2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Nigel Fairs. Produced by: Sharon Gosling. Performed by: Peter Purves, Tony Millan.
THE PLOT:
After their misadventure in Tombstone, the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo decide that it's time for a vacation. When the TARDIS brings them to a village in early 19th century Russia, the place seems ideal. It is 1812, the year of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia - but the war is still distant, and they are safe for now. They can at least linger until Steven's new friend, Semion, is married.
But the night of the wedding is when it all goes wrong. There are lights in the sky that the Doctor and Steven recognize as a space battle, and an escape pod crashes nearby. Semion goes to investigate, and Steven follows to keep him safe. However, Steven is knocked unconscious - and when he awakes, Semion is behaving strangely.
Eventually, Steven realizes that the crashed ship belongs to "a thief of shapes," an alien who has impersonated Semion. By then, however, Napoleon's men have reached the area and are advancing on Moscow. This is when Steven would usually rely on the Doctor to set things right - but the Doctor is waiting to greet the French army, going up to Napoleon in person to promise him victory!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Talks his and his companions' way into the count's household, securing a position for himself as tutor to the man's son and Dodo as companion to his daughter, while leaving Steven time for relaxation that he can sense that the young man badly needs. He remains cautious of history - but when crisis strikes, he cannot make himself stand by. When the villagers begin burning food stocks to deprive the French army of them, he urges them to just hide the food instead so that they won't starve themselves. They don't listen, but at least he tries.
Steven: He knows he's pushing his and his companions' luck by agreeing to stay until Semion's wedding, but he doesn't want to disappoint his new friend. He later reflects that he should have left as soon as he walked in on the Doctor and Dodo worrying about their location. He's almost supernaturally non-genre savvy. Knowing that the crashed alien is a shapeshifter, and seeing the Doctor behaving oddly, it still takes until very late in the story for him to figure out what almost every listener will realize immediately.
Dodo: Writer Marc Platt writes well for this often poorly served character. Dodo is portrayed as friendly with the villagers and enthusiastic, which is entirely consistent with her television characterization. At one point, Steven is unable to get the villagers to answer questions about Semion. Dodo starts banging on windows, which Steven obviously considers pointless... until Semion's fiancée opens her window and tells her what she wants to know. She also expresses pity for the French soldiers when the Russian winter begins to fall.
Semion: The forester shows Steven how to track and hunt. As Steven notes, Semion spends a lot of that time making fun of his ineptitude, but the two enjoy each other's company and become fast friends. When the Imposter Semion wanders into the village later, Steven is concerned and tries to get the man to come back to himself before he finally realizes what has happened. Peter Purves does a splendid job of voice acting in this story - but I will say that his accent for Semion sounds less Russian and more like Purves's audition for a particularly hammy Dracula.
Napoleon Bonaparte: Only seen late in the story, after his army reaches Moscow. Though he's ostensibly won at this point, he doesn't behave like a victor. Instead, he's weary, perhaps already noticing on some level how precarious his army's position is. When Steven announces that he's on the Russians' side, Napoleon compliments him for his honesty - and orders him arrested, almost as an afterthought. It's an interesting characterization, one that makes me wish that his role was a larger one.
THOUGHTS:
Writer Marc Platt kicked off the Companion Chronicles range with the atmospheric Frostfire. He comes back to start the range's second season with Mother Russia, which manages to be even better.
A quality of Platt's writing that's particularly well-suited to this range is his economy. He is able to use very quick descriptions to create memorable images: A peasant village that contrasts with the count's estate; tracks from a crashed alien ship; panicking villagers burning their own homes and food stores; flames rising from inside Moscow. These visualizations are accomplished in a single sentence or sometimes phrase, making the world feel alive and layered without slowing the pace.
Napoleon's invasion is mostly a backdrop. Though the historical side works best if you have some familiarity, as ever, the Doctor still feeds us enough context to follow what's happening. We spend much of the first episode just seeing reactions to Napoleon's approach. The villagers anxiously ask the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo for news about the French; gunfire is heard in the distance; peasants from another village move listlessly along the road, having abandoned their homes and fled. It isn't until Episode Two that we directly see the French soldiers, and Napoleon only gets any real "screen time" near the end.
The story mixes genres effectively. There's the historical drama of the type often seen in the Hartnell era. Then there's the sci-fi plot, featuring an alien shapeshifter whose MO is more than slightly reminiscent of The Thing. Almost surprisingly, there is no clash in tone, the two threads coming together for a particularly strong ending.
This was Peter Purves's first Big Finish audio, and I think it remains one of his most impressive performances. His seemingly age-resistant voice allows him to recreate his 1960s performance as Steven, and he also does a fine job of capturing William Hartnell's Doctor. He even varies that performance just slightly when the alien impersonates the Doctor. It's the same overall "voice," but more abrupt and minus any sense of warmth.
This difference becomes particularly apparent when the real Doctor and the imposter face off. At this point, Purves switches between his normal voice (Steven/narration), his "real Doctor," and his colder "imposter Doctor" from one line to the next. It's so seamless that I actually forgot that all of this was the same actor!
OVERALL:
Mother Russia is an excellent story from one of Big Finish's most reliable recurring writers. It offers a strong sense of setting and an interesting historical backdrop, melding that with a well-turned alien menace. The story builds from a leisurely start to a gripping final Act, and the ending is exceptional, both the climax and the brief epilogue.
All told, I'd rank this as one of the very best Companion Chronicles.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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