I walk to
work and back these days. Downside: I read a lot less. Upside: it’s cheaper and
it gives me an opportunity to catch up with a lot of Big Finish material that’s
slipped me by over the past few years. No doubt after a while I’ll fancy a
change and start listening to some old albums as well, but in the meantime here
are my thoughts on ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’.
It won the
2014 Audio Drama award in Doctor Who
Magazine’s 2014 annual poll. I can’t comment on that because I don’t know
what it was up against. But what I can say is that it was another impressive
set – not perfect but well-conceived and ably realised.
The set features
the return of Matthew Waterhouse as gold star Adric. This was clearly something
that Matthew himself instigated. Matthew is the most overtly ‘actor-y’ of the
returning regulars contributing to the Big Finish range. When interviewed the
others just seem to be having fun, slipping back into old shoes and enjoying
the material. Matthew has an agenda, he feels he is now ready; it’s a conscious
performance, trying to re-ignite the spark from thirty years previously and
channel ‘the boy within’. This may or may not be a personal response to the
persistent criticism his performances have received over the years. There is a
sense that he is constantly on the defensive, reminding fans that he has continually
worked as an actor ever since he left Doctor
Who, to counter these criticisms. As Matthew attempts to recreate his juvenile
Adric, the voice he adopts is almost
how he sounded in 1982, but because he’s concentrating on the tone so much his
delivery sounds rather forced (like he’s impersonating Derek Nimmo at times!) Therefore
despite being a more experienced and accomplished performer these days he still doesn’t sound very natural and he still stands out against the other
regulars.
However, it’s
still great to hear this transitional Fourth / Fifth Doctor team in action once
again, and to hear them served by material that very much plays to their
individual strengths in ways that the TV series couldn’t always manage. The ‘crowded
TARDIS’ seemed to be an obstruction for writers at the time, as they tried to
find something for each of the companions to do. Fortunately that doesn’t seem
to be a condition that afflicts Jonathan Morris or John Dorney.
First up is Psychodrome, a four-part story by
Jonathan Morris. Watching the latter Tom Baker and early Peter Davison TV
stories we tend to get carried along by the action and it never occurs to us to
think about certain missing conversations between the regulars. That is what
Morris rather brilliantly taps into, setting this story between Castrovalva and Four To Doomsday. So we get the companions discussing what has just
happened to the Doctor, how the change affects them, what their thoughts are on
this ‘new model’; we get Tegan and Adric clashing, Nyssa commenting on her
father’s death, Tegan thinking about her aunt’s death that was literally only a
few days ago (who’s doing the funeral?) It’s only when you hear such domestic
and character-building moments that you realise they were missing from the TV
stories - but you also realise how much it all adds to the reality of their
situations. It’s like getting a new job and then finding that the manager has
changed after only a day or so (this happened to me years ago and I didn’t like
my new manager AT ALL!) Would you stay or would you want to leave?
The actual
storyline of Psychodrome is, I think,
an episode longer than it needs to be, as the embodiments of everyone’s
opinions of each other clash and become self-aware. It can only go so far and I
started to feel it was becoming repetitive and frustrating in places just to
fill out the time. But it’s more of a character piece and the strength lies in
the way it pulls the crew together to work as a team.
Iterations of I, on the other hand, is simply wonderful in all respects.
It’s another four-part story, this time by John Dorney. It reminded me a lot of
the Sixth Doctor Big Finish story …Ish
by Phil Pascoe – but that’s not to say it’s derivative in any way. What …Ish did for lexicography Iterations of I does for mathematics. And
they’re both disturbing and scary.
Iterations of I comes between the TV stories Black Orchid and Earthshock, near the end of Adric’s time with the team. Tegan now
claims that she’s not fussed about getting home after all – presumably to pave
the way for her surprise and disappointment at the end of Time Flight when she gets left behind at Heathrow. Again I’m not
sure if this was ever stated on TV, so that’s another loose end tied up.
Iterations of I is pretty much perfect Doctor Who. It’s an engaging concept
with a seemingly unbeatable foe, and the story has twists and turns and
interesting characters to grow to like or hate along the way. The dialogue is
very easy and naturalistic – the first scene banter in particular is effortlessly
good. Again all the regulars feel like they have something meaningful to offer
to the story and the situation, even through chance (such as Tegan suggesting
they could hem the creature in). And although on paper this seems to be a
specifically visual story the soundscape created adds so much to the tension
and the moments of terror.
The extras included
with the box set are music suites at the end of each story – which are very
much in keeping with the era they represent, plus a whole CD of interviews and
behind the scenes material. The music I will listen to many times. The
interviews probably less so – but they are still interesting to revisit from
time to time. The real gold is in the stories themselves and particularly in Iterations of I. I can only be thankful I
wasn’t walking home on my own in the dark across the moors whilst listening to
it...
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