TARDIS, and can picture how it would have looked on TV - except, of course, that money wouldn't have allowed it. The location shooting and stuntwork budget on audio is a lot higher.

There is a very classic feel to this story in other ways too, with Vicki a bit of a victim but the production making good use of the BBC's famous costume department. In fact, feminism definitely takes a back seat, with Constance described as masculine-looking, bridling - much as the Suffragettes of the day were depicted by their detractors. I can see how this fits with how she would have been presented if this had been made for TV in 1965, but I hope later episodes will provide a contrasting view. Incidentally, there was a very interesting talk at the History Live! festival last July, about the women of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and how they pushed against the attitudes of the time, failing to achieve any recognition from the British during the First World War (though soldiers of other nations were grateful for their help) but finally being acknowledged in the Second.

In contrast to the actual portrayal of women here, the discussion between Steven and the Doctor concerning suffrage is great. I actually knew the facts, but somehow hadn't really got a feel for what that meant in terms of limiting men's access to the vote. Seeing how it would have applied to Steven and the Doctor - fictional though they are - brought it home. That in itself is the best way to fulfil an educational remit - something the writer also did well in her previous story, The Transit of Venus.

Finally, hearing the name 'Piltdown' was enough for me to have an "aha!" moment - that's a bit of history I don't need to be educated about - and made me think I know where one strand of the story is going. I'll be interested to see if I'm right...

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
The Piltdown Woman.