8-5. The Beginning.

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

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

1st Doctor Audio Review Index

1st Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

7-7. The Flames of Cadiz.

4 episodes: The Morisco, The Justice of God, The Doleful Knight, The Queen's Pirate. Approx. 121 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Nabil Elouahabi.


THE PLOT

The Doctor and his companions find themselves in Spain, 1857. The war with England is at its height, with Catholic Spain in a fervor in the wake of Queen Elizabeth's execution of her Catholic half-sister, Mary. The Spanish Armada is preparing to set sail for English waters, and paranoia about foreign spies soon lands Ian in front of the Inquisition.

With Ian facing the auto de fe, the Doctor determines to free him by marching straight up to the king's palace, disguised as a Cardinal from Rome. It's a daring disguise - and a dangerous one, with the King Philip's royal secretary instantly suspicious of this strange old man who has appeared, demanding the release of a condemned prisoner.

Meanwhile, Sir Francis Drake draws ever closer to Spanish waters, awaiting a rendezvous with an agent who will tell him which target he should attack: Lisbon or Cadiz. History tells that the decision will result in a massive shift in world power, one which see England's influence rise as never before. But the Doctor's own actions may unintentionally put that history in peril...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: A combination of arrogance and fallibility is a large part of the First Doctor's early characterization, and writer Marc Platt uses that to good effect. The Doctor makes a serious error in judgment in the second half of the story, taking a dangerous situation and making it much worse - all because he refuses to take a moment to make sure he has his facts straight! He does apologize for his error (eventually), and Barbara admits that she understands why he did it, but she also doesn't hesitate to point out that the misunderstanding was something that could have been cleared up with a five-minute conversation.

Ian: Though he's normally a fairly pragmatic sort, he despises injustice. When he sees the Inquisition soldiers beating Esteban (Nabil Elouahabi) after burning his house, he acts before he thinks, putting himself directly in harm's way. His bond with Barbara remains evident. When he faces public execution, his strongest hope is that she does not see it. His outrage at the Inquisition is matched by his disappointment when he finally meets Sir Francis Drake, a childhood hero of his. The real Drake is little more than a pirate, in Ian's view, and falls so far short of the man he wants him to be that he cannot stop himself from denouncing Drake's shortcomings to his face.

Barbara: Barbara visited Spain in the early 1960's, and as a history teacher she is familiar with both the Inquisition and the Spanish Armada. She recognizes very quickly that they have not come to a safe period in history. When the Doctor makes his snap judgment about protecting history, Barbara is furious - not at his error, or even at his reasons, but because of his continued mistrust of his companions. She is also consumed with worry when Ian is arrested by the Inquisition, becoming withdrawn and snappish to a degree rarely seen. Marc Platt's script keeps the character feeling alive and organic through all these layers demanded of her by the story, and Carole Ann Ford continues to do a splendid job of bringing Barbara to life.

Susan: Oddly, for a story that's half-narrated by Susan, this is not a very strong Susan story. She largely acts as an observer of the more interesting interactions between the Doctor and King Philip and the Doctor and Barbara. The first person narration does give some insight into how she views her relationship with her grandfather, however, as she observes how her role is to protect him - sometimes from himself. She attempts to urge him to talk to Barbara, and tries to dissuade him from rash action, though she keeps his confidence when he refuses to heed her advice.


THOUGHTS

It's almost surprising that Doctor Who never attempted to do a story about the Inquisition. I say "almost," because any halfway serious treatment would inevitably be a bit strong for family viewing.

Even presenting a relatively sanitized portrayal, The Flames of Cadiz presents us with descriptions of torture implements and an unexplicit but still disturbing mention of victims "twisted with the signs of torture." We get sharp whip cracks on the audio track, sharp and loud enough to truly startle. This isn't Doctor Who villainy, with people locked in rooms with villains gloating at them for a bit. This was a real life horror, and the hopelessness of the situation as Ian describes himself and his fellow prisoners as cattle led to the slaughterhouse is chilling.

The Flames of Cadiz is at its strongest during the Inquisition material, which is at the center of the first half or so of the story. The Inquisition fades to the background during the second half, which is more concerned with the Spanish Armada and Francis Drake. But other than a somewhat clunky transition in Episode Three between one phase and the next, writer Marc Platt does an admirable job of keeping the serial unified. This doesn't feel like a pair of two-parters slapped together; it feels like one story that simply shifts gears halfway through.

The tone is appropriately somber. The Inquisition material speaks for itself, with fear and despair dominating particularly Ian's scenes. The Cadiz scenes near the end are also grim, the chaos of Drake's attack on the city described vividly enough to reflect Ian's horror at witnessing the loss of life. The climax is a fairly standard confrontation, with a villain holding Susan (of course) hostage - but the details of the surrounding chaos and the surrounding flame and smoke lends it an added dimension, and the way Ian uses the villain's religious fervor against him is memorable.

I also like the way the script creates a scenario with no real heroes. As Ian observes, who's in the right or wrong is dependent entirely on which side you are on. Drake is as callous and bloodthirsty in his way as the Inquisition is. The Inquisition is responsible for massive loss of life, but Ian reflects on the oppression of Catholics in England during the same time period. No one here is innocent, and the only particularly likable characters are the members of the relatively powerless family that shields the Doctor's group.

In the midst of a war that would shift the global balance of power, this portrayal feels right - and thrusting this particular TARDIS crew into such a grim scenario is strikingly effective.

On the whole, an excellent story, one that I will certainly revisit. Highly recommended.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Television Story: The Reign of Terror
Next Television Story: Planet of the Giants


Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

1st Doctor Audio Review Index

1st Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

5-6. Quinnis.

2 episodes. Approx. 65 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson.  Performed by: Carole Ann Ford, Tara-Louise Kay.


THE PLOT

In the early days of his travels, when the Doctor is traveling with only his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), he decides to take the TARDIS into the fourth universe to explore. They materialize on the planet Quinnis, a world gripped by a years-long drought. Materializing in Bridgetown, which actually is a town made up of a series of half-finished bridges, the Doctor is quickly mistaken for a rainmaker by the desperate townspeople.

He is taken away to make rain. In theory, he's pretty sure he can do this. In practice, the lack of a single cloud in the sky seems to make his efforts hopeless. Meanwhile, Susan acts as his go-between, bringing him various items and equipment from the TARDIS. She is accompanied by a new friend, Meela (Tara-Louise Kaye), an orphan girl who survives only on what people give her, and "they don't give much." But Meela has a secret - one which will soon leave Susan bargaining for her grandfather's life!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Writer Marc Platt proved as far back as the Geoffrey Bayldon/Carole Ann Ford "Unbound" stories, that he has a unique feel for the Hartnell Doctor and his era. Quinnis again sees Platt bringing the First Doctor to life, both in his intelligence and in his flaws. The Doctor admits near the end of Part One that he "got (them) into this mess."  His arrogant response to the plight on Quinnis that "making rain should be no great matter" effectively sealed Bridgetown's view of him as a rainmaker. He is fiercely protective of both Susan and his TARDIS. He shows great ingenuity in dealing with the situation in which he finds himself, but - much like the Doctor of the first couple of televised stories - he doesn't display much compassion for anyone other than Susan. Carole Ann Ford does a good job in suggesting some of Hartnell's vocal mannerisms. She's no vocal dead ringer, but it's easy to visualize Hartnell, which is the most that can reasonably be asked of any reader.

Susan: Ford is also reasonably successful in recapturing the innocent, sometimes foolish young Susan. Susan's compassion is boundless, and she is too trusting of Meela - a mistake her grandfather doesn't make, as he warns Susan against allowing the girl in the TARDIS even before he is aware of her secret. Susan is very emotional, and her rapid attachment to Meela and lack of judgment is used by the story as an explanation for why the pair went to 1960's London and stayed there for so long at the start of An Unearthly Child.

THOUGHTS

In The Edge of Destruction, we were given the series' first-ever reference to an unseen adventure. Susan recognizes the planet Quinnis on the monitor, and mentions that they had briefly lost the TARDIS there.

Building a story around a throwaway line from a 50-year-old TV show could be considered the pinnacle of fanwank. But Marc Platt is arguably the best of Big Finish's regular stable of writers, and he seems to have a particular feel for the Hartnell era. In his hands, Big Finish manages to deliver a story that is effective as a prequel to the television series, while at the same time being a story well worth a listen simply on its own merits.

As is typical of Platt, the setting for this audio is strikingly visual: a city of half-finished bridges, with houses whose fronts resemble the bows of boats. The reason for that last comes clear at the Part One cliffhanger. The half-finished bridges overlooking a low plain creates a genuinely interesting visual element, as well, because there are levels. Lower bridges, higher bridges, the lowest point (the plain), an even higher point (the mountains). It's fun to make your brain "see" this setting. It's certainly more interesting than just having characters in a room, talking.

It's also structurally very sound. The second episode sees the city come under attack from a most unlikely and bizarre source. But enough is seeded into the first episode, with enough hints about the "hungry ground," that it doesn't feel like a bizarre left turn when it comes. The groundwork has been laid, so it all works dramatically.

The first episode is a bit slow, with little initial sense of threat. It's still absorbing, though, and Meela's warnings and some smart sound design and music choices build in a feeling that Something Ominous Is Going to Happen. The momentum builds considerable steam in the second episode, which sees a pretty decent amount of action that is very well-conveyed. And there's a good payoff to a haunting prediction about Susan not being able to tell the rain from her own tears.


Rating: 9/10.

Next Television Story: An Unearthly Child

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

1st Doctor Audio Review Index

1st Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

3-3. The Doll of Death.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 73 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Katy Manning, Jane Goddard.


THE PLOT:

Jo Grant is meant to be attending a UNIT-mandated training session that the Doctor derisively labels "spy school." But when the Doctor detects a temporal anomaly at the National Museum, he insists on her accompanying him.

They find the anomaly in the office of Professor Harold Saunders, who has come into possession of an alien tablet. He refuses to let the Doctor examine it, fearing that the Doctor might be a professional rival looking to steal his work. Reluctantly, the Doctor and Jo leave - only to run straight back after an explosion in Saunders's office.

Saunders is dead and the tablet destroyed, but there is one clue: Mrs. Killebrew (Jane Goddard), an aging hippie they encounter at the museum. Killebrew runs a toy repair shop (a "toy hospital") in London.

The shop is in ruins, apparently gutted by an explosion that Mrs. Killebrew says hasn't happened yet. Jo and Sergeant Benton find a room of old dolls, which seem to come to life in their presence. Then time catches up with the explosion - and for Jo and the others in the shop, time begins running backwards...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Early on, he clashes with the Brigadier over having to fill out something as mundane as tax forms, a reminder of the sort of thing that makes him very frustrated with his exile. He hopes that the tablet's time properties will help him to escape his confinement, and he seems genuinely tempted to use it for himself. Despite the usual Third Doctor prickliness (and seriously, how did the often giddy and giggly First Doctor end up getting dubbed "the grumpy one?"), he remains compassionate at his core.

Jo Grant: Skilled at running interference between the Doctor and normal people. After the Doctor alienates Professor Saunders, Jo gives the man a warm smile and is friendly and respectful until he calms down enough to speak with them. She's also very impulsive, however. After Benton rescues her near the end of Episode One, she rushes right back into danger to help him. She also has a cheerfully materialistic side. During the long walk across a reverse-time London, she pauses to admire a pair of boots in a shop window. Killebrew sneers at her for being brainwashed by bourgeois capitalism, prompting Jo to reply that she simply likes the boots - which, inevitably, end up as part of her wardrobe.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: One of the few "off" character beats is the level of antagonism between him and the Doctor. Even in Season Seven, when they frequently did clash, the Brigadier wouldn't have accused him of "playing games" once dead bodies started showing up - and by the end of Season Eight, when this story is set, he was barely questioning even the Doctor's most bizarre impulses. This is made up for in Episode Two, however. When he, Jo, and Benton find themselves cut off from the Doctor, the Brigadier refuses to be ruffled, pointing out that this was the exact type of situation UNIT was created to handle even without the Doctor.

Sgt. Benton: When Jo insists on following up the lead on Mrs. Killebrew, an off-duty Benton offers to help. He rescues Jo twice in the toy hospital, first saving her from spectral hunting dogs and shortly after shielding her from gunfire. He ends up wounded but, despite increasing blood loss, continues to carry on, insisting that he's fit for duty.


THOUGHTS:

The Doll of Death benefits from some effectively creepy imagery. There's a reason that "living dolls" have become a horror movie staple. There's something intrinsically unsettling about seeing this thing that's human-like but not human suddenly turn its head. Writer Marc Platt makes this even better by choosing to use a Victorian doll. If you've ever seen one in person, you'll wonder that anyone would ever have put such nightmare fodder in a child's bedroom.

Somewhat to my surprise, this story didn't turn out to be a horror romp with living dolls. The doll is part of a more complex story involving parallel timelines, one moving forward and one moving in reverse. That's even connected to the doll via its palindromic name: Hannah, a name that's the same forward or back.

The story has some fun with the reverse timeline. Jo describes the difficulty of attempting to dodge people and objects moving in reverse. Damage is done not by an explosion, but by an implosion, with Benton's injury the result of a bullet going backward from a wall and into the gun that fired it. Key scenes from Part One are glimpsed again in Part Two when events hurtle back toward the beginning of the story.

Katy Manning's performance provides a considerable boost. When she reads the Doctor's lines, it's a bit surprising just how much of Jon Pertwee she captures. Manning is startlingly good at recreating some of the patterns of his line deliveries, to the point that I almost forgot that Pertwee wasn't actually present. Her Brigadier is also good, always sounding one increasingly miniscule step away from exasperation. With Manning changing her voice and delivery style for each character, this becomes less of a reading and more of a one-woman show (well, with a guest appearance by Jane Goddard).

My only serious reservation is the ending. The story just sort of... stops, abruptly cutting from the climax to the present day. It plays as if someone said, "We're at 70 minutes, and this is a one-disc release. Quick - wrap it up!" I emphasize that the ending isn't actually botched - you can easily enough put it all together - but I think a quick tag scene would have made it a bit cleaner.


OVERALL:

Outside of the rushed ending, The Doll of Death is a very good story, one of the Companion Chronicles' best. The story is clever and well-paced. The visual descriptions are strong.  Most of all, Katy Manning's performance is outstanding. The Third Doctor can be a difficult incarnation for audio performers to capture well, and Manning makes it look easy.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Television Story: The Daemons
Next Television Story: The Day of the Daleks

3rd Doctor Audio Review Index

3rd Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

2-1. Mother Russia.

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.

Previous Television Story: The Gunfighters
Next Television Story: The Savages

1st Doctor Audio Review Index

1st Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

1-1. Frostfire.

2 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: Marc Platt. Directed by: Mark J. Thompson. Produced by: Sharon Gosling. Performed by: Maureen O'Brien, Keith Drinkel.


THE PLOT:

Vicki has left the TARDIS and is now living as Lady Cressida, wife of Troilus, in ancient Carthage. But her time with the Doctor still haunts her. She pays her scribes to record a story of one of her travels, and she brings it to a prisoner to read.

In her story, she recalls visiting the 1814 London "Frost Fair" with the Doctor, Vicki, and Steven. By chance, the group meets the novelist, Jane Austen. They also witness a show by a Captain McClavity, showing off his treasures. Most of them are junk, but one catches the time travelers' eyes: a "Phoenix egg."

Soon after, McClavity is killed, and the egg is stolen. But that's only the beginning. The already frozen city of London becomes colder still, until fire itself burns cold instead of hot. Vicki is certain that it's to do with the egg. It's sucking the warmth from everything - and soon, the Doctor fears, that will include people!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: A relentless showoff. When he realizes when and where they have landed, he basks in displaying his knowledge. When Steven hopelessly bungles on the dance floor, the Doctor makes a spectacle out of dancing expertly with Jane Austen. After the crisis hits, the frivolity drops away as he confronts the life form. Maureen O'Brien does her best to capture some of Hartnell's mannerisms, particularly the "Hmmm?" he would sometimes use to punctuate a line, but she wisely doesn't attempt to mimic him. Instead, her performance emphasizes the Doctor's intellect and pride, giving the impression of a mind that is focusing on a few too many things at once.

Vicki: Maureen O'Brien slips right back into the character, recapturing Vicki's pluckiness, her impatience whenever the Doctor or Steven attempt to shield her, and her tendency to get herself in over her head. When Jane Austen assumes that she and Steven are a couple, Vicki's first reaction is to laugh. She thinks of him as a brotherly figure... though she'll privately admit to finding him "dishy."

Steven: O'Brien just slightly deepens her voice for Steven, rather than attempting to channel any of Peter Purves's actual performance, but it works well enough - not least because Steven is easily the least used of the regulars. He's mostly just the muscle here, forcefully ejecting an unwanted visitor at one point and standing between an aggressor and his friends at another point.

Jane Austen: The "historical celebrity guest star" and the most prominent guest character in general. If this had been a later Companion Chronicle, after the format became more set, I suspect she would have been the "second voice." She forms a duo with Vicki in the second half, insisting on venturing out into the frozen city. When they find themselves confronted with frozen bodies, Vicki castigates herself for not waiting for the Doctor; Austen, however, seems to be enjoying the adventure even after it turns deadly.

The Cinder: The story's actual second voice, the prisoner to whom Vicki relates her story. His role is almost entirely confined to the framing device... but it is a bit more complicated than that, and he turns out to be more than just a passive listener.


THOUGHTS:

Frostfire was the title that launched Big Finish's Companion Chronicles. I'm glad this one came first to set the tone. Instead of some generic runaround with returning enemies, writer Marc Platt offers a slow burn narrative with a strong sense of setting, good characterization, a creepy atmosphere, and some decent ambition... which is a fair summation of the strengths of this range.

Later Companion Chronicles would often steer toward being hybrids, part audio book and part audio play, with stories often conveyed as much through the production as the prose. Frostfire, however, is very close to a pure audio book. It's enhanced by some music and sound effects, but the story is entirely a reading, with the "second voice" confined to the frame. Listeners familiar only with the later entries may be surprised by that.

Fortunately, it's quite a good story! Marc Platt is one of Big Finish's most reliable recurring writers, regularly delivering creative ideas and structural flourishes. Most Companion Chronicles that even feature a framing device don't make it into a major part of the story. Platt weaves his framing device together with the main narrative in a way that builds to splendid effect at the end.

Frostfire is particularly strong on atmosphere. Descriptions are vivid: People praying in a church, frozen in place where they knelt; frost spreading across surfaces; the cracks in the egg when Vicki sees it; and the frostfire itself, the flames turning from red to green. Lawrence Oakley's music emphasizes the tone without ever becoming intrusive, and the sound design is generally well judged.

Maureen O'Brien does an excellent job as reader. She puts plenty of emotion into her voice, and she varies the pace of her reading to match the energy of the scene itself. O'Brien's voice is enough the same as in the 1960s that I had no problem picturing Vicki while listening - and, as readers of my Hartnell reviews will know, I was always very fond of Vicki as a character. Platt writes her well, showing off her relationships with both the Doctor and Steven. A well-judged aside has Vicki admitting to bullying Steven from time to time on the grounds that she was just enough smaller than him to get away with it, which sounds absolutely in character.


OVERALL:

Frostfire is a slow burn, with most of the action restricted to the second half. I think the slower pace fits the tone quite well. Still, some listeners will probably get restless.

I do think this would have benefited from casting a voice actress to play Jane Austen, with a few more dramatized scenes inside the main story. But I also think that's mainly to do with "teething issues" in a new range. Marc Platt was clearly avoiding having any additional voices interrupting Vicki's reading; looking at the first set of stories as a set, I'm pretty sure they were viewed principally as audio books, with sound effects and a second voice as enhancements to appeal to Big Finish's regular listeners, with the format evolving from there.

Overall, Frostfire was as good a start as The Companion Chronicles could have hoped for. There may be entries in the range that are more "fun." But this remains a very good story, one that's well worth the investment of a little time and patience.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Television Story: The Time Meddler
Next Television Story: Galaxy Four

Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who

1st Doctor Audio Review Index

1st Doctor Television Review Index


Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads