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

Serial T: Galaxy 4 (The Chumblies)

What went wrong with Galaxy 4? Part of it is certainly down to circumstance. Given that Airlock is by far my favourite episode mainly due to the direction I suspect that the rest of the serial would benefit similarly from not having been junked. This was John Wiles' first story as producer (although Verity Lambert was still technically in charge, her attention was elsewhere) and the first script-edited by Donald Tosh that wasn't written by a former script editor who knew the ropes. Nobody could have predicted director Mervyn Pinfield falling ill, creating disruption (although the direction itself benefits), and writer William Emms had to rework the script for a different TARDIS team at quite short notice.

Nevertheless, there's also some blame to be apportioned. William Hartnell acted very childishly, taking out his genuine upset over Lambert's departure on the production team, and the inexperienced Wiles badly mishandled the conflict. Tosh should have done more to rescue the script (particularly The Exploding Planet, where boosting the Drahvins as a threat - for instance, by letting them find a way to neutralise the Chumblies - could have made all the difference and been a relatively easy change).

Because it's the script that is the biggest problem. There are some fascinating and worthwhile ideas here, not least the demolishing of the way that ugliness generally equals evil - a fallacy that Doctor Who has struggled with throughout its history, from The Daleks right through to the current Capaldi season. But these ideas needed a framework in which to flourish, and what we got barely worked as an adventure serial.

Of course, I am not the target audience. Back in 1965, this was better received than The Time Meddler, with a higher average AI and better viewing figures for every episode - in fact, Airlock reached more people than any episode since The Web Planet!

Let's talk about the DVD release. This was an odd one. A cut-down version of the Loose Cannon recon had been prepared for The Time Meddler DVD, appropriately, but in the end it wasn't used. The discovery of Airlock meant the BBC wanted to get the new episode out there, and it was spliced into the recon; but what DVD could it go on? The only sensible possibility was The Aztecs Special Edition. Because of the lateness of the decision, artwork had already been prepared; so the only indication that it also contained Galaxy 4 was a sticker.

Even ignoring the fact that we have an existing episode, this is a much better effort than the Marco Polo reconstruction in The Beginning box set. There is enough, here, to get a good feel for the story; and if I want to experience it again I'll certainly be happy with it.

Right, I should also say something about the tie-in to The Suffering. Ignoring real-world broadcast and release dates, it does seem odd that neither Steven nor Vicki note the likelihood that the Drahvins came about because of events recapped in the audio, especially since they were thinking about it (and recounting it) just before Steven's haircut. Still, it does fit well, and Jacqueline Rayner's story adds some depth to the villains of the TV serial.

It's Thingy, from That Other Program, Part 5: Angelo Muscat
One name jumped out at me from the credits: Angelo Muscat, playing one of the Chumblies. I didn't recognise him, of course; but I knew who he was, because I'm a fan of The Prisoner, where he played the butler. Galaxy 4 was his first TV credit and he was fairly successful for a few years thereafter, also appearing in Alice in Wonderland and The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour; but after The Prisoner work dried up. Maureen O'Brien said that she spent a lot of time with the actors who were inside the Chumblies, and that because of their height they were treated as youngsters, much as she herself was. Muscat's last role was as an Oompa-Loompa in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; he died poor, five years later.

Isaac's Corner
We've all been struggling with bugs this half term; and, although his most recent virus has now passed, Isaac has been left with limited breath. He needs to use an inhaler and spacer device for the moment, otherwise he has virtually no energy. I'm grateful the holidays are coming to give everyone a chance just to rest! Anyway, he wasn't feeling up to writing Isaac's corner this time, but told me a few thoughts which I shall try to get down faithfully (as always, he focused mainly on the positive, a trait I really like):

The different societies presented in Galaxy 4 were interesting, and it was particularly good to see differing points of view on the same situation. Having said that, the story wasn't clear enough in showing people's motivations - for instance, why did Maaga shoot one of her own soldiers? It came across as something she did just because she was EVIL. Overall it was a nice, simple story - I wasn't wowed by it, but I did like it. And the Chumblies were cute!

Rating:
Mine: 3/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 55.51%, 172nd.
DWM 50th Anniversary: 57.98%, 210th.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.15, 210th out of 234.

Next Time:
Mission to the Unknown.

Episode 85 (T4): The Exploding Planet

Something bizarre and annoying happened during the writing of my previous review. I had three issues of DWM out on the bed for reference, but needed to go off and do some housework and cook supper. When I came back they were gone, and nobody knew where they were. We have since looked fairly thoroughly - I even checked that they hadn't been put in the recycling by accident! - but they haven't turned up. One was the issue about the return of Airlock, which is a fairly minor loss now; one detailed the sale of 60s serials abroad and (I think) the resultant recovery of some episodes, which is more annoying. Worst, though, is my copy of The Complete First Doctor, which has been my constant companion during the TV portions of this marathon and helps set the scene in my mind, even when none of the info gets into the review. That I will struggle to do without.

Speaking of struggles: as someone who is not comfortable watching recons, we are really entering a barren stretch. This is the first of an unbroken run of seven missing episodes, matching the earliest ever gap - Marco Polo. Worse than that, however, is the realisation that of the next 22 episodes, only three survive. There were only eleven missing in total over the previous two seasons, and two of those have been animated! Thank goodness for other media, is all I can say.

So, what of this episode? Unfortunately, the phrase that springs to mind is "a bit pants". I didn't bother watching the full recon this time, because (a) it wasn't based on stills from the episode anyway; (b) Peter Purves' narration on the audio release is enough to let me know what's going on when it's not obvious from the soundtrack; and (c) I couldn't be bothered.

There's so much wrong with the script here. Let's take the Drahvins first. OK, so they are a threat to the travellers when they catch our heroes on their own, but are so vastly outmatched by the Rills that they cannot pose a credible threat now that the Doctor-Rill alliance is in place. So that's one source of tension removed. Steven is rescued in the first couple of minutes, and after that nobody is ever really in immediate danger; which just leaves the countdown to destruction. Now, countdowns can work - even though we know they are going to make it, especially in the first serial of a new season - but the interest and tension comes not from the countdown itself but from figuring out how they are going to solve it, and/or watching them overcome obstacles. Here, the Doctor figured out what to do in the previous episode, the Rills make it plain that they want the travellers to abandon them and leave if time runs out, and there is no significant opposition. We are left simply watching them clock-watching, and only Steven's first encounter with the Rills even provides meaty dialogue.

Right, that's the script. Visually we know what most of it looks like, and my guess is that the destruction of the planet and departure of the Rill ship would not have been "oh wow" moments, even with the obviously competent direction of Derek Martinus. The Chumblies make their usual cute noises, so that only leaves the acting.

It's possible I'm projecting when I say this, but based on the soundtrack William Hartnell is really not on good form here. My guess is that his heart wasn't in it, and who can blame him? He's fluffing, and he's falling back on a set of stock Doctor mannerisms to an extent I've not noticed before. Meanwhile, Maureen O'Brien gets hardly anything to say; she's probably doing some interesting things with her facial expressions, but sadly we are now past our last view of her on-screen before her departure. Purves puts effort in, but then he's the new boy and it's likely he still has enough enthusiasm to carry him through a poor script. Stephanie Bidmead steals every scene she's in, but isn't as centre stage as before, while Robert Cartland provides a fairly nondescript booming voice for the Rills.

I normally complain about cut-down recons, but the twelve-minute version of this episode on the DVD is actually a much more appropriate length for this - and that includes the trailer for next time...

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 2nd October 1965
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 20
Appreciation Index: 53

Rating:
1/10.

Next Time:
Serial T as a whole.

Episode 84 (T3): Airlock

My regeneration into a 'proper' Doctor Who fan didn't begin until 2006. As a result the fact that some episodes of the show were missing had passed me by, and when I finally learned of it I was saddened. I did read with interest about the discoveries of the past, but it was all on an intellectual level.

Until December 2011, when I heard about the return of two episodes, Airlock and an early Patrick Troughton. I literally shouted in glee, then rushed around the house telling everybody (including a 'not-we', who was somewhat bemused but glad I was happy). I would never have predicted the strength of my reaction - if it had been something iconic like The Power of the Daleks or The Myth Makers, sure; but for a couple of individual episodes from minor, relatively unloved serials?

So, what's it like? Well, the plot's no improvement: space pilot Steven tries to escape but fails due to being scared by a Chumbley and ends up trapped in an airlock, before forgetting how differences in air pressure work; the Doctor spends ages trying to figure out how to sabotage an atmospheric converter; and Vicki learns that (gasp!) the Rills are good and the Drahvins evil. Oh, what a surprise.

Fortunately, it's a lot of fun to watch. The moving lights in the Chumblies weren't visible in the clip from the first episode (and so weren't included when they were reconstructed); this adds to their weirdness. Similarly, the Rills had previously only been glimpsed in a couple of poor quality photos, and we finally have a chance to see what they were actually like. The results are mixed: they look impressively alien, but their only animation is to rock back and forth, which ironically would have made them a great subject for the limited sort of animation Loose Cannon uses elsewhere! Both these character designs add atmosphere.

Seeing more of the set design also helps. The expansive Rill ship set is fairly unique - and a genuinely wobbly set to add to Toby Hadoke's short list! The Doctor's cry of "I can't move it, it's immovable!" is particularly ironic. We also get a better view of the relatively cramped Drahvin spaceship - which looks like Maaga has set out her garden furniture on the decking to enjoy the limited British summer weather. OK, so I mock; but I would much rather this than something generic. Even the (fairly bare) planetary surface is more reminiscent of The Web Planet than The Chase.

Still, the biggest asset this episode has, visually, is Derek Martinus. This is his third ever episode directing anything, and already he seems more ambitious than he did during Four Hundred Dawns (though there are also certain aesthetic choices there that stand out more in retrospect). Would the Rill spaceship have made such an impression without the shot down through the top panels? Probably not. And I am confident that we wouldn't have got that with the serial's intended director, Mervyn Pinfield, who mainly shot television as if it were theatre. Similarly, the Drahvins making very little eye contact, and the movement and positioning of actors inside the Drahvins' ship being so carefully choreographed, produces some quite unsettling effects.

And speaking of unsettling, Stephanie Bidmead is the other key component of the visual team. She puts in a stellar performance here, full of little facial movements that are so understated she needs to stand very close to the camera so we can see them. The way she expresses her frustrations over the limitations of her troops almost made me feel slightly sympathetic towards her, before this is turned right around the next instant. Steven's look of horror at Maaga's speech says it all.

The Doctor Who Restoration Team have done their usual meticulous job of cleaning up the episode. When it was returned to the BBC, there were a number of problems including a break in the film near the end which meant that almost half a minute of action was missing (as well as the credits); and a large, vertical scratch across Maaga's face during some of her speeches to camera. I couldn't spot either.

If it weren't for a casual conversation between Ralph Montagu of the Radio Times and former TVS engineer Terry Burnett - who had no idea that the couple of Doctor Who episodes he had in his film collection were significant - we would never have seen this. And before that, if someone hadn't rescued the cans from a skip when they were being junked - technically illegal salvage - they would have been lost in the 1970s.

Fingers crossed for many more such unlikely chains of events!

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th September 1965
Viewers: 11.3 million
Chart Position: 13
Appreciation Index: 54

Rating:
5/10.

Next Time:
The Exploding Planet.

Episode 83 (T2): Trap of Steel

In late June, during rehearsals for A Battle of Wits, filming was also taking place for Galaxy 4 at Ealing Studios with Mervyn Pinfield, who was to direct the serial. In the event Pinfield was taken ill, and never had another opportunity to direct the show; drafted in to replace him was Derek Martinus, who had just completed his directorial training. He probably had little idea of the minefield into which he was being parachuted.

Writer William Emms has gone on record as being very happy with the way his script was accepted largely unchanged, in contrast to many he had submitted for other programs. William Hartnell and his co-stars were less happy. Maureen O'Brien complained that some of her dialogue did not sound like Vicki, while Peter Purves - stuck with many of Barbara's lines - considered his character to have been emasculated. Hartnell also wanted changes, and ended up in a loud argument with Emms. This was effectively the first serial produced by Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles, while Lambert concentrated on her final episode; Wiles stepped into the fracas, supporting Emms and telling the cast to perform it as written. When Hartnell still objected, Wiles threatened to sack him.

The fallout from all this is going to have consequences quite a way into the future of this marathon, but one immediate consequence is the decline in Hartnell's performance I noted last time. He's pulled himself together a little for this episode, but listening to it I realised that I have never heard him say "hm" so often!

Still, for me Hartnell is probably the highlight of an episode where the plot largely consists of people walking from place to place. The way he tells Maaga "I never kill anything" is great - he's such a liar! Tell that to the Daleks, Doctor.

Maureen O'Brien gets some time in the spotlight, but I do think what she's given is not quite Vicki-like. Her deduction that the Chumblies can only hear in front of them - and how does that work, exactly? - comes out of nowhere, much like the distrust of the Drahvins last time.

As for Peter Purves... well. This is where the fact that he's stuck with Barbara's lines starts to bite. Purves has said that he wishes they'd played up the sexism angle further, that Steven should have wanted to be captured because the Drahvins were attractive women; and you can hear him trying to put a little of that into his performance. It's not enough, though.

This is the first of two episodes which are entirely absent, and that definitely affects my enjoyment. Loose Cannon put a lot of effort into the reconstruction - they had to, because there are no telesnaps available for this serial. The landscapes and cast are composited from various photos (the recon having been completed long before the discovery of the third episode), and a loving recreation of the Chumblies provides much of the motion. This completely distorts the balance of shots, though; if you can create interesting images of cute robots chuttering, chumbling, and jinking about the place, of course you're going to use that instead of the umpteenth repeat of a still showing the actors in not quite the right pose! It's indisputably the right decision, as well as evidence of why I don't personally get on very well with recons. For such a visual story as this, though, I still find them superior to my (generally preferred) narrated soundtracks.

Ironically, Galaxy 4 is probably the last serial to be junked before the BBC changed their policy in 1978...

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th September 1965
Viewers: 9.5 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 54

Rating:
3/10.

Next Time:
Airlock.

Episode 82 (T1): Four Hundred Dawns

[Apologies for the delay - it's been longer than I thought, mainly because of trying to find a time to watch it with my son, added to which the fact that the official recon combines the first two episodes meant some untangling was required. Also, life.]

Back to television at last - albeit with the first ever non-historical episode to be missing from the archives. It's not quite missing, of course, as there's a six-minute stretch of actual footage. This exists thanks to its being requisitioned for Whose Doctor Who, a 1977 instalment of the documentary series Lively Arts (which ended up using about half a minute) and then being rescued by Jan Vincent-Rudzki, president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, who was acting as an advisor to the show. I'd still call this a "missing episode", though; but I'll postpone saying more about that until next time, as I've a lot of other topics to cover here.

Starting with the episode's status as the beginning of a new season. Last time - with Planet of Giants - the story carried on pretty much directly from the end of season one, making me wince slightly for all those stories shoehorned in between. This time it seems pretty obvious that there is a gap. Steven appears more settled, and the tense mood of the travellers doesn't quite match with the end of The Time Meddler; in addition, the Doctor's comment about 'past experience' adds to the sense that this team has been together for a while. As a polymedial (multimedial?) fan, I give this a thumb's up.

This is pure chance, really. When the script for Galaxy 4 was first written Iananbarbara were still on the team, and mostly for reasons of time (exacerbated by the ongoing change of production personnel) the rewrites made to accommodate Steven's presence were minimal. Of course it's written as if this team has been together for a long time! (Other aspects of this weren't so serendipitous, but we'll get to them later.)

There are a number of continuity references which seem to be included largely to remind viewers of the previous season: in particular, Vicki comparing this planet to Xeros (the setting for The Space Museum), and the return of the astral map. We also have the next instance of Vicki picking a cute name - the Chumblies, this time. (I think this is also the last occasion on TV, though I've only heard The Myth Makers once.) The Doctor also has a signature character moment when he is talking about the impenetrability of "his force barrier", in a lovely, low-key humourous exchange between him and Steven.

When we concentrate on William Hartnell's performance here, it is hard to remember that this is still part of the second production block and being recorded a week after Checkmate. He comes across as particularly prickly, and is getting far more lines wrong than he did last episode - the classic being their "long-deserved, undeserved" break. This has more than a little to do with the troubled recording history of this serial - which I'm also going to leave until next time, since I want to save a modicum of space to talk about the actual content of the episode.

Steven is pretty darn sexist here, referring to the Drahvins as a delightful surprise and commenting that their spaceship has "a few good features" - with the double meaning obviously intentional. As well as explaining what Jacqueline Rayner was drawing on for his characterisation in The Suffering, this is actually really appropriate because of his backstory as a space pilot. In the 1960s, US astronauts were drawn from the high flyers of the USAF, and came from an intensely macho culture. Many (though by no means all) bought into that culture wholeheartedly; and this is the real-life background to contemporary images of "space pilots", while Dan Dare's attitude to Peabody provides an example from popular fiction that is no better.

So, the characterisation is fine, which is actually a pleasant surprise. Less well handled is the central issue of the villains' identity. The TARDIS team are instantly suspicious of the Drahvins for no good reason that I can see (or rather hear), with Steven apparently the only one who is even prepared to consider that they might be telling the truth (Vicki's body language in the main clip is telling, here). Maaga is also presented as almost entirely unsympathetic, so where is the mystery?

On the plus side, there is a pleasing symmetry to the two sides in the conflict. Maaga's Drahvin soldiers being vat-grown and lacking initiative - "not what you would call human" - makes them excellent mirrors of the Rill-controlled Chumblies. And the cliffhanger is both effective and of a style I don't remember seeing so far in this marathon.

I've rattled on for a while. Hopefully the next review will be up in not four hundred dawns, not even fourteen dawns - but four dawns.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th September 1965
Viewers: 9.0 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 56

Rating:
4/10.

Next Time:
Trap of Steel.

Short Trips, Indefinable Magic 31.02: The Power Supply, by Eddy Robson

I mostly know Eddy Robson from his audio scripts, where, like Jonathan Morris, I associate him with a reliable base level of quality and a good variety of styles. His strength there, for me, lies in his humour and humanity: his most enjoyable stories have either been straight comedy (Grand Theft Cosmos), or ones where he has combined the humour with weirdness (Memory Lane, The Condemned) or with a strong focus on character (Urgent Calls, The Five Companions).

The Power Supply falls more into the weirdness camp. The premise - which I won't spoil - is fun, and a genre clash I don't think we've seen before in Who. Robson then twists it in an unexpected way, and, indeed, he packs a lot of ideas into a small number of words. There's not much action (though there is a medical emergency the Doctor has to deal with that reminded me of Room for Improvement), but then that's not what the story is about.

The short stories I've read in this inter-season gap have been quite varied (except for the lack of historicals, which has been more than made up for by other media), and another thing I enjoyed was that Robson employs a very different style of prose to the others. It's not quite as polished as I would ideally like - early on he massively overuses the word 'day' over the space of two paragraphs - but other than lacking a final edit it is an enjoyable read.

Even though it's been revisited rather too often in prose, Robson manages to find a new angle on the TARDIS translation circuits, which is impressive. He also discusses the TARDIS having agency, which I don't believe has come up since David Whitaker's time. On the other hand, the epilogue made me roll my eyes slightly - it would be fine taken as a single instance, but it's something I've just seen too much of now.

Overall this feels like a lot of good things packed into somewhat too small a space. More room to breathe would have upped my score, I think.

Published:
Date: March 2009
ISBN: 1-84435-384-2

Rating:
4.5/10.

Ordering Stories
Right, since this is the last story I'm covering before the start of season 3 (have I really only got that far in my marathon?), I'm going to lay out my stall for an order. As usual I'm going to try to break up the different kinds of story (forward, backward, sideways) and the different media (comic, novel, short stories, and audios) - and here it really matters that we have frames in the audios, so I'm going to include them separately.

1. Are You Listening?
2. The Suffering
3. The Power Supply
4. The Three Doctors (first Doctor bit)
5. The Empire of Glass
6. Upstairs
7. Mars
8. Frostfire
9. The Schoolboy's Story (ends Steven's time as a new traveller)
10. Corridors of Power (has to be after they've landed on a spaceship)
11. The Suffering frame
12. (stories yet to come in this marathon)
13. Frostfire frame (after Vicki's departure)
14. Upstairs frame

I know this is incomplete, and at some point I'll get The Bounty of Ceres, The Founding Fathers, and whatever else has appeared in the meantime. I'll do timeslips for those at a later date. Long may the audios continue, even though it makes a definitive cross-media marathon impossible!

Next Time:
Four Hundred Dawns.

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.

Short Trips, Solar System 17.04: Mars, by Trevor Baxendale

I've experienced maybe half a dozen stories by this author, and they have been a bit hit-or-miss. In audio, neither The Dark Flame nor Something Inside have really hit the spot; but in text he has the benefit of a solidly entertaining prose style which lifts his more mediocre plots, and when the storyline sings too - as in Prisoner of the Daleks, for example - he is very, very good indeed.

The plot for Mars is exceedingly simple, and unoriginal to boot. That doesn't mean it's not a good one - in fact it's a classic, which is why it's been used so often - but it does mean that Baxendale has to work harder to make the tale enjoyable.

Structurally, the story is very sound, opening in the middle of the action and filling us in on the details of how we got to that point in a natural way as the plot progresses. It also stops in just the right place - as a writer I would have been tempted to drag it out a bit further, but this is definitely a case of "less is more".

As is common with this particular plot structure the peak of the action actually comes right at the beginning, and the rest of the drama concerns the consequences. This puts a lot of pressure on the character relationships - in this case, Steven with the alien he is trying to help on the surface of Mars, Vicki and the Doctor on Phobos Base with the crew (and an alien ambassador). None of the guest cast have much space to breathe, which is a problem, though the explicit focus on the thoughts of Steven and Vicki distracts from that.

Steven's part of the story - which is the primary plot, although similar wordcount is devoted to each - is definitely the better developed. There's some excellent visual imagery, and for once Steven actually gets to use his piloting skills! I can't remember this happening on TV, and certainly it hasn't happened in any of the audios I've heard so far in this marathon. Mars doesn't add anything particularly new to his characterisation, but it is solidly presented. The only exception is that he swears mildly, saying "damn you" more than once to his companion. This feels slightly off, since Steven comes from the clean-living Dan Dare school of space pilots; but it occurred to me that even if he was modelled on real air force pilots it would have seemed out of place, since they would use much stronger language! It's almost an 'uncanny valley' of swearing. Still, this is a nit, and otherwise this was a good use of Steven.

The scenes on Phobos Base, while not bad, are less successful. The Doctor's mannerisms are exaggerated - I lost count of the number of times he called someone "my boy" or "my child", he "hmm"s, grumps, and is generally something of a caricature. Vicki also comes across as slightly off. She keeps her childlike sense of wonder and hope, but displays less of her logical intelligence than usual, even going so far as to wonder out loud if, perhaps, they could get the TARDIS to work this time. It's made clear afterwards that she knows this is a vain hope, but I still can't see her saying that.

Still, I've nitpicked enough. The problems I've listed weren't sufficiently bad to stop me enjoying reading it, though they were noticeable enough that I got to thinking about what the point was of publishing the story: what does Mars add to this classic plotline, or indeed to Doctor Who?

The answer to the former is probably 'nothing', but the focus on Steven - and in particular his abilities as much as his good character - is something that was lacking from the latter.

And in any case, it was fun, and for me that's generally enough.

Published:
Date: September 2005
ISBN: 1-84435-148-3

Rating:
6/10.

Next Time:
In a change to our advertised programme, The First Doctor Tarot (Season One).

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.

Short Trips, Repercussions 11.09: The Schoolboy's Story, by Trey Korte

Repercussions was, I think, the first Doctor Who short story collection I read - certainly one of the first two - purely because it was on the shelf in my local library. At this point the only 1980s stories I had seen in their entirety were Earthshock and The Five Doctors, and my only experience of Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann's Doctors was the TV Movie. I had seen two full stories with William Hartnell (as well as his cameo in The Three Doctors). So it's ironic that this is one of the most continuity-heavy collections, tying into the then-ongoing Charley Pollard arc.

This is, so far as I know, the only Who story written by this author. It's certainly a lot better than Corridors of Power, but it's also a bit of an odd beast.

Let's get my standard complaint out of the way first: the business of the Doctor controlling the TARDIS. Korte makes a couple of excuses for it - the ship can home in on a time anomaly on the outward journey, and the Fast Return switch is used on the way back - which is better than some writers, who forget that it was ever a problem. Nevertheless, I do wish more authors would make use of the features of the period rather than trying to work around them!

I was also unfairly irritated when Steven refers to "your precious web of time again, eh, Doctor?" - another anachronism in a similar vein.

Having said that, the way that this is written is a big plus. Events are portrayed entirely through the eyes of the various participants. We get to spend gets some time inside the heads of almost everyone involved (except the Doctor, which I think is appropriate for this period of the show), but the principle narrator is the child at the heart of the story, Bobby.

Bobby is kind of the companion who never was. Apparently he travelled in the TARDIS for quite some time (though probably measured in weeks rather than months, since nobody notices him age overnight), but we never see any of his adventures - just the odd name or sentence here and there. No, this story focuses entirely on the aftermath of his travels in a very New Series way, even down to use of the "it was wonderful but it screwed up my life" vibe.

This is both a strength and a weakness. It's potentially powerful stuff, but also something I've seen too often now, and to be honest I'm a bit fed up of stories focusing on the Doctor as a messer-up of lives. Still, this is unfortunately what the whole collection is about. It reminds me in a way of the axis from some of the Big Finish audios where the Time Lords dump their mistakes, and is such a negative thing. I want the Doctor to be a bringer of hope rather than disaster.

Bobby's travels and multiple off-screen adventures also mean that by now Steven must be a TARDIS veteran, so further stories should see him after he's lost much of his new companion status. I may have to revise the placement of this story or others still to come to account for that.

Oh, look - a full-length review after all. Maybe I was premature in my prediction regarding short story reviews!

Published:
Date: August 2004
ISBN: 1-84435-048-7

Rating:
5/10.

Next Time:
The Eye in the Egg.

Short Trips, Steel Skies 8.01: Corridors of Power, by Matthew Griffiths

(Apologies: this failed to post last week, and I somehow didn't notice!)

Okay, I'm sorry to say this is my least favourite short story so far in this marathon, and as a result this will be a short review. I don't like to dwell on negatives.

My main problem was the prose, which I found a real effort to read. The initial setting and mystery were interesting, but I don't think the story managed to follow through. I admit I didn't even understand the ending: I picked up on the tone, but couldn't make sense of the actual events. The Doctor's explanation of the solution to the mystery was straightforward, but didn't seem to lead to the enforced decision the travellers had to take.

It's a shame because Griffiths obviously had a handle on the character of the TARDIS crew, and I think he might have had a good idea for a story; but here the execution let it down, to the point where I can't even tell if that feeling is correct or not.

You know what? I think I'm going to do short reviews for short stories, as a rule. Because I don't usually have so much to say about them anyway. Although, at a meagre 210 words including this paragraph, Corridors of Power will hopefully be the limit case.

Published:
Date: December 2003
ISBN: 1-84435-045-2

Rating:
1/10.

Next Time:
The Schoolboy's Story.

Virgin Missing Adventure 16: The Empire of Glass, by Andy Lane

As I was reading this, I felt it divided fairly well into four episodes. While I'm only going to do one review, I am going to give subheadings just for fun.

Episode 1: Politics and Poison (Chapters 1-4)

We open on Roanoke Island, and the explanation of what happened to the colony there doesn't, of course, fit well with events as experienced by the sixth Doctor, Jago and Litefoot in Voyage to the New World; though if you squint, you could say they were just about compatible. Those of us who like to pretend this is all one vast narrative across different media spend quite a lot of time squinting, I find!

Another squint concerns Steven's comment that he has been to the time of Torquemada. This is really an argument for placing the book later, I suppose, but everything else seems to imply that it's quite soon after The Time Meddler, as we shall see. It's also odd that the TARDIS should have taken the Doctor to the time of the Spanish Inquisition twice since leaving 1963 (The Flames of Cadiz recording the previous visit), but it's not impossible that they've been there since The Suffering - though I'd rather give Steven as few adventures as possible before this.

A harder detail to swallow is the comment that Vicki was happy on Dido. Really? I didn't see any evidence of that in The Rescue. Still, this is easily ignored.

Right, enough nitpicking; on to the main setting. Venice! Lane brings the city of the time to life very nicely, and I certainly learned quite a bit about Venetian politics and Galileo's life. I did enjoy the Doctor being mistaken for a priest, for example, being an idea very true to the period (both 1965 for TV production and the Seventeenth Century for plays).

One feature that surprised me was Steven's drinking (another was the introduction of Braxiatel, though I don't know why: it had to happen sometime before the Benny Summerfield audios, after all). This is one of the reasons I want to place this early, because it strikes me as being best treated as another after-effect of his captivity, and he actually seems to adjust quickly.

Episode 2: Ascension (Chapters 5-7)

OK, I said enough nitpicking, but I have to comment on the fact that we've got William Shakespeare again - and Christopher Marlowe, too! How many incompatible tales are there concerning these men? Someday soon I hope to get my hands on The Shakespeare Notebooks, which I am sure will add some more.

This part was less successful for me, partly because it fills in too much backstory in ways I found odd. The Doctor being agnostic isn't a problem, and although Vicki being so sensitive that she recognises the Doctor as not being human feels like an intrusion from a later time it doesn't really offend. But the Doctor describing Susan as "my granddaughter, if such terms can be applied to beings like us" just feels wrong.

I also found it hard to read Albrellian's speech. This is intentional, but it takes me out of the story in the same way as Venusian Lullaby, although on a smaller scale.

Episode 3: Towers of Destiny (Chapters 8-13)

The pace of the plot picks up here, and yet I find myself more interested in the characters. The scene where Bellarmine takes his cues from Revelations was both clever and amusing. I also loved the comment, regarding Shakespeare, that "the two contradictory stories sat together in his mind, indigestible and uncomfortable" - given the sheer number of incompatible stories about him, this is just perfect! The Doctor climbing the mast of the boat, however, is not. I know he's fitter than he appears, but there is such a thing as going too far.

I was also less than keen on the comment regarding the first Doctor acting against miniscopes - it's too much of a reminder that history really does revolve around him.

Episode 4: Laputa (Chapters 14-17)

The final episode provides a satisfying resolution, though again the historical coincidences grind a little bit, with Vicki coming to the court of King James I for the second time. Interestingly, although the Doctor's habit of saying "hmm" is commented upon, the verbal tic is not actually used that much in this book - and certainly not overused. Well done.

Missing Adventure 16 as a Whole

Lane's prose is workmanlike: it doesn't stand out as particularly inspiring, but it's clear enough and doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the setting and the plot. I could have read a legal electronic version of this, having downloaded it from the BBC website when it was available for free there, but I saw a reasonably cheap paper copy and picked that up. I prefer reading a physical book where possible, and this is one I think I'll be keeping.

Lane's inclusion of sources and historical notes was very welcome, too, and I wish more authors would do the same. Even if I never follow up on them I appreciate the touch.

Published:
Date: November 1995
ISBN: 0-426-20457-3

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
Corridors of Power.

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.