2 episodes: The First Flight, Red Lightning. Approx. 62 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Carole Ann Ford, Terry Molloy.
THE PLOT
In the beginning, there was the Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan - two people who didn't fit within their rigid society. For reasons unspecified, but related to his disagreements with those in authority, they are forced to flee. They take refuge in an old time ship scheduled for the scrapheap. When it's clear their pursuers have found them, the Doctor decides to take off, launching himself and Susan off to places unknown.
But they are not alone - Quadrigger Stoyn (Terry Molloy), a member of a work crew dismantling the time ship, fell asleep near the engines, only to wake to the ship's departure. Stoyn insists they must return, but for the Doctor return is not an option. He destroys the man's homing device, making it impossible to contact their home world, and sets off to explore the world on which they have landed...
A world populated by The Archaeons, beings seeding life onto the infant Earth, determined to create a perfectly ordered society. When the Archaeons attemt to dismantle the TARDIS, the ship's defenses activate, sending the experiment out of control. The human race emerges, in all its disorder and violence, leaving the Archaeons determined to repair their experiment the only way they know how: By eradicating the human race!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: It's strongly indicated that he's fleeing arrest because his opinions have been deemed dangerous/subversive by those currently in power... Something that fits very well with what we know of his character. He falls instantly in love with the TARDIS, and is certain that with enough time he'll be able to figure out how to fly it perfectly (which is true enough - though he probably doesn't expect it will take several lifetimes). He's appalled at the Archaeons' plan to destroy the human race, but is willing to feed them power for at least long enough to distract them for a getaway, which fits with the more selfish Doctor of the early television stories. As soon as he's had the distraction he needs, however, he makes sure to cut their power, ending their aggression.
Susan: She falls in love with Earth the same way the Doctor falls in love with the TARDIS, which foreshadows that she will eventually find a home there the same way he will find one in the time ship. She's excited at the prospect of visiting alien worlds. At the same time, she's a very young woman who has just been uprooted from the only home she's ever known. She misses that home, and admits to wishing she could return. She is disgusted by Stoyn's willingness to destroy all life on Earth. When Stoyn tries to get her to come with him and leave the Doctor, she makes clear that she will not abandon her grandfather under any circumstances.
Quadrigger Stoyn: Bound by rules and procedures, he is aghast that the Doctor and Susan would take this obsolete time ship off their world without proper clearance. He is terrified by the unfamiliar, afraid to leave the ship without encasing himself in a protective helmet even when it's clear the Doctor and Susan are walking around on the surface with no ill effects. He is not just willing but eager to save his own skin at the expense of not only the Doctor and Susan, but the entire human race. Not because he's a villain with an evil plan - but because he's a petty, small-minded man who can't conceive of anything more important than his own life and well-being and his place in society.
ANNIVERSARIES AND CONTINUITY
The Beginning is one of several 2013 Doctor Who projects commemorating the series' 50th anniversary. Telling the story of the Doctor's flight from Gallifrey and his first flight in the TARDIS - A natural enough idea, and one that's had groundwork laid in the multiple pre-Unearthly Child stories Big Finish has already recorded. With this, Quinnis, and Hunters of Earth, you have a pretty decent mini-season acting as a prologue to the television series.
Writer Marc Platt is the perfect choice. He not only wrote Quinnis, he also wrote the "Doctor-who-never-left-Gallifrey" Unbound audio Auld Mortality (which, with a few minor rewrites, could almost act as a prequel to this). He's made almost a sub-career out of exploring the Doctor's pre-series background, and has created a consistent tone to the early Doctor/Susan dynamic across these stories.
He's also careful with his continuity. The Doctor's mythology as it's been created over the decades gets plenty of play. We recognize Gallifrey in the descriptions of the Doctor's home world, but names such as "Gallifrey" and "Time Lords" are never uttered - Nothing that hadn't been named in the Hartnell stories is named here, which makes it feel properly of a piece with the early television stories, and additional information about the Doctor's exile from his home is kept vague.
Platt takes care to reconcile his story with other bits of continuity from the television series. The Name of the Doctor saw Clara steer the First Doctor to the TARDIS. Platt has Susan pushed into a different vessel and hearing what we know is that very conversation... But at the same time, it's not intrusive if you're not familiar with the scene in question. Later, Susan comes up with the name "TARDIS" while wandering the corridors, explaining why she insisted in An Unearthly Child that she named the ship... While the Doctor clearly knowing that the ship IS a TARDIS reconciles that with the word's common usage later in the series. Again, done quickly and, to someone not aware of the continuity, largely invisibly.
THOUGHTS
The first part of the serial, focusing on the Doctor's escape from Gallifrey, is excellent. It opens on action, making us eager to know what's going on. We learn enough to justify the Doctor's hasty departure, with enough mystery left for another potential story at some later date. The opening scenes are drenched in atmosphere, and seeing the Doctor and Susan discover the TARDIS for the first time, and listening to their first-ever dematerialization, are things that are an absolute joy.
Much like the previous "beginning," An Unearthly Child, this outstanding opening is a prologue bolted onto a standalone story. About halfway through the first episode (a quarter of the way through the story), the TARDIS makes its first landing, signifying the start of the story involving the Archaeons.
The Archaeons represent the type of rigid order and conformity the Doctor has fled. They do not tolerate dissent, labeling the Doctor's arguments against them as "heresy." To them, absolute order is perfection. The chaos of life on Earth horrifies them as much as it delights the Doctor, and - appropriately enough - the Doctor's first encounter with an alien menace involves him saving the human race from them, before he's so much as properly met a human being.
It's all very enjoyable, and a fitting enough first step on the long journey to come. It's not up there with the great stories - the Archaeon story fits nicely, but it just isn't as gripping as the opening flight. Still, it's well-done and highly entertaining throughout. A fine new "beginning" to celebrate the series' anniversary.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
Next Television Story: An Unearthly Child
Followed by: A Big Hand for the Doctor
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