2 episodes. Approx. 61 minutes. Written by: Steve Lyons. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, John Sackville.
THE PLOT
The TARDIS materializes in Vichy France during the waning days of World War II. The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie have barely had a chance to step outside before they are spotted by members of the Milice (essentially, the French Gestapo). They scatter and flee, but Polly does observe Jamie getting shot before she loses sight of him.
The Doctor and Polly manage to stay together, but they are cut off from Ben and Jamie, who the Doctor suspects have probably been captured. Their only hope to find their friends is to make contact with the French Resistance. With Polly posing as a French girl and the Doctor as an English spy, they manage to join a line of evaders being escorted at great risk to Spain.
Among these evaders is a British pilot, shot down over France two weeks earlier. As the man discusses his background with one of the suspicious Resistance leaders, Polly has a startling realization: This British pilot is her uncle, who was captured and eventually died in a German POW camp in 1944!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Though there is no questioning his brilliance, Polly has severe doubts about his practicality. The Doctor's actual actions seem to belie these doubts. He spends most of the story keeping Polly's nerves calm. He concocts a cover story for them to satisfy the Resistance, and keeps Polly from giving them away when questioned by a Resistance member early in Episode Two. His skills as a forger come in handy, as well.
Mostly, we see this Doctor's strong capacity for compassion. He senses Polly's self-doubts, and takes the time to directly answer them in a wonderful scene at the story's end. Anneke Wills doesn't attempt to mimic Troughton's voice (a good thing), but she does imbue a certain gravelly quality to the Doctor's lines. This, and a deliberately slower and softer line delivery when the Doctor speaks, conjures up the gentler aspects of Troughton's characterization, making a good fit for this particular story.
Polly: Has significant doubts about her own usefulness. She sees Ben as the pragmatic one, Ben and Jamie as being useful in fighting the assorted monsters and villains they encounter, and the Doctor as brilliant. But she feels that there's no real role for her, and owrries that she hasn't truly made a difference. That's one reason she latches so firmly onto the hope of saving her uncle. Anneke Wills, whose voice has not aged much in the 45 years since she played the role regularly, recaptures her 1960's performance very effectively, making Polly's view of the story's events highly relatable to the listener.
Ben/Jamie: Each of the televised stories featuring this quartet reduces at least one of them per story to "glorified extra" status, so it's appropriate that Ben and Jamie become glorified extras here. They are really only glimpsed at the very beginning and end of the story. Polly does spend a lot of time worrying about them, though. Not surprisingly, most of her thoughts turn to Ben and his pragmatic streak, to the point that she invokes his voice when trying to convince herself to take some sort of action.
THOUGHTS
Resistance seems to be a story that splits listeners. Its detractors dislike it for the reasons historicals are usually disliked by some: It's slow-paced, with no real science fiction twists or elements and a fairly predictable narrative trajectory. Additionally, some have complained that a pure historical is out of place in Troughton's era. Never mind that this could be said of any Doctor other than Hartnell!
As my Who reviews to date have probably shown, I'm rather a fan of the pure historicals. I regret that they were curtailed so early in the series' run, and I'm glad that Big Finish have redressed the balance by producing several pure historicals for the various Doctors. It's therefore probably not surprising that I'm in the other camp with regard to Resistance: I thoroughly enjoyed it.
There are two things this story does very well. The story only really has time to sketch out the setting of Vichy France, but it's a good sketch. The pilot's narration lets us know that a British pilot seeking aid from a random French civilian is as likely to encounter a supporter of the fascists as a Resistance member. One Resistance member has a cousin who is in the Milice. When the pilot asks if her cousin would "turn a blind eye" given their family connection, the girl shoots down that suggestion with a single look. The Resistance members are paranoid with good reason, and there's a real sense of them being under constant threat.
The other area in which the story succeeds is Polly's characterization. She isn't given any over-the-top secrets or traumas - This is very much the Polly on view in the late Hartnell and early Troughton eras. But by filtering the story through her viewpoint, and by making that story so personal to her, it gives her character that extra dimension that was often lacking in the televised stories.
The pace may be measured, but it isn't dull. Between the details of the Resistance line and the sense of anxiety and paranoia among the Resistance members, there is plenty in the narrative to hold my interest. Writer Steve Lyons does an excellent job of pulling the historical and character threads together, and I found the final scene between the Doctor and Polly to be particularly touching. Finally, Anneke Wills does a splendid job of reading the story, effectively conveying all of the regulars without stooping to mimicry, and at the same time giving a restrained yet highly emotional performance as Polly.
Those who don't usually like historicals probably won't find their minds changed by this story. But I found it thoroughly satisfying, as enjoyable on this second listen as it was the first time around.
Rating: 8/10.
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Followed by: The Forbidden Ones
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