Adventures in Audio-Land
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been on a marathon listening session to some of the Big Finish Doctor Who Audios. Listening to them is something I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages, but as usual, there never seems to be enough time to do/listen to/watch/read everything I want to get around to and things fall off my list.
But - having listened to the odd one or two last summer I decided to make the effort and put several on my mp3 player - it’s a nice way of passing the time when I’m doing the ironing! Not being overly familiar with Six or Seven (I seem to remember that they arrived around the time that the Beeb moved DW from Saturday tea-times to weekday evenings, and I wasn’t always able to watch) I started with the Eighth Doctor. (I had a bit of a thing for Paul McGann back in the 90s. *g*)
There will be spoilers behind the cut.
Anyway, I started at the very beginning (!) because that’s my usual MO with these things. I’m a completist and like to work from the beginning, although sometimes that works against me. I like to see every episode of shows I watch regularly, and sometimes, missing one or two and not having time to catch up has meant I’ve missed out on watching some good telly. But c’est la vie. So I started with Eight’s first outings for BF - Storm Warning, Sword of Orion and The Stones of Venice.
Storm Warning introduces Charlotte (Charley) Pollard, who is Eight’s companion throughout these adventures (there are around 30 of them so far, I think). She wants more from her life than to just sit at home like a good gel and find herself a husband - she wants adventure and goes looking for it. The fact that she dresses up as a man and gets a job as a ships’ steward on the doomed airship the R101 may be a clichéd way of showing the audience that, but it works! As an introductory adventure, it wasn't bad, although I admit I wasn't bowled over by Charley. Sword of Orion is their second adventure together and it’s okay - not bad, not great, but it does have Cybermen which is a bonus. One thing though - I normally don’t complain about background music, but it really got on my nerves. I don’t know who was responsible for it, but that bloody repeated motif in the faux-brass drove me nuts. After that comes The Stones of Venice and er… yeah, the less said about that the better, I think.
But on the whole, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard so far, and I’m going to carry on working my way through the Eight and Charley stories; but when I’d finished listening to Stones, I downloaded a recent BF podcast, the EDA Retrospective - and after listening to that, I decided to divert from my previously determined course, and start listening to the later series of adventures which feature a different companion, one Lucie Miller - simply because I liked the sound of them. Nick Briggs said they’d changed the format (from that used by the stories in the “main” DW range) to be something akin to the rebooted TV version - 45 minutes to an hour, fast moving - and Lucie appealed to me right away, even before he started to talk about the similarities between her and RTD’s original idea for Ten’s S4 companion.
So I switched to listening to the “new” EDAs. There are eight episodes in each series of Eight and Lucie adventures, although the fourth (and final) series - which has just ended - has ten.
Lucie is foisted on the Doctor in the very first episode, Blood of the Daleks. She appears in the TARDIS out of nowhere and all she really wants to do is get away. (And yes, I know that sounds very familiar, but for all her similarities to Donna, Lucie is in no way a Donna “clone”) - and Sheridan Smith plays her brilliantly.
It’s no secret that the Ten/Donna dynamic is my favourite in all of nu-Who (probably in all of DW actually) - and Eight and Lucie’s is very similar. She doesn’t take any crap, she’s got a fabulous sense of humour, she’s brave and bright and resourceful - she’s his mate and they have a laugh and as their relationship progresses, you can feel their fondness and respect for each other growing. It truly is a beautiful friendship, and by the end of the fourth series in particular, you’re in no doubt that they absolutely love each other and would do anything for one another. Just like Ten and Donna.
Like the TV series, the audios take from a variety of genres. There’s a story based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe that’s very gothic; there’s a fabulous send up of Top Gear in which Graeme Garden out-Clarksons Clarkson and James Fleet is even wimpier than James May; an eco-drama, a caper/heist story, greek mythology, cannibal robots, an exploding sun, a send-up of The Apprentice… and Daleks, Autons, Ice Warriors (squee!) and Zygons, to name but a few.
Also like the TV series, the audios have attracted the cream of Btitish thesp-dom. It’s a long list including Miriam Margolyes, Samuel West, Jim Carter, David Warner, Stephen Moore, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Phill Jupitus, Samantha Bond, Nigel Planer and the mighty Sir Bernard of Cribbins - as well as using some of the actors who’ve appeared on the telly (like Ryan Samson (Luke Rattigan), Phil Davis (Lucius Dextrus) and Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie).)
Oh, and in an episode set in Nazi-occupied France, I may have actually squeed out loud when I heard the unmistakable voice of Clifford Rose. That might not mean much to some of you whippersnappers out there, but if, in the 1970s and early 80s, there was a Nazi in the script, then he was the bloke you called!
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the productions - they’re (on the whole) well written and conceived and there are some really outstanding stories. I’ve found myself getting really caught up in them - they really do have the pace and the energy of the TV shows; the casting, acting, music and effects have all been excellent and Sheridan Smith as Lucie is absolutely outstanding.
Among 34 episodes, there are bound to be a few duff ones, but even those are entertaining enough. Also, there are cohesive story-arcs running both throughout each series and between them, linking them all together. Events from the first and second series have a serious impact on Eight and Lucie’s friendship in the fourth; and there’s a mysterious character called The Headhunter who crops up at various points in S1-3, usually for nefarious reasons.
One of the things that keeps tripping me up is the fact that the Time Lords still exist - I have those sort of forehead-slapping “oh, of course they do - duh!” moments when they’re referred to in the present tense or when another one of them shows up. And Eight’s attitude towards them is pretty much what you’d expect; he’s not got a lot of time for them (no pun intended!) and he’s certainly not at all in awe of them. I know the Doctor has always been the black sheep of the family, but his disillusion with them is very apparent and it’s easy to see him becoming the Doctor who will eventually consign them to oblivion. I can’t see if ever happening because of the rights issues, but wouldn’t it be great to have the Time War played out so we could finally join the dots? I know that, in that EDA retrospective I mentioned, Nick Briggs (I think) spoke about the fact that introducing this range of EDAs for BBC 7 had initially been part of a plan to keep Paul McGann on board, because he’d been thinking about hanging up his wig and frock-coat… so perhaps if he does eventually decide to do that, that’s the point at which BF could go there, if they ever get the rights.
Thinking about it, Eight seems far more like a product of RTD-era Who than of anything earlier. I’ve not seen much of Six or Seven and I’ve not finished listening to his adventures with Charley, but it strikes me that Eight is more of an emotional creature, closer in temperament to Nine and Ten than to any of his predecessors. I suppose that’s not surprising considering that the first three series of Eight’s adventures with Lucie took place while Ten was on screen, and considering the links that many of the BF team have with the production team in Cardiff. I’m fascinated and intrigued by the idea that the writers are producing adventures for a character whose future is already written. It must - surely - be impossible for them to completely ignore what’s been happening on screen and I’m sure there are aspects of Nine and Ten that have informed the character of BF’s Eight, as well of aspects of One to Seven. I also find quite a few similarities between Eight and Ten - the passion, the energy, the humour. Sure, Nine had those qualities too… they just emerged differently, which is as it should be. He’s the same man, after all.
So if you’re feeling the lack of Doctor Who in your life and need something to bridge the gap between now and Easter, then I can’t recommend these audios highly enough. Sure, there are some episodes that are a bit naff, but those are honestly few and far between, and even then, there are always the dulcet tones of Mr McGann to mitigate the effect - in the same way as it was possible to while away the time through a lacklustre nu-Who by staring at Mr Tennant! ;-)
When I started writing this post, I was about half-way through the fourth series. I’ve now finished it (the final episode came out last week) and have to report that, even in audio only, and without RTD or David Tennant, Doctor Who is still capable of making me cry. Bloody show!
You can dip in and out as most of the episodes work as standalones as well as of part of a wider arc, but it’s worth listening to them all in order so that the bigger plot points make sense as well.
Max Warp (the Top Gear parody in S2) was a lot of fun, not least down to Graeme Garden’s impressive send up of Jeremy Clarkson! I don’t think it was an especially memorable story, but it was funny and the piss taking was affectionate and spot on.
Also in S2, I enjoyed Grand Theft Cosmos - a bit of a whodunit and a bit of a caper about a hitherto unknown 16th Century artist whose work could destroy the universe that moves at a cracking pace and features some recurring characters.
S2 ends on one helluva cliffhanger. Literally.
At the beginning of S3, Lucie thinks the Doctor is dead whereas he has, in fact been stuck on a world (which is inhabited by jelly-fish-creatures, one of whom is obviously a bit sweet on him!) called Orbis for six-hundred years. As a result, his memories are a bit hazy, so their reunion is … less than joyous. I have to say, I did feel a bit cheated on that score. Lucie had been so overjoyed to discover that he was still alive and so desperate to find him that the ‘reveal’ was unsatisfying and frustrating rather than OMG-dramatic. Also, other than a reference in the next episode to the fact that his memories of her and their time together so far are a bit rough around the edges, there’s no further mention of it, and after that, they’re pretty much back to the way they were with each other before. I think that’s the one thing I can find to say about these audios that’s a real negative, and I can’t help but wonder if it was done partly because the BF producers were wary of letting the Doctor get too emotional. It’s a contentious issue when it comes to DW, I know - but Eight is definitely an emotional creature (he was he first Doctor ever to snog his companion, let’s not forget!) and the way this was handled felt really “off” to me. There was talk in the CD extras of it being a way to refresh the whole Doctor/Lucie dynamic - but IMO, it came bloody close to ruining it. I suspect a pair of lesser actors, or actors without such obvious personal chemistry might not have been able to carry it off.
Okay, so having got that off my chest… the rest of S3 was fairly decent (The Scapegoat was pretty weird - and a bit squicky, if I’m honest) and I loved the two-part finale, The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web. I was utterly gripped by The Eight Truths - it was a corker of an episode which saw Lucie being drawn into the clutches of a strange cult, leading to the reappearance of some legendary baddies.
Oddly - like the TV series, series 4 is probably the strongest of them all. I don’t think there’s a duff episode in it and once again, there’s a very satisfying, series-long arc being played out.
The opener, Death in Blackpool was actually made as a Christmas special so it appeared some way in advance of the rest of the series. The Doctor takes Lucie home for Christmas in 2009, but they end up getting there a year early - 2008 - instead. Just as well really, because one year earlier, and they’d have been hearing the news about a replica of the Titanic hurtling towards the earth, and one year later would have seen everyone on the planet turning into John Simm ;-)
A story-line that was set up way back in S1 plays out and things don’t end happily for our heroes. In an earlier episode, someone points out to Lucie that’s she’s put the Doctor on a pedestal and that at some point he’ll fall off it… and this is where that happens. Lucie leaves the Doctor because he lied to her and she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to trust him again. Their final scene on the beach is a real tearjerker.
The Doctor: But - people are fallible -
Lucie: Not you though Not you.
The Doctor: Yes, me, Lucie. Me. I’m no superhero you know - I don’t have x-ray eyes; I can’t leap tall buildings with a single bound
Lucie: But you travel in time and space; you’ve got two hearts… you live in a magic box that’s bigger on the inside; you know all about… stuff. You’re the Doctor. You’re brilliant, and it was great, I mean really bleeding great and…that’s how I want to remember it. That’s how I want to remember you.
The Doctor: So I’m just a memory now.
Lucie: Yeah. The best memory I’ve got.
(he walks away)
Lucie (to herself): Yeah. I remember the Doctor. He was great. We had a great time. An amazing time. Then one night, he just disappeared in his magic box. Just disappeared. And I’ll never forget him. Never.
*waaaaaaah!*
So the next episode sees the Doctor doing an Alan Sugar and looking for a new companion. Although of course, all is not as it seems. I think this is the weakest episode of the series, although it’s by no means horrible and it does set up several elements of the series arc.
I quite liked Tamsin Drew. She only travelled with the Doctor for a few episodes, and as a consequence, she didn’t get much by way of character development, but I liked the way things were shaping up between them. She was as prone to giving as good as she got as Lucie was, but it was still a different kind of vibe. And let’s face it. Lucie - rather like Donna - is a bloody tough act to follow.
The mid-series two-parter - Deimos and Resurrection of Mars (Ice Warriors - squee!) were fantastic - I was completely enthralled, even if Tamsin’s departure did seem somewhat contrived.
And then - Lucie’s back - YAY! On the whole, given the time constraints, I think the reunion between her and the Doctor was handled better than the last one, although I can’t help thinking that, given what she said to him at the end of Death in Blackpool they get back onto good terms just a tad too quickly. But I’m not going to complain. It’s the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller… in the TARDIS. Just as it should be. *g*
And not long after the return of Lucie - we get the return of Susan! Now, I’m old - but I’m still too young to remember her first time around, so what I know of her I know from the odd clip or episode I’ve seen here and there. It was weird to hear her calling the Doctor “Grandfather” though. In another Christmas episode, Eight is determined to give Lucie the best Christmas ever, because of the way he screwed it up last time. Which, I suppose, wasn’t totally his fault, but - whatever. I found the way he was insisting that everything needed to be perfect for her to be completely endearing and while I’m not especially given to shipiness when it comes to DW, I admit to thinking OMG - he’s head over heels!. Okay, so he’d invited his long-lost granddaughter and her son to Christmas dinner, but it was really all about Lucie! Other than the companions who travelled with them at the time, I don’t remember the Doctor introducing any of his other companions to members of his family. Like I don’t recall his teaching any of them to fly the TARDIS. But I could be wrong.
*ahem*
Of course, Christmas dinner doesn’t turn out to be that simple, but there are a lot of nice references to things past, name-checks for past companions and a suggestion as to what happens to their rooms after they’ve gone. I couldn’t really see the Doctor tidying and hoovering them every day…
At the end of the episode, Lucie heads off with Susan and Alex - but she’s not gone for long.
And then we have Prisoner of the Sun - which I really enjoyed. The Doctor spends six years trying to save a couple of planets from being destroyed by an exploding sun and isn’t willing to leave until he finds a way to make an automated system that will perform the functions he’s been performing himself for that time. I think the best line in it has to be the only prison strong enough to hold you is one of your own making. (or something like that) because - yes, it’s absolutely true.
Oh, and although the Doctor is flying solo this time around, he has a succession of android companions who he imprints with Lucie’s personality and voice. With any other character, we’d call that an unhealthy obsession!
The final two-parter is absolutely stunning and heartbreaking - a real emotional rollercoaster. It’s Lucie’s last appearance, and - like her first - is a Dalek story.
I like the Daleks. I know that some people have complained that they’ve been overused in the TV series, but come on - they’re the evilest of the evil! The baddest of the bad! The Doctor’s arch-enemies (well, one of ‘em!) so we have to see them once a series, right? But much as I love seeing/hearing them, I have to admit that one of the things I don’t think the TV series has managed to quite get across is their complete nastiness and utter implacability. I think that having Dalek as an introduction to them for new viewers was a master-stroke, showing us the Doctor’s disgust, hatred - and most importantly fear, but I don’t think we ever got that again, despite their frequent reappearances. One of the best nu-Who era stories when it comes to the Daleks is one of the novels - Prisoner of the Daleks. The author really manages (in a limited format) to convey just what it is about them that is so devastating and thoroughly horrible, and also to explore the Doctor’s fear and loathing of them. But I should add that I’ve not read a huge number of DW books, so I’m speaking from limited experience.
Anyway - I have to say that I think BF has managed to succeed where the TV series hasn’t - quite. It probably helps that they have the Supreme Dalek himself (Nick Briggs) as Exec Producer and sometimes Writer and Director - as he certainly seems to understand the monstrous pepper pots pretty well and obviously has much more input here than he would have had on the TV version.
In the CD extras, Nick Briggs - who wrote these episodes as well as directing and being Daleks - made it clear from the start that what he was interested in was exploring the emotional lives of the characters in the story and that the Dalek invasion plot was basically secondary to that. He freely admits to nicking a First Doctor plot (The Dalek Invasion of Earth - which was Carole-Ann Ford’s (Susan’s) final story) - and his reasons for doing that make perfect sense. Also, not being familiar with the original story, I’d never have realized it was a repeat were it not for Susan’s own references to this being “like last time”.
So there’s no convoluted plot. It’s - Daleks invade - Daleks have grand, evil plan - grand, evil plan is thwarted - Daleks are destroyed - yay!
But that’s fine, because this is really a story about love and loss and the relationships between characters we’ve come to care about. It’s also a story where the Doctor starts to own up to some of his shortcomings, to admit that perhaps he’s become inured to death and that it’s time to call “enough”.
There’s a high body count this time around - we lose Tamsin and Alex… and *wibble* Lucie, who saves the universe by using a Dalek ship as a bomb.
And we’re left with the Doctor on his own. He’s lost his great-grandson as well, but his focus is Lucie. I have to admit that jars a little, but then I suppose he’s known Lucie for a lot longer and they shared a lot more than he and Alex did. He’s barely keeping himself together during his final conversation with the Monk - and when he does finally lose it with him, he’s pretty damn scary. You can almost hear him breaking when he tells Susan that she should travel with him - because he needs someone to stop him.
I suppose the universe was bound to do this to me sometime, wasn’t it? … Push me over the edge.
Oh, blimey, is it ever, Doctor.
He even contemplates going back in time to save Lucie - but Susan talks him out of it, reminding him that the Time Lords made all their rules and regulations to prevent chaos.
He doesn’t take Susan with him, though.
Finally, the Doctor, alone, listening to a recording that Lucie made for him. And as if that’s not sad enough, he keeps replaying it and filling in his parts of the conversation.
I love the last line.
One day, I shall go back. Yes. One day.
He could be talking about going back to save Lucie, of course - but I also take it to mean that one day, he’s going to “go back” to save someone who deserves to be saved, and to hell with the consequences.
Which of course he does in WoM.
I really hope that future Eighth Doctor audios address the loss of Lucie and the effect it has on him. At the end of To the Death it certainly sounds as though seeds have been sown, or a trail of breadcrumbs laid - pointing towards the man that Eight will become after the Time War - a broken, angry survivor with a god-complex and who carries a burden of guilt the size of a planet.
Nick Briggs indicated in the extras that that we will get to “see” the fallout from this - and it’s right that we should, if for no other reason than that Lucie Miller was fucking awesome and she deserves to be mourned.
But - having listened to the odd one or two last summer I decided to make the effort and put several on my mp3 player - it’s a nice way of passing the time when I’m doing the ironing! Not being overly familiar with Six or Seven (I seem to remember that they arrived around the time that the Beeb moved DW from Saturday tea-times to weekday evenings, and I wasn’t always able to watch) I started with the Eighth Doctor. (I had a bit of a thing for Paul McGann back in the 90s. *g*)
There will be spoilers behind the cut.
Anyway, I started at the very beginning (!) because that’s my usual MO with these things. I’m a completist and like to work from the beginning, although sometimes that works against me. I like to see every episode of shows I watch regularly, and sometimes, missing one or two and not having time to catch up has meant I’ve missed out on watching some good telly. But c’est la vie. So I started with Eight’s first outings for BF - Storm Warning, Sword of Orion and The Stones of Venice.
Storm Warning introduces Charlotte (Charley) Pollard, who is Eight’s companion throughout these adventures (there are around 30 of them so far, I think). She wants more from her life than to just sit at home like a good gel and find herself a husband - she wants adventure and goes looking for it. The fact that she dresses up as a man and gets a job as a ships’ steward on the doomed airship the R101 may be a clichéd way of showing the audience that, but it works! As an introductory adventure, it wasn't bad, although I admit I wasn't bowled over by Charley. Sword of Orion is their second adventure together and it’s okay - not bad, not great, but it does have Cybermen which is a bonus. One thing though - I normally don’t complain about background music, but it really got on my nerves. I don’t know who was responsible for it, but that bloody repeated motif in the faux-brass drove me nuts. After that comes The Stones of Venice and er… yeah, the less said about that the better, I think.
But on the whole, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard so far, and I’m going to carry on working my way through the Eight and Charley stories; but when I’d finished listening to Stones, I downloaded a recent BF podcast, the EDA Retrospective - and after listening to that, I decided to divert from my previously determined course, and start listening to the later series of adventures which feature a different companion, one Lucie Miller - simply because I liked the sound of them. Nick Briggs said they’d changed the format (from that used by the stories in the “main” DW range) to be something akin to the rebooted TV version - 45 minutes to an hour, fast moving - and Lucie appealed to me right away, even before he started to talk about the similarities between her and RTD’s original idea for Ten’s S4 companion.
So I switched to listening to the “new” EDAs. There are eight episodes in each series of Eight and Lucie adventures, although the fourth (and final) series - which has just ended - has ten.
Lucie is foisted on the Doctor in the very first episode, Blood of the Daleks. She appears in the TARDIS out of nowhere and all she really wants to do is get away. (And yes, I know that sounds very familiar, but for all her similarities to Donna, Lucie is in no way a Donna “clone”) - and Sheridan Smith plays her brilliantly.
It’s no secret that the Ten/Donna dynamic is my favourite in all of nu-Who (probably in all of DW actually) - and Eight and Lucie’s is very similar. She doesn’t take any crap, she’s got a fabulous sense of humour, she’s brave and bright and resourceful - she’s his mate and they have a laugh and as their relationship progresses, you can feel their fondness and respect for each other growing. It truly is a beautiful friendship, and by the end of the fourth series in particular, you’re in no doubt that they absolutely love each other and would do anything for one another. Just like Ten and Donna.
Like the TV series, the audios take from a variety of genres. There’s a story based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe that’s very gothic; there’s a fabulous send up of Top Gear in which Graeme Garden out-Clarksons Clarkson and James Fleet is even wimpier than James May; an eco-drama, a caper/heist story, greek mythology, cannibal robots, an exploding sun, a send-up of The Apprentice… and Daleks, Autons, Ice Warriors (squee!) and Zygons, to name but a few.
Also like the TV series, the audios have attracted the cream of Btitish thesp-dom. It’s a long list including Miriam Margolyes, Samuel West, Jim Carter, David Warner, Stephen Moore, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Phill Jupitus, Samantha Bond, Nigel Planer and the mighty Sir Bernard of Cribbins - as well as using some of the actors who’ve appeared on the telly (like Ryan Samson (Luke Rattigan), Phil Davis (Lucius Dextrus) and Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie).)
Oh, and in an episode set in Nazi-occupied France, I may have actually squeed out loud when I heard the unmistakable voice of Clifford Rose. That might not mean much to some of you whippersnappers out there, but if, in the 1970s and early 80s, there was a Nazi in the script, then he was the bloke you called!
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the productions - they’re (on the whole) well written and conceived and there are some really outstanding stories. I’ve found myself getting really caught up in them - they really do have the pace and the energy of the TV shows; the casting, acting, music and effects have all been excellent and Sheridan Smith as Lucie is absolutely outstanding.
Among 34 episodes, there are bound to be a few duff ones, but even those are entertaining enough. Also, there are cohesive story-arcs running both throughout each series and between them, linking them all together. Events from the first and second series have a serious impact on Eight and Lucie’s friendship in the fourth; and there’s a mysterious character called The Headhunter who crops up at various points in S1-3, usually for nefarious reasons.
One of the things that keeps tripping me up is the fact that the Time Lords still exist - I have those sort of forehead-slapping “oh, of course they do - duh!” moments when they’re referred to in the present tense or when another one of them shows up. And Eight’s attitude towards them is pretty much what you’d expect; he’s not got a lot of time for them (no pun intended!) and he’s certainly not at all in awe of them. I know the Doctor has always been the black sheep of the family, but his disillusion with them is very apparent and it’s easy to see him becoming the Doctor who will eventually consign them to oblivion. I can’t see if ever happening because of the rights issues, but wouldn’t it be great to have the Time War played out so we could finally join the dots? I know that, in that EDA retrospective I mentioned, Nick Briggs (I think) spoke about the fact that introducing this range of EDAs for BBC 7 had initially been part of a plan to keep Paul McGann on board, because he’d been thinking about hanging up his wig and frock-coat… so perhaps if he does eventually decide to do that, that’s the point at which BF could go there, if they ever get the rights.
Thinking about it, Eight seems far more like a product of RTD-era Who than of anything earlier. I’ve not seen much of Six or Seven and I’ve not finished listening to his adventures with Charley, but it strikes me that Eight is more of an emotional creature, closer in temperament to Nine and Ten than to any of his predecessors. I suppose that’s not surprising considering that the first three series of Eight’s adventures with Lucie took place while Ten was on screen, and considering the links that many of the BF team have with the production team in Cardiff. I’m fascinated and intrigued by the idea that the writers are producing adventures for a character whose future is already written. It must - surely - be impossible for them to completely ignore what’s been happening on screen and I’m sure there are aspects of Nine and Ten that have informed the character of BF’s Eight, as well of aspects of One to Seven. I also find quite a few similarities between Eight and Ten - the passion, the energy, the humour. Sure, Nine had those qualities too… they just emerged differently, which is as it should be. He’s the same man, after all.
So if you’re feeling the lack of Doctor Who in your life and need something to bridge the gap between now and Easter, then I can’t recommend these audios highly enough. Sure, there are some episodes that are a bit naff, but those are honestly few and far between, and even then, there are always the dulcet tones of Mr McGann to mitigate the effect - in the same way as it was possible to while away the time through a lacklustre nu-Who by staring at Mr Tennant! ;-)
When I started writing this post, I was about half-way through the fourth series. I’ve now finished it (the final episode came out last week) and have to report that, even in audio only, and without RTD or David Tennant, Doctor Who is still capable of making me cry. Bloody show!
You can dip in and out as most of the episodes work as standalones as well as of part of a wider arc, but it’s worth listening to them all in order so that the bigger plot points make sense as well.
Max Warp (the Top Gear parody in S2) was a lot of fun, not least down to Graeme Garden’s impressive send up of Jeremy Clarkson! I don’t think it was an especially memorable story, but it was funny and the piss taking was affectionate and spot on.
Also in S2, I enjoyed Grand Theft Cosmos - a bit of a whodunit and a bit of a caper about a hitherto unknown 16th Century artist whose work could destroy the universe that moves at a cracking pace and features some recurring characters.
S2 ends on one helluva cliffhanger. Literally.
At the beginning of S3, Lucie thinks the Doctor is dead whereas he has, in fact been stuck on a world (which is inhabited by jelly-fish-creatures, one of whom is obviously a bit sweet on him!) called Orbis for six-hundred years. As a result, his memories are a bit hazy, so their reunion is … less than joyous. I have to say, I did feel a bit cheated on that score. Lucie had been so overjoyed to discover that he was still alive and so desperate to find him that the ‘reveal’ was unsatisfying and frustrating rather than OMG-dramatic. Also, other than a reference in the next episode to the fact that his memories of her and their time together so far are a bit rough around the edges, there’s no further mention of it, and after that, they’re pretty much back to the way they were with each other before. I think that’s the one thing I can find to say about these audios that’s a real negative, and I can’t help but wonder if it was done partly because the BF producers were wary of letting the Doctor get too emotional. It’s a contentious issue when it comes to DW, I know - but Eight is definitely an emotional creature (he was he first Doctor ever to snog his companion, let’s not forget!) and the way this was handled felt really “off” to me. There was talk in the CD extras of it being a way to refresh the whole Doctor/Lucie dynamic - but IMO, it came bloody close to ruining it. I suspect a pair of lesser actors, or actors without such obvious personal chemistry might not have been able to carry it off.
Okay, so having got that off my chest… the rest of S3 was fairly decent (The Scapegoat was pretty weird - and a bit squicky, if I’m honest) and I loved the two-part finale, The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web. I was utterly gripped by The Eight Truths - it was a corker of an episode which saw Lucie being drawn into the clutches of a strange cult, leading to the reappearance of some legendary baddies.
Oddly - like the TV series, series 4 is probably the strongest of them all. I don’t think there’s a duff episode in it and once again, there’s a very satisfying, series-long arc being played out.
The opener, Death in Blackpool was actually made as a Christmas special so it appeared some way in advance of the rest of the series. The Doctor takes Lucie home for Christmas in 2009, but they end up getting there a year early - 2008 - instead. Just as well really, because one year earlier, and they’d have been hearing the news about a replica of the Titanic hurtling towards the earth, and one year later would have seen everyone on the planet turning into John Simm ;-)
A story-line that was set up way back in S1 plays out and things don’t end happily for our heroes. In an earlier episode, someone points out to Lucie that’s she’s put the Doctor on a pedestal and that at some point he’ll fall off it… and this is where that happens. Lucie leaves the Doctor because he lied to her and she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to trust him again. Their final scene on the beach is a real tearjerker.
The Doctor: But - people are fallible -
Lucie: Not you though Not you.
The Doctor: Yes, me, Lucie. Me. I’m no superhero you know - I don’t have x-ray eyes; I can’t leap tall buildings with a single bound
Lucie: But you travel in time and space; you’ve got two hearts… you live in a magic box that’s bigger on the inside; you know all about… stuff. You’re the Doctor. You’re brilliant, and it was great, I mean really bleeding great and…that’s how I want to remember it. That’s how I want to remember you.
The Doctor: So I’m just a memory now.
Lucie: Yeah. The best memory I’ve got.
(he walks away)
Lucie (to herself): Yeah. I remember the Doctor. He was great. We had a great time. An amazing time. Then one night, he just disappeared in his magic box. Just disappeared. And I’ll never forget him. Never.
*waaaaaaah!*
So the next episode sees the Doctor doing an Alan Sugar and looking for a new companion. Although of course, all is not as it seems. I think this is the weakest episode of the series, although it’s by no means horrible and it does set up several elements of the series arc.
I quite liked Tamsin Drew. She only travelled with the Doctor for a few episodes, and as a consequence, she didn’t get much by way of character development, but I liked the way things were shaping up between them. She was as prone to giving as good as she got as Lucie was, but it was still a different kind of vibe. And let’s face it. Lucie - rather like Donna - is a bloody tough act to follow.
The mid-series two-parter - Deimos and Resurrection of Mars (Ice Warriors - squee!) were fantastic - I was completely enthralled, even if Tamsin’s departure did seem somewhat contrived.
And then - Lucie’s back - YAY! On the whole, given the time constraints, I think the reunion between her and the Doctor was handled better than the last one, although I can’t help thinking that, given what she said to him at the end of Death in Blackpool they get back onto good terms just a tad too quickly. But I’m not going to complain. It’s the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller… in the TARDIS. Just as it should be. *g*
And not long after the return of Lucie - we get the return of Susan! Now, I’m old - but I’m still too young to remember her first time around, so what I know of her I know from the odd clip or episode I’ve seen here and there. It was weird to hear her calling the Doctor “Grandfather” though. In another Christmas episode, Eight is determined to give Lucie the best Christmas ever, because of the way he screwed it up last time. Which, I suppose, wasn’t totally his fault, but - whatever. I found the way he was insisting that everything needed to be perfect for her to be completely endearing and while I’m not especially given to shipiness when it comes to DW, I admit to thinking OMG - he’s head over heels!. Okay, so he’d invited his long-lost granddaughter and her son to Christmas dinner, but it was really all about Lucie! Other than the companions who travelled with them at the time, I don’t remember the Doctor introducing any of his other companions to members of his family. Like I don’t recall his teaching any of them to fly the TARDIS. But I could be wrong.
*ahem*
Of course, Christmas dinner doesn’t turn out to be that simple, but there are a lot of nice references to things past, name-checks for past companions and a suggestion as to what happens to their rooms after they’ve gone. I couldn’t really see the Doctor tidying and hoovering them every day…
At the end of the episode, Lucie heads off with Susan and Alex - but she’s not gone for long.
And then we have Prisoner of the Sun - which I really enjoyed. The Doctor spends six years trying to save a couple of planets from being destroyed by an exploding sun and isn’t willing to leave until he finds a way to make an automated system that will perform the functions he’s been performing himself for that time. I think the best line in it has to be the only prison strong enough to hold you is one of your own making. (or something like that) because - yes, it’s absolutely true.
Oh, and although the Doctor is flying solo this time around, he has a succession of android companions who he imprints with Lucie’s personality and voice. With any other character, we’d call that an unhealthy obsession!
The final two-parter is absolutely stunning and heartbreaking - a real emotional rollercoaster. It’s Lucie’s last appearance, and - like her first - is a Dalek story.
I like the Daleks. I know that some people have complained that they’ve been overused in the TV series, but come on - they’re the evilest of the evil! The baddest of the bad! The Doctor’s arch-enemies (well, one of ‘em!) so we have to see them once a series, right? But much as I love seeing/hearing them, I have to admit that one of the things I don’t think the TV series has managed to quite get across is their complete nastiness and utter implacability. I think that having Dalek as an introduction to them for new viewers was a master-stroke, showing us the Doctor’s disgust, hatred - and most importantly fear, but I don’t think we ever got that again, despite their frequent reappearances. One of the best nu-Who era stories when it comes to the Daleks is one of the novels - Prisoner of the Daleks. The author really manages (in a limited format) to convey just what it is about them that is so devastating and thoroughly horrible, and also to explore the Doctor’s fear and loathing of them. But I should add that I’ve not read a huge number of DW books, so I’m speaking from limited experience.
Anyway - I have to say that I think BF has managed to succeed where the TV series hasn’t - quite. It probably helps that they have the Supreme Dalek himself (Nick Briggs) as Exec Producer and sometimes Writer and Director - as he certainly seems to understand the monstrous pepper pots pretty well and obviously has much more input here than he would have had on the TV version.
In the CD extras, Nick Briggs - who wrote these episodes as well as directing and being Daleks - made it clear from the start that what he was interested in was exploring the emotional lives of the characters in the story and that the Dalek invasion plot was basically secondary to that. He freely admits to nicking a First Doctor plot (The Dalek Invasion of Earth - which was Carole-Ann Ford’s (Susan’s) final story) - and his reasons for doing that make perfect sense. Also, not being familiar with the original story, I’d never have realized it was a repeat were it not for Susan’s own references to this being “like last time”.
So there’s no convoluted plot. It’s - Daleks invade - Daleks have grand, evil plan - grand, evil plan is thwarted - Daleks are destroyed - yay!
But that’s fine, because this is really a story about love and loss and the relationships between characters we’ve come to care about. It’s also a story where the Doctor starts to own up to some of his shortcomings, to admit that perhaps he’s become inured to death and that it’s time to call “enough”.
There’s a high body count this time around - we lose Tamsin and Alex… and *wibble* Lucie, who saves the universe by using a Dalek ship as a bomb.
And we’re left with the Doctor on his own. He’s lost his great-grandson as well, but his focus is Lucie. I have to admit that jars a little, but then I suppose he’s known Lucie for a lot longer and they shared a lot more than he and Alex did. He’s barely keeping himself together during his final conversation with the Monk - and when he does finally lose it with him, he’s pretty damn scary. You can almost hear him breaking when he tells Susan that she should travel with him - because he needs someone to stop him.
I suppose the universe was bound to do this to me sometime, wasn’t it? … Push me over the edge.
Oh, blimey, is it ever, Doctor.
He even contemplates going back in time to save Lucie - but Susan talks him out of it, reminding him that the Time Lords made all their rules and regulations to prevent chaos.
He doesn’t take Susan with him, though.
Finally, the Doctor, alone, listening to a recording that Lucie made for him. And as if that’s not sad enough, he keeps replaying it and filling in his parts of the conversation.
I love the last line.
One day, I shall go back. Yes. One day.
He could be talking about going back to save Lucie, of course - but I also take it to mean that one day, he’s going to “go back” to save someone who deserves to be saved, and to hell with the consequences.
Which of course he does in WoM.
I really hope that future Eighth Doctor audios address the loss of Lucie and the effect it has on him. At the end of To the Death it certainly sounds as though seeds have been sown, or a trail of breadcrumbs laid - pointing towards the man that Eight will become after the Time War - a broken, angry survivor with a god-complex and who carries a burden of guilt the size of a planet.
Nick Briggs indicated in the extras that that we will get to “see” the fallout from this - and it’s right that we should, if for no other reason than that Lucie Miller was fucking awesome and she deserves to be mourned.