The Song of Megaptera [Doctor Who, Diversion 45]

 The Song of Megaptera by Pat Mills
May 2010​

As I near the end of this pseudo-season, I've begun to get a little twitchy, looking forward to returning to TV again. Still, not one to let impatience get the better of me, I sat down last night and listened through the last two Lost Stories audios.

In case we forgot this was the Eighties, here's a save the whales story. In fact, The Song of Megaptera has a pretty long and strange life, since it was proposed as a script for the Fourth and Fifth Doctors as well, but obviously never made it to screen. Pat Mills is best known as a comic strip writer, and I can kind of see that here. This script is a witty one, and certainly loves its humorous dialogue.

The first scene of the TARDIS team opting to save the Galeen and then getting caught in the Orcus' disassembly system is really good. We start to get to know the ship's crew pretty early on, and they end up being one of the better casts of side characters in this range. My favorites are the gung-ho Chief Engineer and the rather neurotic computer. I had myself a good laugh of disbelief when it started spouting post-Nineties video gamer jargon as a result of a virus.

One detail which appeared in the previous story, but which I failed to mention, is the Doctor's trusty new tool, the sonic lance. A version of this tool appeared back in Attack of the Cybermen, but I must have already been rendered near-vegetative by the time it came out, because I didn't notice. It is interesting that after the effort taken to remove the screwdriver from the Doctor's kit, a similar tool was just brought back again for Attack. I wonder if the usage in these audios is a part of the original plan for this season, or if it's just a case of the audio adaptations taking a page from the New Series playbook.

Poor Peri is put through the wringer again, almost getting herself Hoothi'd by a Touthon and reduced to delirium as she begins to go all fungal. Nicola does a good job with the dialogue she's given there, including her plea to the Doctor, "Can I still be your friend even though I'm turning into a mushroom? I can still grow on you if you let me." Aw, bless. There are some other memorable Peri moments in this story, including her happily talking about her little cousin, Peter, the bit where she cheekily accuses the Doctor of chauvinism when he blames the TARDIS for getting them stuck in messes, or when she talks about going to a Slayer concert.

Perhaps the biggest topic to talk about here is environmentalism. This is a subject which already came up in Doctor Who as early as Planet of Giants, way back in 1964, but also notably in 1973's The Green Death. The Song of Megaptera isn't a much more subtle commentary than either of these, and it wears its convictions on its sleeve.

The clearest statement of its ethos comes in two halves, one from the first part of the audio, and the other from the last. Toward the beginning of the story, the captain defends his whaling practices by saying that they make use of every part of the whale. "Everything but the song," the Doctor mournfully replies. And then, toward the end of the story, the captain justifies the deaths of people as collateral for his last hunt by saying, "Parasites, protein, people... Not much difference at a molecular level." We could say, then, that the story is acknowledging a dimension beyond the merely physical that makes nature worth more than its simple material value - a worth measured in beauty, diversity, and enrichment of the spirit.

All in all, as heavy-handed as it can be, the message is a positive one, and the story itself is very charming. I enjoyed it a great deal. The Macros is next.

 

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 2 June 2024.)